h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

for some strange reason I like bats but not spiders. I don't think the two are comparable; as far as I know, bats are not poisonous... And I *know* most spiders aren't really dangerous, but they still bite and it leaves huge lumps on your arm or whereever it bit you.. I don't like it at all! I don't like any animal that stings either, in fact. If you are allergic to this poison, you wouldn't even know it and you could get in some nasty bit of trouble by being bitten... Small children also can be very ill by spider-bites.

I do like their webs, though, especially in the morning or when it has been freezing.

Is that 'he doesn't like spiders' in general, or just the way they taste?

for some strange reason I like bats but not spiders. I don't think the two are comparable; as far as I know, bats are not poisonous... And I *know* most spiders aren't really dangerous, but they still bite and it leaves huge lumps on your arm or whereever it bit you.. I don't like it at all! I don't like any animal that stings either, in fact. If you are allergic to this poison, you wouldn't even know it and you could get in some nasty bit of trouble by being bitten... Small children also can be very ill by spider-bites.

I do like their webs, though, especially in the morning or when it has been freezing.

oops, twice, sorry...

Spider webs are awfully lovely when crystaline with dew or morning frost.

Less so when invisible in the sunlight, prompting you to walk straight through one as you pass between two trees. As far as I'm concerned there are few things as unpleasant as finding that you suddenly have a spider's combined house and pantry stretched across your face like grim net curtain. When in that position not only can you not open your eyes (you'd get a close up of a spider sticking it's hairy feet in your eyes), you can't breath (you'd snort a great big Tegenaria), you can't speak (you'd eat one) and you certainly can't reach up and pull it off your face (because that would involve potentially touching the hairy sod).

Therefore the only option is to stand still until someone helps you out or you fall over from exhaustion and terror.

I am a Brit so we never had the really dramatic spiders where I lived as a child.

My mother and my grandmother used to cultivate spiders. If they found them, they took good care of them (there was a whole set of crokery we could not use one summer because there was a spider raising a family in one of the tea cups).

But, our house never had flies.

All with out the use of pesticides indoors.

a nature-lover called Ben

No flys but tons of spiders. I'm not sure if that's a good trade-off.

Mandragora - he doesn't like spiders alive or dead - live ones because they're creepy and dead ones because they DON'T taste like chicken!!

I don't know about spiders tasting like chicken, but I have eaten live ants and can see why bears love them: they taste like wild mountain huckleberries. Here's an ant eating tip: Hold the head between your thumb and forefinger and bite off the abdomen. The head contains poison glands and will make the ant taste bitter (I doubt that bears mind).

I've never eaten an ant, but I've had fried grasshopper - delicious, a little like a pork scratching but better. (With a touch of Hellman's it's perfect!!)

I'm not sure whether it's my instinct to stick up for the people everyone hates, the subversive inclination to support the enemy, or a general rebelliousness that suggests I want to like spiders because most other people don't...

I was the one who cheered the bad guys on in Babylon 5, when their Spider-like fleet screamed across space. Up, you spiders!

x x Fenny

Yes, they deserve a bit of support. Also, I know people who force themselves not to be scared because they shouldn't be- they are ludicrous creatures and as such shouldn't inspire fear.
I'd rather have clean, industrious spiders than foul, hairy, disease-spreading flies. I find flies repulsive (they, and wasps, are the only insects I don't mind killing.)
From what I remember of eating ants, they taste bloody awful (the ones we have in Britain aren't big enough to choose a cut from.)

I've read somewhere that those spiders with tiny little round bodies (about the size of a lentil) and very long thin legs that are common in Britain, are the most poisonous of all. Happily though, they can't bite us because their little gnashers are far too wee, but they can kill the big spiders that can bite us. Also, don't spiders have blue blood that uses copper instead of iron to transport oxygen?

Anyway, I like 'em.

Has anyone mentioned the spider that saved Scotland?

Legend has it that Robert Bruce, tired and weary and ready to give up his fight against the English took refuge in a cave. He watched a spider trying to spin a web and failing several times to attach a thread from the roof to the wall. As the spider tried one more time, the Bruce vowed that if the spider made it then so would he. The spider made it, Bruce went out, fought and won the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) and kept Scotland free for a few more hundred years.

In Scotland you must never kill spiders (or eat them). They are friends and allies.

176645

Reh/Fenny

Yeah! I knew it! Up the spiders! Whatever their political and nationalistic leanings! (Please don't moderate that - it's only for a laugh!)

x x Fenny

So you could make a case for having the spider as a national emblem. It'd make a more interesting badge than most...

I fully support spiders. They do help to keep down the nasties like flies as well as plant destroying nasties. We had a golden orb spider take up residence for a while in our garden. The web was awesome and we helped out by catching nasties and throwing them into the web.
I like bats too.

How big are golden orb spiders? Are they the ones with the huge webs?
A spider startled me last night- it flashed right by where I was sitting. I'd already had a big black beetle buzzing round my head, so was used to such things. It refused to go onto my hand- how do they know?- but I managed to get it in a hat. The hat was velvet- maybe it appreciated the texture. They've got sensitive feet.
Strange reaction to spiders- at first they startle me and I feel a bit scared, but when I actually look at them they lose their influence.

I got all calm and meditative under a tree in France, a couple of years ago. I waited while the bees and dragonflies buzzed around; I was quiet and relaxed instead of stressing about whether the proximity of the insects was a danger to me.

I stood under the tree for about five minutes (I was calming down after a row, and this seemed like a good place to simmer) and when I started moving again, nature seemed to have taken a Kitkat break. I looked around: three frogs in one direction, a couple of birds behind me, and a brown snake had decided I was no threat.

There's a lesson to be learned somewhere, there, about accepting nature for itself. It seems to me that those of us stuck in cities ought to find some time to explore nature - I don't get to see much of it (apart from spiders) at all these days!

x x Fenny (City Girl)

I've had my window open all day, so I'm sure there's a feast of nature waiting inside.
The beetle, BTW, found his way onto my bed and proceeded to fall down the back of it. I could hear him scratching about all night. Does anyone else think beetles are like taxis?
(PS Fenny, did you get my e-mail?)