What's your bug story?

What’s your worst fear when it comes to close encounters of the creepy crawly kind? 

I would have to say that I fear awaking to a hissing scorpion on my chest, fangs out and stinger pointing at my face.  A terrible feat that would be!  It would definitely be one of the two times you will hear me scream like a girl, the other being when I ride rollercoaster’s.  I love screaming on rollercoaster’s not sure why I shared that but hey….

(Note to the squeamish the above is the only picture of insects I’m attaching to this post.)

So I had an interesting conversation today with a colleague, you know one of those conversations where you’re not sure how it started but ended up sparking an interesting discussion (when I say interesting I mean more like goose bump raising).   My colleague was sharing a story of the killer centipede in a shower.  While in Asia she shared her life and death encounter with a highly poisonous centipede who found his way onto her roommate’s leg while taking a shower.   The bug never did bite as I’m told they only attack when they feel threatened so there were no injuries sustained during this story, but many people are not so lucky.  There are fatalities all over the world each year due to creepy crawlies.  I’m not much of an expert when it comes to bugs but I do know that some bites are fatal or fatal without hospitalization or treatment.  It got us all to talking about our worst fears when it came to the creatures of the dirt kingdom.  We all concluded that this was another reason to be happy living here in Canada.  When you think about it what’s the deadliest bugs we have in Canada?  I did a few lookups on the internet and came up with two contenders The Black Widow Spider and some debate on whether the Brown Recluse Spider has made the odd appearance in Western Canada.

But thank God we don’t have wild scorpions, giant centipedes, and bees that sting you to death here in Canada.  The wildest adventure I have had when it comes to bugs is disturbing a Fire Ant nest in Florida as a kid and learning quickly why they are called fire ants (its all about the spread).  So what are your encounters with the creatures from below?  Have you had a stare down with a venomous scorpion or a dual with a deadly spider?  Share in the comment box.