Social Question

HungryGuy's avatar

How many spiders does a person typically swallow during the night in their sleep?

Asked by HungryGuy (16044points) February 4th, 2012

Inquiring minds want to know.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

46 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

Me, less than when I am awake.

Dutchess_III's avatar

LOL! That’s like asking how many red lights or stop signs you’ve run! If you ran them, obviously you didn’t see them! If I’ve swallowed a spider I sure don’t know about it. I remember a gnat got in my throat and I swallowed him. But no spiders. That I know of.

marinelife's avatar

None! What a horrible thought.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

Depends on the age of the house they live in. Older house more spider intrusion points.

Coloma's avatar

None. I have too many tree frogs and alligator lizards that patrol my bedroom at night. I have woken up with frogs on my pillow. Very good protection. lol

janbb's avatar

@Coloma Was that before or after you kissed them? lol

Coloma's avatar

@janbb No kissing frogs, been there, done that! lol Seriously, in the spring here I am over run with frogs and lizards, I don’t know HOW they always get in the house, must be the cat…errr, frog and lizard door. haha

Sir_Truthalot's avatar

I don’t know ‘bout you ,but three is my limit…........I had bypass surgery. and those little suckers are soooo filling.

Bellatrix's avatar

Oh I am hoping the answer is ‘no spiders’. I don’t even want to think about swallowing bugs of any sort while I am a asleep. Even if it really does happen, I don’t want to know!

Coloma's avatar

@Sir_Truthalot Haha…welcome, I can see that you are going to be a witty and truthful jelly. :-)

YARNLADY's avatar

Zero, that is an urban myth.

Male's avatar

It’s indeed a myth.

According to it, I’ve heard anywhere from 3–8 spiders swallowed per year, which would be 0.008–0.02 spiders on a typical night (in a non leap year). But that value varies depending on many factors like location, season, conditions, temperatures, humidity, etc.

If you don’t believe in the myth, the chance of it happening on any night is almost none, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Coloma's avatar

Well I have inhaled countless gnats while riding bikes, and if we count the gazillions of dust mites fluttering around our eyelashes and in our beds…we are consuming, albeit on the down low, lots of little critters. lol

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

We have Northeastern Tonsil spiders and when they migrate we have to wear mosquito neating over our mouths or we’ll wake up with a mouthful.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

Oh nice,neating. That was supposed to be netting.

HungryGuy's avatar

^ D’oh!

Pandora's avatar

None that I know of. But I know when I lived in South Carolina, I seemed to either breath in gnats or have them commit suicide by jumping in my eye while I drove. I think they were trying to kill me by taking away my sight as I drove. Bastards! Thats all I got to say.
As for the spiders they where way to huge to fit in my mouth. They were daddy longlegs and garden spiders.

Coloma's avatar

Gnats are gnasty! lol

Some are big enough that you have to swallow, or maybe it’s just hitting the swarm at 30mph on a bike trail. haha

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Oh dear God have mercy. I’m going to have nightmares now.

ratboy's avatar

@HungryGuy: with smut like this dancing in your head, how the hell are you still hungry?

Berserker's avatar

So is this a myth or is it not? I’m thinking it’s prolly bullshit. Why would spiders wander around at night, anyways? Why would they change their habits and go fall in people’s mouths or crawl up their nose at night? We probably do swallow a few bugs and insects as we sleep, but they’re all the stupid bugs and spiders that Darwin warned us about.

Disclaimer; I have no problem with swallowing bugs.

Coloma's avatar

@Symbeline LOL all the stupid bugs and spiders Darwin warned us about
Yes, it’s a myth, it is much more likely that aliens will molest us while we sleep or, we’ll have a heart attack when the alarm goes off.

Berserker's avatar

Things like insects and spiders are like the epitome of survival, so I find it hard that humans would swallow tons of them per year. Mosquitoes suck the blood of mammals, so if insects that do need to come on us don’t get eaten, why would bugs that DON’T need to come near us get eaten?

Also thanks, not I’m gonna have dreams about ET trying to crawl up my ass. XD

Coloma's avatar

@Symbeline But, he has the magic finger. lol

Berserker's avatar

LOL

Stop it. XD

ZEPHYRA's avatar

I have my tarantulas out all night so they protect me from the little ones!

Berserker's avatar

@ZEPHYRA Tarantulas rock. I held one before. Do you actually have some?

Sunny2's avatar

I wear a chin strap so none can get in. But that’s just me. Maybe others get half their protein from them spiders, so don’t discourage them.

jonsblond's avatar

ok @HungryGuy. I’m gullible, but I’m not that gullible. My husband loves to throw disinformation out there to see who will bite. He once said those little zits people get on the side of their nose were spider bites . I almost believed him. almost :P

lemming's avatar

Have you ever woken up with a spider in your mouth? I’m with @marinelife and I’ll give a big hearty ‘none’...unless were talking micro organisms here. But I heard the theory before.

jazmina88's avatar

I just spring cleaned. all webs gone. so spiders moved to neighbors. I hope.

so zero.

HungryGuy's avatar

@jonsblond :-p

@ratboy – When you grow up to become rat man, I’m counting on you to save Chell in Portal. :-p

MilkyWay's avatar

I don’t sleep with my mouth open.

Coloma's avatar

Funny story.
Sooo, last night on my way to bed I reach down and roll my giant, fluffy kitty “Myles” over for some belly rubs. My hand catches some sticky glob of something on his tummy. My first thought was ” Ewww…did he drag his belly across some poo in the litter box? Gak! The “blob” is on my hand, the living room is mostly dark, and I walk to the bathroom to see what gross thing is on my hand. It was a SLUG! lol

The hazards of fat, fluffy cats belly dragging around the yard. :-/

Dutchess_III's avatar

Oh LAWD I hate slugs!!! When I was a kid in Seattle they were EVERYWHERE at night. Everywhere. Then we moved to Kansas. Lived here for 40 years. 10 years ago I moved to the house I’m in now…and for the first time EVER I’m finding slugs after rains! Why? Why here? Why not other places I’ve lived, including other places in this same town? WHYYYYYYY MY HOOOOOUSSSSE!!!??

Coloma's avatar

@Dutchess_III Haha..yeah, I was lucky, because I often rub my face and head on my buddha cats belly, I could have had the slug on my face, or worse yet rubbed my mouth over it. Gag!

This was a regular garden slug, but, we have the giant Banana slugs a little farther up in the mountains here.

Dutchess_III's avatar

You ever get up in the middle of the night and step on one that found its way into the kitchen? Gag. Lawd I hate slugs!!

Coloma's avatar

@Dutchess_III Soooo, now we know, your fear factor challenge would be lying naked in a tank of slugs. lolol

Berserker's avatar

…eeeeeeeew.

Coloma's avatar

Hmmm..I was going to make some pasta, but somehow it has lost it;s appeal. lol

Dutchess_III's avatar

Shooot! Nah…I could handle that for some money. What I can’t handle is not knowing they’re there and STEPPING on them with bare feet! What I couldn’t handle would be lying in a tank of cockroaches and how the hell did this conversation go this way???

Coloma's avatar

Blame it on my breakfast starved brain and non-linear thinking style. :-P

ZEPHYRA's avatar

@Symbeline NO WAY! I would drop dead of cardiac arrest if I saw one!!!!!!!!

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