Red Spider Species, Unknown?

killivolt said:

gerty, Yes, it was alone and a young curious boy, did get stung.

It was very painful, they are very fury and shiny and I was attracted immediately most children don't know "Red" means "Ouch" or "Dead"

Same thing happened when I picked up a Caterpillar once. My Family taught me about spiders but, nothing about the other little creatures.

I Managed Apartments for about 10yrs, not a lot of work involved, one day I seen a mysterious bug down in the grass. It looked harmless to me.

It had a small head, but tucked beneath the little head was his weapon, he rose his head and thing came out like a single, fang and "Wham" it stuck a proboscis deep into my index finger.

These are pictures of what it was and they are not supposed to be in Utah, I thought only in South America, they have migrated to other warm area's "Watch where you sleep" Kissing Bug / Chagas



Edit: There is a map of locations in top left of the page, showing areas in the U.S. to be of concern.

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DerStrom8 said:

I see those things all the time! I didn't know they were dangerous

I once found a couple of Tomato Hornworms on my tomato plants one summer. I had never seen them before, so it was a new experience for me.

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Believe it or not, those caterpillars are about 3 inches long and nearly half an inch thick. While that red "horn" on their back looks dangerous, it really isn't. But these things can destroy an entire group of tomato plants in a matter of days.

Also, you never want to run over these things on, say, a bicycle. They literally explode, and it's not fun. That happened once to me (accidentally). It was sitting in the middle of the road and I didn't see it, and I rode right over it.

Very interesting creatures though....

Also, when my brother and I were kids, he once got "stung" by a cricket. We both think it tried to lay eggs in his foot.

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MrAl said:

Hi,

Many of those critters have to eat vegetation, which is hard to chew so they need something good to chomp down with. But in all my years as a kid i've never been bitten by a grasshopper.
I have been bitten by mice however, and wow, they have RAZOR sharp teeth im tellin' you. I knew they could bite, but i never knew their teeth were that sharp. With the adult it feels like you are being deeply pierced with two big sewing needles. With the smaller specimens they take off a layer of skin and you dont even feel it until you see it and then it feels like a blister that is healing up. Doesnt hurt with the smaller ones but not sure how old they have to be before it starts to hurt bad like the adults.

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MrAl said:

...
Many of those critters have to eat vegetation, which is hard to chew so they need something good to chomp down with. But in all my years as a kid i've never been bitten by a grasshopper.
...

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