# Ridiculous Spider ?Facts? you have personally been informed of.



## The Snark (May 27, 2014)

Just a thought. As the title describes, how about a forum thread of the non mainstream e-mail and other widely spread hoaxes that you have been subjected to and may have possibly damaged your brain cells.

If I may, I'll start it off with a very common one.

-Some spiders have 6 legs! I've seen them!!
And the slightly less common,
-I've seen a spider with 10 legs!!


Let's run the full gamut here and include all Arachnids and toss in pycnogonida just for fun.

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## JohnDapiaoen (May 27, 2014)

I was once told that spiders lay their eggs under human skin ::

-JohnD.

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## tarantulagirl10 (May 27, 2014)

My Step Mom was convinced that my Dad's G rosea was going to get out of his enclosure, hunt her down and lay eggs in her mouth. Keep in mind that on top of all the other things wrong with this, the t was a  mature male. She's convinced that tarantulas want to get in your mouth and lay eggs. She heard it somewhere, so it's got to be true.

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## just1moreT (May 27, 2014)

Back in 70's when the bubble gum craze was going good the rumor was bubble yum brand gum had spider eggs in it to make soft and chewy


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## Smokehound714 (May 27, 2014)

just1moreT said:


> Back in 70's when the bubble gum craze was going good the rumor was bubble yum brand gum had spider eggs in it to make soft and chewy


Hahaha was just about to post this before i saw it.  That myth still goes on today, though I'm sure by today's fear industry complex standards, they now contain recluse eggs.

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## RzezniksRunAway (May 27, 2014)

Not a spider, but an arachnid. A woman in a facebook group I'm in asked for ID on a "bug" that fell off her dog, she thought it was a tick. It was clearly a weevil of some sort, easily 5-6mm long. Another woman chimes in with "IT'S A BABY TICK. BABY TICKS ONLY HAVE 6 LEGS. YOUR DOG PROBABLY HAS LIME DISEASE NOW. I LIVE IN OHIO AND KNOW WHAT TICKS LOOK LIKE"

... replying to that in a way that didn't get me banned from the group was one of the hardest things I've ever done. 

My mother was always convinced she had spiders hatching from her ears in the spring. We'd have spiders ballooning from every tree on our property and they'd inevitably get in her hair. I gave up trying to explain that they weren't coming from her ears.


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## AgVet09 (May 28, 2014)

Oh my goodness.  As soon as my clients find out that I keep tarantulas, I'm inundated with all of the things that they "know" about spiders.  I've been told, very sternly and with great concern, to be careful because those tarantulas are going to try to get out and eat my son's fingers during the night.  Everyone knows tarantulas do that, and how could I put my child at risk that way?  Probably once a week I get the oldie but goodie about the "Daddy Long Legs" being the most venomous spider in the world, but their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin.  Then we get to have the talk about the difference between a harvestman, a cellar spider, and a crane fly, and how dangerous all of them aren't.  And, not a "fact", but literally EVERYONE in Texas has been bitten multiple times by Brown Recluse spiders.  Just ask them.

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## kp513 (May 28, 2014)

Besides the aforementioned most venomous daddy longlegs one, there's the "You swallow on average 8 spiders in your sleep every year". Got that from a middle school teacher.


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## jthorntonwillis (May 28, 2014)

This may be the BEST one I have heard! Thank you so much for a HUGE belly laugh!!!




AgVet09 said:


> Oh my goodness.  As soon as my clients find out that I keep tarantulas, I'm inundated with all of the things that they "know" about spiders.  I've been told, very sternly and with great concern, to be careful because those tarantulas are going to try to get out and eat my son's fingers during the night.  Everyone knows tarantulas do that, and how could I put my child at risk that way?  Probably once a week I get the oldie but goodie about the "Daddy Long Legs" being the most venomous spider in the world, but their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin.  Then we get to have the talk about the difference between a harvestman, a cellar spider, and a crane fly, and how dangerous all of them aren't.  And, not a "fact", but literally EVERYONE in Texas has been bitten multiple times by Brown Recluse spiders.  Just ask them.


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## sjmarsha (May 29, 2014)

I was told last week or so that I didn't need to put a top on my t's enclosures because spiders aren't capable of climbing glass or plastic. My new Avic Avic must be magical then. 


This is my first post, so hi everyone

Reactions: Like 3 | Funny 1


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## The Snark (May 29, 2014)

sjmarsha said:


> I was told last week or so that I didn't need to put a top on my t's enclosures because spiders aren't capable of climbing glass or plastic. My new Avic Avic must be magical then.
> 
> 
> This is my first post, so hi everyone


May I be the first to welcome you to AB! Yes, your T is magical, but don't be too put out. All Ts are. What sensible knowledgeable person can resist being mesmerized or even hypnotized when watching T antics? With mind control powers like that, climbing teflon is a stroll in the park!


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## Lucidd (May 29, 2014)

I think I know where that one came from! One of my favorite childhood reads, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," tells the story of a girl who was bitten by a spider that laid eggs under her skin. I remember being young and wondering if that could happen!



JohnDapiaoen said:


> I was once told that spiders lay their eggs under human skin ::
> 
> -JohnD.


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## Mindibun (May 29, 2014)

Not a myth but everyone at work knows I keep Ts and they have all sorts of ridiculous questions.  And the other night a lady noticed my spider jewelry and asked about it. I told her I keep Ts. She wants silent and said, "I hate spiders. Im not even comfortable talking to you right now..." 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I437 using Tapatalk


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## The Snark (Jun 1, 2014)

A few minutes ago I was leaning against a wall in a waiting room. Some farang (foreigner) woman pointed out the me a jumping spider on the wall a foot above my head warning me of it's presence. The dialogue went:
Me, glancing at the rather plain looking critter. "Why? What's it going to do?"
She frowned at both me and the spider. "It could get on you. Go in your ear or nose."
I had one of those 'self' moments. Of the two this woman was obviously more dangerous; a serious hazard to my few remaining active brain cells. At that moment I was handed the parcel I was waiting for. I turned and cajoled the spider onto my hand and turned it loose on my shoulder as I left.

Happy ending. Riding my bike 8 km home I discovered it was on my sleeve. Welcome to our garden kiddo. Have a nice life.

Reactions: Like 4 | Funny 1


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## Beary Strange (Jun 1, 2014)

Mindibun said:


> Not a myth but everyone at work knows I keep Ts and they have all sorts of ridiculous questions.  And the other night a lady noticed my spider jewelry and asked about it. I told her I keep Ts. She wants silent and said, "I hate spiders. Im not even comfortable talking to you right now..."
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I437 using Tapatalk


True fact: spiders are fantastic human repellent.

Reactions: Like 4 | Funny 1


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## edgeofthefreak (Jun 1, 2014)

True fact:




Anyone know if I can get this as a 'T'-shirt?

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## RzezniksRunAway (Jun 1, 2014)

I think Lucidd should get on that. =)

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## Micrathena (Jun 1, 2014)

Unless the spiders get on Lucidd...

Reactions: Like 3


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## The Snark (Jun 1, 2014)

Circlelogical. Some spiders are so cute some people on Arachnoboards might try kissing them... when nobody is looking... Think Homer Simpson and the pig.
(Yes, somebody said this. Me. Just now.)


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## DrAntlion (Jun 1, 2014)

Woman who didn't wash her hair much developed a large itchy red bump on her head, she later poked the bump with a comb I believe and it turned out to be a black widow nest. (what a load)


Stay creepy~


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## The Snark (Jun 2, 2014)

edgeofthefreak said:


> True fact:
> 
> View attachment 127291
> 
> ...


Get a good high res version of the image in postscript .ps format and toddle on down to the printer that burns silk screens. Then head to a silk screen shop and try to cut a deal.


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## edgeofthefreak (Jun 2, 2014)

The Snark said:


> Get a good high res version of the image in postscript .ps format and toddle on down to the printer that burns silk screens. Then head to a silk screen shop and try to cut a deal.


And if I can do this ^ cheaply... shirts for ALL!!


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## Galapoheros (Jun 2, 2014)

When I was a kid I was told tarantulas can jump 6 feet.  Later a girl in school said she knew somebody that had a pimple, spiders came out of the pimple and she said that "she saw it."  An owner of a motel in the desert told me he saw a vinegaroon kill a horse.  When I was a kid I was holding a long terrestrial flat worm and somebody said, "I wouldn't hold that, it might be a liver fluke."  When I was a kid holding a smallmouth salamander, an old man said, "Put that down, those are poisonous!"  I brought a vinegaroon into a pet store once to see if they wanted it, the lady working there said, "NO, what is that, a roach?!"  'centipede' ..."which end is the head?"  I mean I can see that a little but, even if you've never seen one, it seems like that would be easy to figure out.  "cobwebs aren't made by spiders".


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## The Snark (Jun 2, 2014)

Galapoheros said:


> When I was a kid I was told tarantulas can jump 6 feet.  Later a girl in school said she knew somebody that had a pimple, spiders came out of the pimple and she said that "she saw it."  An owner of a motel in the desert told me he saw a vinegaroon kill a horse.  When I was a kid I was holding a long terrestrial flat worm and somebody said, "I wouldn't hold that, it might be a liver fluke."  When I was a kid holding a smallmouth salamander, an old man said, "Put that down, those are poisonous!"  I brought a vinegaroon into a pet store once to see if they wanted it, the lady working there said, "NO, what is that, a roach?!"  'centipede' ..."which end is the head?"  I mean I can see that a little but, even if you've never seen one, it seems like that would be easy to figure out.  "cobwebs aren't made by spiders".


I've been refraining from commenting on posts but I have to ask, what planet did you grow up on? Any chance some of those people migrated here with you when you came to earth?


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## Galapoheros (Jun 2, 2014)

I grew up on planet East Texas, but I've heard all that all over Texas, here in the Austin area too.  But really, hearing those things has more to do with messing with this stuff for several decades rather than meeting a bunch of these people, so it's really a matter of time, eventually you will hear a lot of nutty stuff wherever you are.


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## RzezniksRunAway (Jun 3, 2014)

DrAntlion said:


> Woman who didn't wash her hair much developed a large itchy red bump on her head, she later poked the bump with a comb I believe and it turned out to be a black widow nest. (what a load)


I don't use shampoo, and this is going to be my new excuse when people ask why. "Oh, just trying to catch some spiders". 



Galapoheros said:


> "cobwebs aren't made by spiders".


  My former boss was quite the connoisseur of all things mind-altering, and in a crazy haze told me the same thing the one night. He told me that they were strands of compressed air with dust stuck to them. I don't know how I didn't stab him in the eye for such a mind numbingly stupid thought.


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## Micrathena (Jun 3, 2014)

Galapoheros said:


> "cobwebs aren't made by spiders".


 Everybody knows they're made by the cobweb gnomes.


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## Spepper (Jun 3, 2014)

Wow I love threads like these. LOL  I believe someone already posted this in the tarantula forum, but it's a good link about spider myths.

http://www.burkemuseum.org/spidermyth/

---------- Post added 06-03-2014 at 06:18 PM ----------

This isn't about an arachnid, but once I heard a story of a woman that licked an envelope to seal it, and then her tongue swelled up.  Later she found out she had a nest of cockroaches inside her tongue, because she had licked cockroach eggs off from the envelope seal.  I mean... what?  How did they get inside her tongue?  It makes no sense.   All the same my mother then started buying envelopes you didn't have to lick to seal.


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## The Snark (Jun 4, 2014)

Well, today on the Huff Post we had some more of the usual. An egg sack on a bunch of bananas hatched. Of course, the slings were instantly identified as deadly and that section of the store was evacuated as an exterminator came in. They added the usual, recounting the (possible-never properly identified) phoneutria that hitchhiked  on a bunch of bananas. Same old s***, not even worth linking.

By the way, Rod Crawford's Spider Myths link is dead wrong on one point: "Certain Fruits or Nuts can be used to repel spiders."  Wouldn't that depend a lot of how good a throw you are? I mean, with a clutz like me it's a pile of truffles but load up someone the caliber of Koufax with a few buckets of apples, oranges, lemons and Brazil nuts and you will be living in a virtually spider free fruit salad.


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## Vinegaroonie (Jun 6, 2014)

New favorite thread. My friend (who has a huge phobia of spiders) once told me that a spider "attacked" her. Turns out it was actually a mosquito. Wonder how that happened...?


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## Dizzle (Jun 6, 2014)

Edit: just saw this post, I too heard this from a middle school teacher oddly enough. And mine was a temp, he temped just long enough to ruin many people's understanding of arachnids. 


kp513 said:


> Besides the aforementioned most venomous daddy longlegs one, there's the "You swallow on average 8 spiders in your sleep every year". Got that from a middle school teacher.



I just had to explain to one of my best friends the truth behind the daddy long leg myth, I get that one from people of all ages. Actually it is rare for me to hear someone call anything venomous, usually everything is 'poisonous'. So with that being said I get "Black Widows are the most poisonous spider in the world!" quite a lot. I don't know everything about black widows but I do know that they are venomous...


AgVet09 said:


> Oh my goodness.  As soon as my clients find out that I keep tarantulas, I'm inundated with all of the things that they "know" about spiders.  I've been told, very sternly and with great concern, to be careful because those tarantulas are going to try to get out and eat my son's fingers during the night.  Everyone knows tarantulas do that, and how could I put my child at risk that way?  Probably once a week I get the oldie but goodie about the "Daddy Long Legs" being the most venomous spider in the world, but their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin.  Then we get to have the talk about the difference between a harvestman, a cellar spider, and a crane fly, and how dangerous all of them aren't.  And, not a "fact", but literally EVERYONE in Texas has been bitten multiple times by Brown Recluse spiders.  Just ask them.


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## Beary Strange (Jun 7, 2014)

I've heard a couple iterations of a couple posted above. The version of "spiders in head" I heard was that an old woman had her hair pinned in a bun for ages, never even took it down to shower. When she died, they took it down and spiders had nested/burrowed into her head behind the bun and out poured hundreds of spiders from her skull. Oh kids. 
And I had a former co-worker tell me a jumping spider had attacked her, had sprung across a room to jump on her and kill her. That was fun trying to explain that I knew she was full of it in front of everyone else at the table. .__.


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## The Snark (Jun 7, 2014)

A jumping spider attacked and tried to kill me just yesterday! It was terrifying!

Well, maybe it had spent 2 days of fruitless hunting in the computer room and maybe it had been dodging the attention of the cats and maybe it was above the window and maybe I opened the window and maybe I tried to get it to jump on my hand and maybe it leaping on my face was unintentional. But with it on my forehead, snarling and growling with fangs dripping venom I still managed to walk out on the porch and was able to divert it from it's attack to jump onto a wall, giving me a chance to escape. 

I regret my actions now as it was a pretty hefty trucker and the wall where it jumped to is heavily populated by much smaller models. I hope I didn't precipitate carnage,

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## klawfran3 (Jun 16, 2014)

Just today I had a girl try to convince me they (I assume she meant scientists) discovered a FLYING SPIDER. Yes, you heard me. She said a FLYING. SPIDER. When I called her out on her BS, she pulled up a clearly photoshopped black and white image of a spider with wasp wings from the world weekly news. I told her to think about it. To _really_ think about it, but she responded "well like uhh, spiders have eight legs like other bugs like bees. It makes sense they would have wings. You're an idiot for thinking they don't". I came inches from punching her right in the pie hole. She would not believe ANYTHING I told her that proved her wrong. God people are stupid.

Link to photo: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1syDjnlOB9E/UXRra9ZCCCI/AAAAAAAABNA/4GlmF1u7aNE/s1600/Winged+Spider.jpg


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## RzezniksRunAway (Jun 16, 2014)

klawfran3 said:


> Link to photo: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1syDjnlOB9E/UXRra9ZCCCI/AAAAAAAABNA/4GlmF1u7aNE/s1600/Winged+Spider.jpg


I'm tempted to make that my facebook profile photo to annoy the women in the one group I'm in. They threw a fit over a photo of a jumping spider, I bet that would make their heads explode. 

I successfully informed 2 people of the whole daddy long legs mess yesterday with a Pholcid AND an Opilione. We were helping friends move some furniture into their new place, and there was a TON of fun stuff to explore. They expressed their paranoia about the Pholcids, I explained that the rumors were false, let one crawl on me. Lucky me, I found a little bitty Opilione later on and was able to show them that it was harmless as well. They don't plan on getting rid of any of the spiders now, just relocating them to less annoying locations (one was living on the stair-case.)

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## The Snark (Jun 17, 2014)

klawfran3 said:


> Just today I had a girl try to convince me they (I assume she meant scientists) discovered a FLYING SPIDER. Yes, you heard me. She said a FLYING. SPIDER. When I called her out on her BS, she pulled up a clearly photoshopped black and white image of a spider with wasp wings from the world weekly news. I told her to think about it. To _really_ think about it, but she responded "well like uhh, spiders have eight legs like other bugs like bees. It makes sense they would have wings. You're an idiot for thinking they don't". I came inches from punching her right in the pie hole. She would not believe ANYTHING I told her that proved her wrong. God people are stupid.
> 
> Link to photo: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1syDjnlOB9E/UXRra9ZCCCI/AAAAAAAABNA/4GlmF1u7aNE/s1600/Winged+Spider.jpg


Snerk. AHEM!!! Ask her to explain a cephalothorax/prosoma? Mention that in order for the prosoma to develop the structure and musculature for wings would have taken a few tens of thousands of years of evolution and a few more would have been noticed by now?


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## Najakeeper (Jun 17, 2014)

Not a spider but an arachnid...

I was at the Batu Cermin cave in Flores, Indonesia and I have been made aware that a very rare Amblypygids, _Phrynus exsul_ live there. I was informed that they were extremely "poisonous" so I had to be very careful. I have explained my guide that they are completely harmless and he should not be scared of them but I don't think he believed me. I might have a picture of one of them, I will try to find and post it when I am at home.


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## friendttyy (Jun 17, 2014)

People are stupid...My classmates said my tarantulas would sting me. They believed that they wouldnt when i took some to school and held them.


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## klawfran3 (Jun 17, 2014)

The Snark said:


> Snerk. AHEM!!! Ask her to explain a cephalothorax/prosoma? Mention that in order for the prosoma to develop the structure and musculature for wings would have taken a few tens of thousands of years of evolution and a few more would have been noticed by now?


I actually used this. I said that if they were to actually have flying spiders, why wouldn't we find any other kinds? it's not like one day a spider has a baby and then *pop* it has wings. I even said that the carapace is too shallow to support the muscles for flying. either way she didn't believe me


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## The Snark (Jun 17, 2014)

klawfran3 said:


> I actually used this. I said that if they were to actually have flying spiders, why wouldn't we find any other kinds? it's not like one day a spider has a baby and then *pop* it has wings. I even said that the carapace is too shallow to support the muscles for flying. either way she didn't believe me


Don't miss out on this one. Put on your oiliest sycophant demeanor, suck up, and casually mention some swampy land you have for sale VERY CHEAP a few miles west of San Francisco: "It's only $5000 an acre! Limited time offer!"
Get a box of crayons to draw up the title deed if she bites.


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