What species of spider was used for the drones in 'ARACHNOPHOBIA'? (1 Viewer)

Inspector Hammer! · Aug 23, 2002

Were they Wolf Spiders? Just curious.
And while were at it, what species was 'The General'? It looked like an ordinary Tarantula, if their is such a thing as an ordinary one.

He was a big sucker!

Harry Callaghan · Aug 23, 2002

I believe the drones were 'Avondale' spiders - they are from here in Auckland, New Zealand to be exact. There was quite a bit of publicity over here when the movie came out due to the 'stars' being from here.

Incidentally they are actually quite harmless.

Terrell · Aug 23, 2002

They should have used the funnel web spider, or the black widow, or the brown recluse.

Chris James · Aug 23, 2002

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse on my right calf while I was sleeping one night. Damn thing rotted a hole the size of a penny in my LEG! The doctor said it must have been a "baby" Recluse. I hate spiders (the small ones, that is....)

Paul_D · Aug 23, 2002

Damn thing rotted a hole the size of a penny in my LEG!

Where are you from Chris? Let me know so I can be sure and never visit your neck of the woods. :frowning:

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Terrell · Aug 23, 2002

The brown recluse lives in the U.S., and prefers damp, dark areas. The things are very venomous. Some of these suckers have killed people. But they normally cause necrosis in the immediate area of the bite. Chris was lucky, as a bite from one of these usually rots an aread the size of a grapefruit. Not as venomous as the black widow or the funnel web from Australia, but does serious damage, and is painful, so they say.
Brown recluse

That is the lesson on spiders for today boys and girls.

Matt Stone · Aug 24, 2002

Thanks Dr. Terrell

Chris James · Aug 24, 2002

Terrell is correct. Actually, the Brown Recluse is found only in the Midwest area (Texas, Oklahoma, Lousiana, Georgia, etc). I live in a suburb of Houston, and they are common here. The bite looked funny about a day after I was bitten, and grew rather painful to touch. It was a little worse than the scorpion bite I had once (I hate scorpions...). When the skin start to turn necrotic, I went to the doctor. He did say it was either a baby, or a quick bite because of the relatively small area of tissue death. All I know is small spiders = bad, big spiders = ok.

Paul_D · Aug 24, 2002

tissue death

I hate phrases like that! :frowning:

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Terrell · Aug 24, 2002

Just don't get bitten by a black widow, or a funnel web. There's a decent chance you'll die. So check those empty shoes before you put them on.

Jan Strnad · Aug 25, 2002

Yeah, I'm paranoid to this day about putting on shoes or gloves thanks to a Newsweek article. Under a photo of a brown recluse spider they ran the caption, "Death in a shoe." Brrrrr.

Jan

clemente · Aug 25, 2002

See, I had never even considered such horrible deaths.
Thanks!

Jim DiJoseph · Aug 26, 2002

Chris, strictly speaking, the brown recluse is found elsewhere. My 14 mo. old daughter was bitten by one recently here in Florida. She was very lucky that we saw the wound in time and the doctors gave her appropriate treatment. Though she could not communicate it, it was very apparent that the whole terrible event caused pain for weeks (pain at the site, muscle aches, joint pain, etc.).

Greg Br · Aug 26, 2002

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse in Northern Arizona, but with meds it was not that bad.

Just don't get bitten by a black widow, or a funnel web. There's a decent chance you'll die.

That is not true, you will get sick but death is not ususal, at least not here in Phoenix, even Tarantula bites will not kill you. Australia is the place that has some deadly creatures.

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Jason Harbaugh · Aug 26, 2002

Ok, you guys have officially given me the heeby geebies at work.

Once when I was little a friend and I found this hole that opened up into a rather cool rock cave. We both climbed in and couldn't see a thing so we lit a match and all of the walls were crawling with thousands of daddy long legs. I swear it was like right out of a movie, the walls looked like they were literally moving. You probably never saw two kids shoot out of a hole in the side of a mountain faster than us. That's my traumatizing spider story.

Out of curiousity, the spiders for Eight Legged Freaks, were those based on any species and just enlarged a great deal or are they just a generic spider created from numerous species on earth?

Terrell · Aug 26, 2002

That is not true, you will get sick but death is not ususal, at least not here in Phoenix, even Tarantula bites will not kill you. Australia is the place that has some deadly creatures.

Tarantula's are not all that poisonous, and don't have enough venom to kill people, unless they have a severe allergic reaction. However, the black widow and the funnel web spiders are most certainly very venomous, and have killed people. Death is not usual, but it does occur more than you think it does.

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KevinHunt · Aug 26, 2002

The HVAC guy was doing some work at my parents house and had to get into the upstairs attic to check on some duct work and found a huge nest of Brown Recluses. In his line of work, I'm sure he's familiar with them and has to know what they look like. He said it was the biggest nest he's ever seen and it damn near frightened him to death. I thought we were going to have to charge the paddels up for him.

I'm glad I don't live at home anymore, after being stung by scorps in bed on several occasions and the last scorp that got me did so by sneaking into a pair of my briefs. After feeling the sting, I grabbed my ass hoping to squeeze the sucker, then ripped off my jeans. I could not find it. I ran downstairs still in my undies hysterical, telling my mom of the horror. That's when I felt it move in my undies. What I did next I'm not sure, but it sure must have looked funny by my mother's uncontrollable laughter. Anyway it had finally fallen out and I guess I got it pretty good on the first ass grab, but not quite enough to kill it. Whew! I've got a good bead of sweat going now. That's enough of that! Good day!

Joseph Young · Aug 26, 2002

after being stung by scorps in bed on several occasions and the last scorp that got me did so by sneaking into a pair of my briefs.

That's just NOT RIGHT!! :frowning: Those scorpions need to draw the line somewhere! A man's bed is his sanctuary.. scorpions stay out!! A man's undies are a holy place.. scorpions, stay out!!
Sorry to hear about that...
~J

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Dan Lindley · Aug 26, 2002

Nice picture of the brown recluse, but how small is small? Egads...

Gotta get some of these flicks...

Dan

Chris James · Aug 26, 2002

Jim, they can indeed be found elsewhere. Their main concentration is the mid/south west. The South American Recluse can be found in parts of California, and Arizona areas have the Desert Recluse. Do a search for Recluses, there is a ton of interesting information out there (including bite pictures!!!!) and what to do if bitten.

Kevin, let me guess, it was one of those little semi-transparent brown scorpions. At our deer lease in Wimberly, they would come out of the bathtub faucet when we would go there. Talk about freaking out, try turning on the water to take a shower and 5 scorpions come out. Man, those things give me the creeps WAY more than ANY spider. PINCHERS! SEGEMENTED TAIL WITH STINGER! /me shudders...

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What species of spider was used for the drones in 'ARACHNOPHOBIA'? (1 Viewer)

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