On 27/10/2015 00:57, Christina Websell wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 26/10/2015 17:56, Christina Websell wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 22/10/2015 22:26, Christina Websell wrote:
"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Oct 2015 17:49:51 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"stuart noble" wrote in message
...

I have struggled with fear of spiders all my life but it's not
their
fault,
it's mine.

I don't think it's anyone's fault. It's an instinctive thing that's
hard
wired into our brains from way back.
I've trained myself to pick them up by closing my hand over them.
They
freeze and play dead, which makes it a whole lot easier. Dustpan and
brush
works well too IME

I absolutely could not pick a big spider up with my bare hand
although
picking up moths and beetles to put them outside is not a problem.
Haven't tried the dustpan and brush, probably won't in case it runs
over
my
hand. I can't do the glass and cardboard method either. Because even
though
I know it's safely in the glass if it runs up it into my hand, I drop
it.
My favourite and current method is the big fluffy towel, gather them
up
in
it and flap it outside.

A good few years ago, we had a cat who loved to eat them. If there was
a spider in the bath, SWMBO would put the cat in with it and within
moments the spider would be eaten.

--

Chris

My cat eats spiders (even huge ones) that appear in my house.
Even if he's asleep on my lap, he notices spiders and jumps off my lap
and
gets them. Chomp.




I think my Panther would be more impressed if juicy prawns were
scuttling
across the carpet! She's more of a monster mouser.

My cat is a good mouser, and he's not bad with small rats either. He
studiously ignores big rats with the huge chisel brown teeth.
He eats the spiders that I don't notice. I do try to put them all
outside
but if he sees one before I do, unfortunately it's the end of them.
Some
of the big house spiders are very wiry but he manages.
I know they are wiry because I once took a blockage out of my kitchen
sink
plughole. It was a massive spider that I'd accidently drowned. I nearly
died when I saw what I had in my hand.
I do realise that my fear is stupid but no matter how much I say to
myself
"they cannot hurt me" it doesn't work.
Something in me says NO to big spiders.

Tina



Well, there's nothing in the world that says you have to love or handle
spiders, large or small. It's not at all stupid, but it is - in this
country at any rate - an irrational fear. Elsewhere it's probably good
policy to avoid them. You imply, or seem to, that you have little or no
trouble with small/er spiders. Have you considered handling a small
spider to learn how you react and, maybe, working your way up to
medium-size? In very broad terms, that's how a desensitisation programme
works. Just how do you cope with smaller spiders? Are these the ones that
travel from bath to garden in your fluffy towel, or can you bear to touch
them?

No. I would die if I touched one, it's taken years for me to pick up the
big ones in the fluffy towel. Anything bigger than a money spider I can't
do. I know it's irrational. I'm good with picking up anything else.
woodlice, beetles, anything. but just not spiders. I know they won't harm
me but they fill me with horror. I don't know why. I tried to study them a
bit to see if would help. It didn't.
So I am happy be able to gather them up in a fluffy towel and put them
outside. That took years and that's as far as I can ever go with spiders.

Tina




Well, that's already an improvement and at least you don't kill them if
you can help it. I'm afraid death was the only thing that satisfied
when I was at the height of my arachnophobia:~((. I often felt sick
with guilt afterwards because I love all creatures, but the terror and
panic was too great then to even consider another approach.

It was good of you to try studying them, but I know from my own
experience that education doesn't work when the fear is that severe. The
terror and, indeed, the disgust that prevails with such a phobia is a
very real barrier. It was only once I was cured that I started studying
spiders and keeping tarantulas. I don't keep the latter now and only
occasionally really study spiders, but I spend a lot of time in the
garden looking at them closely, photographing them and trying to
identify them. Sometimes I think I should do more gardening instead ...
just to remain within topic ;~).

--
Spider
On high ground in SE London
Gardening on heavy clay