arachnophobes everywhere

So was my comment Anagram!

Big black hairy spiders are my downfall. I can cope with the little ones and most other insects, but go rigid with fright with the black hairy ones. I have two ways of coping: 1. call my husband who has to carefully catch said big black hairy spider and put it outside, or 2. no husband around, so a big thick book!

My DH calls me to deal with spiders. I often pretend to catch them and put them out of the window but if it's cold or wet.... Poor things, they need somewhere to call home and don't do any harm!

aha Notsogrand - I have actually stuck the vacuum hose into the gravel drive on the assumption that the gravel would bash the spider and kill it so that it wouldn't climb back out! Is it any wonder the poor hypnotherapist didn't work BUT I will go back and have another try.

Big British one under my dining room table yesterday glaring at me menacingly! Just out of my reach!

I typed brutish! Not British!

I wondered how you could tell, jeni!

What? The difference between brutish and British?
To quote the earthy Eartha 'an Englishman needs time!'

Well....no, I actually meant how you knew it was British, e.g. was it wearing a Union Jack vest, but I'm sure it was very brutish anyway!

I bet it was wearing something with a union jack on it ready for the olympics, it was probably a fly-weight boxer

Ouch!

I'm afraid spiders are a no-no, patriotic flag or not!

My D is spider phobic. When she was younger, visitors would come and would hear frantic screaming from upstairs and could not understand why we were unmoved. "Is someone ill?" they would ask - "No, just D confronting a spider." She is much braver now that she is trying hard not to pass the phobia on to her children.

Jeni - you should have stuck the vacuum under the table, and Mishap - me too, I tried very hard not to pass on my phobia but I think it's genetic! My son sends the girlfriend in to deal with them.

Last week someone who came to paint our doors told me he had a pet tarantula. Yesterday an engineer who came to fix my cooker said he had two pet tarantulas. This might be a trend.

petallus How on earth can anyone call a T***** a pet? The very word sends shivers down my spine

nanban I can't even plug the vacuum in, let alone know how to work it! In some ways I wish I had a modern house with higher sockets that I could reach!

The door painter showed me a pic of his tarantula perched on his open palm. It almost covered the palm. He explained that people are scared of spiders because they suddenly dart about but tarantulas don't do that, they just plod slowly towards you.

My sister's husband - great big bloke with matching ego - is terrified of spiders. Staying at their son's while he was on holiday they had instructions not to remove the brick holding one of the spiders' lids down because of its lid-lifting ability! Husband while setting up his workmate next morning, was transfixed by a huge spider attached to the underneath - when he stopped screaming he noticed wife with tears of laughter streaming - it was she who had stuck the plastic version in place for him to find. Apparently it was some weeks before he called her anything but 'cow'!

No idea whether this is true or not but I was told that it you were holding a Tarantula and it fell off your hand onto the floor it would burst like a over ripe tomato [yuk emoticom]

I have a spider pot - think it had mixed peel in it, but anyway, it's transparent. If you put it over the spider and slide a bit of card underneath it you can take it outside and dump it without wondering if it's come out at the side and crawled up your arm, because you can see it ALL THE TIME!! For ones that are too high to reach, I try to persuade myself that they are living fly paper without the chemicals, and that helps, most of the time - also means I can feel positive about not getting rid of cobwebs.

I use the transparent pot and postcard method too.

As I read this thread spider who lives in the room ran across the floor and under the chair opposite me. It looked a bit worried ..think it knows i am reading of ways to get rid of him/her!

I so hope it was right to be worried and now is no more!

Dead deceased no more polly gone?