#1507 – Afoot
Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comics
We have a nightlight in our bathroom that is very popular with spiders. 4 or 5 times a year a spider will build a little nest in there. I’m not sure what the deal is, are they attracted to blue light? Does it emit some sort of spider attracting sound? Do spiders even have ears?
Tags: feet, shoes, spider
*Disclaimer* Warning, this may cause face-planting, slipping and serious injuries or death.
Know what you mean about the nightlight. My wife used to have an alarm clock that small roaches found absolutely irresistible. Must have something to do with electrical frequencies or … something.
Oh ew. I remember one like that too.
Yay! I’ve read all the archives!
A little praise: I find The Book of Biff to be somehow warm and kind comic.
Yay!
Spiders like nightlights because they are nocturnal, and flying insects are attracted to lights at night (that’s why outdoor lights usually have a small cloud of bugs flying around them). Building your web there is a way of encouraging prey to come to you.
It’s also warmer there.
Seems logical enough!
Probably also a good place to meet lady spiders. And then get eaten by them.
So Biff’s body parts can be removed, just like with some of the action figures I played with as a kid (not that you were supposed to remove them, though)? Seems logical to me, actually!
I know that insects’ vision is skewed to higher frequencies than ours; they see in the green through ultraviolet range, which is why “bug lights” are yellow or orange [red would be even better, but might give passers-by the entirely wrong impression of your home activities]. I don’t know if this vision is also true of arachnids like spiders [or scorpions] or whether they are there because that’s where the insects go. There are brands of traps for fleas that use a blue light to lure them to a sticky/poison trap, but I can’t vouch for whether they work or not.
Growing up in the country, there were many types of insects and whatnot that would be scuttling and/or fluttering about the house that I got used to seeing from time to time. One of the most persistent type of insect in our house have been those “Asian lady beetles,” which I frequently find cuddled up in bed with me when I wake up in the morning (I’m guessing they like the warmth provided by my body heat). Since I don’t believe that they can cause any harm to me or the house I usually tolerate their presence unless I catch them crawling on me. A week ago, I had one of those buggers crawl into my ear while I was napping; he met a swift, screeching death (screeching in the sense that I screamed like a thousand little girls when I realized what was in my ear).
damnit why didnt i think of this!? ive got to start talking to biff about spider proofing my house, this guy knows his stuff.
ugh, I’m always paranoid about spiders in my shoes, probably because there’s a lot of spiders around where I live, not many poisonous ones, but they still give a painful bite. I’m worried about them getting into my work gloves too.
Argh! Now I have to worry about gloves too!
For me, it’s headphones. I have a big pair of Sennheisers that I keep on my desk and I can’t put them on without looking inside the ear cups for various nasties.
I’m glad I use earbuds!