Covid Support Thread
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I hate spiders and bugs and my son loves them. He literally will play with slugs. It really creeps me out. I’m terrified I will find like, a box of bugs under his bed crawling around one day.
I grew up in rural VT and our property was my stepdad’s family’s land, which had been an old Turkey farm for generations. We no longer were a working farm but every fall, tons of wild turkeys would fly back to our fields and eat all the brush up our back hill into the woods.
One spring I saw a baby turkey on a trail in the woods and I followed it. All of a sudden, about four adult turkeys started flying at me, divebombing me, they literally grazed my scalp with their fearsome talons. I ran home screaming. And that not even the only time birds have attacked me.
I hate those house centipedes. Right now is the time spiders and all the creeps are out trying to find someplace warm to overwinter and make babies. Eeek.
@ktfran I’m like you. I used to have to Raid bomb every bug when I lived alone. And then it’d feel like a big deal to dispose of them after. I didn’t want to touch them even with TP, even dead.
We have urban coyotes here, too. I’ve heard from runners they’re a common early morning sight but have never seen one myself. A couple years ago, one was attacking people in and around my neighborhood. They caught it within a week or so and realized it had been injured by someone with a BB gun so I believe it was not euthanized.
Years ago, when I lived in the suburbs, I had a car and drove everywhere. One fall, every time I’d get in after dark and hit the road, one or sometimes two yellow-ish spider would crawl across the windshield. But every evening, at least one! I’d always freak out while driving trying to figure out if it was inside or outside. Anyway, one night in my gym’s parking lot, I realized maybe a dozen were crawling all over my car and I was trying to brush them off. A man saw me struggling to reach the top of my car and came over to help. He cleared them for me as I told him about the spiders I kept seeing. And he said, “Oh, you probably have hatchlings.” I don’t know if I did or didn’t but it was super weird and eventually went away. I googled out of curiosity and found that a car of the same make as mine, but a different model, had been recalled over spider issues.
Never encountered baby spiders, thank god, but I just remembered the water cooler at work years ago was found to be infested with roaches, who like the warmth of the motor or whatever. I guess it’s not uncommon for them to crowd into water coolers. I don’t know if there was any contamination of the actual water, and didn’t want to look into it either.
Yeah…the copperheads are horrifying. My subdivision also backs up to a state park and I know there are coyotes in there, maybe even bears. I’ve seen deer, raccoons, foxes, and (non-venomous) snakes in my actual subdivision – I’m happy to let the black snakes live because they eat copperheads! – but no coyotes yet. However, a neighbor of mine saw one by the pool one day, which is about four houses down from mine. NOPE. I never let my dogs out without a leash and I just hope, even though I’m a petite lady, my presence would be enough to keep them away.
I did have a fox training me and my first dog once on our walk. It kept following us and I definitely think it was sizing up my 6lb little girl. I shouted at it to GTFO and it ran away. Also a hawk tried to dive bomb my little girl once, too. It’s like wild kingdom out here.
Kate – I would move to Boston but my sister just got her first dog and she’s afraid of letting her walk around bare-pawed until they get into a park. She puts booties on her. My sister lives in Waltham and before the puppy was fully vaccinated she wouldn’t let her feet touch the ground for fear of her catching something. She may be over the top, I’m sure…but I guess if you want grass like we have here, you’re going to get more wildlife.
I have to say, that is way over the top ?. Dogs can walk on the sidewalks! If it’s broiling hot enough that you can’t put your hand down on the pavement, or if there’s rock salt / chemical ice melt, sure, but just day to day, dogs don’t need boots or to be carried. Sounds like she’s being an overprotective first-time dog mom.
@Kate, she definitely is! That puppy’s feet didn’t touch the sidewalk for the first 16 weeks of her life. My sister is terrified of her getting some sort of disease. Thankfully, she’s fully vaccinated now but she still puts booties on her to walk around the sidewalks/in the rain.
Meanwhile, I work for Red Hat and the mandate came down this week that everyone has to get vaccinated by Nov 29. There are some, uh, mixed feelings.
I wish my company would do that, and I said so in the latest survey they sent about returning to the office. I guess because we’re private the CEO doesn’t have to… but she should.
I’m kind of grateful I live in the city at the moment because it means snake season is a bit more abstract. My brother has a property with horses so there are king browns everywhere due to mice coming in for the horse feed. Every morning he gets up and there are snake tracks all over. Yuck. At least in QLD where I spent the most time it’s mostly tree snakes and pythons. I have stood in the road to stop traffic for pythons more than once lol.
Spiders though?! Miss me with those. Ironically one of our most harmless spiders is also the most terrifying to look at (don’t click on this if you’re arachnophobic): https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/australian-man-let-a-spider-the-size-of-a-face-live-in-his-lounge-for-a-year/
I’m terrified of huntsmans in particular. Once when I was a kid my dad stopped at a rental he was managing and chucked all the pamphlets from the letterbox in my lap while he checked the house over. When he came back I was stock still while one of those monsters crawled all over my head. Uuuuugh, that took a lot of getting over.
I feel for them because they’re good to keep around for bug control but yeah… NOPE. We catch and release though. Well, my husband does.
In high school I bought my friend a tarantula for her birthday. She loved it. I thought it was pretty cute. It definitely didn’t bother me. I don’t know if I’d be ok with having a abnormally large spider just wandering around the place at night.
All these bug stories…I’m glad I live in Colorado at the moment (not as many bugs as the humid south)! I’m from Arkansas and lived in the country as a little girl and would play with all the bug-things before I knew I should not. I once stepped on a scorpion that was in my shoe. I was 4 or so and my foot swelled up so big I couldn’t even put on my dad’s shoe.
Once, my mom told me I came running back into the house because my legs were covered in sea ticks. Basically very small ticks crawling all over my legs. I don’t remember but mom said I was terrified. I mean, i think i would still be terrified as an adult too.
