Scorpions!

[Kogarashi]

CT's got extra rain too. I'll try to send some. And I'm convinced Washington could make a killing exporting surplus rain.

Spiders generally make me twitchy (any reaction to suddenly finding one crawling on me consists of a jump and arm-flail, even if I calm down afterward). The one exception is daddy long-legs and similar spiders, and even they make me jump if I'm not expecting them. Once I jump, though, and calm down, I can pick them up by one leg and take them outside no problem.

Centipedes and silverfish, though.... Ick.

[Pagan]

Well, last night, rather this morning at 4am, I went outside to see what the building number across from me was. This was so I could call the security patrol to go tell the people over there to shut the hell up. Got back inside, called them, and, as I was hanging up, felt something sharp on my leg. Figured it was a mosquito biting me. Nope, a cockroach was crawling up my leg! You have never seen such jumping around. All at the same time, I flipped my small flashlight off across the room (inadvertant great shot, landed in my purse), ripped off my robe (have no idea why), and flipped the roach off somewhere. I don't know where it went, nor do I care! Of course, in the hopping around bit, I managed to sprain the side of my foot.

And I can still feel the damn thing crawling on me!

[Evil Queen]

NOTE: ONLY DO THIS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SMALL CHILDREN OR PETS IN THE HOUSE.

Dust the house with a fine layer of Borax Powder (you know, the laundry booster) and leave it there over night. The next day, vaccume it back up. If there are any other roaches in the house, this will destroy them.

But more then likely the bug came from outside. I noticed the Desert is filled with nasty bugs while I was living out there.

[Rubyred]

Hehe. At the bar I used to work at there were scorpions in the duct work. Sometimes they fell out of the ceiling...thank god never on any customers though. Could you imagine?

[Kogarashi]

Pagan, that's impressive.

Just thought of a few others.

Worst ever spider experience: I was up late at college in Utah once, and saw something move across the floor. Look over to see a HUGE brown spider crawling around. It disappeared before I could get my shoes.

Five or so mintues later, I had just finished typing something on my computer and leaned back to think for a moment, when the same spider crawled onto my keyboard from under the desk. I bit back a yelp (roommates asleep), grabbed the 1x2" stick I had next to the desk (don't ask), and smushed it when it crawled from the keyboard onto the empty space on the front of the keyboard tray.

I think it might've been a hobo spider, but it could've been a house spider. Don't think it was a recluse.

And the other one, which is not arachnid-related.

My parents had a bad ant infestation in their kitchen and unfinished bathroom several years back. We'd find ants crawling across the ceiling, and if I thumped the wall of the shower, ants would fall from the exposed ceiling beams to land in the shower proper. Icky icky eww....

[Buglady]

Worst ever spider experience: I was up late at college in Utah once, and saw something move across the floor. Look over to see a HUGE brown spider crawling around. It disappeared before I could get my shoes.
....
I think it might've been a hobo spider, but it could've been a house spider. Don't think it was a recluse.

Nope, wouldn't have been a recluse. They are quite small and pale and kinda nerdy-looking. You probably had one of the many Tegenaria species - they're sometimes called wolf spiders, sometimes hobos. Most are totally harmless but they can get fricken ginormous.

[chainedbarista]

yes, if it was a recluse, you'd probably be visiting the doctor about now for that nasty condition their bites create.

wolf spiders can get rather large and rather aggressive; one attacked me in my dorm way back when and this thing was about as big as my hand (5+ inches). for the first time, i was scared of a spider...!

[Pagan]

Kogarashi - I'm really surprised that I don't need therapy! I'm very jumpy now and still feeling the damn thing.

Nope, wouldn't have been a recluse. They are quite small and pale and kinda nerdy-looking. You probably had one of the many Tegenaria species - they're sometimes called wolf spiders, sometimes hobos. Most are totally harmless but they can get fricken ginormous.

Wolf spiders are Lycosidae and hobo spiders are Tegenaria agrestis. We don't have hobos here, but I've seen (and had to relocate from my living room) my share of wolf spiders.

[mariamousie1]

I don't know about this one- it seems kind of mean. You may have scared the crap out of the kid, too, and he didn't sound like he was doing anything worse than playing with a box. I hate earwigs, and if someone had made a joke about there being earwigs in a box near me I'd probably freak. Just my opinion.

[repsac]

Several years ago, when we moved to GA, my family got a ton of those boxes to pack stuff in. After the fifteenth such scorpion from inside them, we gave up on the banana boxes...