Spider Bites

[NordieBoy]

Im with Smorgen. I grew up in South Africa where almost everything was out to get you (according to the hypocondriac I work with). I enjoyed living with snakes, spiders, geckos, legavaans and all sorts or weird creatures whose sole purpouse was to eat you.

Just spent December over in SA and saw...
3 monkeys.
2 baboons.
1 tortise.
cows.
horses.
birds.
mosquitoes.
flys.
3 hornets.
Pod of 25 dolphins.

Oh and lots of tanned wimmin in bikini's.

[BarryG]

Well, I've seen lots of little pale scorpions here, but they always seem to be going the other way, and as far as I know, they don't bite (much). But over Christmas, a group of us were down in the Keys, and my mate was handing out presents, jumped back with a squawk flailing his hand around, and jumped on a black scorpion about 2" long! It had nailed him on the hand three times before he realised what was going on. We called 911 to see what to do, they put us through to the local hospital, who said 'not much, it's a sting but not poisonous'. It hurt like hell for a few hours, his arm tingled all day, but no long term effects. I reckon all the alcohol being consumed as an antidote took care of it But it was a worry knowing they were around. We all shook out our shoes and clothes in the morning, believe me.

As a teenager in South Africa, we'd go out and catch poisonous snakes for the snake farms. I don't remember how much they gave us for each one, but it was a way of making pocket money. I think I bought my first 50cc moped with the proceeds. I think all we had was a sack and a pair of leather work gloves. What were we thinking!

I see a few snakes around here, had one wrap itself into the spokes of my bicycle wheel once, which was a scare. Must be I'm older.

Cheers
Barry