Just needed to be heard for a little while

Pyxis

Gosh, WaS, you ARE a sibyl! On TV right this minute is a news item about snails, being grown on a snail farm somewhere in England!
(But for eating!)

Waves_and_Smiles

I also had a very special house for spiders. We had Cardinal spiders which are absolutely huge. They are special in that they don't live in random houses, they choose certain ones and all of their descendants will live in the same place. They do visit other houses but won't set up home there. There was one that lived with us for 2 years, I had no idea that they lived that long until her. She appeared when she was a tiny baby and made a little web in the corner of the living room and I watched her grow into a massive spider. She didn't often come out of her web in the day but if I got up at night I would see her out hunting. I became very fond of her (WaSp was given orders not to remove her) and used to play with her. I would roll up tiny pieces of tissue and place them in her web. Next morning the tissue would be on the floor and her web was even bigger! After 2 years she died of old age and I cried my eyes out, she really was a pet to me. She probably lived a lot longer than most spiders manage. We were also bug free for all of her life, she kept the rest of the insect population right down and I never saw another spider in the living room.

Yes, I'm weird.

Hahahahahaha! Something about spiders will happen next!

Pyxis

You're an arachnophile! :T
Whoopde-doo!

Me too, me too, me too!

Whenever I inadvertently break a web in the garden, I always apologise profusely to the spider, and if I can, I try and make amends by looping it back up.
Watching one spinning a web is incredibly relaxing! Well, not spinning, more like crocheting! They use a little hook on their leg. It's fascinating, especially watching the start, when they're making the framework. Incredible!

Waves_and_Smiles

Oh, I agree! The webs are so beautiful and they work so hard at them! I always feel terrible when I break a web, it is like trashing someone's home. There was a garden spider that would persistently build a web outside over the front door. Of course everytime I left the house I destroyed it but instead of moving elsewhere it was back again the following morning. I apologised to that spider so many times. Perhaps it found it amusing? I always say to people who are frightened of them and insects in general that if they can bring themselves to allow one to live with them that they will hardly see any insects. They take care of everything that comes inside, they are very useful creatures.

I used to be terrified of them until I had phobia therapy! In 5 hours I went from being unable to be in a room with one to absolutely adoring them and it seems to have worked for life. It is the most successful therapy that I have ever had and I would completely recommend anyone phobic to go for treatment. The cure (and it is an actual cure) really is like magic.

Pyxis

I, too, used to be terrified of them, to the extent that I couldn't even look at a picture of one!
My 'cure' was less dramatic and took several years. It started when not wanting my daughter to catch the fear from me, I started saying things to her like, "oh, look at the lovely spider!" in the garden, while secretly shuddering. Gradually, by doing that, I found I could look at them in the garden quite happily, though was still terrified if one was in the house.
Then I did a couple of Animal Physiology courses, and just by learning how incredible are the body systems of all creatures, and how they work, my fear diminished and finally went. As it diminished, I was able to pick up bigger and bigger spiders, until I could handle the biggest ones quite happily.

A couple of years ago, I fulfilled a bucket list item by handling a bird-eating spider at a Zoo which was having a handling session for bugs and snakes. Also got to handle a large scorpion, and for the second time, a python. Snakes are great, too!

Waves_and_Smiles

I love snakes, too! I would love to handle a bird-eating spider. The closest I came was someone's pet tarantula who was actually furry and very slow moving. She was happy to sit in my hand and watch the world go by.

For the phobia treatment I had to spend 3 weeks looking at pictures of them and learn everything I could about them so it isn't that dissimilar to what you did! The only difference is we worked on me handling them, too which was easy after 5 hours. I was never originally scared of them in the first place but my mother was terrified and I picked up on her fear by the time I was 8. So you certainly did the right thing by not showing how you felt to your daughter.

lostinrates

Pyxis, where did you do your courses? ( sorry, just realised as I typed that might be a geographically exposing question)

whitewing

I don't like feet, and I'm not too fond of my stomach, so I now dislike 'stomach foots' even more. We have big orange ones here.

I am tired today. Left the house yesterday at 8am and didn't get back until 8.30pm. It was a productive day.

Waves_and_Smiles

Morning, LIR! I would be interested in that, too. I really want to do an online animal physiology course but I can't find one anywhere.

I also love peacock spiders. They are so incredibly pretty and their babies look like little teddy bears! Even my friend who is terrified of them had to reluctantly admit that the baby I showed her was a little bit cute.

Long day, whitewing! Can you relax today and have fun with DD? I need to attempt tidying again later for the surveyor tomorrow but it can wait a while yet. More coffee!

Pyxis

lostinrates wrote: »

Pyxis, where did you do your courses? ( sorry, just realised as I typed that might be a geographically exposing question)

Haha! No it's not! It was with the Open University!

It was 30 years ago, so they may have a different name now. One was 'Animal Physiology', and another was 'Biochemistry and Cell Biology'.

I'm off out to an AmDram day workshop in a min, so will catch up this evening!