Lisa Holst, a columnist for PC Professional magazine in the early 1990's...found in an old text on insect folklore: the average person swallows 8 spiders per year. As Holst, predicted, the statement was readily accepted as fact and quickly spread around the internet. BUT.....IS IT TRUE??? Debbie Hadley says, "you can rest easy, the chances of your swallowing a spider while you are asleep are almost none. And I only say almost none because nothing is impossible, I suppose."
While reading up on this subject on About.com...this is what I find. "In order to swallow a spider in your sleep, a number of unlikely coincidences would all have to occur in sequence. You'd have to be sleeping with your mouth pretty wide open. If a spider crawled on your face and over your lips (this gives me shivers thinking about it), you'd likely feel it, so a spider would have to approach you by descending from the ceiving above you on a silk thread. The spider would have to hit the target - your mouth - dead center to avoid tickling your lips. And if it landed on your tongue, a highly-sensitive surface, you would feel it for sure. So the spider would have to land at the back of your throat without touching anything on the way in. And then you'd have to swallow.
But the real bottom line is this: spiders aren't going to voluntarily approach the mouth of a large predator. That's how a spider sees us, after all, as big, warm-blooded, threatening creatures that might eat them. What motivation would a spider have for crawling into your mouth?"
It's my turn. I DO believe that this is a myth.....deep down inside my cold soul.....somewhere. And before I go any further, I would like Lorrie to know that I thank her.....from deep down inside my cold soul...for bringing this damned subject up! And those nay-sayers out there thought you were just joking!!
The other day I was rearranging our bedroom and came across more cobwebs than I would have liked to. Our home is a 1 1/2 story so it has slanted ceilings.....kinda. Anyway, on one end of the room where the wall comes up to meet the slanted ceiling, is where I planned to put the head of the bed. I immediately thought about the spiders that made those cobwebs. And if they were making them there when our heads ARENT under it, what is stopping them from being there when we ARE there?
Are you still following me?
In my nightstand is a rag to wipe the wall down each night before bed. Just in case, ya know. So..... as I laid in our bed the first night after rearranging, I thought long and hard about this spider thing. This is how I envisioned it.
Imagine yourself one of the "Littles." You remember that cartoon, right? Where the Little family lives in a house and only their son knows about them and they get into all kinds of trouble? Okay well my version is a little different. You're a "Little" but you're not a person. You're a spider. All your family and friends are spiders and you only speak "Spidese." Now...in the tiny crevices of the home you live in is where you live your life. If you're lucky. You have your school over there in that small crack between the wall and the floor. Your grocery store is that tall building (counters) in what the humans call the kitchen OR if you're lucky, they have a pet and you can get into their food when it's dark.
Now.....think about these humans you are trying to avoid. First off, they are H-U-G-E. They can kill you flat (no pun intended), with their toe! And sometimes they don't even KNOW they have killed you! Sometimes you, as a spider, can get lucky, and find a home where they pick you up and put you outside. Well.....now that I think about that, how lucky is that, really??? They just saved your life but NOW you're outside where the temperatures could be extreme.....you have more elements to worry about now...cats, dogs, racoons, snakes, you name it! And if that isn't bad enough.....they have just seperated you from your family and/or friends!!! Oh shat!!
A spiders life is not for me!
Anyway, I got away from what I was trying to get to. I don't think these spiders will try to get in our mouths. I believe they fear us. Let me ask you this:
If something that looked like a cross between a dragon, a werewolf, a vampire, and a log (who knows how distorted we look to them, right) landed outside your home and just laid there...and SEEMED to be asleep.....would you go crawl around between it's talons and in that big gaping hole that looks like it could kill you? I'm betting no. I mean, I AM NOT DOING IT!
So I am comforted now by the thought that we don't eat spiders in our sleep. And it helps that I sleep with my face in the pillow, resting on my arm. My mouth IS open though. I'm a cronic drooler; so I think the spider would drown before it could crawl up in my mouth!
MYTH BUSTED! HA!
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