All You Spider Haters Are In For It Now

[Contrapuntal]

They’re teaming up with the snakes! And targeting us where we are most vulnerable, our beauty pageants. If Miss Tennessee isn’t safe, can anyone be truly safe?

It was a case of beauty and the bite when a Mrs. America contestant was bitten by a rattlesnake in Arizona on Sunday.

Christina Ryan, who is Mrs. Tennessee, spent hours in the hospital after suffering the bite while on her way to rehearsals for the pageant.

She’s now watching the pageant from the sidelines.

Ryan had been coming down some stairs when she saw a brown recluse spider on the ground and backed away from it.

However, she didn’t see the rattlesnake that was behind her.

[Moirai]

A brown recluse in front of her, and a rattlesnake behind her?!? Where the fuck was she?

Good on a girl to even notice a brown recluse, though- they can be very hard to spot.

[elelle]

Yikes, I feel for the poor gal, a bad conundrum of fear for her. But, in the spirit of the Straight Dope, if this was in Tuscon, it wasn’t a brown recluse spider , that’s out of it’s range. Could have been an Arizona recluse:

The Brown Recluse versus Arizona Brown Spiders
Although it has received much attention, the brown recluse spider is not a resident of Arizona. Brown recluse spiders are found very infrequently in luggage or belongings of persons who recently moved to the state. Of more concern are two closely related species, known as Arizona brown spiders. Adults of these species also have a dark brown marking on the front portion of their body which resembles a lyre or violin. They appear two-toned, with a tan front and gray rear body region. These spiders have three pairs of eyes in a crescent shape across the top, rather than the four pairs of most other spiders. These spiders normally nest under wood or dead cacti in the desert, are frequently encountered in dry washes, and only move into irrigated areas on firewood or pieces of cactus skeleton acquired for landscapes.

It still has a nasty bite. Poor gal, what are the chances of that poisonous critter dilemma!

In other intense spider news on the web, NPR had a great story today about spiders in Texas building a huge communal web, an anomaly. Great photo. Listen to the interview; there’s some weird things happening out there.

[bouv]

Damn! If they recruit the scorpions, we’re done for! :eek:

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

Well, I think we’ve found the sequel for “Snakes on a Plane”.

[DiggitCamara]

@Contrapuntal

They’re teaming up with the snakes! And targeting us where we are most vulnerable, our beauty pageants. If Miss Tennessee isn’t safe, can anyone be truly safe?

The title of your OP + the text sounds exactly like something that’d appear on Dave Barry’s blog.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Were there Bears, too?
Spiders & Snakes & Bears…OH MY!

[DiggitCamara]

@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

Were there Bears, too?
Spiders & Snakes & Bears…OH MY!

Never mind the Bears. It’s squirrels you’ve got to worry about!

[blondebear]

This awful incident could have been avoided if the woman had just taken the elevator.

[NinjaChick]

See, this thing could have been very easily avoided by…walking past the spider. Brown recluse spiders are in no way aggressive, and know what it’s reaction probably would have been? Nothing.

People who freak the hell out over spiders make me kind of sad. Spiders are so neat and generally speaking, unless you’re trying to kill one but failing badly, they don’t want to start any trouble with you.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

I…um…I don’t like squirrels.
I don’t like them like some people don’t like snakes and spiders.

[DiggitCamara]

@Least Original User Name Ever

I…um…I don’t like squirrels.
I don’t like them like some people don’t like snakes and spiders.

Well… I don’t have a problem per se with them, but they look like glorified rats with big bushy tails to me.
(But don’t listen to me. I seem to have a problem with rodents in general. Like for instance capybaras --or they seem to have problems with me during games…)

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

Well, you see…squirrels “broke the deal”. That’s a Seinfeld reference, by the way.
For some reason, I wasn’t included in the big Man-Squirrel accord of 1904. Squirrels know this and don’t like me.
It’s a long story (not really).