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[Frumple]

If by "better" you mean "a valid justification to burn the entire country to the ground," yes.

And yeah, squirrels can technically catch rabies but it more or less never happens. Not a primary carrier, only really catches it if around stuff that is (which more or less never happens because most of those things eat squirrels), probably dead if attacked by something infected. They're an incredibly negligible risk for rabies.

[Orange Wizard]

If by "better" you mean "a valid justification to burn the entire country to the ground," yes.

I thought you'd appreciate the fist-sized grasshoppers.

[Draignean]

Also, we don't have squirrels.

Your lives are meaningless.

Hah! We have something better than squirrels.

Spoiler: Giant Weta (click to show/hide)

... I'm going to need a bigger spider.

[Furtuka]

Well I get that it's wetas, not grasshoppers, but now I have the image in my head of fist sized locust swarms. Lovely.

[Frumple]

I'm fine with the head-span leg-span spiders. Everything else with an exoskeleton in that size range has to die in a fire.

What the hell kind of hook do you even stick those things on, and what kind of aquatic monstrosity do you pull up with them as bait? Godzooky?

[Rolan7]

JEGUS FLIP NO

My already-considerable respect for people living in Oceania has further increased.  I couldn't survive it, I love nature too much.  I'll stay here where the only large threats are avoidable mammals and sometimes snakes.  And black widow spiders, but that kinda demonstrates my point - there's like one *actually* dangerous spider and I've never actually encountered one.  Tarantulas are horrifying but tiny spiders don't bother me, I've been bit too many times and barely noticed except for the minor itchy welts later.  Or maybe those were ticks.

The snakes are pretty common though, gotta keep an eye on the ground for copperheads while hiking.  I've seen a few, fortunately they're not aggressive and don't pursue.  Just camouflaged and deadly.  Why do I love nature again?

I'm just kidding, today was warm but with cool pouring rain.  Nature is terrible and beautiful.

I'm not sure where I was going with that, but large insects and arachnids are freaky.  Even if they're more avoidable I suppose.

Edit:  What really scares me is jellyfish.  Competely undetectable, stinging arthropods skeleton-less elder things.  Large part of why I prefer mountains to ocean 4 evar.

[Tawa]

What really scares me is jellyfish.  Competely undetectable, stinging arthropods.

Jellyfish aren't arthropods.

[Furtuka]

They make great salad.

[Spehss _]

What the hell kind of hook do you even stick those things on, and what kind of aquatic monstrosity do you pull up with them as bait? Godzooky?

You use a harpoon for a hook and catch cthulhu's starspawn. Obvs.

[Furtuka]

My WTF for today. So apparently my school has a course on Japanese literature titled Evangelion...

[BurnedToast]

And black widow spiders, but that kinda demonstrates my point - there's like one *actually* dangerous spider and I've never actually encountered one.

Black widow spiders aren't particularly dangerous to healthy adults (though apparently their bite hurts incredibly bad).

So that's one less thing you have to worry about.

Edit:

My WTF for today. So apparently my school has a course on Japanese literature titled Evangelion...

Why would your japanese literature class be about the christian gospel?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah I know what it's actually referring to, but it's even funnier to think about it this way

[Aklyon]

Why are they always the one pointed out as bad then?

[TempAcc]

Because they are :v, just not deadly to most adult humans.

[Frumple]

Don't forget the brown recluses, though! Something something flesh eating something. At least the widows mostly just kill you.

But yeah, black widows aren't a guaranteed kill or anything like that, just a potential one. Which is plenty to freak folks out, heh.

As to that, aky, it's because it's rare that they're deadly. There's some kind of psych term for that, I think -- we notice unusual but statistically unlikely harms more than we do common ones, even though the latter are much greater actual issues. Is why lot of people are much more worried about riding in airplane than car, ferex, iirc.

Also the distinctive coloration. Black widows got mystique, y'know? Recluses are just brown.

[penguinofhonor]

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