spider scare….

[Benchrest Braxton]

anyone else hates spiders? this might be a bit of a waste of a thread, but figured ya’ll would find this funny.

Went to expand my necks tonight on my 21st century mandrel die (gen x w/ window).

I fiddled around with it for a minute to make sure i had the right mandrel and height set up correctly, looked inside the through the window at the mandrel to verify and had a large (to me anyways) spider, staring at me right in the eyes.

Definitely wasn’t expecting that. After contemplating my course of action for the next few minutes after my heart rate went down I was able to take care of it with my dyson vacuum (brought out the “big guns”).

Kinda makes me wonder now how many little insects we have crushed over the years up inside a full length die or the latter, and may have had us scratching our heads when a measurement was off…..

this definitely makes a good case for checking/cleaning up dies more often and maybe taking a quick peek with a borescope before a long loading session….

anyways, while I have you here. I highly recommend a nice little handheld vacuum like I have for the little bits of brass shavings, carbon, powder, etc thats always falling around our work station. If you are OCD about keeping your bench clean like I am, its worth the $50 or so on amazon to keep things tidy.

anyhow, I digress, I should have taken a picture of the spider with my phone but couldn’t muster up the courage to do so. Hope you got a good laugh at my expense.

*I included a pic of my reloading room vacuum next to my dyson with a 6” caliper for size reference for anyone interested*

 

[BlueWater]

No problems with spiders, generally speaking. But I do keep an eye out for black widows and brown recluse, relatively rarely seen (around my are) though they are.

Had one ease down a thread from the car's headliner to about 6 inches in front of my face, while driving. Almost crashed the car. Thankfully, was only going about 15mph on the private drive near my home. About three feet farther, and there'd have been a small tree for my front bumper. (Gave a neighbor's dog a scare, though. The spider didn't survive the experience.)

Funny, what tricks the mind plays on us, based on proximity and our latent concerns over our eight-legged little friends.

Be sure to tap your shoes on the floor a few times, before you put them on in the morning ...

 

[Willow]

Came across a Funnelweb trying to sneak through my back door a few weeks ago...I'm no fan of spiders but these buggers are intimidating.

 

[MUP]

I do not like spiders or scorpions. I can handle (literally) snakes. Scorpions, to me, are the most wicked looking creature there is.

 

[L1986]

After a brown recluse bite about 5 years ago I am definitely not a fan!! Nasty little SOBs…have never thought about them in my dies…thanks for one more thing to worry about haha

 

[Shooter13]

After a brown recluse bite about 5 years ago I am definitely not a fan!! Nasty little SOBs…have never thought about them in my dies…thanks for one more thing to worry about haha

I had one bite me at the belly button several years back, LARGE area (about 8") I thought was going to rot out! So all that to say "not a fan"

 

[Tommie]

this might be a bit of a waste of a thread

Nonsense. Who doesn’t enjoy a thread thread?

 

[338 Mollett]

Those Brownies are a bad news bug !! They are every where here in western Ky.

 

[Steel Mover]

You really do not want to reside in FL. We have critters for every occasion and of all sizes. The recluse is everywhere in every house, their bite is very bad in results, can be hard to stop the enzyme action of the bite. Luckily they rarely bite people, unless mashed or crushed, so compared to the number of people and spiders living with them, they bite people very rarely. You must always look in your boots or shoes before you put them on in FL.

 

[spudgun]

My wife is terrified of any spider. Back in the 90's we had a desktop computer and one was crawling over the top of it and she took a shoe and wacked the heck out of it. Hit it so hard it caused the hard drive to go bad..

 

[mike a]

I do not like spiders or scorpions. I can handle (literally) snakes. Scorpions, to me, are the most wicked looking creature there is.

The green ones taste like jalapeño.

 

[dfrosch]

A friend has a weekend ranch near Wichita Falls, Texas. The house had been hit by a tornado about six years ago and lost part of the roof. Since it's at least a five hour dive, it took a few years for him to get all the repairs done.

I went up there a couple years ago. Mud daubers were abundant inside and out. I kept finding black widow spiders around the porch. They were all alive, but just barely. Took me a while to figure out that the mud daubers were preying on the black widows. Didn't mind the mud daubers so much after that.

One evening, while sitting on the porch, a tarantula came crawling up to my chair. It didn't seem the least bit afraid of me or my dogs.

 

[ckaberna]

Found this little fellow on my ship wall awhile back right at the door. I guess he was waiting on me to open it since he was too big to get thru the jamb.

 

[MUP]

The green ones taste like jalapeño.

Whew, hair raised up on my arms just seeing that!

 

[DiffEQ]

A spider in your die - lol.
Mine are all in their cases, in a self enclosed drawers, each drawer with those desiccant packages.
I've found black widows and brown recluse at my house but they never bothered me.
Now, if I could just figure out how to kill those stink bugs (box elder weevil). Those pests get into everything!

 

[Benchrest Braxton]

A spider in your die - lol.
Mine are all in their cases, in a self enclosed drawers, each drawer with those desiccant packages.
I've found black widows and brown recluse at my house but they never bothered me.
Now, if I could just figure out how to kill those stink bugs (box elder weevil). Those pests get into everything!

i run a zero press so no dies in boxes for me (besides my inline seater dies). when i’m out of the workshop i have all my covers on, not enough to stop anything from crawling up in though….

 

[GotRDid]

We have alternating population explosions of stink bugs and what appear to be ladybugs (but without the spots on their wing covers) here in central KY. Both are a nuisance as the odor they emit permeates everything they occupy. Found my Muck boots full of them in the mud room one Spring (boots are not supposed to crunch when you put them on).
Stench was nauseating, and it took a mild solution of hot water/borax to “float” them all out. Another “soak” of very mild bleach/water got the residual smell down to a tolerable level.

 

[Clancy]

I have caught many venomous snakes and alligators by hand, been noodling in cottonmouth and snapper country, walked 1,000 miles in the dark hunting and married a redhead one time.

But I don’t F with spiders.

 

[DiffEQ]

I have caught many venomous snakes and alligators by hand, been noodling in cottonmouth and snapper country, walked 1,000 miles in the dark hunting and married a redhead one time.

But I don’t F with spiders.

Well I don't know how many girls you've dated, man
But you ain't lived till you've had your tires rotated
By a red-headed woman

 

[loinhunter]

Friend kept his muzzleloader in his equipment shed. When he drew down on a deer, the cap failed to ignite the powder. After trying a few more caps at home, he broke out the cleaning equipment to discover a pile of stinkbugs in the bottom of the bore. He said you haven’t lived until you smell singed stinkbug!