trigger warnings

[Elphenor]

The rule is bugs are fine unless they can fly then it's like HOLY SHIT HIDE UNDER THE BED

[Elphenor]

This is why spiders are sexy little things

[vixnix]

I've been desensitised to spiders since living in Australia. And cockroaches. I see both, daily, at the moment. I wouldn't call the ones I see sexy, or little. Usually it's huntsman spiders I see, which are pretty large.

[duovamp]

NOPE.

[LaBelle]

Spiders are gross. ugh.

[yo soy el mejor]

when i hear people are afraid of rodents, i just don't get it.

[The exploding boy]

we're conditioned since birth to think rats and mice are filthy because historically they are vermin that carried diseases, ate our food, etc. We had mice in the walls at home and my parents would set traps every year....

I am uneasy with having a foreign animal in my house but the times i've had mice, i left them alone, and the times i had rats, well they stopped bugging me when i blocked the hole they were coming from, but i once had to trap one in a cereal box.

it had fled to the bathroom and was terrified, i moved the open cereal box towards it until it figured it seemed like the safest option to run into it. I closed the lid and carried it 5 blocks down and placed the box on top of some garbage and opened it and left.

When i told that to my dad he was appalled i hadn't killed it..... i'm not a fucking savage and also, do you really think that in a city where there's millions (like every city) this is gonna make one goddam bit of difference if i kill it? I just want to keep them out of my house, fighting rats is futile as history has proven.


I actually really respect rats. they're great survivors. One of nature's success.

[duovamp]

Rodents are p cute. I'd handle a rodent. I've had guinea pigs, hamsters, a gerbil, all adorable.

I'd maybe own a scorpion. I've had pet hermit crabs. But never a pet spider. Fuck that.

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by The exploding boy

we're conditioned since birth to think rats and mice are filthy because historically they are vermin that carried diseases, ate our food, etc. We had mice in the walls at home and my parents would set traps every year....

I am uneasy with having a foreign animal in my house but the times i've had mice, i left them alone, and the times i had rats, well they stopped bugging me when i blocked the hole they were coming from, but i once had to trap one in a cereal box.

it had fled to the bathroom and was terrified, i moved the open cereal box towards it until it figured it seemed like the safest option to run into it. I closed the lid and carried it 5 blocks down and placed the box on top of some garbage and opened it and left.

When i told that to my dad he was appalled i hadn't killed it..... i'm not a fucking savage and also, do you really think that in a city where there's millions (like every city) this is gonna make one goddam bit of difference if i kill it? I just want to keep them out of my house, fighting rats is futile as history has proven.


I actually really respect rats. they're great survivors. One of nature's success.

this story moved me. so sweet. way to go ariel.

if i were in your shoes i'd love to do the same thing, but i would be afraid of coming in contact with the rat. like, i probably couldn't have gone that close to it and almost touch it through a carton box.

i'll never forget this horrendous story my sister told me. they had a rat in their house, and her husband just chased it around and sprayed it with bug spray and beat it with something until it died. such a horrible, horrible death. they're not bad people, they just didn't know what to do - but man, that is some fucked up abuse, regardless of species.

[redbreegull]

a few years ago 28if was renting this house, and all of a sudden there was a rat invasion... like not an infestation, an invasion. He borrowed a cat, got multiple exterminators, but in less than two months the rats actually forced him out of his place because there were so fucking many everywhere

my dad killed a mouse with some sort of blunt force once. I don't remember how it happened exactly, but we had mice in our apartment and the exterminator put down all these sticky traps that catch the mice but don't kill them... so they either starve to death or literally rip their bodies apart trying to escape. pretty horrible, I'm sure whatever he did was a less horrible death than that. I couldn't crush a mammal purposely though

[buzzard]

I once relocated a bat that had presumably been caught and abandoned on the driveway by my cat, taking it to a nearby park and putting it at the base of a tree it then climbed in a pretty creepy fashion.

When it flew, it was set upon and chased through the air by a crew of about four crows. Sadly, I somehow doubt its story continued much beyond that.

[Elphenor]

My sisters cat caught a bat and was eating it raw

What a badass

[duovamp]

Is your sisters Ozzy?

[duovamp]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

a few years ago 28if was renting this house, and all of a sudden there was a rat invasion... like not an infestation, an invasion. He borrowed a cat, got multiple exterminators, but in less than two months the rats actually forced him out of his place because there were so fucking many everywhere

my dad killed a mouse with some sort of blunt force once. I don't remember how it happened exactly, but we had mice in our apartment and the exterminator put down all these sticky traps that catch the mice but don't kill them... so they either starve to death or literally rip their bodies apart trying to escape. pretty horrible, I'm sure whatever he did was a less horrible death than that. I couldn't crush a mammal purposely though

That's such a 28if problem. Guy's like the number one most likely person to get overpowered by a bunch of rodents randomly.

[redbreegull]

Things commonly happen to him that just couldn't happen to any other human being

[slunken]

Originally Posted by Elphenor

My sisters cat caught a bat and was eating it raw

What a badass

i grew up in an old house that would get bats in the summer (via my bedroom of course). my mean old cat swatted one down one night.

9 out of 10 times though it was usually just me running like a shrill little baby out of my room.

[slunken]

14 years old screaming "daddy daddy theres a monster in my window"

[slunken]

they adtually came in through the crawl space (a lot of old houses had what we call attics build into side rooms on the same level) so you could hear them crawl their way in for an hour or two while you laid paralyzed in bed pretending you weren't hearing things.

[slunken]

i once nailed one by its wing to the wall by a shot from a blowgun.

it screamed like hell and scared me even more.

the scariest thing about bats is the sounds they make and the sight of their teeth.

[slunken]

i was just joking about screaming daddy daddy btw in case that wasn't clear.

everyone can settle down now.

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by slunken

i once nailed one by its wing to the wall by a shot from a blowgun.

it screamed like hell and scared me even more.

the scariest thing about bats is the sounds they make and the sight of their teeth.

so you're the kind of person who feels like a bigshot when they shoot a helpless animal with a weapon?

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

Things commonly happen to him that just couldn't happen to any other human being

i dunno it sounds about right to me, we're talking about a guy who uses spaghetti to make music

[slunken]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

so you're the kind of person who feels like a bigshot when they shoot a helpless animal with a weapon?

not at all. i was young and learned my lesson. i was horrified.

[vixnix]

We have possums in our roof. Did I mention that our house sucks?



They're so cute until they piss and shit all over your ceiling and stay up all night building extensions on their stupid little possum houses in your roof.

[duovamp]

Opossums defs aren't cute regardless of the pissing and shitting. They're like nightmare weasels.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by reprise85

We are apparently hardwired for some fears, though. There were some experiments done where lab chimpanzees watched videos of another chimpanzees being scared by snakes, or being scared by something like a chicken or something not considered to be a normal human fear. Then, when introduced to the snake, they immediately reacted with fear, but not to the chicken. If they were never exposed to the videos they did not have a fear of either.

I can get the study if you want, it was in my textbook. So basically we do need the environmental input but just an environmental input requires much more of a traumatic experience to become a fear or phobia.

That's pretty interesting. I always love those studies that show how biology and environmental input interact like that.

I might be able to access the study if I just have the name/authors.

Thanks!

[vixnix]

Wait so why weren't they afraid of the chicken then? Is the idea that there is some hard wiring that reacts to someone else reacting fearfully, but is specific to certain objects, to which they are reacting, in fear?

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by vixnix

Wait so why weren't they afraid of the chicken then? Is the idea that there is some hard wiring that reacts to someone else reacting fearfully, but is specific to certain objects, to which they are reacting, in fear?

Yes, the idea is that we are primed for certain fears. So all we need is a minimum amount of exposure to develop that fear, whereas we need a personal traumatic experience for most other fears.

The idea of watching another chimp being afraid is just to have an introduction to the object in the least intrusive way possible. If they are never exposed in the first place they won't be afraid of it, unless it resembles something else closely. Like I'd imagine if they've become fearful to snakes they might transfer it to snails or whatever, some other animal that moves similarly. But they do need some kind of exposure to it being something other people/chimps are fearful of.

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by Disco King

That's pretty interesting. I always love those studies that show how biology and environmental input interact like that.

I might be able to access the study if I just have the name/authors.

Thanks!

Ok I'll get it for you tonight or tomorrow.

[MyOneAndOnly]

christopher walken in clown make up and 12 years old

he was creepy even as a child