Discussions

What creepy critters do you have in your area?

Posted by DeadRooster • 6/02/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: black widows, hornets, rattlesnakes, scorpions, spiders, tarantulas

I just had a major ordeal with seven black widow spiders:

deadrooster.com/humor/the-spastic-dance-of-the-black-widow-spider-slayer

We also have tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes and the Pepsis Wasp that delivers the second-most powerful sting of any insect worldwide (second only to the Amazon's bullet ant).

I know the Australians out there are probably going to upstage all of us here (seems like everything down there is menacing in one way or another), but still--what have you got in your area?

User Comments

6/02/08

clioandme

Dunno what they're called, but some go squish when you step on them on the sidewalk, and some go crunch.

[reply]
6/02/08

AmyOops

i got kids does that count

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Sometimes. LOL
2. 6/02/08
  
  JanelleV
  
  haha.. : ]
6/02/08

ThriftShopRomantic

Other drivers, and the pedestrians that leap out into traffic without looking.

Oh, okay-- we've got a number of rattlesnakes and other poisonous snakes.

And some really vicious squirrels.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Squirrel bites can be painful!
2. 6/02/08
  
  crpitt
  
  Don't feed them your nuts
3. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  A friend was bitten by a squirrel while she was having lunch in the park. She has since lost her appreciation for them--
  
  Squirrels I mean. She still likes lunch.
4. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  TSR--I'm a big fan of squirrels. I got to bottle-feed a bunch of babies once and I never stopped giggling. They were running around me like they thought I was a tree.
5. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  I'm fond of them myself. There was one when I was a kid who would take peanuts from me and climb up and sit on my shoulder (or head, depending on her mood).
  
  But then again, I was never bitten.
6/02/08

crpitt

No poisonous critters, just hoodies and smack heads.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  I've seen some smack heads that looked pretty poisonous.
6/02/08

wenfri

Spruce bugs

When it gets hot. (if it gets hot LOL) we get these nasty spruce bugs. They are huge, ugly and have this really nasty bite.

You can hear them coming by the clacking of their wings.

These darn things pop and crunch when you step on them Yucky I refuse to do so.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  Arcticulates
  
  Us too, Ugh! I hate those things, I work outside all summer, and those are the ugliest bug I have ever seen, (other then the potato bug in California). We also have crazy yellow jackets, but other then that, we can see what is about to eat us...bears! Our non poisonous spiders are about the size of my little finger's thumbnail.
  
  @DR...my sister was bitten by a black widow spider when she was a baby, she got really sick. Her leg where she was bitten, they were afraid she would get ganggrene, because of the severe swelling...
2. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  I forgot about potato bugs. I used to find those when I was a kid and they really creeped me out. They are big, too!
3. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  That's a potato bug? Ugh. Interesting to see here in a photo, but no, I wouldn't enjoy meeting one.
  
  I am also not really fond of hanging out with praying mantises, either. They remind me of small extra terrestrials.
4. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Potato bugs live in the ground and are rarely seen unless you happen to accidentally dig one up. If you do, you will NEVER forget it. They are definitely one of the creepiest bugs I have ever seen.
6/02/08

crkian

The kids mainly

[reply]
1. 6/03/08
  
  rainforestrobin
  
  LOL
6/02/08

GFG

Here we have the whip spider
platform.invbrain.neuroinf.jp/modules/newdb1/extract/54/thumbnail/img1/udem...

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Wow! That thing is creepy! It kind of looks like a scorpion.
6/02/08

lordiwanttobewhole

We have june bugs which are big hard shelled bugs that fly around in the night and try to get in your hair....Yuck!

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Yes, we have those too.
6/02/08

lordiwanttobewhole

theres black flies here as big as hummingbirds!!!

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  I remember those from when I lived in Wisconsin. I hate those pesky things.
2. 6/02/08
  
  GFG
  
  U kidding right? Hummingbirds?
3. 6/02/08
  
  lordiwanttobewhole
  
  I'm kidding but they seem that big, I do have a vivid imagination!
6/02/08

wenfri

We also get horse flies but no horses up here LOL ONLY MOOSE

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Haha! You made me laugh!
6/02/08

lettershome

In Germany they have the weirdest weasel-like things that go crazy for the sweet taste in your anti-freeze fluid. They crawl under your engine and gnaw through the hoses to get at it. If you see a puddle under the car, it's probably because a Pine Marten took a drink:

www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=65198

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  GFG
  
  Achtung! Dont they get poisoned from the anti freeze?
2. 6/02/08
  
  Arcticulates
  
  We have pine marten here too, but our problem are the shrews, they once chewed up the wiring under the hood of my car. It cost a bundle to get that fixed... ugh! The squirrels get into everything here and destroy tons of stuff.
3. 6/02/08
  
  timethief
  
  @lettershome
  Dogs and cats are also attracted to antifreeze and if they consume it they die.
6/02/08

calais50

Huge centipedes. I would rather have 100 spiders in my house than 1 centipede-I found one in my bed!
My kids' dog dragged a rattlesnake skin onto the porch last week.
One time, we had a nest of blackwidows in our basement.

bobbygrl.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-found-centipede-itentical-to-this-one.html

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  GFG
  
  Calais that's a tiny one... in Asia we have the orange legged ones...
  
  i've seen one that measures 30cm in length!
2. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  calais50--Big centipedes like that are especially creepy! I find those from time to time. Did you really find one in your bed? Yuck!
3. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Wow, CFG! 30cm! Do you ride that thing, or what?
4. 6/02/08
  
  calais50
  
  GFG, I think I would have a heart attack if I saw one of those!
  Dead rooster, yep, I found one in my bed and several in the kitchen sink. Thankfully, I haven't seen any since then.
5. 6/02/08
  
  calais50
  
  Duplicate post
6/02/08

kellybax

Stink bugs! They smell just horrible when you squish the, vacuum them, or just irritate them by moving them. They release a very bitter and strong smell. They invade the siding of your home in the fall to get warmth and eventually find their way inside. We have found them inside all winter long and still are coming across at least five a day to get rid of. I cannot even express how frustrated I am with them!!! (espececially when your 1 1/2 year old gets one in one of his little grubby hands to proudly show you and he is thoroughly stunk up!)

[reply]
6/02/08

Daudleikr

My resident spiders don't seem so bad now. We don't really have any nasty critters here. Just moose. Lots of moose.

[reply]
6/02/08

calais50

Also, where I used to live, we would see these gigantic jumping spiders in our house. What made them so bad is their eyes were on stalks and they would sit there intelligently watching you. One time, I threw a book at one and it jumped up probably 3 feet in the air as soon as the book left my hand.

[reply]
6/02/08

DeadRooster

My black widow spider story is actually getting a few diggs for a change! Usually my stories just sit there (I think digg hates me). If anyone wants to help out, there's a little digg man at the bottom of my post. Hint, hint.

[reply]
6/02/08

accidentalsexiness

Blech.....we get all kinds of gross creepy crawlies in Florida!

[reply]
6/02/08

offendedblogger

Creepy? Rattlesnakes, black widows and hobo spiders.

Downright scary? Cougars, tourists and grizzly bears.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  I'll bet the tourists are the scariest.
2. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Especially the ones who wear socks with their sandals!
3. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Socks with sandals. See, now, to me, that's much scarier than black widows. Every time I see someone doing that, I give them a look like, "what the hell were you thinking?" Amazingly, they seem oblivious.
4. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Crazy Europeans.
  
  BTW, you owe me a good night's sleep now. After reading your post last night, I laid awake all night long thinking there were scary spiders lurking in the dark just waiting to kill me!
  
  Then when I woke up, sure enough, there was a hobo spider in the laundry room.
  
  It was a baby one, but still!
5. 6/02/08
  
  RTBjr73
  
  I have a few ex-fiancee's...does that count?
6. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Offended--Are you serious? OMG! Heh, sorry about that.
6/02/08

lordiwanttobewhole

i find men in speedos creepy!

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Me too.
6/02/08

barryfromtexas

I am from south Texas, but here in Liberia we have Mambas..

but then again there are all of these too... www.tlcafrica.com/tlc_snakes.htm

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  I loved the part on that page where they tell us that black mambas aren't actually black, but the color of the inside of their MOUTHS is a purplish-black...
  
  If I am seeing the inside of the snake's mouth, I have other things to worry about than whether it's really BLACK or not.
2. 6/02/08
  
  barryfromtexas
  
  Well, there are crocs here too, and hippos, don't forget the hippos (yes more people are killed every year by hippos than crocs)
3. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Barry, can I bring my bow and come over there? I've always wanted to mount a hippo head on the wall bwahaha.
4. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  I think I will just watch The African Queen from my nice safe livingroom.
6/02/08

LGramlich

Here in Southern Louisiana we have lots of deadly-poisonous snakes; cottonmouths, coral snakes, rattlers, etc. Also some foul-tempered, painful-biting snakes, like the Southern black racer.
We have lots of HUGE bugs, too. Although they may not typically be dangerous, considering that I'm deathly allergic to most of them, they're dangerous enough to me!
Allegedly there are black bears, as well, but I've yet to see one of those.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Oh man, I would be a paranoid mess down there! My hubby lived in Missouri for awhile and he told me stories that made me shiver about the bugs and snakes.
  
  Blech!!
  
  Are there alligators where you're at too?
2. 6/02/08
  
  LGramlich
  
  Gads yes...silly me! How could I possibly forget the alligators???
3. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Hehe, yeah! How could you not remember those scary buggers?!
  
  Do you also get swarms of locust through there? Hubby said they would be so thick you couldn't see a foot in front of you, and there were other crawling bugs that swarmed down in Missouri too and if I think of it too much more I am going to throw up.
4. 6/02/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  Swarms of locusts? Where do you think the poor woman lives, Chelle-- Apocalyse, Louisiana?
5. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Haha! Could be.
  
  I know they do swarm in the south, which is why I live up here in the north! We only get swarms of tourists.
6. 6/02/08
  
  LGramlich
  
  We might have swarming locusts, but I've never seen them. (FYI, I used to live right outside of New Orleans. Since Katrina, we've moved north of Lake Pontchartrain.)
7. 6/02/08
  
  LGramlich
  
  We also have deadly spiders; black widows, brown recluses, probably others I'm not even aware of. I think we have certain types of scorpions, as well, but don't quote me on that.
6/02/08

Norski

Mosquitoes.

Millions and millions of mosquitoes.

I live in central Minnesota. North of here, there's a story about two mosquitoes that knocked out a hunter.

One asked the other, "should we eat him here, or carry him back to the swamp?"

The other answered, "we'll eat him here. If we take him back to the swamp, the big guys will take him away from us."

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  offendedblogger
  
  Haha! Yep, we have those too.
  
  OK, I am crawling into my bug/snake/bear/alligator proof plastic bubble now.
2. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Minnesota is INSANE with mosquitoes. I thought Wisconsin was bad, but...sheesh!
3. 6/03/08
  
  Norski
  
  I think it's all that swampland, between the 10,000 lakes.
6/02/08

myriadlife

Saw a creepy critter walking his large dog past my house this pm. E's not from round 'ere,mmmm

[reply]
6/02/08

kdawg68

Thank god we don't have any of Ender's beasts here:

www.fazed.org/blog/view/1/clock-spider/

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Wow! That is one big spider! We have the standard big hairy tarantulas here, but they are all up in the hills, not in the house.
6/02/08

G8rbryan

Lots of creepy critters in Florida. I am not complaining since I'm in the pest control business.

[reply]
1. 6/02/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Pest control in Florida? Does that mean you have to wrestle alligators when they get out-of-line?
2. 6/02/08
  
  G8rbryan
  
  Lol.
  The company I worked for in Jacksonville had the pest control contract for the navy bases there. Once we did have to catch a 3 ft gator and release it in a pond on the golf course.
6/02/08

timethief

Yellow jacket wasps are the bane of my existence. I'm violently allergic and I stop breathing when stung. Although I have had the 3 years of desensitization shots if I'm stung I have to use epinephrine. If I don't then within 20 minutes or less I'm history. Every shot costs $138. However, I figure that laying out the cash is better than being laid out on a slab. What's worse is that it takes a couple of days after the injection for my body to get back to normal again.

[reply]
6/03/08

Flipnautick

I think I have a Chupacabra in my backyard.

[reply]
1. 6/03/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  Take some photos! Quick!
2. 6/03/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  Better bring any goats in, then.
6/03/08

Kowgirl

Well Since I live in Florida the list is way too long to post.
Just recently we had a lot of black bears around central Florida. Then
of course we see alligators in retention ponds in drainage ditches and a
large number of snakes, poisonous and non-poisonous, spiders of all kinds,
and lizards, but what I really hate is those darn "lovebugs" they are so hard to get off your cars.

[reply]
6/03/08

psychosolodiver

There's an IRS office just down the street. YUK!

[reply]
1. 6/03/08
  
  DeadRooster
  
  OK, you win! LOL
6/03/08

pamelabaker

We are now dealing with the 7yr.locust. They come up from the ground by the thousands and cover trees where they make lots of noise and some nasty drippy stuff...Grooooosssssss!!!!!!!!!One day I came out to my car and the windshield was covered with the slimy drippy stuff and I gagged my way straight to the car wash. (I don't want to know what it was really)
We have brown recluse spiders too which are mighty deadly...it's always something!!

[reply]
6/03/08

Static

Skunks, fishercats, yellow jackets and abundant crackheads.

[reply]
6/04/08

Kerbi

We have bunny rabbits

and some nasty spiders i never see, only the (really nasty) bites

[reply]
6/04/08

Turmoyle

Arnold Schwarzenegger

[reply]
6/04/08

melisasriwulandari

Cockroaches, centipedes, rats, bats, snakes, frogs, and plenty others.

[reply]
6/04/08

polybore

Just one venomous snake in Scotland. The adder. But it would rather escape than bite you. Funnily enough I did a post a few days ago comparing our one wee snake with the host of nasties that people around the world have to contend with. If you want to see an adder eating a mouse then go to polybore.blogspot.com/2008/05/incy-wincy-spider.html

[reply]
6/05/08

DVS

Tayside police.

[reply]
6/05/08

huggingthecoast

Giant palmetto bugs and alligators.

[reply]