Spiders in fuel tank prompt Mazda recall

[IDemo]

Source: rawstory.com

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 -- 4:20 pm

CHICAGO – Mazda has a creepy problem: a common spider species seems to have developed a hankering for making nests and weaving webs inside the engines of its sporty Mazda 6 sedan.

The Japanese automaker said Thursday it will be recalling 65,000 vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico to outfit them with special screens to keep the spiders out.

"There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why he's chosen the Mazda 6," spokesman Jeremy Barnes told AFP.

"It apparently likes to go zoom-zoom from the best we can tell," he said with a laugh in reference to Mazda's advertising tag-line.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/03/spiders-in-fuel-tank-prompt-mazda-recall/

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Certainly the oddest reason for a recall in my memory...

edit for a correction to the story: The spider does not produce webs. Instead they construct sacs in protected areas. The idea of creating sacs instead of webs has given the Yellow Sac Spider its name. - http://venomous-spiders.nanders.dk/inclusum.htm

[benld74]

1. HAppened with certain Hondas years ago, no recall just a service bulletin

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Now I may have forgotten but ..

Wasn't that how VENOM was born?


:hide:

[WonderGrunion]

4. Only if the Beyonder has been replacing machinery at Mazda plants

[Ian David]

3. I, for one, welcome our new, arachnid overlords.

[unkachuck]

5. "Termites in My Woody"

....no, spiders in my Mazda, chomp, chomp....

[IDemo]

6. "There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why he's chosen the Mazda 6"

The little b@$!%rd just hates American cars, that's all.

[carterbob1]

7. Yellow Sac Spiders Common in My House

I see yellow spiders in my house on a regular basis. They are shy and not the least bit aggressive. They usually rest inside small silk cocoons in the corner between the tops of walls and the ceiling. I have been bitten several times by them when they were in my bedding or clothing. Their venom is necrotic (i.e., flesh rotting, but not nearly as potent as a brown recluse, and leaves a slightly ulcerated crater and a burning itch for up to a few weeks. If you get bitten by one, clean the area daily and apply an antibiotic ointment if significant reddening occurs around the site of the wound. I never would have guessed that these spiders have an attraction to automobile engines.

[IDemo]

8. They sound a bit like "Hobo" spiders, or Aggressive House spiders

Which we have in abundance here. I wouldn't want to be bitten by either. Better than the occasional Black Widow, which I also see.

Welcome to DU, carterbob1. :hi:

[Taverner]

10. Hobo spiders can kill

When I was a kid, I was cleaning up at the family cabin when a big furry spider jumped on my neck. My arachnaphobia kicked in, and I both swatted and killed that little fucker as fast as I could. Later we identified the mangled spider corpse as a Hobo Spider.

Die! Spiders, Die!!!

[IDemo]

12. You'd be a basket case around this house

We kill a dozen or more each year, and luckily haven't been bitten yet.

I knew their bite can cause a painful festering wound, hadn't heard of them being fatal though.

[Taverner]

13. Oh yeah

And to think I lived in Thailand for three years where I faced off against Wolf Spiders (harmless, but scary looking), all kinds of venemous snakes including Cobras, Krites and Sea Snakes, Scorpions, Centipedes and billions of cockroaches

[Taverner]

9. Wouldn't the spiders die once you put gas in the engine?

[svpadgham]

11. They still may get sucked into the fuel line.

Hence the screen.

[somone]

14. Size of spider:

[pinboy3niner]

15. I have had it with these m'fing spiders in this m'fing gas tank!

:evilgrin:

[M155Y_A1CH]

16. LOL

I love that movie! :hi: