Say I'm not the only Arachnophobe...

[ellyr]

So last night I noticed a somewhat largish brown spider creeping across the kitchen floor.  Now I respect spiders' right to existence, and understand that they have a vital role to play in our ecosystem.  But if I see them, it's over.  They must die.  I grabbed the paper towel roll and prepared for battle.  

Unfortunately, the spider was conveniently close to the large cracks where the wall meets the floor.  I'm in an old apartment building, and I suspect my rent is cheap because the landlords never bothered to renovate my kitchen, although the glimpses of seen of other people's look quite nice.  *******s. Anyway.  As I attempted to slay the beast, it vanished - I assume into the wall, which resulted in my running the vaccum over the spot, but in all likelihood it has lived.

So now I have the fear I have a brown recluse infestation.  I'm in Missouri, which is their beloved habitat.  I've attempted to seal as many cracks as I can with duct tape, hardwood floors be damned, but the ones behind the radiators are a lost cause, and probably spider central.  I haven't seen any other beasties, none appear when I shake the clothes I carelessly leave on the floor, my closets seems safe.  Yet I fear they are there, hiding.  And that they will come after my cats.  

Anyone else living in fear of the arachnid enemy?

 

[andrya]

OMG! Now l'm twitchy!

l'm absolutely terrified of spiders, it's the only thing l'm scared of. l love snakes, bats, other creepy-crawlies that most people don't like, but spiders repulse me.

l could never get close enough to one to squish it, l'd have to leave the room till someone could come over to deal with it.

lt's so bad that l can't stand to look at them in books or on the computer.

Ugh.

Poor you.

 

[spudsmom]

OMG! Now l'm twitchy!

l'm absolutely terrified of spiders, it's the only thing l'm scared of. l love snakes, bats, other creepy-crawlies that most people don't like, but spiders repulse me.

l could never get close enough to one to squish it, l'd have to leave the room till someone could come over to deal with it.

lt's so bad that l can't stand to look at them in books or on the computer.

Ugh.

Poor you.

I'm just as bad. I actually fold my clothes and hang my clothes in the closet inside out. That way I can inspect them from both sides when I put them on.

 

[cheylink]

OMG! Now l'm twitchy!

l'm absolutely terrified of spiders, it's the only thing l'm scared of. l love snakes, bats, other creepy-crawlies that most people don't like, but spiders repulse me.

l could never get close enough to one to squish it, l'd have to leave the room till someone could come over to deal with it.

lt's so bad that l can't stand to look at them in books or on the computer.

Ugh.

Poor you.

    What do you do when you cant find anyone to come to your rescue and kill it?

    I freak when I see a spider, and I mean hyper ventilate, panic attack! If it is in my home I have to kill it other wise I don't know where it is and at any moment it could crawl up on me. I use Ortho Home Defense regularly, as well as clean and seal up all cracks and crevices!

    I can't see a picture of one, or especially if one pops up on the TV, forget it................Plastic spiders freak me out, even a tattoo or logo of, I get the shudders!

    A few years ago I was working at a plant nursery and when I was helping a customer I almost stuck my hand right into a garden spider in her web. Big, black and yellow, a couple inches or more in length.....................I freaked out, lost it right there, panicked and almost passed out. Someone helped me walk back to main store where I went from hyper ventilating to crying and then started panicking again because I knew it was still there!

    I love plants, love gardening, hate spiders!

 

[luvmyparker]

Just about a week ago, I was in the back seat of my sister car and noticed a spider crawling up my right arm. I flung it and was out the door on the other side in half a second. I was screaming and patting myself down in a parking lot at the dog park. Some lady stopped to watch the drama from her car. My sister is also terrified of them, so when I told her why I freaked, she started freaking. Two grown women screaming and flailing about because of a spider.
Anyway, she squished it with her shoe and I spent the rest of the day checking myself for more.

I feel your pain too...because when you don't catch it/kill it....you are left wondering if and when it will reappear! 

I'm with Andrya though, I love all other creatures and bugs...but arachnids...nope. Ugly, creepy things...with their 8 legs and hairy bodies..Well. I am not gonna sleep tonight. 

 

[andrya]

    What do you do when you cant find anyone to come to your rescue and kill it?

lf l know l can't get anyone to help me, l have a vacuum cleaner with a 3-segment pipe that l can suck them up with as long as they're not too big.

My distance vision isn't as good as it was, so as long as it's not huge and black against a white background, l can squint enough that l don't have to fully see it.

Otherwise l'd sleep somewhere else till one of my kids could come over to kill it, lol.

l know what you mean about almost passing out. l got really close to one years ago right at eye-level and got dots before my eyes. lt throws me into shock and l have to lie down, lol.

Even those things you take off the tops of tomatoes - if they sit on the counter just the right way, l have to move them with a knife so they don't have "the look", then l can pick them up.

 

[swampwitch]

I'm not a big fan of spiders but hate to kill them, so we've learned to live with them. We have a clear plastic bowl and piece of cardboard in a kitchen cabinet, and we have a system if a spider is sighted to yell "spider!" and whoever else is in the house grabs the bowl and cardboard while the spotter keeps an eye on the spider. (Put the bowl over the spider and slide the cardboard under.) We call it "relocation" and the spider is always moved outside. 

My daughter is horribly allergic and I've had some wicked bites, the worst was a bite between my eyes! It was a brown recluse, but thankfully it must have been an older spider and the venom was not at full-strength. I will always have a scar there although it has faded over the years, it's shaped like a lightning bolt so it's sort of like Harry Potter, I tell myself, lol.

You can't do much about house spiders, they live with you, but there's a lot that can be done to keep outside spiders outside. Make sure all your screens are intact if you have windows open, patch any holes and seal the edges. This will keep many spiders out and more importantly, the insects that the spiders eat. Get rid of cardboard boxes or lift them up off the floor if possible (brown recluse love cardboard). The best thing to do is clean your non-carpet floors, baseboards, door and window frames with a mixture of a gallon of water to 1 teaspoon Murphy's Wood Oil Soap (don't rinse). Spiders hate the citronella in the soap and won't want to cross it.

If you don't want a spider on you while you sleep at night (that is when the brown recluse bit my face), clean your bedposts and headboard with Murphy's if possible (doesn't have to be wood).

If you get a spider bite, use cortisone cream on it. I wish I'd known about the cortisone cream when I had that bite in my face, doctors told me to put everything else on it and nothing worked. If you can heal it quickly (with cortisone cream) it won't scar as badly.

Also, don't let your cats eat or play with spiders (or bees or wasps), it can be very dangerous for them.

I've never heard my husband scream except for one time a few years ago when he got in the shower with a 2.5" spider that had crawled up from the drain! He still gets teased about that!

 

[Draco]

I get quite a bit of spiders, especially in my bathroom. Sally Long Legs too.

They don't bother me, I'd rather see them over cockroaches or 'crunchy' bugs. I relocate the spiders outside with my hands. Crunchy bugs I flip out and let the cats kill it for me, lol

 

[rockcat]

I always thought spiders were creepy, but when I found out that (before we were together) my DH almost lost his leg to a brown recluse, I really don't like them. He was hiking the Appalachian Trail alone and didn't seek treatment until his leg swelled up like a tree trunk. He just got to the hospital in time, thank God!

 

[feralvr]

My daughter is completely freaked out by spiders!!! I am not so bothered by spiders, but TICKS!!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG those completely terrify me for some reason. This summer, though, I have seen TWO WOLF SPIDERS :shocker: HUGE HUGE monsters. One was in the garage and the other was a few days later back on the deck. Luckily both times, my hubby was home, so he got them in a cup and put them into the woods. These spiders looked like tarantula's to me. I am a bit worried now and it must be because we have had hardly any rain and they are looking for water

 

[krazy kat2]

I am the spider slayer in my house. Dh will scream like a little girl if he sees one, but will occasionally dispatch one if it is right in front of him. I was on the way to my dd's house a few weeks ago, and when I arrived, there she sat with the baby on the porch. I asked what she was doing, and she replied that there was a spider in the house, and it got away when she was looking for the broom, and sil was on his way home to find it and kill it.

I went in and found a spider, maybe not the spider and killed it for her, so sil did not have to leave work. She would have sat out there all day rather than go back in the house with the spider.
 

 

[subvet642]

I don't hate spiders, nor am I afraid of them, but, I cannot have my precious kitties endangered by them, either.

 

[mbjerkness]

I don't like spiders, I am afraid of them. If I see them I kill them ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[zohdee]

I must be in the minority that I welcome spiders.  They are beneficials and I would never kill one.  Of course, I have never come across a poisonous one.

 

[-_aj_-]

As I get older I seem to be scaring more easy spiders aren't really that big here I can't stand the ones I see at home but I think nothing of the big ones in glass cages, I think I'm a bit strange.

I used to think nothing of relocating or killing a spider but now no chance!

 

[jayda]

No way are you the only one! I always thought I was the biggest arachnophobe. I just had to kill yet another spider in my bedroom, the third this week just in my bedroom, and it was brown recluse number 2 for the week. With the heat and drought here in New Mexico, spiders are moving indoors, and this just plain s**** for me. I'm the type that can be literally reduced to tears in fear of these things. So yeah, it's 2:30am and I can't fall back asleep due to that stupid spider, literally still shaking and itching.

One funny story though, as non-arachnophobes have said, was the day my nightmare came true a few years back. I helped an older friend of mine take care of her dog kennel, as she bred/showed labs, as well as boarded the occasional dogs and needed help. Well I encountered the occasional spider there, but usually as long as it was far enough away and I could watch it for a few minutes, my panic usually diminished enough that I can take care of them. Not without protest however.

Anyway, I don't know what it was about this day, maybe it was the pressure changes, the incoming storm, or an all out coordinated assault, but this day is etched into my memory. I had just barely started when I bent down to pick up a water bucket and as I happened to lift my eyes up, I saw a black widow spider hanging inches in front of my face. Of course I dropped the bucket and ran out of the kennel crying. After a few minutes I got up the courage to go in with a broom to kill it, and thankfully the little ****** was still hanging there, so I smashed his ugly little body into the cement. The broom itself took courage, as arachnophobes like me always imagine the spider magically avoiding the kill blow, jumping onto the handle, and racing up the handle to do the slow motion, ninja-kicking attack on you if you miss.

So that in itself was horrific, but over the next ten minutes or so I saw 7 more spiders, two of which were also BWs. They were dropping down from the ceiling, coming out of cracks in the wall, through holes in the tub tile, etc. I was so panicked that I considered just getting in my car and going, but then I thought of th hungry, thirsty dogs and told myself I had to finish. She wouln't be home until after 8pm, and no one else was around to do it. I ended up getting some wasp and bug killer from her garage and went back armed. I rushed through the job, ending up killing 23 spiders, and left in complete panic mode and was literally crying half the way home. I quit helping after that.

So, again, no you are not by far the only one!

 

[nurseangel]

I am so afraid of spiders.  It all goes back to a horrible incident during my early childhood in Puerto Rico.  I hate to kill anything (except fleas or ticks, which I have no problem bumping off).  We had one of those huge spiders that carries its babies on its back at my work.  One of the officers stepped on it and the surviving babies ran in every direction.  He had to kill them with cleaning spray.  I felt so guilty, but I couldn't scoop it up in a disposable cup and throw it outside like most spiders.  Too big and too scary for me.  I felt even worse when I found out the inmates had been poking at it with a stick and that is why it took refuge in my building in the first place. 

 

[meuzettesmom]

I havent seen any bugs at my house. My Peanut eats everything coming in

 

[aeevr]

I just read that spiders are high in taurine.

 

[catspaw66]

Mine say if it moves, play with it.  When you have played it to death, eat it. Especially daddy longlegs.  Spice brings them in from the back porch and puts them in the bathtub, where they can't get out, and plays with them.