USVI-On-Line

Ok so I must confess... I DO check when I go to hotels for....BEDBUGS! I lift up the sheets and look around for any signs of 'dark spots' in the corners of the room etc. So, it was natural that I think about bigger creepy crawlies on St. John as well.

One morning I was getting ready in our bedroom and I had left my sunglasses on the dresser. I noticed the cutest little lizard standing in front of them, looking as though he was admiring himself in the reflection. Awwww cute...

Fast forward to that night around 1 a.m. I am sleeping with just the sheet over me. I awoke with the sensation that I felt something crawl across my lower leg. In my foggy, sleepy state I thought oh.. maybe the little cute lizard.. However, my next thought TARANTULA!! I was out of bed in one swift motion, pulled the sheets back and whipped on the light. Check the floor to make sure I am not stepping on anything and the bed to make sure there are no occupants in my bed. Nothing... only my husband blinking in the bright light saying , "what are you doing ?!!! " Tough time getting back to sleep that night.

PaminMaine wrote:Ok so I must confess... I DO check when I go to hotels for....BEDBUGS! I lift up the sheets and look around for any signs of 'dark spots' in the corners of the room etc. So, it was natural that I think about bigger creepy crawlies on St. John as well.

I always check for bed bugs! Doesn't everyone?;)

OMG just reading these posts has my heart racing and I'm a little nauseated. Each visit I look around the villa and check out the corners and NEVER leave clothes on the floor. But I swear if I found a tarantula in the bed I would simply die of a heart attack!!! Uggh spiders are the worst!! The wolf spiders we have here in Illinois are nothing I suppose compared to a tarantula...(just typing the word gives me creepy crawlies...)

I saw a squished hairy blue spider on the Reef Bay Trail. Was that a tarantula? As long as there's no giant grasshoppers on STJ all is well with me I'd rather catch a snake than deal with a leaping giant grasshopper!

I was told to always shake out your shoes..never saw a live one until last mounth on our lot.It's no longer living.

My daughter got stung by a scorpion last April on St John. She picked her clothes up off the floor and stuck her hand in to turn them right side out... Well, I did warn her to keep her stuff picked up and off the floor. She loves telling the story now, not a lot of people up here in the frozen north can claim they've been stung by a scorpion. He did not survive the fall from the loft when she shook him off her hand:


Scorpions don't really both me, tarantulas though, that's a whole different story. A fellow beach goer at Salt Pond last year told me there was one in the bathroom. I did not check to see, I didn't even walk close to it on the way back up the trail.

I was watching a nature show a few years ago, I think it was even on STJ. The guide was showing how to recognize a tarantula hole. They spit out a substance that when mixed with sand creates a cement like ring around the holes. If you look around Hawksnest in the vegetation under the trees you can find some. It never occurred to me that they were tarantula holes and not crab. But what do I know? I have never seen a tarantula there- just the holes. They must be shy.

I've never seen either...and hope to God I dont..we did have a small lizard above our bed in the blinds just hanging out last time...We left him for a few days..then we caught him and tossed him outside..I know I would have freaked and thought it was a spider if he had gotten on me during the night..

When I moved to STJ in 2007, I lived in Fish Bay. I lost count at 15-16 scorpions killed, just in my bedroom. Wasn't in that house a year. Never saw one on Gift Hill, or in Coral Bay. But 15-16 scorpions is better than dozens of rats my friends caught, also in Fish Bay. Hate rats. One bit me on my toe when I was sleeping, at my Gift Hill apartment. It checked into a Rat Zapper the next night.

I have GOT to stop reading this thread. It's giving me nightmares.

Yes I need to stop coming back to this too but....I can't help it..
The wolf spiders we have here in Illinois are nothing compared to tarantulas and scorpions and they are big enough...
I was watching that show with Tim Allen and the jungle kid he brings home and there was a tarantula in it...are they that big?????
uugggh

The tarantula I saw had a body about the size of a big fat grape tomato.

On our first trip I saw a scorpion on the last day. It was on the outside wall of the house we were staying in and it was only about 2" long. Not at all terrifying. But if I ever see a taranchula, I think I'll probably pee myself!! I've seen the many holes and I just tell myself they are all crab holes