Mad Night on Weed...

[Inspiration]

OK ... been kinda running round the cafe, checking out the posts ... thought I would drop in a little true story for ya...

I used to work in a reptile house - various snakes, lizards, spiders. A common habit was to "borrow" a baby spider every now and again and take it home. Whe I was 18 I had 2 Peruvian red knee tarantulas and a Mexican Bird Eater... all the spiders were kept in aquariums... and very well looked after. The Mexican Bird Eater ... "Ollie" was in a fish tank, on top of the tank was some plyboard, and on top of that was a rubber brick (like the kind you had to swim to the bottom of the pool to get when doing swimming proficiency...)...

I was living above a bar in the UK, with my spiders, and generally took great care not to smoke in the same room as them (nicotene is a natural insecticide), but one night, my and a friend are sitting there shooting the shit after a long night, the window open (I lived on the 4th floor), looking at the night and smoking some big ass spliffs.... probably more than the usual.

Suddenly there is a bang and a crash from the other side of the room, I turn and the rubber brick is on the floor - this thing weighed a kilo at least!!! The wood is behind the case, and the spider is gone....

I am not a guy who is scared of bugs under any general circumstance - but, maybe it was the smoke (ya think!!), and an intense sense of paranoia and shock .. but I think I screamed like a girl - my mate freaked and ran out of the room, and we stood outside kinda wondering how the hell we were gonna catch this thing...

I peaked around the door to see where it was, and by this time, it had moved into the middle of the room and sat there, pulsating ... and looking a LOT bigger than I remembered....

We ended up getting one of those long fishing poles from another guy (you know - the long bamboo canes with the little net on the end), and I have never laughed so much (or so nervously) as two, fully grown guys, pansied about trying to catch this spider without hurting it... and without sucumbing to fear!!

Suffice it to say, Ollie made it back into his case - eventually, and after a change of trousers, a stiff drink, and a bowl I was OK - but I have never smoked another doobie in the same room as my pets again!!

Inspiration Reviewed by Inspiration on 04-06-2005. Mad Night on Weed... OK ... been kinda running round the cafe, checking out the posts ... thought I would drop in a little true story for ya... I used to work in a reptile house - various snakes, lizards, spiders. A common habit was to "borrow" a baby spider every now and again and take it home. Whe I was 18 I had 2 Peruvian red knee tarantulas and a Mexican Bird Eater... all the spiders were kept in aquariums... and very well looked after. The Mexican Bird Eater ... "Ollie" was in a fish tank, on top of the Rating: 5

[Torog]

Howdy Inspiration,

That was a cool story,man ! Thanx !

I have had experiences with tarantula's before..here in north central Texas,there's a migration/mating route,in one of our city parks,and it's protected by law..if ya git caught running over them during their migration,you can git arrested for it. These tarantulas,are pretty big..ranging in size from 6-12 inches,my brother and I,used to go and play with the tarantulas..we would poke at them with a stick,and they would raise on up on their hind-legs and hiss..it's a wonder that one of em didn't jump on one of us...lol. My girlfriend,can't stand spiders..I like to leave the predator spiders alone..but she ain't too happy about that ! lol

Yup..it's a real trip..to see hundreds of big tarantulas,all walking in a line..kinda creepy,too...lol.

Have a good one !

[Inspiration]

Wow - I would like to see that (being a kinda strange insect and arachnid obsessive..lol)... some tarantulas turn their back on you and flick the small hairs on the back of their bodies into your eyes.... can cause (very) temporary blindness and a lotta pain.....

But ... for anyone who does have spiders .. don't smoke round them - it really shortens their lifespan and can kill'em....

[NowhereMan]

i like those big black and yellow orb spiders i think is the name
we call em writing spiders,
thye make webs thats so intricute and patterned ,
can see them in the morning with dew on them,usually one biulds on my porch
i leave him alone cause he eats the moths that get near the light,
i dont wanna play with no tarantula
stoned or str8
peace

[Inspiration]

LOL ... Tarantulas are pretty safe to handle - the only time the bite is when they feel threatened or when they are hungry ... also they are fragile - if you were holding one, standing, at about waist height and dropped it - you would probably kill it...

The "Writing Spider" is also called the Argiope Spider. Argiope spiders are very common in gardens and tend to be found in the US - particularly in Kentucky. They are large and intimidating and have freaked out many a gardner, but their bite is only dangerous to people who are allergic to insect bites in general, and they are an important part of your gardens eco-system (picture below).

We kept a spider at the place I was working as a kid called the "Goliath" from South America - biggest ones ever recorded are about 15" in diameter - our one had a body the size of a kids boxing glove and leg to leg was about 11" wide... HUGE bastard... but if it bit you - it would cause some swelling (like a bee sting), not death... it can make a nasty noise tho - by rubbing its legs together - its like its hissing at you!!

There are only a few deadly spiders in the world - and one of the worst is in Oz - the Funnel Web Spider (male in the picture below) ... amazing pretty and builder of amazing "nests", but small and deadly....

BTW - a spider in the house is considered extremely good luck, and killing a spider can badly damage your karma....


LOL .. erm .. sorry if any of this gives you nightmares... will stop my stoned rambling now and roll up another ....

[gutterslang]

When I was a kid I caught a black widow and kept it in a glass jar under the porch. I knew my parents would freak if they saw it but I was completely in awe of it, she had such a nightmare kind of beauty ...In retrospect I suspect that wasn't such a good pet Apparently window bites are on the bad side of very painful... and probably deadly for a kid. But nonetheless I kept if for a couple of months then set it free.

I also loved to feed grasshoppers to writing spiders that would make webs in my back yard, and those would get pretty big after a while!

The only time I ever got bit was from a wolf spider I tried to rescue from a swimming pool...ungrateful bastard. It hurt about like a bee sting and swelled a little..but I learned my lesson for sure!