Spiders! D:

Zayl

Ok so I was just sitting down, relaxing and enjoying a smoke and watching Spice and Wolf and what do I see out of the corner of my eye? oh nothing big... just the biggest effing brown recluse I've ever seen just chilling on my shoulder as if to say " 'sup dawg?"

I think I just set the world record for stripping naked, grabbing the nearest thing that could be used as a weapon, jumping over my pile of discarded clothes and sprinting out of my room naked. The worse thing is I didn't manage to kill it, oh no in my panic I saw it fly off of my shoulder after I think it bit me and it scurried under my bed and I lost sight of it. LOOKS LIKE I'M NOT SLEEPING TONIGHT FOLKS.

Now let me explain my fear of spiders. When I was four or five years old I was alone in my room, beginning to fall asleep. Right before I dozed off I felt something move on my chest. I looked and saw the biggest spider of my life... compared to how small I was when I was a little kid, the spider was easily bigger than my outstretched hand. So I panicked and smacked the spider dead on my chest. And as if to say "but wait! THERE'S MORE!" it turned out that spider was in fact, carrying a bunch of baby spiders on its back. so when I smacked it they all left the corpse and began spreading over me. Ever since that day I've been deathly afraid of spiders, to the point where if it looks like it will come near me whatsoever, I kill them in the most extreme way possible (but normally leave them alone since I hate confronting them)

So, you know. how do I deal with my obviously unreasonable fear of spiders? The usual house spiders do not bother me, you know the really skinny light brown ones that just chill in a corner. And I've even handled tarantulas before with my bare hands, they were kinda cool. But for some reasons certain kinds of spiders freak me out to the point where I cannot form a coherent sentence.

taiyaki

lol i'm quite scared of spiders too and i've had this happen to me. just watch the fear next time.

or you can set up the conditions like buying a spider and forcing yourself to feel the fear and accept it lol.

i have a fear of dogs. so that's basically what i do. i just hang out with dogs until the fear disappears. which it does after a while.

Cloud

I'd be scared too if that happened to me. I've never heard of anyone having such a traumatic experience as that with a spider as a child, I can only imagine what it must be like...

zombiegirl

are you sure it was a brown recluse? they're called that because they are really hard to find. were you wearing clothes that you haven't put on in a while? because otherwise, it is SUPER unlikely that the recluse sought you out and climbed up your shoulder. they have a pretty typical body shape but their most obvious mark is the "violin/fiddle" shaped mark on their back.

i had a friend once who had a clog in the pump in her basement. this caused flooding in the basement and then she began to have a recluse problem because the water disturbed their hiding spots. they killed one of her cats

zombiegirl

fyi, i just re-read this... are you sure it bit you? recluse bites are incredibly painful and dangerous.

please consult this website (or others, possibly):
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/spider_bite_brown_recluse_spider_bite/article_em.htm

Zayl

No, I don't think it bit me, but I got a good look at it and it was definitely a recluse, and the sweatshit I was wearing has been hanging against a wall for most of the winter. But the mark and pain on my hand is probably from a burn, since I tore the clothes off while I was still holding a lit cigarette.

Cinorjer

An abnormal fear of spiders is so common, it should be called the "normal" fear of spiders. My wife goes ballistic if she sees a tiny jumping spider on the wall, but I only shudder at the thought of living in parts of Australia where apparently huge aggressive spiders will hunt you across the lawn.

mithril

Im not quite fond of spiders either, although if i find one near to me i usually just swear at it and walk past, or get my brother to catch it if hes home... I think some species can jump (or just move real quick, i think i saw a little one do it) so i'm just kinda "... ok now just don't jump on me you ...".

So basically, as taiyaki mentioned, if you wan't to get rid of your fear, you might wanna consider getting a big one and caring for it, that way you start to understand how it behaves and it should get less scary with time.

Zayl

Well, I have taken care of my friends Tarantula, he said it was a mexican red-knee or red-hair or something. It was kind of cool and I had no problem handing it with my bare hands, it would even sit quietly on your shoulder just watching and listening, I loved to hear the girls squeal XD

I just don't connect Tarantulas with normal spiders for some reason, probably because they are usually very docile, big, and hairy... And easy to notice. The regular small spiders freak me out because they are so fast and could be lurking anywhere. Whenever I have a rather bad encounter with a spider I always check my bed and sheets for a night or two afterwards "just in case"

Like I said, if its just a small common cobweb spider I generally leave them alone, after all they keep other pests out of the house and stay in one area. But if its one of those mobile and more aggressive spiders who look bigger and more mean well my heart starts beating quick and I cannot rest easy until I know it is gone or dead.

I normally do my best to avoid killing spiders when I can, preferring to catch them under a glass then move them outside if the opportunity presents itself. If however I have an inkling it could be venomous I generally stop on it. Not exactly proper practice though.