• Nougat@fedia.io
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    17 hours ago

    So I’m like 13 years old, climbing a tree at a friend’s house. It’s a bit of a shimmy up the trunk, I’m well in the air, hugging the tree. I look down at my feet to make sure I have footing before lifting a hand above my head to reach for a branch.

    As my head is going from looking down to looking up, just as I am grabbing the branch and hanging from it, I realize that my nose is almost touching a big old wolf spider mama, fully laden with all her children.

    DROP

    I never climbed that tree again.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        To add to what nougat said, because that’s very much the appropriate answer…

        All spiders are in fact venomous- it’s part of how they feed. Many species, the venom is not harmful to humans, or only very weakly so. (Wolf spiders qualify as “very weakly so”)

        That said, you try keeping a reasonable head when you suddenly come eyeball-to-eyeball with a wolf spiders qualify and her kids.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        14 hours ago

        When they get spooked they launch their kids everywhere to overwhelm potential predators. Imagine if you squashed a spider and suddenly you were covered in hundreds of tiny spiders?

      • seathru@lemmy.sdf.org
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        17 hours ago

        No, they are spider bros. They kill brown recluses, black widows, and other things that are dangerous. Typically do not mess with humans unless seriously provoked.

        • remon@ani.social
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          6 hours ago

          I get the sentiment, but black widows (and Theridiidae in general) are quite proficient in taking out wolf spiders and other prowling spiders, not the other way around.