Tonight was Friday night. But in this house, it turned into ‘Spider Night’.
It has been a nice day, warm and sunny. Windows had been open, so too the kitchen door leading out to the garden. We live in a country village, surrounded by fields, farms, and a nature reserve all within sight from the end of the street. We should expect outdoor things to occasionally intrude inside our home.
Relaxing on the sofa after dinner, we were watching TV when my wife shouted and moved so quickly, I thought she had been stung by a wasp. But no. She had seen a spider run from the corner of the room behind her, scuttling under the large wooden unit that the TV sits on.
She described it as a ‘big one, the black kind’. We get quite a lot of spiders in the house. Most have small round bodies, and spindly legs. In the shed or garage outside, I have often seen the larger black ones she referred to, but they are rare inside. If in range, they are always killed, usually just by an instinctive reaction to stamp on them, or hit them with something without even thinking about it.
We are not kind to spiders, I confess.
However, this was the most athletic of spiders, running fast ennough to set a new 100 metres Olympic record. It was not going to be caught. And by hiding under a unit too heavy to comfortably move, it had guaranteed it would not be disturbed until it chose to reappear.
For my wife, that was the end of her relaxing evening. She sould not rest, fearful it would suddenly come running out again. Even worse, that it might navigate the room unseen, and secrete itself in the bedroom, ready to drop onto her face as she slept, of hide under the duvet before she slid under it to sleep.
I am not that fond of spiders, but she has a morbid fear of them.
A cursory examination behind the TV did not reveal the arachnid. It was probably busy nesting underneath somewhere, or looking for something to pounce on and eat. Resorting to illuminating the gap below the unit with a torch didn’t help, as there was no sign of it. That led her to conclude that it could now be anywhere in the house, which left her edgy and panciky about where it could be.
It is now 11:30 pm, and it still hasn’t shown up. I am going to bed soon, but I suspect she will be sitting up all night on the sofa, with the lights on.
No point telling her that it is much more scared of us, than we should be of it.
Lol I love spiders, Spider Man originates from them. π I really have to of them in my room, only in summert time.I had not believed it before, but they are really catching every fly. The longest fly lifetime was two days. π
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They fail to catch most flies in here, Michael. So they have to go! π
Best wishes, Pete.
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That is an argument. π
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Ugh, creepy spider. That’s the end of my happy day too. I kind of had a disaster too. I will write a post on it so that you can see what I am saying. πππ I hope Julie is okay.
Stay Safe β€βπ
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Okay, I will await your post to find out what’s wrong. Julie got over the spider scare. π
Best wishes, Pete. x
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I will be posting it this week. It’s scary but let’s see. ππβ
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I don’t blame your wife at all! Those sorts of spiders (the big ones that dash across the floor) are terrifying! I don’t have a spider phobia as such, but those sort are horrible!!!!!!!! xxx
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They do scuttle really fast, Em. π
As ever, Pete. XXX
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Yuck! Ha ha xxx
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I am with the Spider. Poor thing hiding somewhere shaking with fear from the giants hunting him.
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He can come and live with you, Shaily. π π
Best wishes, Pete.
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I don’t think he would like the cramped quarters but I’ll do it, just to scare my husband. π
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Oh GOD NO! I almost walked into a spider web years ago. That Black Recluse could have killed me. I am no fan of them.
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Luckily, we do not have poisonous ones. Be careful! π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Spiders do not generally bug me too much. I have heard more and more people ‘rescue’ them and set them free rather than killing them. When we lived in Florida, I had the unfortunate visit from huntsmen spiders (google if unfamiliar) and they were frightening. Where we live we often see what I call ‘mountain spiders’ — large specimens suited for mountain life. Not a fan inside, but they can have the outside.
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Huntsmen and Mountain are two types we don’t have here, fortunately. Not much chance of any spiders being rescued here, as they would surely walk straight back inside. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Hahaha. I don’t blame her a bit!
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You must get some big ones in the SW states, Cindy?
Best wishes, Pete. x
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tarantulas the size of your hand. π
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That’s Julie never visiting Arizona then. π
Best wishes, Pete. x
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That’s how I describe them Haha! Did you find it?
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Julie thinks she managed to hoover it up today. She said it was ‘bunched up’ near the hearth of the wood burner. No doubt it has a few relatives knocking around though, Ami. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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We get great big hairy rain spiders which come into our house during the spring and summer months, Pete. They are quite frightening to look at but are harmless. We usually try to catch them and through them over the neighbour’s wall. They usually come in pairs.I am not particularly scared of spiders but don’t want them taking up residence in my house.
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If we got those, my wife would move out! π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sneaky guys. That’s how I feel about snakes.
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Luckily, we rarely get a snake in the house in this country. When that happens, they are usually escaped pets! π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh gee, that’s makes it so much better!
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Mostly pythons, which are not poisonous. But they can still kill you by constriction! π
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Yes, I know. There are plenty in the Everglades killing off ALL the wildlife!
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We have a spider catcher (a gripper on a pole that humanely, safely catches them for removal) and one of our sons, who loves bugs, is the designated spider remover. We are getting some huge ones at the moment, bigger than your hand – perhaps the warm spring? πΏ
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Bigger than your hand? Don’t let my wife hear that! Your son sounds as if he has a great career ahead, as a ‘spider-wrangler’!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Spray the area with some sort of air freshener….they are sensitive to stuff like that and will move away….or so I am told……but they do eat a lot of other critters. good luck with the hunt….chuq
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I like the fact they eat smaller bugs. But my wife just can’t tolerate them in the house.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sue has a thing about them as well…..she sat through the movie “8 Legged Freaks”….and saw creepies everywhere….LOL chuq
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Phil is our spider-man, he has a special spider/bee catching glass and piece of card. I opened the bathroom door a couple of nights a go and a big black one was tanking across the floor, so fast! Phil managed to get the glass over it but sadly snapped three of it’s legs off in the process. He felt bad for at least 10 minutes!
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Should have finished it off as a mercy-killing. A five-legged spider won’t fare so well out in the world of spiders. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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No but T least he had a chance, or was a tasty snack for the hedgies π€£
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I have conquered my fear of spiders, or at least thats what I tell myself, but it is Gosias job to catch and release if one happens to make it into the house, whilst I shiver internally π
Never show your fear to a spider, once they know you are scared they will hunt you down!
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If you catch and release them, I’m sure they always come back. They are territorial, so regard it as their ‘spot’.
Cheers, Pete.
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My friend, Ed, claims one is never more than 8 feet away from a spider, even on a submarine.
Warmest regards, Theo
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They are certainly ubiquitous, even in big cities. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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I confess, I’m willing to live and let live with the exception of black widows and brown recluses. And the babies are f the small house spiders are really cute π·π
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Luckily, we don’t have any species of spider like that here. But we do get a lot of other types inside the house, and they are usually killed so as to not upset my wife by their presence.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am not scared of spiders and I haven’t encountered one yet here since we moved in. I don’t like seeing cockroach though. They usually come up from the drain pipe of our bathroom.
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We don’t have any cockroaches out here in the countryside. Just as well, as I hate those filthy things and would hunt them down. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Is that eight legged freak poisonous? If not, it might actually feed on dust mites and other little nuisances.
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We don’t have any poisonous spiders here, fortunately. It’s something about that very fast scuttling that makes them scary. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Apparently I’m in the minority, but (except for mosquitos and flies) I don’t kill insects in the house, despite my wife’s protests. Rather, I try to catch them in a box or bucker and release them outside. My attitude is, if they’re not a danger to me, who am I to kill them?
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I can see that, MM. My reaction to running spiders is normally instinct to kill them. The ones that just lurk in corners, I leave those alone. Wasps and flies I am happy to kill, right or wrong.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Eek! Iβm with Julie!π±
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They do startle us, but I don’t think an English spider has ever hurt anyone. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Spider killing insect spray? Keep it handy! Good luck!
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Never seen that, Frank. Only fly and wasp killer, which doesn’t work on spiders. I will investigate. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sounds as fast as our wolf spider here. My grandson just saw another on Sunday when he turned over a brick.
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I don’t think we have wolf spiders, which is just as well. Julie would probably never go outside. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh dear Pete. I confess that I laughed my socks off at this. My hubby is terrified of spiders too. Now can you imagine a blind woman trying to find and get rid of one out of the bathroom, with him sitting there in the nuddy waiting to get into the bath! Hmmm. Yes, funny!
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Does he have to give you location and instructions? “Up a bit, left a bit”? That reminded me of ‘The Golden Shot’. π
Best wishes, Pete. x
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No he leaves me to sink or swim lol.
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oh i can relate. i’m scared of spiders as well. hope it reappears and you get rid of it soon. π
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I’m guessing it is going to wait to surprise us again, Wilma. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’m with Julie. One of the reasons I hate spiders is that, unlike most other creepie crawlies, they run towards me instead of running away. And they run faster than we can. I hope you shake the duvet well.
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I didn’t see it again, and Julie slept on the sofa. π
Best wishes, Pete.
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