Spiders and other creepy crawlies

[Robster59]

Spiders, insects, etc., even bees and wasps, don't bother me. They never have, but I think it's because my Mum and Dad never used to worry about a spider running across the ceiling in the house. I was used to them.
My missus on the other hand ...........................
If she sees one, she goes into a panic. I have to catch it and get rid of it (something I hate to do), and I can be called on from anywhere in the house to remove it. We've moved into a new house which has a few spiders dotted around. The dog is fascinated by them, and if he sees one gets involved in a staring battle with it (he's no chance, the spider has him beaten on number of eyes!). Anyway, as soon as he doe this, my missus has me looking all around to see if I can see what the dog is looking at.
She has read somewhere about a spider that's around that bites people. I looked it up. There are 4 in the UK which can cause pain if they bite you, but none of them live in houses as a rule, and none of them look like the ones we have.
I really don't get this fear of creepy crawlies. We are massively bigger than them, they can't, in the main, do us any harm, and they have more reason to be scared of us than we of them.
I ask my missus why she reacts as she does, but the only response I can get is they are "horrible" or "disgusting".
I appreciate she is very unlikely to change, but I just don't get it.

 

[Neilds]

You are asking people to try and explain how a woman's mind works, good luck with that

 

[BiMGuy]

My wife was terrified by spiders, she got it from her dad. I trained her out of it by refusing to get rid of them for her.

We do get some rather large spiders in the house at this time of year. I just leave them, the wife puts them outside. They can take their chances with the dog and the cat.

This year we have a lot of false widows. Those I do put back outside.

 

[Orikoru]

My wife also has the fear of spiders. She sees one, she starts screaming at me to come and kill it. If I'm too slow and it goes behind the sofa or something, she will not rest until we've pulled all the furniture out and killed it.

I saw one in the garden the other day that was 10cm across (legspan), wasn't a fan of that one. It was on the outside wall of the house so I washed it away with a jet from the hose.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I'd rather have spiders than flies. Offer her the option

Now, if it was snakes ..........

 

[backwoodsman]

Mrs B is also scared of spiders. She once saw something scurrying in her peripheral vision so told me to deal with it. I sent her to get a jar or something so I could catch it. By the time she came back I'd located it. She handed me a jam-jar. "Sorry love", I said, "we're going to need a bucket for this one". She nearly fainted. Biggest darn spider I've ever seen.

But before I cast too many aspersions - I'm scared of worms.

 

[CliveW]

You cannie kill a spider!!! If it wasn't for a spider, Robert The Bruce wouldn't have defeated King Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314.

 

[Imurg]

Where's my flamethrower

 

[GB72]

No fear of spiders but bats are a whole different matter. Had a panic attack in Prague Zoo when it was not clear that the exhibit I was walking into had live bats flyng around. Will not go on holiday to places like Sri Lanka that have bats the size of large chickens.

 

[Smiffy]

I hate spiders, my wife is terrified. Thank God we've got a Henry vacuum with a really long tube, because that's where they go, with a rag stuffed up the pipe so they can't get back out again. We both slept on the settees downstairs once because there was a honking great big one in the bedroom that night...???

 

[Neilds]

As the owner of a Chilean Rose Tarantula, I am very offended by some of these posts and if I don't start seeing some spidey love very soon, I will be forced to put some pictures of Silky on this thread.

 

[BiMGuy]

As the owner of a Chilean Rose Tarantula, I am very offended by some of these posts and if I don't start seeing some spidey love very soon, I will be forced to put some pictures of Silky on this thread.

We need pics.

 

[Imurg]

Must put Neilds on ignore........

 

[oxymoron]

No fear of spiders but bats are a whole different matter. Had a panic attack in Prague Zoo when it was not clear that the exhibit I was walking into had live bats flyng around. Will not go on holiday to places like Sri Lanka that have bats the size of large chickens.

Was in Sri lanka a few years back and a bat flew straight down the center of our table in a restaurant , bloody huge that thing , large chicken does not do it justice it was massive you could feel the draught from
its wings.
Another time we were in Cuba and a trip was an excursion to a club\restaurant that was in some old caves called the bat caves by the locals , we were assured they no longer lived there as the missus is terrified of them .
However she went to the loo and one flew under the door in to the cubicle , i never seen her exit a loo as fast

 

[GB72]

Was in Sri lanka a few years back and a bat flew straight down the center of our table in a restaurant , bloody huge that thing , large chicken does not do it justice it was massive you could feel the draught from
its wings.
Another time we were in Cuba and a trip was an excursion to a club\restaurant that was in some old caves called the bat caves by the locals , we were assured they no longer lived there as the missus is terrified of them .
However she went to the loo and one flew under the door in to the cubicle , i never seen her exit a loo as fast

I am laughing and mentally screaming at the same time.

 

[Slab]

No fear of spiders but bats are a whole different matter. Had a panic attack in Prague Zoo when it was not clear that the exhibit I was walking into had live bats flyng around. Will not go on holiday to places like Sri Lanka that have bats the size of large chickens.

I'll not expect you here anytime soon then. We have a lot of large Flying Fox bats (fruit bats) that fly over our flat each evening and hang around in the trees by the beach before they go 'hunting'
Its cool to watch them. Found one on the 7th tee box with a torn wing once

One of the funniest things I've seen here was a troop of monkeys sneak up on the roosting bats during the day and shake the branches to make them all fly off

 

[RichA]

We have a catch and release policy for wolf spiders (because they're big and scuttle around on the floor) and false widows (because they can deliver an unpleasant bite). Everything else is allowed to live indoors in return for controlling the flying insects.

 

[GB72]

I'll not expect you here anytime soon then. We have a lot of large Flying Fox bats (fruit bats) that fly over our flat each evening and hang around in the trees by the beach before they go 'hunting'
Its cool to watch them. Found one on the 7th tee box with a torn wing once

One of the funniest things I've seen here was a troop of monkeys sneak up on the roosting bats during the day and shake the branches to make them all fly off

Luckily I was unaware of the bat population last time I visited and did not come face to face with any when staying at the Shandranee near the airport.

 

[GB72]

Was in Sri lanka a few years back and a bat flew straight down the center of our table in a restaurant , bloody huge that thing , large chicken does not do it justice it was massive you could feel the draught from
its wings.
Another time we were in Cuba and a trip was an excursion to a club\restaurant that was in some old caves called the bat caves by the locals , we were assured they no longer lived there as the missus is terrified of them .
However she went to the loo and one flew under the door in to the cubicle , i never seen her exit a loo as fast

Should have seen me at Prague Zoo with my hood up and pulled tight on my hoodie so I looked like Kenny from South Park as my wife tried to calm me down to get me out of the exhibit. Luckily an copious amount of Staroprammen managed to stop the nightmares and flash backs.

 

[Neilds]

We need pics.

As you asked nicely