Side note...we did run a room and contents fire once because a woman thought that it would be a good idea to kill palmetto bugs (think of a cockroach on steroids) with a Bic lighter and a can of hairspray.
Spiders are the most disgusting creatures in all creation as far as I;m concerned.
When I was younger and growing up down in Florida, my grandfathers house was kind of in a rural area back then. There were lots of trees and greenery around his house and as far back as you could see. Every now and then spiders would make their way into the house. The bodies of these things could grow to be about the size of an average mans palm. They were big green and furry. I killed one once with over a half can of Raid before it finally died. The thing was actually screaming when it died. It made a whistling type noise. It flipped over on its back. The underbelly looked like corduroy material. Messed me up to that thing. My grandfather called them garden spiders. I cant imagine running into that in a garden.
Sorry Mark, I could not bring myself to click your link.
I met a guy from Atlanta who served as a missionary in Africa. He said they didn't have AC in the missionary's home so they all slept with the windows open. His first night there he awoke in the middle of the night to find moving shadows on the bedroom wall - about half a dozen spiders, each as big as your hand...
He admitted that he called out for help, and two missionary sisters rushed in with brooms to kill the spiders. He said that was so embarrassing he never complained about anything else while he was in Africa...
We had a fire one time in an old mill house. For those unfamiliar they are really common in the Piedmont areas of the south. The textile mill would build cottage sized housing villages for the mill employees. In most areas these villages are known as the "Mill Hill".
Not a large fire but the old heart pine lumber in those things puts off really dense smoke. The entire time we were advancing the line inside I could hear stuff hitting my helmet. It wasn't anything large, just enough weight to make a slight ticking noise. Thinking it was possibly popcorn ceiling falling due to the heat I didn't think any more of it and we knocked the fire out pretty quick.
We emerged from the house only to hear a blood curdling scream from this female deputy who was on the scene. When I saw she was pointing at us I looked over at the rest of the crew figuring somebody was hurt or something and saw we were covered with German cockroaches. Evidently the house was infested with them and when the fire smoked them out of the walls they were falling on us from the ceiling. Needless to say we got hosed off right there in the yard, especially our knees, boots, and gloves where we crushed them on the floor. Two of the three of us were lucky to have a spare set of gear so we could wash the nasty set. The other guy had worked an overtime shift the day before and got blood contamination on a vehicle wreck the night before so he couldn't wash his gear until the end of his shift.
Not that it makes this any less impressive, the article from the OP link said a spider expert felt the mouse was likely already dead or near dead when the spider got to it due to the venom would not likely be strong enough to kill the mouse quickly before it attempted to run away.
I actually don't mind spiders outside around my home. They kill other insects to keep them in check. In my neck of the North Carolina woods we have some pretty big Wolf spiders and a Black Widow has been seen on rare occasions. This time of the year I see several spotted orb weavers (picture below) that spin big webs at night between our bushes or garden but they trap a ton of flying bugs. Inside my home, all spiders are fair game.
(This post was last modified: 10-26-2016 06:29 PM by UCGrad1992.)
SNOPES.COM: CAMEL SPIDERS
Claim: Photograph shows camel spiders found in Iraq.
Status: Real picture; inaccurate description.
Although the creatures shown in the photograph above appear to be far too big for camel spiders, they look misleadingly large because of their closeness to the camera, which creates an illusion of exaggerated size. (Note their size in comparison to the uniform sleeve which appears in upper right-hand portion of the picture.)
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BTW, if you guys are using Snopes.com to debunk internet rumors, why not?
Definitely one of the most "useful" sites on the internet (sort of)
(10-26-2016 11:52 AM)Kaplony Wrote: Another house fire story.
We had a fire one time in an old mill house. For those unfamiliar they are really common in the Piedmont areas of the south. The textile mill would build cottage sized housing villages for the mill employees. In most areas these villages are known as the "Mill Hill".
Not a large fire but the old heart pine lumber in those things puts off really dense smoke. The entire time we were advancing the line inside I could hear stuff hitting my helmet. It wasn't anything large, just enough weight to make a slight ticking noise. Thinking it was possibly popcorn ceiling falling due to the heat I didn't think any more of it and we knocked the fire out pretty quick.
We emerged from the house only to hear a blood curdling scream from this female deputy who was on the scene. When I saw she was pointing at us I looked over at the rest of the crew figuring somebody was hurt or something and saw we were covered with German cockroaches. Evidently the house was infested with them and when the fire smoked them out of the walls they were falling on us from the ceiling. Needless to say we got hosed off right there in the yard, especially our knees, boots, and gloves where we crushed them on the floor. Two of the three of us were lucky to have a spare set of gear so we could wash the nasty set. The other guy had worked an overtime shift the day before and got blood contamination on a vehicle wreck the night before so he couldn't wash his gear until the end of his shift.
Are'nt German cockroaches and palmetto bugs the same thing? Its funny that when I was growing up in Florida, before I moved to NY, every one called cockroaches roaches. When I moved back to Florida in 1984 people were calling roaches palmetto bugs, and they get offended if you call them roaches. To me, a roach is a roach is a roach. I dont know what the difference is between a palmetto bug and a cockroach but its still a roach with a less offensive name, as far as Im concerned.
(10-26-2016 11:52 AM)Kaplony Wrote: Another house fire story.
We had a fire one time in an old mill house. For those unfamiliar they are really common in the Piedmont areas of the south. The textile mill would build cottage sized housing villages for the mill employees. In most areas these villages are known as the "Mill Hill".
Not a large fire but the old heart pine lumber in those things puts off really dense smoke. The entire time we were advancing the line inside I could hear stuff hitting my helmet. It wasn't anything large, just enough weight to make a slight ticking noise. Thinking it was possibly popcorn ceiling falling due to the heat I didn't think any more of it and we knocked the fire out pretty quick.
We emerged from the house only to hear a blood curdling scream from this female deputy who was on the scene. When I saw she was pointing at us I looked over at the rest of the crew figuring somebody was hurt or something and saw we were covered with German cockroaches. Evidently the house was infested with them and when the fire smoked them out of the walls they were falling on us from the ceiling. Needless to say we got hosed off right there in the yard, especially our knees, boots, and gloves where we crushed them on the floor. Two of the three of us were lucky to have a spare set of gear so we could wash the nasty set. The other guy had worked an overtime shift the day before and got blood contamination on a vehicle wreck the night before so he couldn't wash his gear until the end of his shift.
Are'nt German cockroaches and palmetto bugs the same thing? Its funny that when I was growing up in Florida, before I moved to NY, every one called cockroaches roaches. When I moved back to Florida in 1984 people were calling roaches palmetto bugs, and they get offended if you call them roaches. To me, a roach is a roach is a roach. I dont know what the difference is between a palmetto bug and a cockroach but its still a roach with a less offensive name, as far as Im concerned.
The way we always heard it was Palmetto bugs (or some areas call them water bugs) are the really large dark brown, almost black ones that aren't afraid of the light and will fly up into your face if you disturb them. Palmetto bugs are also often found in the woods, especially longleaf pine forests, down south.
German cockroaches are the smaller tan to light brown ones that scatter when you cut the light on. We used to get the German cockroaches really bad in my first duty station because it was the logistics center and had a ton of equipment in cardboard boxes. Evidently the German cockroaches eat the glue used to hold cardboard together. I've never seen a German cockroach outside of a man made structure.
I have Orkin termite contract and they go into my crawl space under my house each year. One inspector after emerging form the crawl space yelled "MAN YOU GOT SPIDERS" I told him "They say down there for the most part and I always stay up here. By the way I never see any ants in the house"