Bat-Eating Spiders Are Everywhere

Greetings, ATS!

You're going to regret clicking on this thread. I'm already having nightmares, and I wrote the darn thing!

Discovery News is reporting that EVERY continent on the Earth (except Antarctica) has its own population of spiders that eat bats.

Ugh.

Now, I happen to love bats. Especially the bats that eat bugs like mosquitoes...they're so cute and furry (the bats, not the mosquitoes). I've got bat colony houses on the side of my house just so these furry wonders of nature can cull the mosquito population near my house. Plus they're a lot of fun to listen to at night.

However, I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on my little colony. Apparently, there are spiders in every continent that deliberately trap and eat bats (shudder).

Being the nice, phobia-friendly person that I am, I'm not going to add the photos of spiders devouring bats. Its enough to induce nightmares on a grand scale. However, if you just have to see them, you can find the photos here

Now excuse me while I prepare for my move to Antarctica.

reply to post by smyleegrl


The Bats are just flying creatures caught by large predators.....

In every country / continent.....? I think not,......... There are no bat eating spiders in the UK or Ireland but there are lots of bats.....

Relax and worry about the Solar storm, impending new financial crisis or even antibiotic resistant bacteria.....

Cheers

PDUK

I hate spiders. enough said.


Now let me go change my pants.

Reading the article is says bats have few natural enemies other than owls, hawks, and snakes. Now owls and hawks I can understand but how do snakes actually catch bats?

From my limited understanding of bats, they live in caves and do not land on ground. Unless snakes scale up the side of cave walls, how exactly do they hunt them?

Great post by the way.

Those are nice spiders. Will they eat rats too?
I just hope they do as I don't like rats.

I love spiders. Small, big, extra big...the bigger the better.

The picture was awesome, I wish it was bigger so I can put it as my wallpaper. Thank you for another awesome thread.

reply to post by Hopechest


Yes, snakes can crawl anywhere and they like caves with lots of bats in it

I hate spiders, when they are on me, they can scare the crap out of me, never kill them though, just tell it to bugger of.

But i love pictures of spiders

So i will post one of them cause it's beautiful, and HUGE.

Originally posted by marhaba
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Yes, snakes can crawl anywhere and they like caves with lots of bats in it

I did not know that.

I'm a political gal, my knowledge of the animal world is sparse at best.

Thanks for filling me in.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Pfft....lightweights.

Wait until they run out of bats, then they will start on birds............Golden Orb Weaver

Or snakes......... www.cairns.com.au...

God Bless Australia

The bats in the east U.S. are being decimated by disease. It is unknown just how much the loss of bat colonies will effect our ecological system. Bats are very much needed to keep insect populations down though.


Bat disease threatens ecological catastrophe
A virulent and deadly pathogen in America is exterminating a predator that is vital to farmers for controlling insect pests.

www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by Sublimecraft

Snakes are not safe either.







Or kats

reply to post by smyleegrl


Very interesting share smyleegrl. You would think with all the nat. geo to nova exposure 1 would of seen a documentary on these creatures but this is a new share somewhat. Now when considering the distant PAST and higher oxygen content generating larger flora & fauna keeping insects in mind its not a far reach to consider their ancient genetic links and how large they may have been. Can see some even who if encountering some possibly worshipping / sacrificing to them somewhat waaaaay back. keeping this in mind :

Approximately 90 percent of known bat-catching spiders live in the warmer areas of the globe, in the third of the Earth surrounding the equator. About 40 percent live in the neotropics — the whole of South America, and the tropical regions of North America — while nearly a third live in Asia and more than a sixth live in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

maybe finds like the spider god have relevance? As far as some actual sightings of a Large Arachnids in the distant past.

October 29, 2008

A 3,000-year-old temple featuring an image of a spider god may hold clues to little-known cultures in ancient Peru.

lastdaysoftheincas.com...

In the past I have heard that some spiders web materials show strength in the integrity of the web design so maybe these spiders being predators that can hunt other larger predators have more of the chemical compound that can be artificially designed and engineered into some safety device of some kind.

smyleegrl, once again very interesting find

Spiders are my friends. Even though I have been bit by them. I asked for it when I was bit, teasing the spiders got me bit on the fingers.

reply to post by Sublimecraft


I am NEVER going to Australia. I've seen that picture of the spider on the toilet, it covers half the freaking lid.

Sorry, my Australian friends. But you wouldnt enjoy my continuous "Is that a spider? Is that a spider, Oh MY GOD IS THAT A SPIDER?!!!!" anyway....

You do have cute Koalas and kangaroos. Pretty sure they can still kill you, though.

I used to want to go down to south America to see the amazon....I thought, "giant anacondas? No biggie. Piranhas? Whatevas...fierce drug runners and tribes of natives? It's all good"

but then I found out about the spiders and yeah....my dreams of future vacations were over.

Now please excuse me, while I go bleach my brain out, after seeing these images it is the only way I have to cleanse these images from my mind!

Sometimes denying ignorance is really damaging to my fragile little mind! But thanks for the thread, I think it is important to share this stuff, it's the kind of thing people need to know before booking that exotic adventure vacation package

reply to post by Mijamija


I've chased off grown bears from playgrounds, captured rattlesnakes and copperheads in my bare hands, nursed an injured bat back to health, and more.

But the sight of a 2mm arachnid sends me into a mental frenzy everytime. Looks a lot like this:

Warning!! Language!!!!

reply to post by smyleegrl


Omg! That was too funny!!!

And so surprisingly accurate at the same time! Tim Robbins has my respect as a actor, you could not pay me all the money in the world and promise me a ticket into heaven, to make me have a spider on my face!

Ya know people talk about vampire bats, but I'd snuggle one any day of the week over snuggling a spider! Even the furry ones creep me out. I had a bad run in with a tarantula once and haven't been the same since.

Luckily for me, my cat was quite fond of tarantulas, and one day as I came up to my front door, I was greeted by Mr. Kitty who had several furry dark sticks poking out in between his teeth, and he was making this loud crunching sound as he chewed.

BEST CAT EVER!

reply to post by Mijamija

Luckily for me, my cat was quite fond of tarantulas, and one day as I came up to my front door, I was greeted by Mr. Kitty who had several furry dark sticks poking out in between his teeth, and he was making this loud crunching sound as he chewed.

That is a good cat.

All of my cats (those with me now and those from before) seem to inherit my fear of spiders.

Had a cat who would pluck birds from the sky, brining in rats and snakes, but wouldn't go near a spider. Regular house spider, not the Australian man-eating kind.

I was home alone, me and the cat, saw a spider. Figured the cat had a better chance, so I gently tossed him at the thing. Whereupon, the spider JUMPED at the cat, the cat ran away, and I did the stomping dance seen above.

Still don't know if we killed that spider.

reply to post by smyleegrl


My Mr. Kitty was an old black battle hardened desert dweller who had seen better days by the time he landed on my doorstep. No doubt, being a street cat in el paso had taught him a thing or two about survival. We also had many, I repeat, many scorpions and black widows while we were stationed there, he did not mess with those guys, but the tarantulas didn't seem to bother him. At first I thought he was going to get sick and I'd have to take him to the vet, but no worries, he was fine.

He also guarded my youngest's crib while we were there. One night he kept meowing in my husbands ear, so finally my husband got up and followed him into her room. Nice big fat scorpion was crawling down the wall next to her crib. My husband killed the thing and kept it in a ziplock bag, the next day he took it into the housing office and demanded they send out the exterminator that same day. After that incident mr. Kitty was king in our house.

Maybe you should look into adopting a desert cat? I had to say good bye to mr. Kitty when we moved and it still hurts me to this day. But we do still have our two other desert kitties and they are ancient now, but still kickin, I think if a cat can survive in the desert with black widows, tarantulas, scorpions and rattlers...they can pretty much handle anything!