I worked in a herpetology lab for three years and I don't believe this. Someone's exaggerating. He might have died of an allergic reaction to a black-widow bite--black widows are hardly ever fatal to adults. (I was bitten last summer, and it was not pleasant but not that big a deal...and I am immunocompromised, to boot.) But as for the other things the officers said they saw...tarantualas don't build webs, termites are not carnivorous--they don't have the enzymes to digest meat--snakes are not scavengers and eat only things they can swallow whole, and spiders don't hang pre-dead meat in their webs. (If a body were decaying, I suppose they might suck the fluids--but they'd be a lot more likely to just catch the termites.)
I suppose it's possible that a snake could eat a finger or limb that had already fallen off the body, but snakes don't eat decaying meat--it would fatally poison them because they digest food so slowly. They can go for long, long periods of time without eating and would be much more likely to do that than eat spoiled meat. What the animals might be more likely to do would be to sip at body fluids if they were desperate for water.
I can believe that a spider might have laid eggs in body cavities. And yeah, a gecko will eat anything, including a dead owner. Most animals seem to stop recognizing buddies as individuals as soon as they die--which makes sense if you have to clear a dead buddy or relative out of your nest and the most efficient way to do it is to eat it. (I always find it a little freaky when one of my pets will eat a dead former friend and then frantically look for that animal for days afterward.)
I will bet that an autopsy shows that he died of a heart attack or something.
Sure sounds like the officers almost did, and I bet that would have colored their perception a bit.
Yeah, I kinda figured a lot of the stuff was exaggerated or a matter of misconception - like the lizards could have eaten them, but people just assumed the snakes did as well. Or it was one of his larger spiders that made a web in the corner of the ceiling, so someone viewing it just assumed it was a tarantula. And maybe the... er... flesh got scattered a bit with the lizards' feeding, and some ended up in webs. (Bleh, this is icky to even discuss. :p )
I would say though that just because adults rarely die of black widow bites, it doesn't mean it *doesn't* happen ever, and he could have been one of the unlucky ones.
I would say though that just because adults rarely die of black widow bites, it doesn't mean it *doesn't* happen ever, and he could have been one of the unlucky ones.
Yes, that's true.
But it's not an instant death--why wouldn't he have gone to a hospital?
Good question about the hospital. They said he was on the couch, maybe he had taken sleeping pills to catch a nap on the sofa or something, for all we know, and was bitten in his sleep. (Black widow bites IIRC are supposed to be hellishly painful, so I doubt he'd just sleep through it normally...) Or maybe he knew people rarely die from them and decided to just tough it out, to avoid the danger of having some of his dangerous pets taken away, since I can't imagine that what he had going on there was totally legal. Are black widows even legal to keep, without a license of some sort?
And yeah, speculating's probably useless, but can still be fun. ;)
No, they're not always painful immediately. I got bitten last summer by what was clearly a black widow in my garage, and the bite didn't hurt overmuch. But I had chills and a hellish headache for a week and muscle tremors for a month.
I would bet on an allergic reaction. Again, not that it matters what I think.
And dude, he wouldn't have had his dangerous animals that could prey on each other free-ranging in the apartment--and he wouldn't have kept all the spiders together because they'll happily prey on each other, so even if one cage opened, only a limited number of species would have gotten out--so I'm really doubting that the police walked in and found a jungle. So there was a boa loose? Big deal. There not dangerous unless either they're 30 feet long or you're a Yorkshire terrier. From the story, it sounds like as soon as he was dead, every animal in the place said, "Ah ha! He's dead! Now's our chance for freedom!" and picked their locks and broke loose. Reptiles and invertebrates are not known for deep thinking and manual dexterity.
I've never kept venomous reptiles and I don't keep reptiles anymore at all, since generally they really aren't very happy in captivity, but the demonization of insects and reptiles, and encouraging fear and disgust of nature, annoys me.
Ah, maybe I'm getting the black widow bite somewhat mixed up with the brown recluse, which is supposed to be horrid, I know.
And yeah, he wouldn't have had them all free-ranging, but who knows with the authorities? They might have considered it unhygienic or whatever even if just some of the snakes and lizards were running loose - or more to the point, he might have been afraid they would have. As for how and why they all were running free... meh, who knows? Maybe he was in the middle of feeding (which is why he got bitten) and hadn't had the chance/forgot to lock the tanks back up, what with the bites and all. As you say though, I guess it's useless to speculate. I wish though that we COULD get the actual story on just what was going on in there, since you're right, the details don't really add up well.
And agreed on the demonization part. And the whole "ew snakes are slimy!" thing. And so on. (Not saying that, y'know, you have to totally love snakes and spiders, especially if you're innately afraid of them, but the demonization? Bah.)
I think they're legal. They're native animals. It's not like you have to import them...they live all over the US and there are almost certainly some in your garage or attic right now. Luckily they're catatonically shy and hate light, so unless you actually sit on one or accidentally stick your hand in a mama spider's web (which I did last summer while packing to move--not happy), they want nothing in the world to do with you.
You know, I noticed the tarantula thing when I read it the first time, but I missed the "ceiling" part and figured that the "nest" didn't mean "web", and that I just didn't know something about tarantula behavior.
If he had fishing spiders or bird spiders, they would have built the mondo webs, although they're a bit of a waste if there are no birds or fish around.
They're hunting spiders, like wolf spiders. They run their prey down. They live in dens and holes.
There was a female living in a hole in the wall at the Museum of Natural History in NY for like 10 years that used to come out to beg people for food, although that was fairly useless as most visitors to museums don't carry crickets, roaches, or live mice with them. But the staff fed her so she generalized it to all humans being possible donators of food.
I don't know how she got there as they are not native to NY. Someone's lost pet, probably. People who own them sometimes stick them in a pocket and carry them around. Personally, that makes my skin crawl a bit, even if I have known some very beautiful and personable pet tarantulas, but to each his or her own.
Well, tarantulas do still have the ability to spin silk, and can make a sort of "nest" out of it given time - mine used to do it all over the gravel in their tanks, and then it'd be a bitch to clean out because it'd also involve stirring up all the damn hair they shed, and I'd itch for days.
But in the ceiling? Now, I'm not saying they couldn't get their in the first place - I've seen the suckers climb straight up the glass sides of tanks (which as I'm sure you know is why you always ALWAYS have a locking top on a spider's tank)... but spinning an actual web there? Not so much.
The heating elements on two tanks containing spiders and their termite snacks had exploded and dislodged the metal tops allowing them to escape.
I'm finding this very hard to believe. I think if the elements had EXPLODED the animals would have been cooked well before they exploded, and would have been killed by the explosion afterward.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds like a practical joke, an urban myth, or the Sun's usual *cough* quality reporting.
And who the hell feeds termites to their spiders anyway? A big spider eats about one small cricket a week. Why would you feed them an insect that reproduces in huge numbers and, if it escapes, eats your house?
Eh, the truth might be out there, but it's been eaten by killer mutant carnivorous termites so we'll never know for sure.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rant
Date: 2007-08-03 07:18 pm (UTC)I suppose it's possible that a snake could eat a finger or limb that had already fallen off the body, but snakes don't eat decaying meat--it would fatally poison them because they digest food so slowly. They can go for long, long periods of time without eating and would be much more likely to do that than eat spoiled meat. What the animals might be more likely to do would be to sip at body fluids if they were desperate for water.
I can believe that a spider might have laid eggs in body cavities. And yeah, a gecko will eat anything, including a dead owner. Most animals seem to stop recognizing buddies as individuals as soon as they die--which makes sense if you have to clear a dead buddy or relative out of your nest and the most efficient way to do it is to eat it. (I always find it a little freaky when one of my pets will eat a dead former friend and then frantically look for that animal for days afterward.)
I will bet that an autopsy shows that he died of a heart attack or something.
Sure sounds like the officers almost did, and I bet that would have colored their perception a bit.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 07:23 pm (UTC)I would say though that just because adults rarely die of black widow bites, it doesn't mean it *doesn't* happen ever, and he could have been one of the unlucky ones.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 07:46 pm (UTC)Yes, that's true.
But it's not an instant death--why wouldn't he have gone to a hospital?
Oh well. Probably not much point to speculating.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 08:19 pm (UTC)And yeah, speculating's probably useless, but can still be fun. ;)
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 09:40 pm (UTC)I would bet on an allergic reaction. Again, not that it matters what I think.
And dude, he wouldn't have had his dangerous animals that could prey on each other free-ranging in the apartment--and he wouldn't have kept all the spiders together because they'll happily prey on each other, so even if one cage opened, only a limited number of species would have gotten out--so I'm really doubting that the police walked in and found a jungle. So there was a boa loose? Big deal. There not dangerous unless either they're 30 feet long or you're a Yorkshire terrier. From the story, it sounds like as soon as he was dead, every animal in the place said, "Ah ha! He's dead! Now's our chance for freedom!" and picked their locks and broke loose. Reptiles and invertebrates are not known for deep thinking and manual dexterity.
I've never kept venomous reptiles and I don't keep reptiles anymore at all, since generally they really aren't very happy in captivity, but the demonization of insects and reptiles, and encouraging fear and disgust of nature, annoys me.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 10:11 pm (UTC)And yeah, he wouldn't have had them all free-ranging, but who knows with the authorities? They might have considered it unhygienic or whatever even if just some of the snakes and lizards were running loose - or more to the point, he might have been afraid they would have. As for how and why they all were running free... meh, who knows? Maybe he was in the middle of feeding (which is why he got bitten) and hadn't had the chance/forgot to lock the tanks back up, what with the bites and all. As you say though, I guess it's useless to speculate. I wish though that we COULD get the actual story on just what was going on in there, since you're right, the details don't really add up well.
And agreed on the demonization part. And the whole "ew snakes are slimy!" thing. And so on. (Not saying that, y'know, you have to totally love snakes and spiders, especially if you're innately afraid of them, but the demonization? Bah.)
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 09:55 pm (UTC)Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 07:27 pm (UTC)Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 07:47 pm (UTC)Tarantulas Take Over New York Museum
Date: 2007-08-03 10:00 pm (UTC)There was a female living in a hole in the wall at the Museum of Natural History in NY for like 10 years that used to come out to beg people for food, although that was fairly useless as most visitors to museums don't carry crickets, roaches, or live mice with them. But the staff fed her so she generalized it to all humans being possible donators of food.
I don't know how she got there as they are not native to NY. Someone's lost pet, probably. People who own them sometimes stick them in a pocket and carry them around. Personally, that makes my skin crawl a bit, even if I have known some very beautiful and personable pet tarantulas, but to each his or her own.
Re: Tarantulas Take Over New York Museum
Date: 2007-08-03 10:06 pm (UTC)But in the ceiling? Now, I'm not saying they couldn't get their in the first place - I've seen the suckers climb straight up the glass sides of tanks (which as I'm sure you know is why you always ALWAYS have a locking top on a spider's tank)... but spinning an actual web there? Not so much.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 11:01 pm (UTC)Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 10:54 pm (UTC)Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-04 12:34 am (UTC)I'm finding this very hard to believe. I think if the elements had EXPLODED the animals would have been cooked well before they exploded, and would have been killed by the explosion afterward.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds like a practical joke, an urban myth, or the Sun's usual *cough* quality reporting.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-04 12:35 am (UTC)Which is awesome. Shush.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-04 02:20 am (UTC)Eh, the truth might be out there, but it's been eaten by killer mutant carnivorous termites so we'll never know for sure.