Yikes! This ain't good!

[Dan]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06...e-indian-town/

Shades of Arachnophobia or Kingdom of The Spiders!

[PabloTwo]

Well, look at the source... FoxNews.com, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who turns all news into B-grade (or worse) movie garbage.

Teams of Indian arachnid experts have flocked to the town, hoping to identify the species, but so far they have drawn a blank.

I'm supposed to believe that, or are the "Indian arachnid experts" really that incompetent?

The authorities out there are class A morons if they do this

District authorities are also panicking -- and they are considering spraying the town with the insecticide DDT.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06...#ixzz1wkk3i4bj

[AndrewSerk]

Craziness, all they need is a bunch of chickens! Chickens do a great job with spider eradication.

[billybob linux]

So it could be a new species of highly aggressive spider that hates people and attacks in swarms Great story, but you never know, there might be something in it....
It's just a thought but this might be an answer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rpEO3oiuos

[bob]

Better not! They just might retaliate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bksvon-hSDM

[beaker_]

I remember Arachnophobia.

[Evil_Bert]

Funnel Web spiders are highly aggressive and do congregate together in groups if there are enough of them (which is uncommon, though I did once see a group of about 15-20 behind some wood against a fence in the back yard, years ago). They attack if threatened .... but we're talking about a range of centimetres before they consider someone's approach to be hostile.

If they are Funnel Web spiders, perhaps the environment in India has proven ideal and, as with some other newly-introduced species, a lack of predators has resulted in large numbers.

I hear Fox News has quite a reputation, but then again, and no disprespect, the story came from a distant rural region of India.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by PabloTwo

Well, look at the source... FoxNews.com, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who turns all news into B-grade (or worse) movie garbage.

I'm supposed to believe that, or are the "Indian arachnid experts" really that incompetent?

Yeesh! <....>

Why is it that you folks feel it's perfectly fine to openly bash the living snot out of Fox News, yet if I make one slightly off-color remark against Chicken Noodle News, or about the flippin' Huffington Post, The village rabble yowls in high indignation, grabs farm implements and torches, and comes in search of my hide? <....>

*Sigh!* Never mind. That's probably a seething sack of mind-worms best left undisturbed. <....>

Better to go blithely poke a stick into the nesting place of the Sinister Spiders of Doom. <....>

[Dan]

More info here.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/13753398.cms

"As of now, we cannot give a specific name. It's similar to the tarantula, but it could be a whole new species. There aren't any arachnologists in the northeast, so it will take us a while to identify it. But whatever the species, it is a highly aggressive spider. It leaps at anything that comes close. Some of the victims claimed the spider latched onto them after biting. If that is so, it needs to be dealt with carefully. The chelicerae and fangs of this critter are quite powerful; but it's too early to declare it a killer spider. In fact, we are yet to test its venom and find out the toxicity," says Dr Saikia.

Dr Ratul Rajkhowa of the zoology department of Cotton College, Guwahati, has seen the spider. In fact, one of the dead creatures has been preserved in the department laboratory. He echoes Dr Saikia's views but says it's too early to call it a tarantula. "It could be the black wishbone or a species related to it. Or may be a species related to the funnel-web spider.

Loved this part. <....>

He adds, "Sadiya is not alien to terror. The place was notorious for human sacrifice until the mid-19th century when the British stopped this barbaric practice. The place also suffered immensely during the 1897 and 1950 earthquakes. Then came insurgency. There were brutal gun battles in Dibru-Saikhowa National Park a few years ago between the Army and insurgents. Recently, four suspected Maoists were gunned down here. People so used to terror will not panic because of spiders unless there is something really scary about it. The government should delve into this issue and find out how these arachnids arrived here. Instead, they are doing blunder after blunder."

[Evil_Bert]

But all the bite patients first went to witch doctors, who cut open their wounds with razors, drained out blood and burnt it. That could have also made them sick.

It seems a fair bit happened between the spider bites and the fatalities that may not be detailed in the story.

[Dan]

Meh. Nuthin' to worry about ... until they get this big. <....>

[PabloTwo]

Holy Cow !! Would ya look at the SIZE of those pop-cycle sticks. Why, they're as big as.... uhmm... pop-cycle sticks.

[Dan]

You betcha! <....>


(His name was, "Duracell".)

[John the train]

Morning Dan. The inland port of Gloucester ( NOT Mass.! ) imports a lot of timber, and every so often there's a local news item on some beastie found in a shipment. Makes me wonder if Evil Bert has put his finger on it, some Funnlewebs stowed away in a shipment or returned empties from Oz to India and set up home. I can believe his report on the bite victims resorting to witchdoctors too, the late Arthur C Clarke wrote several pieces on the survival of wichdoctors and astrologers in ' modern day ' Sri Lanka.