Zambia

As long as you threw a few beers out to boot would be happy enough to sit and drink with the spider on the step.

Beachband

TiddlyPom

And yet ironically, statistically you're surrounded by them all the time ...

LouiseR

It is moronic but I have an (irrational) fear of spiders. I don't know why, they're probably more scared of me than I am of them but I couldn't go near one and if I find one in the house it becomes a Me or Them situation (and I know there are probably tons of them in the house but I just can't see them!)

I'd love to be brave like you but I don't think I ever will be.

They scare the crap out of me.

I've got a feeling that the spider would out drink you!

TiddlyPom

It's not moronic to have a fear of them, Louise, it's moronic to kill the wildlife. If you've known me for any length of time, you'd know that when I got to Australia I was pretty damn scared of the spiders too. The first night I was in my rental there was a huntsman there and I couldn't have it in the house... really awful.
Didn't sleep for the thought of things crawling over me... crazy huh?
Then I started taking pics of them, cos really, they're very pretty some of them... and doing a bit of learning... and then I let one huntsman reside in my lounge over its egg sack...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=huntsman

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=huntsman

I figured the babies couldn't and wouldn't bite me,... and now, well, they're just a fact of life here aren't they? So we've reached an impasse... of sorts, where I take their photographs and then move them outside... and occasionally let them go if they're behind the kitchen dresser or something. It's not braveness... I think I'm just pretending to be brave and the more you pretend, then the better you become at it.

Zambia

For gods sake woman that's what I am sat out here trying to establish.

In light of being scared of them the wife is too the other night a wee huntsman crawled up the side of the foot stool. She jumped 7 foot off the couch spilling my hot tea in my lap. Very sore.

Swerv-o

Yes, you just tend not to notice them too much. I have a big huntsman in my house somewhere. He creeps around, and there are often shells of very dessicated looking roaches lying around in the morning. When I first moved in I caught him moving in the corner of my eye, and thought it was a mouse - the thing really is huge.

On another note, I should report that I have been here for three and a half years, and only saw my first wild (i.e. not in a zoo) redback at the weekend. Despite being so dangerous, they are really very beautiful. She had a lovely black sheen and her red markings were very striking. I left her be in the fire escape stair well at my GF's apartment block.


S

scottishcelts

I'm too scared to look at the pics - they may disturb my already disturbed mind

I too have a bad spider phobia, inherited it from my dad, who inherited it from his mum..and so on.

Sometimes adults can be quite foolish with their spider phobias, my dad never once tried to hide his from me. Thankfully I haven't passed mines onto my kids.

stevenglish

Defo a wolf spider, fairly timid even if they do look a bit on the angry side

Symptoms include, involuntary bowel movements, loss of bladder control, and raised heart rate, muscular paralysis, and cold sweats.

However, I'm not entirely sure what would happen if it were to bite you

A house spider would generally stay on it's web, whereas the wolf spider are active hunters, we got a biggun on our door, don't get bitten by a house spider, they make ya pretty ill