Never will I ever.……….

Oh Shinamae you made me giggle

I used to work in a pharmaceutical laboratory in quality control. Whenever we went into the production area to take samples etc we had to change into clean area lab coats and safety shoes. One day I took off the safety shoes and a large beetle ran out! The thought that it had been there for the whole visit... I always checked after that!

When I was little we lived in Singapore and the lady from the flat opposite us came hammering on our door one evening asking if she could borrow my dad. She had a giant flying cockroach flying round her living room. My dad dutifully saw the creature off then asked the lady where her husband was - "Oh" she said, "He's locked himself in the bathroom!"
I can still remember those cockroaches. They lived in the rubbish chutes - huge, horrible scuttly things!

Oh, how thankful I am that the only thing in the entire animal kingdom that scares me is fish!

At least they don't creep into bed with me!

My best friend is my electronic spider catcher......

So how come I'm not bothered by the spiders in the garden or at the allotment?

We had a rat problem here a few years ago and it became par for the course to look out the kitchen window and see them running along the garden wall and climbing the trees to eat the bird food. The whole area had to stop feeding the birds until they were gone.

Mice and spiders might give you a fright but rats carry diseases that can kill you......

Lilyflower

I am an arachnophobe and this thread has given me the heebie jeebies.

I have such a visceral reaction to the shape of large, thick legged spiders that even the top of a large tomato which looks spiderish sets of the dread in the pit of my stomach.

I'm exactly the same, even when it was me that pulled the stalk off the top.

I logically know it isn't a spider, but I often spend ages psyching myself up to touch it.

Such a funny, scary thread.
We spent time in Asia when newly married and from Japan to Hong Kong joined a cruise ship and met up with many other young foreigners. Those of us who wanted to go on to Singapore a few weeks later persuaded a Chinese shipping company to let us travel with the locals in the hold, not usually allowed but since there were 8 of us they reckoned we could look after each other. Sleeping accommodation was floor to ceiling, wall to wall, narrow metal bunks with a thin mattress and we soon learnt before we climbed in to give the mattress a series of sharp smacks whereupon large red brown cockroaches exploded out from under it and shot in every direction. I don’t know how I ever got to sleep. We had lots of other cockroach adventures on other boats and ferries. We would stay up on deck where we could and watch the rats scurrying to and fro. At least if my memory is correct there were no spiders.

I was asleep on a hot summer night duvet down but kept being disturbed by a tuckling on my leg, then my hip and finally my waist. Half asleep l sweeped my hand across but realised pretty soon there was something on me.l sat bolt upright to see a massive spider in my bed, l can tell you l have never moved so fast in my life and dispatched it quick sharp!

No no no! Bed getting checked from now on. Haven't shared my bed for 10 years and definitely not starting now!

The cat once thoughtfully stowed a dead mouse in my handbag. I found it when I reached in for a tissue during my evening class. Nice.

On the day of princess Diana's funeral, our cat came in with a mouse, just as the coffin rolled out with the "Mummy" card on the flowers.

The mouse got away and disappeared into the airing cupboard.

I was in Cyprus a few years ago and heard a scuttling noise coming from the bedroom, my partner approached the noise thinking it was a mouse (whilst I climbed in to a cabinet!) but it was the biggest spider I have ever seen! Luckily it went towards the door and left the apartment!

Two hideous experiences involving spiders. A few years ago I got up, got washed, dressed, washed hair and make up on. So far so good. I was busy drying my hair when I felt something on my arm, under the sleeve of the cardigan I was wearing. Glanced down and saw a slight bulge, jumped up and the biggest spider ever came flying out the cuff. My darling late husband found me unable to speak coherently, standing on the couch. I never get dressed without shaking my clothes now.
Other incident was when I was brushing my teeth. I usually just stuck my mouth under the tap to rinse but for some reason that day I used a glass tumbler. A massive spider came out the tap into the glass. I ran screaming downstairs, foaming at the mouth with toothpaste. My poor Mum thought I was having a fit! I never drink from the tap now.
My current home is an old bar and I fight a daily battle with cobwebs, festooned from the beams but seldom see the culprits.

Should read "old barn" not "old bar".

Lakeland sell a great spider repellent - Spider X. It really seems to discourage spiders in the bedroom. We also use it in the shed to keep down the amount of cobwebs.

It happened to me about a year ago. It took us 2 hours to dismantle the bed and find it before I would go back to sleep in it. In the end I went to sleep in the spare room as it was 1am (spider still not located!). Spider eventually found in between valance and mattress at bottom of the bed.

I once lived in an old cottage near a farm that had a problem with rats. I used to lie in bed hearing a scuttling under the floorboards and realised there was a rats nest underneath us. We put poison in the nest and had the most foul smell of dead rat wafting through the house for weeks!,p!

I always check my gardening shoes, which I leave in the garage. The record is, 1 wasp, 3 snails, a few slugs, a frog and 2 newts. All in one shoe.

Years ago when we lived in Cyprus I felt something in my hair just after we turned the lights out, I dozily brushed my hand over my head to hear a clunk as something hit the headboard. It was the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen. This summer I slipped my foot into my slipper to receive multiple wasp stings, took weeks for the pain to go.

I wish I had not ready any of this as I have phobias about many creepy crawlies: spiders, beetles, earwigs. I put Deet on my arms and legs when I do the garden also I do not swim in the sea as I am phobic about crabs and lobsters.

I don't like crabs. Too much like spiders.
And they sidle, into the bargain.

I had this happen to me last week.

A few years ago when I lived in a cottage with beams, I had just put my head on my pillow and within minutes I had something drop into my ear. I flew out of bed, crashing into the wardrobe while grappling for the light and simultaneously plucking at my ear. Once I'd got my bearings, I found a dismembered spider. It had fallen from the beams, so late at night I was dusting the beams in my bedroom

I don't like spiders but I wouldn't kill one.

But.....once many years ago I was ironing the sleeve of a white shirt and didn't realise there was a big spider inside the sleeve until a reddish-brown stain and a slight bulge appeared in the sleeve.

I nearly threw up at the thoughts of what I had done!

Oh my days. Don’t think I will ever sleep peacefully again after reading this! My biggest phobia is rodents. ?