Spiders

[+bittsen]

Away from me I couldn't care less.

 

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see someone say that correctly.

 

Down boy... DOWN!

[knowschad]

Away from me I couldn't care less.

 

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see someone say that correctly.

 

Pssst...mi pequeño amigo: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=4411169

 

I knew you'd enjoy that.

[+NOV8TR]

My walking stick serves double duty as a “web whacker”. So far though, I have not been keen eyed enough to eliminate all the “web in the face” flailing about and hopping from foot to foot trying to escape imaginary bugs. I don’t like spiders that I don’t see first! I also wear last season’s “moto gloves” (thick leather palms with thinner leather fingers and plastic knuckle armor) when Geocaching. I buy a new pair every year for my motorcycle, so the “retired” pair are like getting freebie Geocaching gear! There is just something about sticking my unprotected hands into dark places (the unknown) that bothers me. With so many magnetic nanos stuck to the bottom or back side of guardrails and electrical boxes, I consider gloves a fundamental part of my Geocaching gear. They are also good prevention from getting poison oak. If I know I’ve been exposed to it, the gloves go in the wash with all my other contaminated gear.

[+thedeadpirate]

Away from me I couldn't care less.

 

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see someone say that correctly.

 

Pssst...mi pequeño amigo: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=4411169

 

I knew you'd enjoy that.

 

Thanks for pointing that out.

[+DENelson83]

What's up with all the spider hate anyway???

Um... That spider is missing a leg.

[+dfx]

Um... That spider is missing a leg.

o rly?

[+TABjuggler]

After being bitten by a numerous number of harmless spiders. Harmless as in they won't kill me, or cause me to need medical care from a doctor. (The sting being litterly a pain & causing a welt requiring basic first aid). I have come to start using a pair of Leather/Silicon washable form fitting gloves I found at Home Depot for $10.

 

These gloves have a silicon coating over the leather on the palms and finger sides. Leather on the backside. Form fitting in that they are tight & still allow you to use a pen to write and even opperate my GPS (although not my iPhone).

 

Now not intentionally trying to "Test" these gloves they WERE put to the test at least 3 times in the last week of my caching throughout South East Texas.

 

On occasion #1. I stuck my hand into some weeds and disturbed a wasps/nest. Three wasps tried to sting me. I felt nothing and was not stung. The gloves protected me from the Wasp/hornet stings.

 

On occasion #2. I was bitten in the glove by a rather large yellow & black spider. They are the ones that spin a rather pretty web. I actually saw the spider try to bite. Again the gloves protected my hand. His fangs were not able to get through the silicon coating and leather glove.

 

On occasion #3. I again stuck my hand in some tall grass, here I disturbed a couple of bumble bees. One tried to sting me. Again the Silicon/Leather glove protected my hand from the sting.

 

I really like these gloves as they not only offer protection from small critters, but from the scrapes and cuts one gets from "Sticky" plants such as cactus & other similar type plants. The silicon coating while DOESN"T make the gloves water proof, DOES give you some protection as well as a better grip on things. It also protects from limited moisture. The gloves are also washable in a washing machine with your "jeans". They do wash up quite nicely. They only cost me $10 and one of the BEST investments I have made in my life. I bought several pair. One pair I keep in my Truck at all times. They are even good for changing a flat too!

 

So check out your local Home Depot or Lowes as well.

 

TGC

 

P.S. They have done a great job in protecting me from PI as well.

 

Very useful information. I will definitely invest in a pair. Too bad about the "can't operate iphone thing". I use my smart phone religiously while caching, but if I want to start doing some more intense bushwacking caches, I will likely need to invest in a real GPS.

[+coggins]

Um... That spider is missing a leg.

Is this one any better?

[+thedeadpirate]

Um... That spider is missing a leg.

Is this one any better?

 

This soooo feels like de ja vue.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Wear a hat, bigger the better. Seriously! I don't mind spiders, in fact I take care to keep them around happy and healthy even in my home, but if I run into a web and end up with it (and it's resident) wrapped around my head on a trail then anyone along for the hike is going to given quite a show of hysterical shouting, slapping, dancing and all out panic. Don't know why, just gives me the heebie-jeebies. So my method of dealing is to always wear a hat while caching. Wider the brim, the more distance between my face and the arachnid! At the very least I'll keep a baseball hat on. Best thing about a hat is once you run into the web and host and they're both now attached to your headware, you can just toss it off quickly and wait for the little guy to crawl away

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

i love this thread! i thought i was the only one with spider and web problems when caching. i'm not afraid of spiders, and if they're inside i catch and release them. But i hate running face first into a web and then feeling it on my lips and imaging the spider attached to me! Ewww! i have DNF caches due to too many webs. i saw a cache up ahead in an area in the woods where i had to crouch down to move forward. The webs were so large and intricate, and the spiders were hanging out right in the middle. i did an about face and won't return alone. i'll have hubby plow through or another local cacher.

 

i have done the waving palm fan bit also. Sometimes, though, i stop to look at GPSr and look around and that's when i notice i'm being surrounded by webs with spiders. Always makes me run away.

 

Then for a few hours afterwards i feel like my hair is a web and spiders are down my shirt. Yuck. They make for good camo though.

 

Another thing: i have noticed rubber or plastic bug swag in containers. i get freaked out when i see those also.

[+entogeek]

 

I run!

 

Looks like Theraphosa blondi on steroids!

Edited July 27, 2010 by entogeek

[+TABjuggler]

i love this thread! i thought i was the only one with spider and web problems when caching. i'm not afraid of spiders, and if they're inside i catch and release them. But i hate running face first into a web and then feeling it on my lips and imaging the spider attached to me! Ewww! i have DNF caches due to too many webs. i saw a cache up ahead in an area in the woods where i had to crouch down to move forward. The webs were so large and intricate, and the spiders were hanging out right in the middle. i did an about face and won't return alone. i'll have hubby plow through or another local cacher.

 

i have done the waving palm fan bit also. Sometimes, though, i stop to look at GPSr and look around and that's when i notice i'm being surrounded by webs with spiders. Always makes me run away.

 

Then for a few hours afterwards i feel like my hair is a web and spiders are down my shirt. Yuck. They make for good camo though.

 

Another thing: i have noticed rubber or plastic bug swag in containers. i get freaked out when i see those also.

 

Yeah, I did a T3 today and wasn't worried at all about the spiders! I just grabbed a stick and waved it around, and it was no problem!

[Little Miss Muffet]

I *hate* spiders.

I have spider nightmares. If there really is a hell-mine will be filled with spiders. And heaven will most definitely be spider free.

 

My parents house was in the middle of the woods and I found waaay too many wolf spiders behind the shampoo bottle when I was growing up. Nothing like slamming into the sliding glass shower door with a giant spider on your a** with soap in your eyes. And that's just a starter for all of my spider horror stories that I have lived thru.

 

I am thrilled that I have a fast scroll button on my mouse- I screamed as I was blowing past all the pictures in this post. If I have a book or magazine in my hands and turn the page and see a spider it immediately goes flying across the room--its instinct-- and in most cases I had no idea I could throw a book that far.

 

I taught my kids how to "stomp & drag" when they could walk (abt 18 months old) Someone had to kill them.

 

I know what "everyone" says--they eat bugs.... well, the other bugs don't bother near as much as the freakin' spiders. What I will let live is the creature that eats the spiders (they are my hero's)!

 

Besides, they have 500 babies at a time too---that's just not right on sooo many levels. NOTHING should be able to have a zillion babies at one time.

 

I can't eat (or watch others eat) crab legs because they just look like giant spiders to me. They are under the sea, on top of the water, in the woods, in cold icy places. Seriously--it just ain't right.

 

I take LONG sticks with lots of branches thru the woods. I scream, I flail around. I doubt I will ever see much wildlife because my screaming scares them all away.

 

I even went to my first virtual cache and was literally chased away from the bench I was sitting on by a LARGE spider who popped down beside me.

[Lissus]

 

Nothing like slamming into the sliding glass shower door with a giant spider on your a** with soap in your eyes.

 

OMG I "almost" spit coffee all over the monitor. ROFLMAO!!!

[+roziecakes]

I actually like spiders... but... this is what we encountered outside of Hawthorne, NV last week. That's even too many spiders for me!!

 

[+bittsen]

If you want to find REAL spiders on the West Coast, head to Clear Lake California.

I was vacationing there a few years ago and the spiders there are MASSIVE. I think they eat lizards or something.

 

These things were all over on either side of the resort on privatefamily yards and such. One walkway at the house next to the resort had so many HUGE spiders and webs that you could barely see the front door.

 

The good thing is the staff at the resort were out every morning with portable, battery powered, shop vace and went al over sucking up the spiders. One morning I was up extra early and there was a staff member right in front of my unit. I kid you not when I say the spider made a THUNK as it was sucked into the shop vac. It was horrifying to think about.

[+popokiiti]

Away from me I couldn't care less.

 

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see someone say that correctly.

 

Me too!