Pretty sure I'm under attack

[Laurelin]

Today has been terrifying!

I got up this morning and went to the bathroom. As I was doing my business, I look over and on the wall is a HUGE spider. Like... size of the palm of my hand. I freak out and grab toilet paper and throw it in the toilet. The spider starts CRAWLING OUT OF THE TOILET. I think I screamed then slammed the lid and flushed. I couldn't find it afterwards.

Flash forward until after I mowed the lawn this morning. I decided to till up the plastic doggy pool so I moved it to the porch and filled it up. Got the dogs out and Mia was playing in it when I noticed Summer had a cling on on her butt. I grabbed what was closest to me to try to scrape it off, which happened to be a dustpan. Well, there was a spiderweb under the dustpan and when I flipped it over a very large very black and red black widow was a couple inches from my hand. So I threw the dustpan but I never figured out where the black widow landed. I'ts somewhere out in my yard. *shudders*

 

[MandyPug]

Eww! I'd cry if that happened to me. Currently I'm waging war on the amount of flies in my store. Grrr. I've killed like 5 already.

 

[puppydog]

My personal horror story.

 

[Kaydee]

{{{{{Shhhhuuudddddeeeerrr}}}} We just have daddy long legs and bitty black ones and that's terrifying enough...they say it's the humidity this year. I braved the basement with a vacum and sucked spiders and webs into oblivion...and this week they're all back again...sounds like yours would crawl out of the vacum enraged:yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes:

 

[Lyzelle]

Spiders have been TERRIBLE this year! I usually find at least one a day in the house, sometimes more. And I freak out just as bad as you every time I see one. Shriek. Screech. Run away. While DH just looks at me, shakes his head, and continues playing video games. I find them by the back door/patio, in the bathrooms, on the stairs, and sometimes just chilling in the hallway.

Ugh. Supposedly we don't have many, if at all, dangerous spiders here. But they are HUGE. Some look like engorged ticks on long legs, some are tiny and black, some are brown and huge....and I don't recognize ANY of them. I'm used to Wolf Spiders, Black Widows, Brown Widows....but I can't identify any of these and it makes it all worse!

Ants have been pretty bad this year, too. They are in our garage and trying to slowly make their way through the house.

I'm not really a bug person.

 

[smkie]

Daddylonglegs are not spiders and wolf spiders are your friend, even if you don't know it. THe only ones you have to worry about can be identified by the lack of stripes or hair, have 6 eyes not 8, and a prominant and easily identifiable violin or are black and shiny as a marble and again no hair, and both are pretty much reclusive. They move around late at night, go along walls and seldom run across the room. All though there are always exceptions to the rule. Can't suggest glue traps enough, that is how I brought our brown recluse nightmare under control. Along walls, in corners, in closets, get rid of clutter and shake everything before you put it on, or get in bed. It's just habit now for us. Also do not leave porch lights on, your just inviting dinner. I feel bad when I get a wolf or a parson's pilot on my glue traps. They are good spiders and I feel bad for their going that way but it can't be helped.

 

[Southpaw]

Guuhhhh. It's no secret how much I hate spiders. I have 3 cans of spider killer next to my bed - all 3 different kinds with different ingredients, just to make sure I cover my bases and don't give those suckers a chance at survival

The other day when I was in the shower, I looked up and there was a (small) spider dangling from the ceiling above my face. I ended that shower real quickly.

 

[Xandra]

I love the big suckers, zipping around my carpets eating other creepy crawlies. They'd probably eat a brown recluse if they found one. Keep that in mind, house spider murderers.

 

[ihartgonzo]

A giant spider spiraled down from the ceiling and bit my boyfriend's... private area in the bathroom, while he was peeing this morning! Lmao he cried! So just thank your lucky stars.

UGH black widows horrify me. A wolf spider bit me and I had a welt for a month. Not my favorite.

 

[JessLough]

Daddylonglegs are not spiders and wolf spiders are your friend, even if you don't know it. THe only ones you have to worry about can be identified by the lack of stripes or hair, have 6 eyes not 8, and a prominant and easily identifiable violin or are black and shiny as a marble and again no hair, and both are pretty much reclusive. They move around late at night, go along walls and seldom run across the room. All though there are always exceptions to the rule. Can't suggest glue traps enough, that is how I brought our brown recluse nightmare under control. Along walls, in corners, in closets, get rid of clutter and shake everything before you put it on, or get in bed. It's just habit now for us. Also do not leave porch lights on, your just inviting dinner. I feel bad when I get a wolf or a parson's pilot on my glue traps. They are good spiders and I feel bad for their going that way but it can't be helped.

If I see a spider, I ain't stopping to count if it has 6 or 8 eyes, it's going to die, even if it is somebodys friend. (cause I promise it ain't mine)

My bed is against the wall on 2 sides. Them sticking to walls wouldn't be much of a comfort

Spiders are cool... As long as they stay outside. Far away from me.

 

[sassafras]

That's what cats are for. I rarely see a spider in the house except a few that have built webs in the corners of the basement windows, and I leave those alone as long as they stay put.

When I was camping last week, the daddy longlegs were just thick, I've never seen so many. Those don't bother me, though, since they mind their own business and can't bite anyway.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Ewwwwww, I've had days like that too where I SWEAR the bugs are out to get me.

Gross.

 

[smkie]

THere was a very tiny little house spider, the one that is round as a ball, no bigger than a thumbtack that lived between my window and the screen. I saw her eat mosquito after mosquito that slipped in a very small hole in the screen. I would not disturb her for all the world and was appreciative of her good diet. The hole in the screen was so small it didn't let in anything bigger yet she did her whole life cycle on nothing but disease carrying bugs. I will never understand why people hate them so.

 

[sassafras]

THere was a very tiny little house spider, the one that is round as a ball, no bigger than a thumbtack that lived between my window and the screen. I saw her eat mosquito after mosquito that slipped in a very small hole in the screen. I would not disturb her for all the world and was appreciative of her good diet. The hole in the screen was so small it didn't let in anything bigger yet she did her whole life cycle on nothing but disease carrying bugs. I will never understand why people hate them so.

Well, those people suffering with more mosquitoes in their lives are not you, so don't worry about them.

Intellectually people can understand that spiders can do good things, but still have a fear/hate of them, and they're allowed to.

 

[Doberluv]

Well, those people suffering with more mosquitoes in their lives are not you, so don't worry about them.

Intellectually people can understand that spiders can do good things, but still have a fear/hate of them, and they're allowed to.

I think it goes back to an innate instinct...a fear and to be cautious of things like snakes and spiders...a survival instinct. It's why most people tend to recoil at the sight of them. In my case, It does take some "intellectual" self discipline to over come that creepy feeling when I see a spider. If I find those tiny house spiders inside, I often will try to get them in a Kleenex or on an envelope or something and carry them outside, figuring that a lot of them are good for the garden...to eat bad bugs. But if I see a huge one, like I have in the garage, it creeps me out. I think that one could be a brown recluse...not sure, but he darts back into a crack in the wall every time I've seen him and was about to squash him. He's VERY large and creepy.

 

[Doberluv]

Okay....being me, I just had to go look up why we might be disgusted or fearful of spiders. This is very interesting, if anyone wants to skim through it. Here's the conclusion, but the rest of the thing is pretty darn interesting. (at least it is to me. lol)
(It probably isn't an instinct, according to this.)

http://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/274_s214.pdf

Conclusion
Recent studies of
spider phobia
indicate that fear of
spiders
is
closely
associated
with the disease-avoidance
response of disgust.
It is not
immediately
clear how
spiders might have become associated with this
response, although
examination of
the relevant historical literature does indicate a close association between
spiders
and illness in European
cultures from the tenth
century onward. The development
of this association between
spiders
and illness
appears
to be
closely
linked to the
many devastating and, at the time, inexplicable epidemics
that crossed Europe
from
the Middle Ages onwards. In many
areas of Europe,
the
spider appears
to have been
a suitable
target
for the displaced
anxieties caused by
these constant
epidemics;
in
other cases, its
proximity
to the real causes of the
epidemics may have fostered
opportunistic
associations between
spiders
and disease.
The
tendency of Europeans
and their descendants to be fearful of
spiders
does not seem to be shared by people
in many non-European cultures, and this is
not consistent with those evolutionary accounts of
spider
fear which
suggest
that
spider
fear should be a common feature of the human gene pool regardless of culture
(e.g. Seligman, 1971). However, it is consistent with the
present
thesis which
argues
that
spider
fear developed
as a result of the association between
spiders
and
disease in Europe
after the tenth
century.

For what it's worth, I don't blame you for being majorly creeped out by that gigantic spider.

 

[maxfox426]

That's what cats are for. I rarely see a spider in the house except a few that have built webs in the corners of the basement windows, and I leave those alone as long as they stay put.

When I was camping last week, the daddy longlegs were just thick, I've never seen so many. Those don't bother me, though, since they mind their own business and can't bite anyway.

DYK assuming you have normal cats. LOL! Mine keep the spiders as pets. And complain when I dispose of them.

We had one living between the glass and screen of the sliding door one summer. (Thankfully, he was on the outside. Not like I could have gotten to him anyway. But he was definitely still full visible, day in and day out.)

The Kitty Boy Brothers named him "Wrow-wrow".

 

[Laurelin]

I actually don't mind spiders so much except black widows and brown recluse and then of course giant spiders trying to live in my house. I usually try to set them outside but this guy was really creepy looking.

 

[Lyzelle]

Yeah, I've been on a spider hunt for the last 2 months. Letting spiders be quickly turns into an infestation in my experience. I don't want to come home to a spider infestation one day. Especially since this house isn't really ours and the Air Force doesn't react well to creepy crawlies.

So spiders get squished in my household. I don't even have houseplants. Bugs in my house I simply don't enjoy. Garden, sure, all the creepies. I had a HUGE Banana Spider out in the garden for ages. It was so perdy. But once they cross the threshold, they get squished. Unless it's a momma with babies. Then they get sprayed with whatever chemicals I get my hands on first.

 

[PlottMom]

OHMYGOD I WOULD HAVE DIED.

We saw our first tarantula last night while we were walking & I visibly shivered a few times & thought I would die. It was dead & was being dragged away by some big winged bug Ewwwwww