I dropped my car keys . . .

[DWalt]

When I was a kid on Ohio, we often had big black and yellow garden spiders that would build webs in the yard shrubbery. I always thought they were very scary and could kill you with their bite. Turns out they are also harmless and non-aggressive toward anything not caught in their web. I don't remember seeing any of those in Texas.

 

[snowman]

Deputy Faulkner,

You don't seem to have realized that the tarantula wanted to steal your car.

Andy

 

[Bro. Dave]

Hey DWalt, we have those garden spiders here around Stephenville. My sons used to love catching grasshoppers to throw into the webs so they could watch the spider run down the web, bite the grasshopper, then wrap it up in web for future dining. I believe they are Argiope aurantia.

 

[old bear]

Look at it this way. dropping your keys is Much better than dropping the Soap

 

[wundudnee]

One of my first jobs was working nights in a wholesale fruit and vegetable warehouse. We would spend the night loading trucks for delivery that day. Then in the morning we would unload box cars of stock to replenish the warehouse. Every Saturday morning we would get two semi loads of stocks of bananas. They were about three foot long stalks and green enough to hammer nails. We would put a rope on each stock and hang them in a ripening room. Lots of small frogs, bugs and tarantulas would end up on the floor.

After the ripening time they would be taken to a large lazy Susan to be cut into hands and placed in shipping cartons. There would be three to four women working the lazy Susan. They were always finding tarantulas while cutting the bananas. They had a wire cage there and they would just catch and cage the spiders. They would give them to schools for science classes.

It didn't seem to bother those ladies at all to handle them, but I was still a little leery.

 

[DWalt]

One of my first jobs was working nights in a wholesale fruit and vegetable warehouse. We would spend the night loading trucks for delivery that day. Then in the morning we would unload box cars of stock to replenish the warehouse. Every Saturday morning we would get two semi loads of stocks of bananas. They were about three foot long stalks and green enough to hammer nails. We would put a rope on each stock and hang them in a ripening room. Lots of small frogs, bugs and tarantulas would end up on the floor.

After the ripening time they would be taken to a large lazy Susan to be cut into hands and placed in shipping cartons. There would be three to four women working the lazy Susan. They were always finding tarantulas while cutting the bananas. They had a wire cage there and they would just catch and cage the spiders. They would give them to schools for science classes.

It didn't seem to bother those ladies at all to handle them, but I was still a little leery.

Rember the old Harry Belafonte song "Day-O" about the "Deadly black tarantula" hiding in the beautiful bunch of ripe bananas?

 

[wundudnee]

Rember the old Harry Belafonte song "Day-O" about the "Deadly black tarantula" hiding in the beautiful bunch of ripe bananas?

We would sometimes sing that song as a parody of what we were doing. At that time we were making less money unloading the trucks than the stevedores unloading the boats.

 

[Fullmetaljacket]

You have tarantulas in Arkansas? Cool.

 

[Grayfox]

I never did understand the fear of spiders or any other insect for that matter. They don't bother me at all. In fact, they're often beneficial to have around. They can crawl on me and at most I might just brush them off. But never saw an urgent need to kill them.

My wife OTOH was scared plumb to death of spiders. The mere sight of one would send her running and screaming!

 

[pharmer]

We used to have "Banana Spiders" around these parts. Very colorful and over 6 inches across with a narrower body. I had one on the back of my screen porch almost 40 years ago. Lived there from March until November. In it's old age I would capture and fling a cricket up in the web every few days. Haven't seen one (nor a rattlesnake) in probably 30 years. Joe

 

[S42N8]

I've let worse looking things crawl all over me. Some of them were human.

And we have today's TMI winnah, rite thar. (Reaching for the mental bleach.)

 

[meaneyedcatz]

When my wife was young her family lived in Texas for a bit. My MIL hated the things. My wife's sister got up in the middle of the night and stepped on one in the house. My wife said her sister screamed like there was no tomorrow!! Everyone got up to see what was going on and my MIL grabbed a broom and started beating that poor spider like it owed her money. When the battle was over it looked like it was snowing spider fuzz.

 

[JohnRippert]

Have carried a handcuff key for 35+ years. Also have a set of thumb cuffs in the glovebox. You just never know.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Last time I dropped my car keys was into a storm sewer grate. Took me an hour to find a wire coat hanger and fish the keyring out.

Tarantulas? Past few weeks we have seen a million or so migrating around the prairies here in southern Colorado. The really scary ones are the size of dinner plates. Mostly of interest for elementary school children to take for "show and tell" days, otherwise we tend to ignore them as part of the scenery.

 

[Snapping Twig]

 

[Bullet Bob]

Car ... keys ...? What are those?

 

[oldbrownhat]

That's a beauty, Faulkner. You might like this (gift) NYT article from a couple of years ago.
(Others may want to make a quick exit from the room.)

Trilobites

Why So Blue, Tarantula? A Mystery Gets a New Clue

The large arachnids have long been thought to be colorblind, but new evidence suggests they can perceive each others' brilliant coloring.

Speaking of bites, according to Wikipedia:

In the Italian province of Taranto, Apulia, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named "tarantula" after the region, was popularly believed to be highly venomous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. This became known as the "tarantella".​

 

[Rudi]

I have a house spider, but he's no where near that big.

 

[oldbrownhat]

We would sometimes sing that song as a parody of what we were doing. At that time we were making less money unloading the trucks than the stevedores unloading the boats.

And a LOT less than Harry Belafonte

 

[DWalt]

And a LOT less than Harry Belafonte

For those few who have no idea who Harry Belafonte is.
[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7M0Hx_1D8[/ame]