Surviving Water Droplets: Insects and Spiders

[wolram]

How do they survive from being hit by (to them) huge water droplets.

I just tried to wash a spider down the shower, and the little sod resisted my efforts and scampered away.

 

[arildno]

How do they survive from being hit by (to them) huge water droplets.

I just tried to wash a spider down the shower, and the little sod resisted my efforts and scampered away.

If I slipped a 100-kg pillow of soft down onto your head, would you survive that?

Besides, spiders are evil, and therefore, immortal.

 

[turbo]

If I slipped a 100-kg pillow of soft down onto your head, would you survive that?

Besides, spiders are evil, and therefore, immortal.

Immortalized in "Itsy Bitsy Spider", IIR.

 

[HeLiXe]

Besides, spiders are evil, and therefore, immortal.

This is the answer I have been seeking!

 

[NeoDevin]

Even if someone were to dump a 100L barrel of water on your head all at once, I doubt you would die. Why would you expect any different from a spider?

 

[KalamMekhar]

Ants are experts at fitting into the grooves in your shoes. You could step on one a bajillion times and still not kill it.

 

[lisab]

How do they survive from being hit by (to them) huge water droplets.

I just tried to wash a spider down the shower, and the little sod resisted my efforts and scampered away.

You could have at least offered him a teeny bar of soap.

I'm glad I'm not a spider...can you imagine shaving all those legs?

 

[HeLiXe]

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I think that just before the water hits 'em, their spidey sense tingles.

 

[rootX]

You could have at least offered him a teeny bar of soap.

I'm glad I'm not a spider...can you imagine shaving all those legs?

I thought their legs don't have hairs Killing them with water droplets is more like a torture as they don't get killed instantly. I prefer to swat them. If I were a spider I would also like a strong swat over big water droplets.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I prefer to swat them.

Don't kill spiders. They eat worse pests. In my house they eat rats.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Don't kill spiders. They eat worse pests. In my house they eat rats.

Do you have one of those bird eating tarantulas or something as a pet, or do you just live in Chernobyl?

 

[Evo]

Don't kill spiders. They eat worse pests. In my house they eat rats.

In my house, they eat me. I was bitten by a recluse spider and have a small crater in my calf from the bite that finally stopped oozing after close to a year. The pain was excrutiating.

 

[HeLiXe]

In my house they eat rats.

Holy mother of pearl!

 

[Borg]

Just nail 'em when they fall.

[URL]http://www.failfunnies.com/images/gif/spidey-fail.gif[/URL]

 

[Borek]

Different scale, different forces ratio. Plus right combination of hydrophobicity and surface tension. If you want to drown the spider (or any other insect), don't use just water - use water with some detergent.

 

[arildno]

In my house, they eat me. I was bitten by a recluse spider and have a small crater in my calf from the bite that finally stopped oozing after close to a year. The pain was excrutiating.

As I said, they are evil. Worse than the Nazgul. I'm glad, but not surprised, you survived your encounter, Evo.

 

[Pattonias]

Don't kill spiders. They eat worse pests. In my house they eat rats.

Holy heck, if I saw a spider in my house large enough to eat a rat I would crap myself!
I say this as a grown, able bodied man.

 

[Pattonias]

In my house, they eat me. I was bitten by a recluse spider and have a small crater in my calf from the bite that finally stopped oozing after close to a year. The pain was excrutiating.

The same thing happened to my sister, she still has a wicked scar and you can see the gap it left in the muscle. A guy at boot camp got bitten three or four times on his back while sleeping. He was in the hospital for months and ended up getting discharged with full disability. It changed his quality of life. Brown recluses are no joke - awful stuff.

Talking about spiders is making my skin crawl a little.
(Now that I think about it I guess my fear is selective, I hate them and will freak out when one touches me, but my girlfriend doesn't like them and when I saw one on her arm last weakend I picked it up real quick and threw it on the ground. I told her it was a beetle... then I checked to make sure it didn't somehow climb back on me. I hate the annoying little necessary bastards.)

 

[leroyjenkens]

Even if someone were to dump a 100L barrel of water on your head all at once, I doubt you would die. Why would you expect any different from a spider?

Water can crush a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj3sIFtfb4g

 

[arildno]

Water can crush a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj3sIFtfb4g

The spider would survive, though!

 

[HeLiXe]

If you want to drown the spider (or any other insect), don't use just water - use water with some detergent.

or Windex

 

[turbo]

Soapy water kills ants REAL fast.

 

[HeLiXe]

I read that soapy water kills all stages of flea

 

[Borek]

I read that soapy water kills all stages of flea

Could be, although I am not absolutely sure.

Trick is soapy water has a low surface tension and it easily wets surfaces. That means it can enter trachea and suffocate/drown the insect. That easily kills both adults and larvae, but no idea about eggs.

 

[~christina~]

Rubbing alcohol works very fast when exterminating insects.

I find it amusing that a "why insects survive" thread has now turned into a "how to kill the bug" thread".

 

[fuzzyfelt]

In Aus., we would try to encourage the more massive spiders to go outside. Once, one of these must have slipped on the way out through the window, and fell 8 stories. We heard a thud as it hit the concrete below.

 

[Danger]

In my house, they eat me. I was bitten by a recluse spider

Sorry, honey. That was me. The bite was a malfunction of the spider costume, in no way indicative of my designs upon you. If you had just unzipped me, as I asked, instead of going into hysterics, I would have administered the antidote poste haste.


As Borek mentioned, the scale brings things into a level of physicality that doesn't apply to us as large mammals. You can, for instance, drop an ant from 2 metres and it won't even notice. That's because its terminal velocity is essentially the same as that of a man in a parachute. In addition, any insect is pretty much a bundle of muscle encased in a nearly impervious exoskeleton. I think that the same applies to arachnids such as spiders and scorpions.
Another thing to remember is that insect/arachnid respiration is not the same as that of mammals. While they need oxygen, their method of obtaining it is significantly different. Basically, they breathe through their skin. There are no lungs, trachea, throat, etc. to contend with.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Different scale, different forces ratio. Plus right combination of hydrophobicity and surface tension. If you want to drown the spider (or any other insect), don't use just water - use water with some detergent.

Makes me think of this once time when I found a centipede in the bathroom. I picked it up and then poured acetone on it until it stopped moving.

... Will I become a serial killer?

 

[Danger]

I picked it up and then poured acetone on it until it stopped moving.

... Will I become a serial killer?

Or you could pour acetone on a bowl of Captain Crunch and become a cereal killer...