OT: Creepy Crawlers (While Sleeping)

[Ash]

Yesterday (4-4-04) I was at work when I felt a strong itch on the top of my left shoulder.
I scratched and scratched and scratched at it until I finally had enough and pulled my shirt down by the collar to look at it.
At first I thought it was a mosquito bite because that's what it felt like but upon further inspection I saw it for what it REALLY was.
There was a small red bump there and upon a closer examination, 2 small red dots exactly side by side one another.  

I thought to myself, "Damn!  That's a spider bite!"  
I approached my friend who was also working and showed it to him without revealing to him what insect/thing I thought it came from.
He took a close look at it and said, "Damn dude you got a spider bite there!"

Now, I do not remember ever being bitten by a spider while I was awake in my entire life so the only way this could have occured was while I was sleeping.

Thank God for not being able to experience pain while asleep!
Ignorance truly is bliss sometimes!
Hehe!

I hate spiders of all kinds and my bite made me think of something from my past that makes me cringe.
When I was a boy visiting relatives in Arkansas with my family (I was about 9 or 10 at the time) I was crouched down and staring down a big brown hairy tarantula.
Being from Iowa we don't get tarantulas in the wild here but down in Arkansas they're everywhere.
It raised up on its hind legs and after about a minute or so it literally leaped at me.  
That scared the s**t out of me!
Thank God I had quick reflexes at the time to get out of its way!
Ever since then, I've despised ALL spiders.

Back to the present...
While asleep at night with all the lights off, a f**king spider was crawling God knows where all over my body!

EWWWWW!!!!

I shudder to think of that.
It could've been a huge one or a tiny one...judging from the size of the red dots on my shoulder I would venture to guess that the one that bit me ranged anywhere in size from say a nickel to a quarter.
I imagine a big one sitting on top of one of my eyelids, my eyes darting from side to side in REM sleep....just sitting there poised to go elsewhere on my body.
UGh!

I suspect it bit me when I moved in my sleep and plunged its fangs into my shoulder as a measure of self defense.
I do not blame the spider for it...it didn't know any better and was only acting on instinct but the thought of arachnids or bugs of any kind crawling or slithering on my skin literally makes my skin crawl!
Spiders don't bite unless provoked as far as I know for most arachnid spieces.
I checked my bed when I got home from work and found no spider corpse that might have been crushed under my weight as I turned in my sleep.
It simply bit me and scurried away to God knows where in my apartment....and that's the scary thing...it still lives and is still in here maybe waiting to crawl on me again!

Another thought that especially makes me cringe is the fact that a lot of us sleep with our mouths wide open while breathing through our noses or the mouth.
We have no control when we sleep if our mouths are like gaping holes or closed shut.

I wonder how many creepy crawling things have wandered their way into my mouth while I was asleep!
Even worse would be the very real possibility that if a spider or other insect entered my mouth while I was asleep, I closed my mouth and swallowed it while sleeping!
YUCK!!!
The same could've happened to you and you would never have any knowledge of it.
(SHUDDER!!!)

Or how about a small insect that wanders its way into our nostril while sleeping?

You must admit...even if you like creepy crawlers, the thought of such events happening to you would make your skin crawl would it not?

What's your take on this?



Post Edited (04-06-04 03:25)

[Andrew]

I have slept out in the field far too many times to worry and have had the bites that go with such.  While in Korea I ended up with two bites from, what I guess, were small wandering wolf-spiders.  One was on my bicep and the other my neck.  After about a week they started to go away.

My main concern is not to run afoul of something like a recluse.  I have seen the results of that and have no urge to have a pit in my body, because the flesh rotted away from the poison.

[wickednick]

I here you Ash I hate spiders and centipedes and have woken up with spider bites and centipede bites.Now the spider that bit you was probably a wolf spider maybe about a half inch length, usually anything smaller than that are not big enough to bite you. Luckly it was not a centipede bite because those f**kers hurt. I been bitten by them a couple times and it feels like a burn and itches like crazy but dosn't last very long. Ive heard that some of the big foot long centipedes you find in the tropics can send you to the hospital.
Also Ive recently read a report that Bedbugs are coming back in a big way so wash those sheets people. And lastly anouther bed pest you can find but they are kinda rare is called I belive a assassin bug I might be wrong on the name, but some times they come into your room and drink your blood while sleeping, but those bugs are usually found in more tropical areas.
Pleasant dreams Ash.

[dean]

I read somewhere that the average person swallows a surprisingly fair amount of insect life while asleep during the course of their lives.  Not too sure exactly how many was average but it was definitely more than 5.  

5 is creepy enough.

[Ellie]

Whil I was visiting a friend in Iowa I was bitten by a Brown Recluse on my lower arm.  At  first it was a tiny bubble and then it got bigger and began to hurt.   What I went through was awful.  I have this huge scar on my arm. I thought I was going to lose my arm. At least I killed the liitle bugger.

[Brother Ragnarok]

Brown recluse bites don't necessarily cause massive damage (although a guy here at college got bit by one and it damn near melted his leg off, it's pretty nasty).  It's all relative to how much venom they inject and how a particular person's physiognomy reacts to it, kinda like a bee sting.  It'll kill some people and simply make others itch for a couple of hours.
Some of those centipedes will send you to the morgue, not just the hospital.

Brother R

[JohnL]

>Another thought that especially makes me cringe is the fact that a lot of us sleep
>with our mouths wide open while breathing through our noses or the mouth.

Better not watch the movie Deadly Blessing then...

[Fluffy CatFood]

Here in australia we have a rather nice variety of spiders, including one of the most deadly, the Funnel Web.

I've had a few spider bites over the years, just your average garden spider or from a huntsman, it really doesnt worry me.

Once when I was about 13 I was bitten on the ankle by something, not sure if it was a spider or a scorpion, but my whole leg was burning in pain and my skin turned to liquid where the bite was, I now have a small scar slightly smaller then a quarter. That was a pretty awful experience especially since there was nothing I could do about it

[StatCat]

Only time I remember getting bit by an insect was this big ant that gounged into my finger when I was a real little kid.  Of course I've had mosquito bites but haven't had any for a long time.  I actually had a tarantula until it died a few years ago- use to let it crawl on me so I guess I'm not freaked out by arachnids at least.

[Ash]

Oh dude!  I went to Australia in 2001 and I am fully aware of the spiders that exist there.
I remember watching a show on Animal Planet a few months before I left and I believe the show was called "Fangs".

They showed the Sydney Funnel Web spider and how aggressive it was.
They had one in a glass cage and they proceeded to stick a fake rubber moveable hand in the cage with just the index finger extended.
The Funnel Web leaped at it within a second and sunk its HUGE nasty fangs right into it without hesitation.

I have heard that they are so venomous that they can kill a full grown man within an hour if he doesn't seek medical treatment immediately.
For small children that are bitten by the funnel web...it is a death sentence.

I have a few friends in Sydney and they tell me that you must constantly look in your shoes or slam them upside down before you put them on because a funnel web spider might be lurking inside one of them.

I've also heard that the funnel web spider will actually chase you and that they are quite fast!
They are THAT aggressive!
Here is a webpage on the Funnel Web Spider:

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/spider/spider3.htm

As for Huntsmen spiders, well in my 1st day in Adelaide, Australia I was thrown a welcoming party and late at night while drinking with everyone there, I was outside the house and was leaning against the screen door when Kellie said, "Um you might want to look at what's on your baseball hat."

I took my hat off and sitting right on top of it was a f**king HUGE Huntsman spider that had to be at least 2-3 inches in length (legspan included).

I freaked out and threw my hat down on the ground and stomped on the little bastard and everyone there laughed their asses off!
Apparently it had been sitting there for almost 5 minutes and they all noticed it but didn't say anything!
It was originally on the screen door and then wandered its way down onto my hat which they all saw.
Bastards!

Here is some info on the Huntsman spider:
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/huntsman_spiders.htm

Yes I had one of those ugly things sitting on top of my head for 5 minutes without knowing it!
Creepy, scary things they are!
YUCK!



Post Edited (04-07-04 05:22)

[-=NiGHTS=-]

I think the average person swallows about twelve spiders a year, something along those lines.

As for brown recluses:  I've got a nice scar from one of these, too, on my leg. Very impressive looking.  For certain people, there is a terrible allergic reaction you can have to these sorts of spiders.  Since the actual bite is painless, it's often a while until you notice it, and for these unlucky people, it usually takes a couple months to settle in.  Anyway, one morning, you wake up, and you're hemmhoraging massively.  It's superficial, so you don't have too much to worry about, but it's painful, and you're bleeding alot.  And it doesn't stop for a long, long time.  Lovely reaction, eh?

Boy, am I glad I live in Vermont where these things are rare.

[Jim Hepler]

If it makes you feel any better, the whole "flesh rotting away" from recluse spiders isn't the most common reaction.  It doesn't get that bad in MOST people, thankfully.

[Fluffy CatFood]

I'll admit, huntsman are scary looking bastards, especially when they are running across the floor towards you or up your leg. My house is full of them but I dont mind them because they help get rid of the flies which p**s me off to no end.

[JohnL]

I've only ever seen one large spider; Many years ago, I heard a scratching noise one night and discovered a big, black spider behind one of the posters in my room. It looked like the pictures I've seen of Black Widows, but it didn't have the red hourglass marking. I used a wadded up paper towel to kill it (didn't want spider guts all over the back of the poster!).

When I was little, my grandparents used to rent a cabin on Lake Champlain in New York for the summer. It was fairly rustic and it wasn't uncommon to be sitting on the toilet, look up and see 3-4 Daddy Longlegs spiders on the ceiling above you.