No matter what anybody says about spiders, I'm still terrified. Ain't nothing you can do about it...

Aries on MacBook wrote:
On 28/09/2010 08:52, Bob Hobden wrote:
The first time I went to Australia I arrived on my own in Port Douglas
tropical Queensland at our apartment and as it was getting dark pulled
the curtains. The biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo fell
to the floor and laid there upside down not moving. Must be dead I
thought so I went to pick it up and it jumped a foot in the air, I
jumped 6ft, it was tropical Australia after all. I had to get a large
pudding basin to cover it, catch it and put it outside.
Later found out it was a harmless Huntsman.
Later that same day, after my wife had arrived having travelled another
route, whilst shutting the front door behind me, a large bright green
frog landed on my chest with a thump and stuck there. Another welcome to
the tropics!


NOT a very nice experience!

Now I would have welcomed both experiences.

The spider might have become a favoured guest...

--
Rusty

On 29/09/2010 08:59, Aries on MacBook wrote:
On 28/09/2010 23:15, Christina Websell wrote:
Mice don't worry me either, but I don't want one fossicking around in my
bedroom. Spiders, big ones, I do have a problem with those. I've told
myself they cannot hurt me, I know that but it doesn't work. They horrify
me for some reason.
Tina

they can bite tho - not poisonous


No, they're not poisonous. You can eat as many as you like! :~} ....


but can cause an itchy spot or
allergic reaction. My father was bitten by one once so I do know that



..... most spiders are *venomous*, although few are harmful to man.
Spiders native to this country which have been known to bite man (IME)
a Tegenaria gigantea, Dysdera crocata, Amaurobius spp., larger
Theridiids ... just in case you want to look them up. I dare say a few
other people in urg could add to this list.

Alas, the American Black Widow Spider (a larger Theridiid) which is
famed for the strength of its venom, now resides in local populations in
this country.

Oh yes, while I'm here, let's have a little less beastliness to my
friends :~). They're doing sterling work gobbling insects both inside
and outide your home.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 28/09/2010 22:59, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-28 17:39:18 +0100, Pam Moore said:

On Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:27:12 +0100, Aries on MacBook
wrote:

Whilst watching TV earlier I heard a sort of crackling sound. I looked
to where the sound was coming from and saw a huge spider running down a
window blind just to the left of me. He then dropped onto the floor,
plonk! He's in hiding now under our black leather sofa and recliners -
not sitting there any more Just goes to show how large these
spiders are to make a noise like that!!

SHUDDER

I'm going out tomorrow to see what I can find for deterring spiders.
May have to send off for it tho as I'm not at all sure any of our local
shops will have such a thing.

How do these huge spiders get into the house anyway? No windows are
open and they always seem to drop from the ceiling!

You ask how they get in. If they are HOUSE spiders, they LIVE in your
house, in cracks and gaps; cupboards, under the bath, behind skirting
boards etc. Quite why September draws them out I don't know. They
are the only thing I'm petrified by, They really freak me out!
I moved an empty box from the top of a cupboard once. Well I thought
it was empty but sitting in the bottom was one of those biggies. I
emptied it out into the garden. The next day there was another (its
mate?) on the wall where the box had been! I managed to catch it in a
dustpan and put it in the garden also. Hope they met up!
Incidentally, spiders ca'n't swim and don't come up the plug hole.
They just go in for a drink.

Pam in Bristol

Oh yeah. ;-)) So how do they get into the bath? One of ours is slap up
against the wall under a closed window - closed since I found
Arachnizilla in there one night recently. AIUI, some spiders can create
a sort of air bubble around themselves that copes with the diving bell
problem. All I know is that we've had at least half a dozen
spiders-on-steroids in this house very recently and that is quite beside
the sort of pin-bodied thready ones that are around almost all the time.
My spider shriek is tuned to concert pitch.


Careful, then, lest you break the glass in that window .... (evil grin)

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 29/09/2010 08:43, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-29 00:27:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-09-28 23:35:25 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:


"Sacha" wrote in message

Oh yeah. ;-)) So how do they get into the bath?

They fall in.


One of ours is slap
up against the wall under a closed window - closed since I found
Arachnizilla in there one night recently. AIUI, some spiders can
create
a
sort of air bubble around themselves that copes with the diving bell
problem. All I know is that we've had at least half a dozen
spiders-on-steroids in this house very recently and that is quite
beside
the sort of pin-bodied thready ones that are around almost all the
time.
My spider shriek is tuned to concert pitch.


It's spider breeding season right now and all the boy house spiders you
have
in your house are out and about looking for the girlies.
If you are interested, you will know a boy from a girl by the those two
things they protrude from the front. Boys have lumps on them and girlie
ones are straight.
Knowing that does not help me with my arachnaphobia, however.
It's something I try to control, I can do small ones now, but the big
ones,
no. It's ridiculous. Moths, beetles, snakes, anything else, but not big
spiders.

Tina

I agree with you and I can absolutely assure you that I'm not going to
check their gender!
--

I thought if I studied them a bit, it might help. It doesn't.
Tina

It does help some people, though. Spider, who posts here at times had
aversion therapy (IIRC) and now really likes spiders and studies them,
knowing the Latin names etc. Hence her nom de net!


You do remember correctly, Sacha :~)). Increasingly holding and then
studying spiders certainly helped me, but it wasn't easy. However,
being free of arachnophobia has changed my life for the better.

If you can't actually hold a spider, try staying close to it until your
level of anxiety drops. It will eventually help you cope with difficult
encounters, as will Tina's ploy of dealing with smaller spiders. After
all, with your petticoats around your ears, you can't run very fast! :~))

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:04:05 +0100, Spider wrote:

You do remember correctly, Sacha :~)). Increasingly holding and then
studying spiders certainly helped me, but it wasn't easy. However,
being free of arachnophobia has changed my life for the better.

If you can't actually hold a spider, try staying close to it until your
level of anxiety drops. It will eventually help you cope with difficult
encounters, as will Tina's ploy of dealing with smaller spiders. After
all, with your petticoats around your ears, you can't run very fast! :~))

The trouble is, that spiders run so fast! If it would just sit still
and let me study it, or make friends, it might not be so bad!


Pam in Bristol

"Rusty Hinge" wrote...
Aries on MacBook wrote:
On 28/09/2010 08:52, Bob Hobden wrote:
The first time I went to Australia I arrived on my own in Port Douglas
tropical Queensland at our apartment and as it was getting dark pulled
the curtains. The biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo fell
to the floor and laid there upside down not moving. Must be dead I
thought so I went to pick it up and it jumped a foot in the air, I
jumped 6ft, it was tropical Australia after all. I had to get a large
pudding basin to cover it, catch it and put it outside.
Later found out it was a harmless Huntsman.
Later that same day, after my wife had arrived having travelled another
route, whilst shutting the front door behind me, a large bright green
frog landed on my chest with a thump and stuck there. Another welcome to
the tropics!


NOT a very nice experience!

Now I would have welcomed both experiences.

The spider might have become a favoured guest...

I can assure you that you too would have had a fright, unless you recognised
the Huntsman immediately, and the large green frog landing on ones chest in
the dark an hour or so later and sticking there wouldn't do your nerves much
good either. :-)

Then on the same trip there was the Ozzy shouting "Don't step back" at me as
my head was 6inches from a "Funnel Web", and my cousin in Adelaide saying
"If you go in the garage don't put your hand on anything unless you look
well first, there are Red Backs in there"!
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 29/09/2010 17:38, Pam Moore wrote:
On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:04:05 +0100, wrote:

You do remember correctly, Sacha :~)). Increasingly holding and then
studying spiders certainly helped me, but it wasn't easy. However,
being free of arachnophobia has changed my life for the better.

If you can't actually hold a spider, try staying close to it until your
level of anxiety drops. It will eventually help you cope with difficult
encounters, as will Tina's ploy of dealing with smaller spiders. After
all, with your petticoats around your ears, you can't run very fast! :~))

The trouble is, that spiders run so fast! If it would just sit still
and let me study it, or make friends, it might not be so bad!


Pam in Bristol


Yes, that can be a problem. Try making your hands vertical, like a
wall; it often slows the spider down.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 29/09/2010 17:54, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-29 17:04:05 +0100, Spider said:

On 29/09/2010 08:43, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-29 00:27:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-09-28 23:35:25 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:


"Sacha" wrote in message

Oh yeah. ;-)) So how do they get into the bath?

They fall in.


One of ours is slap
up against the wall under a closed window - closed since I found
Arachnizilla in there one night recently. AIUI, some spiders can
create
a
sort of air bubble around themselves that copes with the diving bell
problem. All I know is that we've had at least half a dozen
spiders-on-steroids in this house very recently and that is quite
beside
the sort of pin-bodied thready ones that are around almost all the
time.
My spider shriek is tuned to concert pitch.


It's spider breeding season right now and all the boy house
spiders you
have
in your house are out and about looking for the girlies.
If you are interested, you will know a boy from a girl by the
those two
things they protrude from the front. Boys have lumps on them and
girlie
ones are straight.
Knowing that does not help me with my arachnaphobia, however.
It's something I try to control, I can do small ones now, but the big
ones,
no. It's ridiculous. Moths, beetles, snakes, anything else, but
not big
spiders.

Tina

I agree with you and I can absolutely assure you that I'm not going to
check their gender!
--

I thought if I studied them a bit, it might help. It doesn't.
Tina

It does help some people, though. Spider, who posts here at times had
aversion therapy (IIRC) and now really likes spiders and studies them,
knowing the Latin names etc. Hence her nom de net!


You do remember correctly, Sacha :~)). Increasingly holding and then
studying spiders certainly helped me, but it wasn't easy. However,
being free of arachnophobia has changed my life for the better.

If you can't actually hold a spider, try staying close to it until
your level of anxiety drops. It will eventually help you cope with
difficult encounters, as will Tina's ploy of dealing with smaller
spiders. After all, with your petticoats around your ears, you can't
run very fast! :~))

LOL! Petticoats - you'll have me in crinolines next!


One way of sweeping the spiders out of your way, I suppose!

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 29/09/2010 17:55, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-29 16:50:39 +0100, Spider said:

On 28/09/2010 22:59, Sacha wrote:
snip
My spider shriek is tuned to concert pitch.


Careful, then, lest you break the glass in that window .... (evil grin)

Ugh! You say the sweetest things!



I just *knew* you'd be impressed!

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-09-29 09:49:08 +0100, Pam Moore said:

On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:59:13 +0100, Sacha wrote:


Oh yeah. ;-)) So how do they get into the bath?

They fall in and can't get out!

Pam in Bristol

Yes but where from?! I do a spider check - no spider to be seen at all.
Go in ten minutes later and there it is, glowering at me.
--

They are cunning, they wait until you are out of the bathroom where they are
hiding in a crevice, and then deliberately fall into the bath ;-)
When my husband was alive, he would always deal with them for me, but now
I've trained myself to even get big ones out of the bath by gathering them
up in a huge fluffy towel and flapping it out of the window. The only other
option would have been to not be able to have a bath or shower until it
passed away.

I could, of course, squash it, but I don't want to do that, it's not their
fault I have a horror of them. I cannot explain it but it is there.
I can't get a big spider off the wall with the glass and cardboard trick,
the moment the cardboard touches their legs they run up the glass, like they
are going into my hand and I drop it.
I've made progress, but not quite that much!

Tina

Bob Hobden wrote:
"Rusty Hinge" wrote...
Aries on MacBook wrote:
On 28/09/2010 08:52, Bob Hobden wrote:
The first time I went to Australia I arrived on my own in Port
Douglas tropical Queensland at our apartment and as it was getting
dark pulled the curtains. The biggest spider I have ever seen
outside of a zoo fell to the floor and laid there upside down not
moving. Must be dead I thought so I went to pick it up and it
jumped a foot in the air, I jumped 6ft, it was tropical Australia
after all. I had to get a large pudding basin to cover it, catch
it and put it outside. Later found out it was a harmless Huntsman.
Later that same day, after my wife had arrived having travelled
another route, whilst shutting the front door behind me, a large
bright green frog landed on my chest with a thump and stuck there.
Another welcome to the tropics!


NOT a very nice experience!

Now I would have welcomed both experiences.

The spider might have become a favoured guest...

Especially to the frog, I imagine.


I can assure you that you too would have had a fright, unless you
recognised the Huntsman immediately, and the large green frog landing
on ones chest in the dark an hour or so later and sticking there
wouldn't do your nerves much good either. :-)

Then on the same trip there was the Ozzy shouting "Don't step back"
at me as my head was 6inches from a "Funnel Web", and my cousin in
Adelaide saying "If you go in the garage don't put your hand on
anything unless you look well first, there are Red Backs in there"!

As kids we often used to form interested little circles crouching round
redbacks and such-like, poking them about with pieces of dry grass,
saying things like "That's a redback! It can kill yer!"

--
Mike.

In message , Gordon H
writes
In message , Aries
on MacBook writes
Whilst watching TV earlier I heard a sort of crackling sound. I
looked to where the sound was coming from and saw a huge spider
running down a window blind just to the left of me. He then dropped
onto the floor, plonk! He's in hiding now under our black leather
sofa and recliners - not sitting there any more Just goes to
show how large these spiders are to make a noise like that!!

SHUDDER

I'm going out tomorrow to see what I can find for deterring spiders.
May have to send off for it tho as I'm not at all sure any of our
local shops will have such a thing.

How do these huge spiders get into the house anyway? No windows are
open and they always seem to drop from the ceiling!

To avoid frightening the ladies in another newsgroup I frequent, it is
a tradition that one refers to spiders as "kittens".
:-)
Some people refer to them as large black cats or pumas
--
hugh
"Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if
I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own
common sense." Buddha

In message , Christina Websell
writes

I could, of course, squash it, but I don't want to do that, it's not their
fault I have a horror of them. I cannot explain it but it is there.
I can't get a big spider off the wall with the glass and cardboard trick,
the moment the cardboard touches their legs they run up the glass, like they
are going into my hand and I drop it.
I've made progress, but not quite that much!

Tina

I use a paper cup instead of a glass.
I think it's the one I never drink out of . . .
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

In message ,
Janet writes
In article , bluestar95
says...

i've often wondered why people dislike spiders so *very much* more than than
other things that are seen as nasties?

The dislike is proportional to the number of legs.

two legs = we could get married and make babies
four legs = we can be best friends
six legs = stay out of my way or I kill you
eight legs = please don't kill me, I'll stay out of your way
too many legs to count = screaming abdabs

Janet

On a Yugoslavia holiday we saw two young lads walking into a bar in the
reception area, their eyes riveted on the floor.
When they got nearer we saw they were following 4" long milli/centi/pede
gliding along at a human walking pace.... Spooky!
--
Gordon H
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