Khukuries and Snakes.

We had those, too, (think we called them Brown Recluse) and I can't stand them any more than I can the Black Widows -- or any other spider for that matter. I think if I met up with one of those bird eating spiders I'd have another heart attack. I am with spiders as Indiana Jones is with snakes.
 
Black Widows are the worst, used to have a whole nest of them in a wood pile in my old house, couldn't sit down on any of those logs cause you would never know. A bonfire solved that problem for me. What really weirds me out is how big those egg containers get for them...
 
I never noticed one in the wild, but come fall, the tarantulas start crossing the road in droves. Doesn't bother me to drive over them ( heck, I'd be willing to turn around and drive back over them again and again ) except when I think of the car having problems and forcing me to stop and get out in the middle of 'em. Now THAT gives me the heebie jeebies.
 
When I worked at the Martin Co. south of Denver years ago, it wasn't unusual to come in in the AM and find a little 12-18" rock rattler in the entryway. The site was dug out of the front range hogbacks that were full of nests, and they sought warmth after sundown. The station attendants along the highway between the plant and town were always super cautious about reaching for the dipstick of a car with Martin stickers. The little boogers would migrate to the warm asphalt after sundown, then up to the still warm manifolds. By the time the engine warmed up on the trip home, they were partially fried to the manifold, and very, very pissed. My wife worked at the Air Products plant just down the hill from Martin. They supplied LOX and LN for the engine testing. Their solution for "sunup serpents" was to draw a few ounces of liquid nitrogen into an insulated flask, pour it on the snake, and pick him up and toss him against a rock. Shattered like glass
 
Here's a story I read in the paper a few days ago. A State Corrections officer who happens to be a firearms instructor was out target shooting in an empty field in South Florida (doing so is illegal believe but I'm not sure). While picking up some "trash" lying around (read: empty brass), he is bit on the thumb by a snake. After consultin his buddies who begin to call 911 on their cellphones (only smart thing done by this group that day), this officer goes back and tries to capture the snake...barehanded. Now he IS successful in catching it, when it bit into his index finger and latched on for a full minute pumping venom into him it was pretty easy I guess to grab it with his free hand. Luckily for him the air rescue came and made pick up and took him to a local hospital where antivenom was waiting and was administered and he is now doing well. The itty bitty pygmy rattler is ding just fine as well. I hope he learned atleast one of three lessons
1) Don't pick up the snake that just bit you with your barehands!!!
2) Shoot the snake, THEN pick it up.
3) DON'T PICK UP THE SNAKE THAT JUST BIT YOU WITH YOUR BAREHANDS!!!

Have a nice day :)
 
. I am with spiders as Indiana Jones is with snakes.
Click to expand...

I hear you Uncle Bill and I couldn't agree more. I have no fear of snakes (well except the fear of death from poisoning;)), but spiders freak me out! I'll tell you guys something though, you haven't had the heebie jeebies until you've had a 7" long venomous Hawaiian Centipede in bed with you:eek: :eek: :eek: Now THAT is one mean, evil, freaky bug!!!! Woke up at 3am one morning with my wife screaming---STANDING UP in the bed and pointing down where I was still laying. As Rusty said "instant levitation" and I was out of there! Sliced the bugger in two with a Cold Steel Tanto---the ass end ran out the door and down the hall and the head end ran into the closet. I hunted down the head right away and got the butt later:D My wife was up screaming in pain for close to 10 hours:eek:--the only thing that helped the pain (and the last thing I tried) was the local remedy of green papaya juice.

Any Hawaii forumites lurking will back me up on how awful these things are!

BTW, Yvsa they've got a species of legless lizard in Hawaii that everybody calls a snake but it isn't. They only get about 9" long and have no eyes that you can see, a spiky tail that they try to stick you with and a powerful Stink!
 
I remember driving thru a herd of tarantulas in Texas that was crossing the road -- so many my GTO actually got snaky due to the slick of spider guts.
 
I used to have a 10' burmese python, a 9' indian python and a 6' boa constrictor. The indian python bit me a couple times when I was being stupid. I like snakes but I think I won't have them as pets again, they are not very personable.
 
A long time ago, when I traveled with a carnival... we took our ride from our normal stompim' grounds of Washington down to Pheonix,Az for the AZ State Fair. We had set up the ride and were fixin' top wash it - I was tasked with locating a hose bib for the job. Well I found the bib and bent to attach the hose I was draggin', it was hen that I spotted the spider just below the hose bib openning (like 1 inch). I had heard of people being bitten by the Brown Recluse, and I don't much care for spiders, so I took a close look at this one. It wasn't brown - it was all black, except for the red hourglass on the belly (the thing was upside down). I slowly reached down and turned on the water (before attaching the hose), introducing the spider to the Flood. It hit the grond and my Red Wings hit it.

I was only in Pheonix for a couple of weeks but had many memrobal experiences while there - I was a stranger in a truly strange land.
 
I was about 8 and living with my grandparents on their farm. One afternoon I was playing in the garden as I did everyday when I found a really beautifull creature, it was a jet black snake, a creature I have always been amazed by. I decided I was going to pick it up but as I went toward it, it raised it's body off the ground and spread a magnificent hood with white markings and proceeded to hiss at me. I got a fright but froze with awe/fear !! Before I knew what was going on the snake dropped to the ground and rolled over onto it's back - presumably dead. Nope - this species shams dead, I went to pick it up by the tail but my dear grandfather decapitated the poor thing with a spade. Turns out they have the capability to spit venom and inject which may have left me blind or very sick. Good old Grandad !!

:rolleyes:
 
Snakes don't bother me at all, never did.

Spiders..:eek: :eek: :eek: Run for the hills..:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Another one here for a huge a$$ fear of spiders. My dad used to play with em, and would always scare the hell outa me, by having them dangle from his fingers. When I was a big and obnoxious teenager who wasnt afraid of gang-members and crackheads, my dad a little guy who I towered over and could easily lift and throw a good distance, could have me cowering in a corner with his spider trick. :( :eek: :barf: Not quite as arachnaphobic as I used to be (was so bad before I would run if there was one), but now I must kill them with a vengeance. Have a wierd compulsion now, whenever I see a spider in my house that I cant rest until its accounted for, on the bottom of my shoe:eek: :confused: :grumpy: Oh well, I suppose there are worse things to be afeared of.:(
 
I thought we had already pained Uncle enough with these kinds of stories...Remember MauiRob's spider story?:D


Here's a snake story for ya:

I was in La Tinta, Guatemala sleeping-in one morning (which meant that I was laying in bed drowning in my own sweat despite it being almost...ohmygosh...5:30 a.m.)

The house-lady bursts in screaming "Culebra! Culebra! Gigante!".
(BTW, this was the same place that generated most of those giant tarantula stories I posted a while back where I would wake up in the morning to find one on the wall about 12 inches from my head just staring at me...ahhhhhh, the memories...)

Anyway, I jump up, throw on some pants and go tearing out of the room with my 24" machette in hand ready for some action.

The rascal had gone into the wood shed and was changing position frequently. The lady was surprisingly good at tracking its movements and kept telling me "Here! There! Over there!" Finally he ended up at the bottom of a stack of hollow 8"x16" CMU masonry blocks stacked up 5 high. Now, what kinda of idiot reaches his arm down a 3 foot deep hole poking around for a snake...:rolleyes:?

Right as I was about to stick my arm in there...:D:D:D...the lady comes bursting out of the kitchen with a pot of boiling water and dumps the whole thing in the hole.

I've never been to Old Faithful in Wyoming, but I have a good idea now of what it looks like...;)

That snake shot straight up about 3 feet outta that hole. Looking back, I should just grabbed him then, but I think I was as shocked as he was...

By the time we caught the rascal, he had lost nearly all of his scales and was as naked and smooth as a baby's bottom.

7 foot long snake, about 2.5" in diameter at the fullest - poor fella was actually a harmless oversized garden snake looking for a mouse to snack on.
 
For the record, in my opinion a 20 gauge is all that you need for spiders or other insects.

A 12 gauge 1100 set up with extended magazine tube ( pre-ban ), synthetic stock and sidesaddle, reamed to take choke tubes ( full in this instance ) is my choice for snakes.

I don't hesitate to admit to "disliking" either spiders or snakes.
 
Anybody watch the film arachnophobia? Might even be theraputic for the spider haters like us. Or finally drive us over the edge...

All spiders must die!!!

Andrew Limsk
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
For some reason I can handle snakes better than spiders but tring to hit those Black Widows with a khukuri requires better aim than I have. I usually just get a couple of legs.
Click to expand...

That's cuz you are using that antique .38... try a shotgun!

I HATE SPIDERS!!!

Alan
 
Couple of week ago, my water pump went out on the trailer I rent. Well, this was the second time it happened, and the landlord wasn't too interested in fixing it right away. I decided I had to face my fear of closed spaces and crawl under it to see if I could fix the pump...

Well, thank God it was winter time... remember the scene in Alien when Sigourney Weaver finally finds the Queen Alien's nest... EGG SACKS EVERYWHERE :eek:

Now, I was able to swallow my fear of spiders and clausterphobia long enough to verify that I couldn't do a danged thing to fix the pump. Maybe the fact that my cats were under the trailer watching me helped a bit... BUT, I swear that I'll just build a big bonfire under the trailer before the spring thaw if I'm still iving here... MILLIONS OF EGG SACKS :eek:

I HATE SPIDERS... but I can live with them in blessed ignorance... UNTIL I know they are there!

YUK>>>

Alan
 
....and here's the Mojave Green Rattlensake." I told my small audience.
'What happened to him after you took the picture?"
"I shot him.'

As this was the same fate for all the rattler slides in my collection, my wife's family thought I was a little brutal.

We lived on a farm in Montana for a couple years. They had some huge snake dens in old coal mines about a mile from the house. I used to kill as many as I could shoot with my .41 in late Spring when they were out of the den and sunning themselves before taking off for the season.

My approach now is unless they are in a place, like camp, they shouldn't be, I let them live.

I was doing a burn by the farmhouse and heard a sound. AFter the fire was out I saw a curled and cooked rattlesnake on the dirt bank. He hadn't struck at me. My hand must have been within reach. Once too, by the den a small one allowed me to go by.

When the snakes return to the den they are only interested in getting back safe. I've had them crawl right by my leg and continue on as if I wasn't there.

We moved out of the house about the time my two and half year old son found one under the truck, coiled and mad. Darn farmcat stood an inch outside of strike range calmly licking her paws. I think she saved my son.

I hate black widows and brown recluses. In Calif there were so many damn widows... I hate HOBO spiders, as we had in Idaho Falls Idaho. Cousin of recluse, only big, rear end fat as a dime is round. In fall the males come indoors looking for females. Our basement was full of them.

munk
 
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