Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005 Status: offline
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For all those who thought I was a complete nut, let me go on and remove all doubt. I sit here in my room and I spy a spider on the wall. Most people would automatically go OMG and quickly kill him (or her). But I don't. In fact I tell people not to kill spiders, or lightning bugs either. First of all us northerners don't have much to worry about when it comes to poisonous spiders. Most of them here probably got here in people's luggage and shit like that. Humans are not a spider's favorite meal. I am not sure if they can actually suck blood out of you but if they can they are so small it doesn't really matter. As such they rarely if ever spread disease like mosquitos and such. What's more spiders eat insects. I almost said "other insects" but that is not true. They are actually not an insect. They are arachnoids, a different species. In eating insects they eat those wonderful mosquitos and ticks, fleas and all that. As such they contribute to our efforts to prevent the spread of disease. Tell me how clean your house is, if you see a spider you have some insects somewhere. I have adopted a different philosophy than most. I avoid trashing their webs, at least until they become cowbwebs. I live like a slob and have a couple of friends who bring their dogs over. And then I have rent-a-kitty. He lives two houses down and his owners decided to get a couple of dogs so he is pretty much an outdoor cat now. Any of these animals could bring in fleas, and I have been in infested houses with my lower legs exhibiting an unexpected itch. In which case when I got home I actually brought some in. However, with my good healthy herd of spiders I have never had to have the place exterminated or anything. And I live like a slob but for one exception. I am very careful about leaving food out. This is mainly because of mice that will find their way in. But you can't keep such an eye on bugs. They can come in in a cigarette pack or a beer case. You can't stop it, but you can let something eat them :-) This from a guy with such love for insects that years ago bought a bug zapper rated one square mile. I mean this was the Tim Taylor of bug zappers, I even cut out every other of the plastic ribs to allow for those big bugs to get their fair share of the juice, which can be quite entertaining. However it did backfire on me. Such a powerful light lights YOU up, and thus the bugs are also attracted to you ! So now if we go in the back, we would have to put the zapper in the front, and vice versa. I tell people never to kill a lightning bug because they eat mosquitos, and they were my nemesis at one time. I really didn't mean to kill all those birds with my nuclear powered zapper. Shit happens I guess. T
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