I Hate Spiders

[ricoFlame]

i think they're freaky as heck, definitely not afraid of them, but if i saw a big hairy monster sized one i'd probably be totally freaked out and get outta there asap.

[troutman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA0ffVBw584

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by PowerPlayoffs06

Years ago, I was laying in bed reading a book, all calm and relaxed when suddenly this spider comes running right across the pages. I slammed the book shut and friggin' whistled the thing into a corner so hard it left a little dent in the wall and crushed in the spine of the book. At the exact same time as I was hurling the book, my body had somehow instinctively tried to leap from a laying position in the middle of the queen sized bed and was attempting to land standing and poised for flight from the room. I fell short though and landed right on the edge of the bedframe, which snapped with a loud crack and unceremoniously dumped me onto the floor with a resounding thud.

Quite the laughs were had explaining what had just happened when my folks rushed into the room to see what the commotion was about.

I hate spiders.

This story made me laugh. Nice description.

Oh, and I am also DEATHLY terrified of spiders. I'd stare down a cougar in the wild, but if I see even the tiniest spider in my house I scream like a girl.

Spiders, most other bugs, snakes, mice, rats...basically anything creepy crawly...I just shuddered typing this out.

[Russic]

Mice get me. When I lived with my folks we lived in Edgemont, right on the edge of a really nice park area. My mom always put mouse poison around the house and then she stopped before we were to sell the house. Turns out we ended up waiting 3 extra months to sell the place. Those were the worst 3 months of my life (slight exaggeration, but they really sucked). Whole house was filled with mice.

As for spiders, I don't like them on me, but I can't say I hate them. I hate flying insects more, so I welcome a web or two. Oddly, the other day I was playing grand theft auto on my couch and a pretty big spider (big for calgary at least) scurried out of a couch cushion, onto my arm and ran down my hand. Freaked me out good and hard. Why are the big ones so damn fast?

[troutman]

Is this an urban legend?

I've heard that we swallow many spiders each year in our sleep.

Spider Myths:

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseu...eyousleep.html

Myth: You unknowingly swallow an average of four live spiders in your sleep each year.

Myth: Spiders drink moisture from the mouths or lips of sleeping humans.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by BlAcKNoVa

Spiders? Not so much. Bees, hornets, wasps? GET THEM THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! I'm a fair sized guy but when one is flying near me I run like the wind.

How true, I see a wasp and I run, screaming like a school girl.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Mccree

How true, I see a wasp and I run, screaming like a school girl.

I've mastered the art of killing wasps. Stand perfectly still with your hand up as though you're about to smack a midget on the top of the head. When the wasp gets close enough, smack it. It'll be stunned and crash-land. This is when you stomp.

[MissTeeks]

Small spiders don't bother me, it's the big ones that I can't stand. I have an irrational fear of walking by the grapes in the produce department of the grocery store because of the stories of black widow spiders living in the bags. I will walk on the complete other side of the isle. My sister makes fun of me.

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Stand perfectly still with your hand up as though you're about to smack a midget on the top of the head.

I've had to use that stance countless times.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I've mastered the art of killing wasps. Stand perfectly still with your hand up as though you're about to smack a midget on the top of the head. When the wasp gets close enough, smack it. It'll be stunned and crash-land. This is when you stomp.

I prefer to run like a school girl. I HATE THOSE THINGS SO MUCH.

[fredr123]

I have a friend in Victoria who has a brick used exclusively for killing the Tim Burton-esque spiders in his home.

[dissentowner]

Cue the spider guy. My hobby besides saltwater inverts is breeding tarantula's and working with arachnophobe's. I too used to be scared of spiders until I decided to confront the fear when I was 16. I went to a pet store and I purchased a Costa Rican Stripe Knee. I made sure I also got the little container it was in with it because there was no way in hell I was touching that thing! I had my dad come with me and he had to carry it to the car and when we got it home I kept it on my dresser in my bedroom. My father had to feed it for the first couple weeks and there was bad nightmares and sleep because I had to get up and make sure the stupid spider was still in it's tank. Then I started feeding it the crickets myself, openin the lid, throw them in quickly and slamming the lid down. Eventually I would watch it and I decided it was in a very small tank and it was probably unhappy (I was not the expert I am now and did not know they need almost no room to wander). I debated about taking it to this new exotic pet store that had opened up locally and decided to give it a try myself. So I get it's new tank ready but when it came time to do the deed I could not bring myself to do it. So off to the exotic pet store I went. The guy there who would eventually become a customer of mine simply popped off the lid, stuck his hand in there and tapped the spider on the rump and it ran into the centre of his hand. Then he did the same to get it in the new tank. Then we got talking about my fear and he told me he could help me with it. A week later I was able to hold my spider, still kinda afraid at first but soon it was no big deal. As I did more research on them I found out all the beautiful colours they can have and to make a long story shorter my facination turned into a side business where I breed over 200+ different species of tarantula. Some are very handleable, some are very aggressive and are a visual pet only. No species of Tarantula can kill you by biting you unless you have an allergy to histamine. So if you are allergic to bee stings you do not want to be bit by a tarantula because they are kinda the same in principle except a fair bit more is injected with the spider bite. I have been bit 7 times and the area of the bite puffed up and throbbed but not too bad but it itches like a bugger. Tarantula's are not deadly, as a matter of fact the only spider that truly poses a risk to humans in terms of lethal bite is the Sydney Funnel Web Spider of Australia and that is only in the case of infants and small children, it might make an adult fairly sick but again unless there is an allergy you'll live and the country has alot of anti-venom available at the local hospitals. If anyone has any questions about spiders feel free to ask but there is nothing to be scared of. The fear is installed much like the fear of snakes in years of others fear and movies and media. If it were not for spiders the planet would be plagued by insects so just look at them as an ugly friend.

[LChoy]

According to Snopes, ti is false that we swallow an average of 4-8 spiders a year in our sleep.

My girlfriend called me from Toronto one time at night reagrding a big spider that got into her room. I had to provide moral support and creative ideas on how to catch/kill it (on the celing above her bed).
Hot water in a super soaker is another godo way to get rid of wasps. You don't have to hit it direct, the concussion of the water is enough to knock them to the ground (works best if you shoot when they are hovering next a wall or window).

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

just look at them as an ugly friend.

That's the problem. They're ugly. I've never been in fear that a spider is going to kill or harm me, I'd kick 20 of their asses if we had to go. It's just the ugliness. They're disgusting. If one touches me I feel like I need to burn that skin tissue off.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

I hate all bugs, but spiders in particular. I make my wife deal with them.

I lived in Australia for a bit, home of gazillions of big hairy versions. I was 17 on student exchange. I stayed with a couple of families I didn't know.

I woke up one night not long after arriving and a huntsman spider was sitting above me on the ceiling. I freaked, grabbed my hockey stick (my little piece of canadiana by the bed) and started ramming holes in the ceiling trying to kill it. Swing the stick like a scthye I chopped and hacked and trashed the room. Apparently I was also yelling like a madman.

I killed the spider, woke up the house, and got laughed at for months. I actually still almost throw up thinking about it.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by lchoy

According to Snopes, ti is false that we swallow an average of 4-8 spiders a year in our sleep.

Maybe so, but you swallow a lot more insects than that in little pieces. I'm not talking about stuff while you sleep or insects that fliy into your mouth. Producers of tomato sauces are legally allowed to have so many insect pieces per unit of sauce or something. You might consume a pound of the little critters in your lifetime without knowing it. Yum, I'll have lots of sauce on that pasta.

I didn't know the members of this site were 80% girls, because that seems to be roughly the percentage of you who are afraid of little spiders.

[the crispy badger]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

I always had a wicked case of arachnophobia. I moved to B.C. in 2004 for a couple years and since coming back its gotten alot better. After seeing the massive ones out there(a wolf spider actually got into my bed. Its roughly the size of a tarantula), coming back here and seeing the wimpy ones isn't so bad anymore. I still definitely have it though.

Anyone seen the crispy badger's avy on here, which is a picture of a girl shoving a massive spider into her mouth? Every time I see it I have to quickly scroll down or get out of the thread. I avoid his posts at all cost.

EDIT: you guys havent seen spiders until youve been somewhere with a damp, warm climate like BC. That wolf spider in my room? I ran upstairs and my roomate's visiting hick cousin got it. He put a rye glass over it to contain it. It was so big that its legs crumpled and squished against him inside the rye glass. Ughhhhh....

I got that pic from a forum on something awful..isn't it awesome?

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

Small spiders don't bother me, it's the big ones that I can't stand. I have an irrational fear of walking by the grapes in the produce department of the grocery store because of the stories of black widow spiders living in the bags. I will walk on the complete other side of the isle. My sister makes fun of me.

I have the same fear of bananas!

[LChoy]

The same is true for bread and cereals. When grains get grounded, weevil (sp?) beetles and other small insects are usually in the giant mix that's thrown into the grinder. Same goes for things like peanut butter and nut products. Industry actually have standards for the bug bits PPM allowable in food products.

[renny]

spiders i can deal with, i usually just stomp on them, but bees and wasps... those freak the HELL out of me. purely because I have a lot of allergies and I worry that I'm allergic to bees so I don't want to try it out.