By Anonymous - 11/07/2014 17:45 - United States - San Francisco

Today, I decided to bring down a very old fan from the attic. I plugged it in, and as soon as I turned it on, tiny spiders were blown all over my room. FML
I agree, your life sucks 50 671
You deserved it 18 317

Same thing different taste

Top comments

asnakelovinbabe 16

How cute. I love spiders! Seriously though. Don't be too worried. The spiderlings will mostly out-compete one another for food and even eat each other in the process until there are only some left. Also, in their current size, they can't do a damned thing to you even if they were a toxic species, which is highly unlikely anyways.

After it being in storage, for who knows how long, cleaning it first didn't seem like the proper step?

Comments

asnakelovinbabe 16

How cute. I love spiders! Seriously though. Don't be too worried. The spiderlings will mostly out-compete one another for food and even eat each other in the process until there are only some left. Also, in their current size, they can't do a damned thing to you even if they were a toxic species, which is highly unlikely anyways.

What kind of world do you live in to love spiders!!!

I've got my hair stuck in a fan before, but I've never heard of this happening to anyone...

asnakelovinbabe 16

Spiders are fascinating creatures. If you take the time to learn about them and just how incredibly in tune they are with the world, and how they have evolved to fill literally EVERY possible niche, you might change your mind about them some day.

Nope... Spiders will always be creepy to me, with how they move to how they shoot webs out their butts.

asnakelovinbabe 16

And that's fine, spiders are not for everyone. But they still deserve some credit... They're really the only thing keeping the masses of insects at tolerable levels. Some of the methods and traps spiders have invented to capture their prey is just mind blowing. Remember that there are up to 1 million spiders per cubic acre of land. Sleep well tonight :P

You love spiders?! Are... Are you even human???

I actually had a mini panic attack while reading.

asnakelovinbabe 16

I love spiders and insects as my side hobby. My main thing is snakes. I do keep several species of tarantula and giant centipede. I also collect and mount specimens of moth, and I raise several species of my native giant silk moths. I have many passions and interests... I think that makes me pretty human :) Side story: one of my fellow snake loving friends keeps black widow spiders. He had a female brooding an egg sac and when he cleaned her bin out he forgot to put it back. He went on vacation and came one to hundreds and hundreds of tiny black widows all over his house. He spent lots of time rubbing everything down with paper towels to kill as many as he could, but he proceeded to find escapees for several months. OP likely had a typical harmless species of attic/garage/basement dwelling spider. There are tons, and tons of them, and they breed like rabbits.

cryssycakesx3 22
asnakelovinbabe 16

That's the term for a baby spider :) and we call baby centipedes pedelings (pronounced "peedlings")

Yeah see I would've moved if I was your friend. No way i could calmly sleep in that house knowing theres a high chance of black widows crawling around. It's a cool hobby and all but if i walked into your house I would have to triple-check to make sure your buddies couldn't escape.

asnakelovinbabe 16

If you walked into my house, you would NEVER know I have a snakeroom and a bunch of pet spiders unless I wanted you to know. They have their own room and it's under lock and key, fully sealed so that if a snake (or spider I suppose but that would be really rare) does happen to get out it can't leave the room and get lost or hurt by our cat. A serious hobbyist always takes proper measures to make sure caging is secure against escapes, but it's always good to have a backup just in case. The only times I have had a snake loose in the room would be from a bad lock, or once I forgot to close a cage and my 7 foot carpet python had a field day climbing all over everything and knocking crap onto the floor. I don't keep venomous snakes so it's not nearly as serious of an issue for me but obviously for the snake's safety I want them to remain in their place. As for the spiders... The only way they could get away is if they get spooked and try to make a run for it while I'm feeding or cleaning or something. It hasn't happened to me yet but some of my fellow keepers have had a fast, arboreal species of tarantula dart up their arm and jump down and make a hell of a run for it. They're so fast, that you really have no time to react. Same with giant centipedes except they're ******* intimidating and scary. As much as I love them, I have a healthy respect for a 9 inch long, 1 inch thick centipede. They're lightning fast and their sting is painful. And yet the way they care for their young, so delicately, holding, feeding and cleaning each little baby, rivals that of a mama cat and her kittens.

I don't trust spiders at all. I've had a number of spiders in my time come down from the ceiling almost landing on me for a little pep talk. I don't mind them if they don't invade my personal space. They don't seem to catch on to that as much as they enjoy their own space.

After reading that, my skin now is crawling.

I typically skip over novel-lengthed comments.. but yours were fascinating. Thanks for the spider lessons. :)

#14 you're an unbelievable person.. Part of me wishes I wasn't scared of spiders and was like u. I can't get over their 8 creepy eyes and fangs.

I'm with you! Spiderbros are solid dudes. Snakes are pretty cool but my cold blooded babies are Beardies!

Ah, remind me to never stay at your house :P I'm getting goosebumps just reading this thread.

the reason I hate spiders is when I was like 5 I woke up with bites all around my ankles and wrists. I wouldn't sleep in my room for 2 years

asnakelovinbabe 16

88, that doesn't sound at all like spider bites. Spiders don't do that. They bite one time and leave. They bite only to defend themselves as a last ditch effort. If you had a bunch of bites, they came from something that was biting you to feed on you. To me it sounds a lot like bedbugs, which bite multiple times while you're asleep. It could have also been fleas, or pretty much any other blood sucking parasite. But given that you woke up like that one day, it was likely bedbugs. You've been hating on spiders all this time for no reason! Lol

asnakelovinbabe 16

55, that is because they have no idea you are there. They can't see you. There is a group of spiders that has AMAZING eyesight, and that would be Jumping Spiders. My favorite group of spiders, they do not spin webs and are very charismatic. They have large round eyes and are fuzzy all over (spiderbro meme features a jumping spider). They actually have tubes inside their eyes that allow them to pivot their eyes inside their heads just like we can. There are many advanced animals such as birds and many mammals that can't even do that. They can see clearly several feet away and if they spot you they will turn their little face and stare right at you. They also have hilarious little dances and arm waving things they do. They only use their silk for trailing behind them as a safety line and to make themselves a tiny house to live in. They simply hunt down bugs using their vision and stalking the prey like a tiny cat. Complete with huddling down low to the ground and creeping up slowly, and then once they get about a foot away they leap into the air and pounce before the other bug ever had a chance of knowing he was there. They will eat each other of they can but usually they spot each other before that happens, and they use a series of arm waves to circle around each other at a safe distance to communicate and say "don't eat me bro I'm one of you!" before going on their way. The male also uses dancing (yes, dancing spiders) to seduce his mate. Seriously, google Jumping Spider or Peacock Spider mating dance and laugh your ass off at how similar he looks to an awkward guy at a club trying to put the moves on the ladies.

my skin is still crawling slightly. But, I have to admit, I learned a lot from the comments. Now, I'm not so terrified.

asnakelovinbabe 16

104, that's the reason I take the time to write those long comments. If I can even partially help just one person better understand a very misunderstood animal, I will always take the opportunity.

After it being in storage, for who knows how long, cleaning it first didn't seem like the proper step?

TaylorWhiteGirl 15

That's exactly what I thought. Definitely deserves it.

Perhaps he wanted to see if it worked before. I wouldn't want to waste time cleaning something that will not work. But, after reading this FML, it is safe to think otherwise.

That must have been terrifying! Flamethrower anyone?

incoherentrmblr 21

I think we're going to need Napalm instead.

Time for a new fan? Or a new house?

The_Big_Boss 20

... You really didn't even bother to wash it? Or dust it off? This is a YDI for stupidity

asnakelovinbabe 16

To be fair even if they had done that there are still parts of a fan that a spider could have hidden her babies in that would have gotten missed or were not reachable.

To also be fair those parts where they would have been safe from a cleaning would have also kept them from being safe from being blown around a room...

asnakelovinbabe 16

Not true. The vibration of the fan would likely disturb them and caused them to flee the nest. That's what they do. They scatter.

Unless you left the fan in one position and didn't clean it well you would have the same disturbance to a nest when cleaning it...

asnakelovinbabe 16

Not necessarily true either. The mechanical hums and intense vibration of a fan running are VASTLY different from the vibes you would get from just picking it up and giving it a good wipe down. Invertebrates tend to flee from things that are powered on and create a lot of vibration.

Step 1: Get a Kleenex Step 2: Burn the house down

I would have burned down the house as a safety precaution

DrownedMyFish 18

OP has to go near the house in order to burn it down. Running is the only option! Run far away and never go near that house again!

Don't alert the neighbors, either. They'll be decoy food between you and them.

RenoTheRhino 30
chelsearenaeee 16

Why didn't you wash it? That's just common sense.