Wincy…
Do you like spiders?
Okay, let me word that a little more carefully, do you hate spiders?
I don’t.
I mean I don’t want to cuddle them or anything, but when you live out here, cheek-to-jowl with Mother Nature, you gotta expect a spider or two in your domain. And while there are some nasty ones (red-back spiders come to mind) most are pretty harmless in this corner of the world.
Of course, living not far from a river (as we do) seems to encourage web-weaving critters to make their homes around our house, with insects endlessly being drawn to our night lights. Cobwebbing is a relentless task around here, and I have become fairly immune to flinching when seeing them in the course of my day.
My kids, however, seem to have been touched by arachnophobia. (Can you believe it? Dash, who adores sharks, almost goes into convulsions on the sight of something eight-legged! And he seems to have ‘infected’ Violet with his fear.)
So when we arrived back home from our latest city visit – picking up a couple of overtired kids en route from their 4-day school camp – and found THIS fella in our daughter’s room…
Let’s just say he wasn’t made very welcome by one daughter who was running short on sleep!
He’s a Huntsman spider – and while they grow very large, they are actually not considered dangerous to humans and take care of lots of insects (including cockroaches I believe).
None of these arguments mattered to Dash and Violet of course…
Violet just demanded he was taken OUT and then conducted a thorough inspection of her room to ensure no ‘friends’ remained.
Dash declined to help her out…
So Mr I caught him and he was held captive (in an upturned plastic cup*) overnight and set free into our paddock this morning…
He is a rather healthy-looking specimen, isn’t he?
Go forth and eat cockroaches, my friend! And for the sake of my ears, steer clear of Violet’s bedroom please…
Q: Are you a spider-liker?
🙂
PS Promise something pretty next post!
*Please forgive the state of my plastic – bore water in a dishwasher does not make for spot-free glasswear!
A side of pork...
11 Comments
Dawn C
Spiders don’t really bother me. I keep a healthy herd of daddy longlegs in my office plants. But I can side with Violet. I don’t want to share my bedroom with them.
BB of Oz
LOL – Fair enough Dawn. Daddy longlegs here too (by the dozen)…
Kelly
I kind of like spiders (as long as theyre not a brown recluse or a black widow) and that looks like a mighty fine specimen!
I snapped a pic of a HUGE wolf spider with my phone recently, the biggest I think I’ve ever seen. They eat lots of bugs and don’t spin webs, so I don’t mind having them around.
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Leenie
Anything that takes out a cockroach is okay in my book. Just don’t want him in my bed or my shoes and I’d rather not meet something like that in the dark! WOW!
Leenie´s last blog post ..WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Anne@Grit and Giggles
Daddy longlegs I can handle, and little ones that stay put in the web near the window or high up in the corner but huntsmen, shivers just thinking about them. Their tap tap tapping as they walk around in the dark, one minute you see them the next you don’t. I don’t really like spiders but I can get rid of them if I need to by myself. I recall many a squealing night which led to mum knocking down a huntsman from way up high and catching it, teasing us with it and then letting it free outside. I also recall the time I tried to eradicate one from my car, when I thought I might be safe I headed off to work (no option really) and before even getting to the 100 sign it had crawled up my leg and onto my shoulder … I nearly hit that 100 sign then had myself a little panic attack on the side of the road which I had to get over because, urgh, I was going to be late for work. I have my reasons for not liking them. Oh then there was that time I was sitting on the loo (butt naked as you do, I was going for a shower) and a big fat juicy black spider fell out of the skylight onto me, yep I screamed. As long as spiders stay in their web and outside they are quite fine, well except the poisonous ones.
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Gretchen in KS
My hubby once had a dog that was, in effect, a three-legged creature because of brown recluse bite as a puppy. I’ve been bitten by what I suspect was another of the brown sort on the bridge of my nose a few years ago, while I was sleeping (just going by the way the skin kept dying off and cratering–it’s not a nice place to try to build a scar) so I might be a tad bit phobic about the eight-legs, myself. But I try to keep in mind that they serve a purpose. Outside.
Rebecca
I hate spiders but have gotten brave enough to deal with them myself most of the time well unless they are over-head then I am afraid they will fall on me. I have read about these huntsman spiders and how people let them live in their homes to help keep out the other bugs. Hmm I have never lived where there are cockroaches present so I can’t imagine them being any worse than that huge spider! I don’t have issues with snakes or rodents though.
Hippomanic Jen
At College there was a huntsman who took up residence in one of the shower cubicles. I discovered him when I was in quite a vulnerable state and went up to the floor above for showers for weeks. Not a fan.
jeanie
lol – we used to have a whole town of golden orb spiders in our front yard at the Cordeaux Street house – certainly kept the unwary from our doors at night!!
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debby
I am not afraid of spiders. At least I wasn’t until I dropped in here. That fellow is the Axel Rose of Arachnids.
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Helen Beutel
Yes terrified of spiders of any kind. My Mother always believed that where there was one there was 2 more. (They always come in threes.) She was usually proved to be right!!!!!! I have inherited this fear.