Yay me!

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:07 pm

talasiga wrote:
Congratulations wrote:Should have just killed it.
I am sure that if she were to post a photo of her squashing that spider it would cause offense somehow.

Eeeeewwww....that's not a picture I'd want to post anyway.

Coffee · Post by **Coffee** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:32 pm

Izz:

1. Congratulations on facing and overcoming a phobia. That is an accomplishment and no joke about it.

2. Don't feel bad for the spider. The issue Gonzo brings up only applies to certain spiders, not all. There's 8 species that are commonly found indoors and outdoors both. Yours might have been one of them.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:03 pm

Izz--you have successfully completed your qualifying "solo spider relocation" and can now be inducted into the emmminent society of people who don't squish things unnecessarily.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:06 pm

emmline wrote:Izz--you have successfully completed your qualifying "solo spider relocation" and can now be inducted into the emmminent society of people who don't squish things unnecessarily.

I'll happily allow myself to be inducted, so long as one of the requirements isn't having to allow some icky, wiggly, gross thing with too many legs crawl on me. There I shall draw the line, and squishing shall have to be reinstated.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:09 pm

Cofaidh wrote:Izz:

1. Congratulations on facing and overcoming a phobia. That is an accomplishment and no joke about it.

2. Don't feel bad for the spider. The issue Gonzo brings up only applies to certain spiders, not all. There's 8 species that are commonly found indoors and outdoors both. Yours might have been one of them.

Thank you, Cofaidh!

I feel much better now.

And pffffttttt to YOU Slood Dood

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:50 pm

I am in awe, Izz. I couldn't have done it. Carrying a spider, no way.But then I can't get close enough to kill them either. I can't look at pictures of spiders.

Hylde, wolf spiders live under my house and invade it every fall. You talk about a nightmare, the first time that happened I just about went wild. Huge, hulkin' things runnin' across the floor, the dogs would jump up and chase them. Of course my husband was gone deer hunting for the week. It was awful. I couldn't sit with my feet on the floor for fear of them, and one got in my shoe, I forgot and ......(it got me in the toe in retaliation, swollen for about a week. Since that fall, I have "the bug man" come and spray under our house in the fall. Yes, it's toxic, but it's better than wolf spiders. Even he was amazed at the size of some of them!

My job means that on occasion I suprise a spider that's taken up residence under mail left for me to pick up. I can't think about that......

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:17 pm

izzarina wrote:And pffffttttt to YOU Slood Dood

chrisoff · Post by **chrisoff** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:13 am

Cowtime just reminded me of my favourite way to get rid of spiders when I used to live with my parents. When we spotted a spider we used to pick up one of the cats and hold it up in front of the thing so the cat saw it. Then put it down and let it play with it.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:47 am

Innocent Bystander wrote:Well Done, Izz! The Buddha would have been proud of you...

And the buddhU!

A tip: if you use a glass rather than a mug you can see where the critter is at all times. Not being an arachnophile myself, I find that very reassuring!

I keep a pint glass and a cardboard CD cover as kit for that very purpose.

As for the spider dying outside... you're doing the species a Darwinian service. If the ones you chuck out do expire, then natural selection will favour the ones which tend to conceal themselves and escape detection. Over the generations they should, therefore, bother you less and less.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:55 am

izzarina wrote:
chrisoff wrote:Now I just know I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking there's a frickin spider on my ceiling or something.
I've had nightmares about that

When I was a kid, we had polystyrene tiles on my ceiling. We also used to get some VERY big spiders. Sometimes at night I would hear a faint scratching sound as the biggest ones walked across my ceiling.

The few times I dared put on my light I regretted it. I either saw a massive and scary spider right over my head (I which case I took my duvet and slept in the bath - after checking it for spiders!), or I would see nothing, and would then be in a panic wondering where the damn thing had gone...

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:36 am

We used to have this gizmo which was a perspex pyramid on the end of a perspex rod, with a sliding door on the bottom of the pyramid. It was advertised as an advance on the tumbler-and-cardboard method, although on the same principle. You could escort your spider outside without getting any nearer to it than three feet away.

Unfortunately some of the spiders which gatecrashed us were larger than the pyramid, so we have had to return to the tumbler.

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:47 am

Just because Izzy found this spider in the house doesn't necessarily make it a house spider. It could just as easily have got in from outside, and be glad to be returned to its natural environment.

We get slugs in the kitchen at night if we leave out cat food (or rather if our cat does) - does this make them house slugs?

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:49 am

Thanks for relocating the wee critter. Regardless of what one may feel toward the little beasties, they serve (IMHO) a far more important role in this world living, than many of us two legged monsters.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:05 am

hyldemoer wrote: One of my UU friends tells me she once went to a class on Buddhism where the teacher spoke about respecting all sentinent beings.
My friend had grown up in the rural South. She said she could respect most living things but drew the line at mosquitoes.
(In addition to mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks are on my kill list also.)

What about ants?

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:40 am

I.D.10-t wrote:
hyldemoer wrote: One of my UU friends tells me she once went to a class on Buddhism where the teacher spoke about respecting all sentinent beings.
My friend had grown up in the rural South. She said she could respect most living things but drew the line at mosquitoes.
(In addition to mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks are on my kill list also.)
What about ants?

Ants swarmed in my kitchen the first June we lived here. My husband did some research and learned its best not to kill them out right. The most effective way to move the ants out of one's house is to give them a choice in the matter (depending on the concept that sometimes what we like gets us into the most trouble).

What we did was leave them a marvelous yummy tasting meal (laced with a toxic substance) that they took home and shared with their whole family.

Ants are canabalistic. If some of them lagged behind and died before bringing home the "take away", their family came out and gathered up their bodies for the feast as well.