Arachnaphobia

We really don't have many spiders in the house. With the exception of the little ones that live in dusty corners spinning haphazard webs and are more long thin legs than anything else. They call them daddy long legs here, though I've no idea what they really are. They're harmless, similar, if not the same, to what I had back home in the corners of my room, and they take care of the moths that get in the house.

So today, when I was getting up to take my plate of former apple and peanut butter to the kitchen and saw an evil looking thing run across the entry way, I made some weird noise that was somewhere between a shudder and a yelp. Then smashed it to bits with my plate. It was black, and all angles and points. The thing seriously looked horrendous and like it would eat your soul if you gave it half a chance. It was either a White Tip or a House Spider, both of which are venomous and can make you sick.

A kitten ate it's squashed remains.

Later in the day, after my husband came home, I started cleaning up the cupboards, reorganising them so that the kitchen is more efficient. I brought Phillip in to show him where everything now was, and after I 'd opened the second door on one of the cupboards and quickly moved on, my husband made a kind of annoyed noise. I asked repeatedly what was wrong, did something need to be moved, WHAT? He didn't tell me. I kept asking. He finally pulled me one step over and pointed up into the still-open cupboard.

I thought I was being dramatic, thinking it was nearly as big as my hand spread open. Phillip said I wasn't, and that it had quite a span on it. He shuddered then, too.

I screamed and ran to the other side of the kitchen. More like hopped, but still. Then, while nearly vomiting and making too many odd noises to describe, I asked Phillip take the photos. Then asked him to either move the Huntsman outside, or kill it. I guess it became all defensive, so he squashed it. They have bright blue blood.

As close up as Phillip would get. Ugh....

The ducks ate that one once it'd been tossed outside.

We're pretty sure that both the spiders made their way into the house via a box we brought home from his parent's place. It had a food processor and blender in it that had been given to him ages ago, but he had no use for. So his mother stored it in her work shed. They just found it and gave it to us. The box had been unsealed and full of sawdust, dead wood lice, and the husk of a huntsman spider.

And his parent's place has a white tip problem, and plenty of Huntsman, where as we have none of those things. Only the scorpions. Huntsman can be rather helpful spiders, keeping other worse types down in population (which is why I was ok with it being released outside instead of killed, it just had to go all psycho instead). Plus, we did the whole Baygon spraying thing, so we really just don't get much in the house because it's deterred (or dies) when it tries.

And I'd rather have the scorpions. I'm happy with just the scorpions. They don't hide and then fall out onto you, they're just there. Trying to live. Spiders... spiders are sneaky. I'm ok with them outside, in their own habitat, where I'm not surprised by them and usually wearing gloves if I see one (like my last visit to Tassi). Just not in my home. My skin is STILL shuddering.

Danella graciously put her hand next to one we found last year for a size comparison.