Shake Out Your Shoes!!!

[Wildcard Ky]

I'm one of those people that religiously shakes out their shoes before they put them on. Why?

Because many years ago someone told me that fiddler spiders like to hide in shoes, so you shake them out before you put them on.

I've done this religiously all of my adult life. It's become such a habit that I don't even think about it anymore. Nothing had ever come out of a shoe until today.

I was preparing to cut the grass, and shook out my grass cutting shoes, and a fiddler spider (brown recluse) fell out of one of them. Had I not shaken them out, I surely would have suffered a bite.

So for those of you that live in areas that have these spiders, get yourself into the habit of shaking out your shoes before you put them on. It may take 20+ years before you actually shake one out, but that 20 years is well worth not being bitten.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I shook out a mouse once.

 

[Leto Degeneres]

I'm one of those people that religiously shakes out their shoes before they put them on. Why?...

...and scorpions, oh my

 

[Austin8]

Wild, I too live in the south. Yes, and I too shake out my shoes, have all my life.

Everything from red ants to fire ants to one particularly nasty scorpion have picked my comfy smelly, work shoes to call their home.

My shoes live outside, they are a little to disgusting to live inside...

I actually have been bitten, not by a poison spider but by several pissed off red ants... anyone lives in the south know what we are talking about.

I never really thought about it before I just assumed everyone shakes out their shoes. I can tell you have the sole of a southerner.... good post!

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:8-H60Zu9asv5RM:http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/media_content/m-4384.jpg

 

[SeaCat]

LOLOL

Last summer when I went north to visit family in New England they watched in amusement as my wife and I both shook out our shoes before putting them on. Most of them wanted to know about this quaint southern custom and shook their heads when we explained. (My parents well understand the reasons.) Then again I do suppose it does go too far when you knock your flip flops together before putting them on. (Hey I dislike the sand on the straps grinding into my insteps and toes.)

Last winter my Brother and Sister-in-Law came down to Florida to visit my parents. They stepped out onto the patio to put on their shoes and were stopped by my father. He told them to shake out their shoes. They just shrugged at his being quaint and did so in a halfhearted manner. Out of my Sister-in-Laws shoe fell a Recluse. (She is Arachnophobic and my father said she just about levitated from her chair to the door while doing a good imitation of an Air Raid Siren.) After that they not only kept their shoes inside but they vigorously shook them out before putting them on.

Cat

Oh and every year I help to treat at least five people who get bit by the Recluse. Most of the bites are on the feet or in the region of the buttocks. (Always check out where you're going to sit, especialy if it's in a coolish dark place. There's a reason the Brown Recluse is called "The Outhouse Spider".

 

[Katyusha]

Arizona has them. I grew up out there and I never shook out my shoes (in fact Tucson has its very own species of recluse spider that isn't found anywhere else, in addition to the other recluse species that live there). Never suffered a bite either.

WITH THAT SAID, in the first house I lived in, we had a massive problem with black widows so pest control was coming to spray the house inside and out once a month (despite that, the sheer number of times I walked through black widows' webs at that house...*shudders violently*). That was something my father continued when I turned thirteen and we moved across town; we moved into a very newly built area that was FULL of ALL...FREAKING...KINDS...of dangerous little creatures, so we continued with the monthly pest control (that did not stop us from getting scorpions in the house every so often; when I was a sophomore in high school I knelt on one of the really little ones and, predictably, it stung me).

We never had an issue with recluse spiders in the house, so we were never taught to check for them before putting our shoes on or getting into bed. Problem with the recluse spiders is that they don't spin webs like black widows and other spiders do...they're called recluses for a reason. They hide. In beds, in clothes, under furniture, between flattened boxes, inside open boxes full of stuff, and, yes, in shoes. I hate spiders, and I really hate spiders that hide.

Many people who suffer a recluse bite don't suffer all the serious problems that can be associated with them. They wind up with an ulcerated wound the size of a quarter and as long as it's kept very clean, it'll heal without any ill effects. But even knowing how painful those wounds are while one has them, never mind everything else, is enough reason to warrant doing things like shaking out your shoes and checking your bedsheets and what-not.

I think I probably just spouted more than necessary here, so I'm going to go, um, over there now and hope that this info is helpful to somebody.

 

[Katyusha]

I actually have been bitten, not by a poison spider but by several pissed off red ants... anyone lives in the south know what we are talking about.

I HATE ants!!!! Those little fuckers hurt when they bite!!!

 

[Xelebes]

I shake my shoes when I've been in dirt but for usually no other reason than that.

 

[DeeZire]

Another scourge of Tucson and the Southwest - kissing bugs. They hang around in bushes and jump on you when you walk by. I got a bite on the back of my neck that took about 3 months to heal.

On shaking shoes - after a hard night of drinking, I'll be shaking my shoes when putting them on the next morning, but not because I'm trying to...

 

[Katyusha]

Another scourge of Tucson and the Southwest - kissing bugs. They hang around in bushes and jump on you when you walk by. I got a bite on the back of my neck that took about 3 months to heal.

I hate those damn things too. I never got wounds that took awhile to heal though...I had localized allergic reactions to them that were much itchier than any thousand mosquito bites I ever got.

 

[TE999]

I acquired the habit of shaking footwear when I was a kid growing up in Florida...you'd leave your sneakers outside because they were filthy...and something always took up residence in one of them...I think the odor was an attraction. Spiders, centipedes, a preying mantis once.

When I was at boot camp in Texas we were ordered to shake our boots and low quarter dress shoes because of the insects. One guy didn't and there was a scorpion in there. His foot and ankle swelled up and they had to practically cut his boot off.

I get black, red and brown widow spiders around my potted plants and patio furniture all the time...and brown recluses. The giant crab spiders bite is painful but not poisonous...they're just big and scary and quick as thought.

Gotta love the tropics.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I've shaken some interesting things out of my shoes. Some of them crawled in their by themselves, and some were put there by a naughty little kitteh.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've shaken some interesting things out of my shoes. Some of them crawled in their by themselves, and some were put there by a naughty little kitteh.

I think the mouse I found was brought in by the cat and escaped to take refuge in my low quarters. Since I had a Class B formation that Saturday morning, I was not amused.

 

[Vermilion]

I always shake my wellington boots out because I once stood on a bumble bee that was in there (don't ask me why, my boots smell nothing like a flower).

Wasps and bees are generally the most dangerous things you'll encounter over here, unless you happen to stand on an adder, but they're unlikely to be anywhere near your house... The politicians are pretty poisonous though...