Spider Surprises & Spiritual Attacks

The other day I called my mom to see if she wanted to join me for lunch. She agreed to pick me up and then we surprised my two sisters, my grandmother, my nieces and my nephew who were already enjoying lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  It was really nice to see everyone together! Sometime during the conversation my mom shouted out, “Did she tell you what happened yesterday?” Her tone made it sound like an interesting story.

My oldest sister’s eyes lit up as she begins to divulge a horrifying story. She was cleaning the drapes in her bedroom when a black thing fell from the top of the curtain, passing behind her shoulder; dust was also flying around, so she didn’t think twice about it.

Brown Recluse Spider Bite Almost Blinds Texas Christian University Student

Resurgence of Arachnophobia is Likely

By Heather Campobello

 Nikki Perez, a student at Texas Christian University, was nearly blinded by a bite from a brown recluse spider. The brown recluse is one of the most dangerous spiders in North America.

This specific arthropod’s population continues to spread with the warming of the planet and may lead to a rise in attacks: “a changing climate could make parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Nebraska and South Dakota suitable for it. It’s not the amount of space that’s changing, but the area it covers.”

Despite the alarm, only one or two pople die every year from BR bites.

Perez has suffered greatly after the spider sunk its fangs into her at the Amarillo airport. Her head swelled to twice its size, she lost part of her ear from necrosis, she was in the hospital for five days, and she had to receive skin grafts.

Nikki before and after the attack:

The following picture shows the horrific damage that the bite did to her ear:

The brown recluse has a violin shaped marking that makes it easy to identify. Lucky for Nikki her mom is a nurse and was aware of the severity of the bite.

The recent attack has spurred rumors that Portland is infested with brown recluses.

After seeing these photos I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a resurgence of Arachnophobia.

Spider Webs – Why Don’t the Spiders Stick to Them?

Some spiders spin the really intricate webs and others just spin a plain and flimsy looking web.  If you really want to see just how intricate and beautiful a spider web is, go out on a foggy morning and look at the web with all of the water droplets on it.  If you don’t get fog in your area, spray the web with a very fine mist of water and watch as the almost invisible web becomes visible.

Did you know that spider silk is one of the strongest substances known to man?  Size for size it is much stronger than steel or any other metal.  For many years, companies that made rifle scopes used spider silk for the cross hairs because it was so strong.

Have you ever seen another insect get trapped in a spider’s web?  The instant the insect comes in contact with the web, they are stuck fast to it.  There is no escape.  The more it struggles, the more tangled up it gets.

Now, have you ever watched a spider on its own web?  They walk and sometimes even run across the strands of sticky silk without getting stuck.  So have you ever wondered how the spider avoids getting stuck when everything else does?

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and University of Costa Rica have been trying to figure that out also.  They studied two species of spiders, the golden orb-web spider Nephila clavipes and the crablike spiny orb weaver spider Gasteracantha cancriformis.

They filmed the spiders using video cameras with close-up lens and a second camera with a dissecting microscope which allowed them to examine the legs of the spiders.  Their research revealed the spiders move across their webs in a way that reduces the adhesive forces of the web.  They also found that the spiders secreted tiny droplets of a substance that allowed the spider to actually slide on the sticky glue of the silk.  The droplets formed on the small hairs of the spiders legs.  When the scientists cleaned the substance off of the spider’s legs, the spiders had a much more difficult time moving across the web.

Evolutionists want you to believe that the spiders not only evolved the special ability to produce the silk, but they also evolved the knowledge of how to spin the webs AND they evolved the ability to produce and use the droplets that keep the spiders from sticking to their webs.  What’s more, they want you to believe that they evolved all of these traits at the same time.  The odds of all of these things evolving at the same time are almost zero.

I prefer to believe that God created spiders with the ability and knowledge to produce silk, spin webs and produce their special anti-glue lubricant from the very beginning.  It also reminds me of one of my favorite sections of Scripture that says:

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.  Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?  In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10

Reference

Why Don’t Spiders Stick To Their Own Webs?, Red Orbit, March 2, 2012.

http://creationrevolution.com/2012/03/spider-webs-%E2%80%93-why-don%E2%80%99t-the-spiders-stick-to-them/#comment-8691