I've lived in this present flat and (surprisingly, considering the state of the place) I had never seen a spider in here - until about five days ago. In the bedroom, parked motionless high up on a wall, was one of these creatures, at least 4 inches leg-tip to leg-tip.
I've always been an arachnophobe but, since my teens, have avoided killing one. As for all non-humans, I always automatically put myself in THEIR place and try to see things from their point of view. And anyway, I shun any thought of snuffing out a life when it just isn't necessary. So, gritting my teeth, I got a small brush and a plastic bucket, stood up on the bed and, hardly daring to look, tried to give it a gentle sweep into the bucket, intending to tip the creature through the open window. Of course the spider was easily dislodged but, naturally, it missed the bucket, landed on the carpet - and ran under the bed. I wasn't going poking about under there while still shuddering inside.. When bed-time came round I just had to block out the thought of where it might be. Forcing myself to dismiss any thought of it, I haven't seen it since.
I was just starting to recover my composure when last night, while watching 'Watchdog' with Anne Robinson (the very same who had a moment of worldwide glory as questioner when 'The Weakest Link' started on American TV), I detected a a movement in the corner of my eye. Then - a similar sized arachnid scuttled over the carpet, right in front of me, and lost itself among the stacks of cassette tapes amassed below the T.V. My blood ran cold - an automatic response. Usually at this time my faithful friend Blackso is sitting in my lap for a couple of hours nap before his nocturnal prowling, but it would have to be that last night, very unusually, he wasn't in the room. He might have solved the problem for me. If he hadn't noticed it I could have let him sniff around - though even if he did find it, after a moment or two's curiosity, he probably would have got bored and returned to his slumbers.
So here I am this morning, knowing that as I type this somewhere behind me, lurking in a cranny, is a creature that makes me recoil with seemingly hard-wired, uncontrollable revulsion. It's very probably waiting for evening time to come out and run around again - and somewhere in the bedroom is still that other one. One? I suppose they could well be the same one. But couldn't they also have families? - There could be dozens and dozens of them......Oh NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
It seems no harm :)
ReplyDeleteHello:
ReplyDeleteAmong all of God's creatures, spiders are by no means our favourite! But, like you, we could not bring ourselves to willingly kill them, or anything else come to that, although we must confess, on occasion, to having used fly spray. Less personal, but the thought of mass murder does haunt one!!
We can offer no help or suggestion other than to say that, in all likelihood, the spider currently in your flat is an orphan, unmarried, without partner, with few friends and, possibly, about to die a peaceful death from old age. We do hope so!
P.S.
ReplyDeleteJ&L will do very nicely - thank you. Indeed, anything at all. How kind of you to think about it. Bad luck about the teeth - and all the while we were basking in the late summer sun on the shores of Lake Balaton [at, most likely, half the price of a dental visit!!].
Spiders are our friends! However, like you, I'd prefer our friends stay outdoors.
ReplyDeleteYou really need to put more time into finding it and taking it outside or it's going to end badly for one of you.
Ray, so far we've watched the first two dragon tattoo movies. We'll watch the third perhaps tonight. I'll write a blog post about it. Seeing Mikael shirtless in bed got me all hot and bothered ;-)
Oh Tai, although I know what you say is true, like so many of us, I've been taught (at an impressionable age) to fear spiders. I know it's irrational but it goes so deep, revulsion is automatic. Hypnotherapy is available to remove this fear (and it's successful in all but the most extreme cases) and if I had money to spare I'd have considered it long ago, but the reality is that one only encounters spiders in this part of the world very rarely, and it hardly seems worth the trouble.
ReplyDeleteJ&L - yes, I don't even kill flies which come into the flat, even into the kitchen. I make sure there's no exposed food about, open the window, draw the blind down so far as to leave a foot or so of daylight which attracts it out. It usually works - at least in the daytime.
I do have some fly killer spray for true emergencies never use it. I did think of using it on the spider but I know how they curl up in a slow, agonising death, so that too was a non-starter.
I'm sure you're right re the 'marital status' of the spider. In fact it's certainly more afraid of me than even I am of it.
Good to hear that there was enough sun at Lake Balaton for you to bask under.
Thanks for your dental thoughts. Should be okay now - until either pain arrives or another filling comes out! Fingers are crossed.
Cubby, your no-doubt sincere suggestion that I go and hunt for it is rather more than I can manage. I hope by saying that if I don't find it and put it out "it's going to end badly" you don't mean I'll find it one night crawling over my face! If so my neighbours are going to be awoken by a high-pitched nelly-type shriek.
ReplyDeleteI shall watch out with considerable keen-ness for your 'Dragon' blog. I can understand you feeling 'hot' at the sight of a shirtless hunk in bed - but 'bothered'? (Yes, I know, I know, only a figure of speech.)
Anyway now that you'll soon have seen all the films, you can start reading the books, right? ;-)
Oh my dear, Ray you do make me laugh, I can just picture you running around the rooms with a bucket and brush trying to rid the whole place of those lovely little critters!
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I'm not a fan of them, and I'll speak to them and encourage them to walk out the door themselves. Then I'll use glass and paper to remove them.
I'll tell you about the brown recluse that sat on my foot for a bit when I was in America land. That gave me the willies!
Argh. I'd be vacuuming every square inch of that house and hoping to suck up that spider! My heart goes out to you.
ReplyDeleteMitch, it's now dark and I just KNOW it's behind me watching my every move with its multiple eyes. Must try to stop thinking about it or I'll go mad. What a useless phobia it is to have - which you too possess by the sound of it. But thanks for your sympathy.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to surf the WEB - aaaaaaargh!
Jase - (Sorry, but I've only just noticed your comment, 2 days later. Give me a slap - please!)
ReplyDeleteIt's NO laughing matter, my friend. I'm always in a tug-of-war with emotions which, on one side tells me to freak out and KILL, KILL, KILL - and on the other, an inner instinct to respect all life. It's always the latter that wins, but it's a painful route getting there.
I've heard it said (as for flies, bees and all such insects) that if you gently ask it to leave, it will. I make no further comment.
And just mentioning your experience in America has got my pulse racing to a level. Now where are my blood pressure tablets?
My comment above, last paragraph - insert the word 'dangerous' before 'level'. (Hardly worth saying, was it?)
ReplyDeleteI too have arachnophobia, and your photo gave me a jump!
ReplyDeleteDr Spo, I'm astonished! I would have thought that you, more than most, would have been familiar with means to divest yourself of this irrational reaction. If YOU share this phobia what hope do we, lesser mortals, have? ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat one is pretty big! Overt the years I've been able to deal with my arachnophobia. As long as they don't make a menacing move I'm generally okay with them being in the room I'm in. If they get too close, I'll try to get them to go in a different direction. The only time I'd really freak out is if one landed on me or very close to me.
ReplyDeleteI think, Kyle, that I'm pretty well near the stage that you are. Admittedly it's always a tussle between going do-lally and wanting to either run a mile or destroy it, and being sanguine, knowing that it isn't going to harm you. Unless they're coming towards you (and they do tend to move very fast, don't they?) there's really no need to feel threatened. Mind you, it's easy to say that while the threat is in abeyance. (It must be still in this room somewhere - as is the one in the bedroom - but I haven't seen either since the day they first presented themselves.)
ReplyDelete