Spiders - normal ?

tea_lover

bazster wrote: »

Yep, tea lover, I'd say that's gone beyond the creeps and is fully-fledged pathological!

Yup! Although in my defence (kind of lol) I'm fine with everything else - snakes, slugs, dogs, heights, dark nights, thunderstorms, moths, etc. All fine, just the damn spiders.

jog

somegem wrote: »

HBS - My DS 2.5y is obsessed with slugs ! he will sit looking at them are ages - I think thats boys for you

This reminds me of when my son was about 2 1/2 and I went to put some clean washing in his sock draw only to find half a dozen snails underneath the socks because he thought they'd like to live there where they'd be warm!!

bazster

somegem wrote: »

Bazster - really ?! OMG - Australia is on my list of places I want to visit (one day!) but after your post I think I'm going to have to re-think this.

I was exaggerating for comic effect! Well, a bit! Redbacks are seriously deadly, and they do turn up in houses, I've seen 'em.

The Sydney funnelweb threat is, I think, massively exaggerated. I've never seen one, nor met any Aussie who has.

Huntsman spiders are seriously HUGE and are seriously EVERYWHERE! Think of the biggest wolf spider you ever saw in the UK and treble it. However, just like wolf spiders, huntsmans are completely harmless.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

bazster wrote: »

Jojo, you remind me of my OH! She passionately refuses to kill anything (OK, I don't kill things either, but I'm not quite so evangelical about it!)

When people say to her "well what if you have a great big bluebottle in the house?" she replies "I just open the doors and windows and ask it to leave!" And she does.

Yup. And they usually do, as well, don't they?

Having said that, mozzies get it as soon as I see them. No mercy there. And if I discovered bedbugs or roaches, I'd hijack the first Rentokil van I saw/try and procure my own supply of napalm (although seeing as they can withstand everything, and the odds of my getting a tiny nuclear bomb are minimal, I'd probably give up, move out and leave the landlord to deal with it for the next tenant). And, whilst I don't like the idea of using worms, I'll happily use maggots and casters for fishing.



Gardening organically means there is a bit more in the way of life outside my back door. Sometimes the biodiversity wanders indoors. It happens.

The most inconvenient part of this is going to be when the craneflies come in the house this autumn. They are so stupid, they're practically kamikaze in their flight paths. And I have a new cat who loves chasing bugs who has never seen a cranefly before.

[makes mental note to reinforce the venetian blinds, as the cat is already regularly retrieved from inside them]

dragonette

I have heard of someone having a free range tarantula as a house pet. Apparently you would occassionally hear a clickering noise as it walked.
Not keen on that!

I tend to put all beasties out the window - they havfor sae as much ritght to live as me, just not inside MY home. OH thinks I'm mad for saving them when I get creeped by some of them (the really giant spiders) but I still won't let anyone kill them.

I managed central america with the poisonous centipedes, couldn't do australian spiders or snakes though

somegem

A spider that big wouldn't have to bite me - if it got near me seriously my heart would just stop ! - no kidding.

Jog - very cute story boys are fab aren't they

bazster

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Yup. And they usually do, as well, don't they?

Indeed they do!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Having said that, mozzies get it as soon as I see them. No mercy there. And if I discovered bedbugs or roaches, I'd hijack the first Rentokil van I saw/try and procure my own supply of napalm (although seeing as they can withstand everything, and the odds of my getting a tiny nuclear bomb are minimal, I'd probably give up, move out and leave the landlord to deal with it for the next tenant).

Bedbugs or roaches in the house would have me scanning the poisons section in the garden centre too.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

And, whilst I don't like the idea of using worms, I'll happily use maggots and casters for fishing.

I used to fish many years ago, I thought maggots were cute. I liked the way that they would wriggle off your palm, squeeze between your fingers and come out the other side!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

The most inconvenient part of this is going to be when the craneflies come in the house this autumn. They are so stupid, they're practically kamikaze in their flight paths. And I have a new cat who loves chasing bugs who has never seen a cranefly before.

[makes mental note to reinforce the venetian blinds, as the cat is already regularly retrieved from inside them]

All I can say is, put all the breakables into cupboards, and have a camera at the ready!

System

I'll have to ask my kids where the chestnut trees are as they used to collect them when they were kids..... its not something i collected when i was a child so i wouldnt know.

bazster

dragonette wrote: »

I have heard of someone having a free range tarantula as a house pet. Apparently you would occassionally hear a clickering noise as it walked.
Not keen on that!

Sounds great to me, but I can't see it working with a cat. Or rather, I can't see the cat working for long!

hazyjo

Jeez... I'm forgetting to breathe here, reading all these!

I actually ordered a pizza once cos I needed someone to get rid of a spider for me when I lived on my own!

I'm much better than I was and now just freak out over the massive fat ones. I'm quite calm with the 'shed spiders' and the smaller ones. And I let them stay if they stay in one place like a window frame corner. It's when they move around a lot, or scurry round the floor I go a bit mental. Quite a big one kind of 'jumped' very fast along the carpet last night. Saw it disappear near the sofa and managed to ignore it. Did make me feel very jittery though...

Jx