I don’t like them. I never have. Don’t ever ask me to do the “face your fear” thing which involves handling a really big one (I can’t even bring myself to write the word tarant…..). So I’m usually a bit nervous when I encounter one of the beasties.
Luckily, I managed quite a few years ago, to cure myself of the inclination to squash them as soon as I have seen them. I would now much rather capture it and release it in the garden, so that it can find a new home (just hopefully, not back in doors).
You can imagine my mild distress when I heard the call last Night; ”Bill, There’s a spider in the kitchen” luckily, Elayne had caught it and was bunched up under the glass. As usually, I found a thin but fairly firm piece of card that I could use to slide under the glass which I can then turn upright. I’ll only uncover it if I am confident that the spider can’t climb out of the glass – I’ve never found one that can.
I can’t resist looking in the glass with an expected feeling of revulsion which is when the other characteristic of my phobia kicks in. I’m not that bothered by small spiders, only big ones. This one is really quite small. I’m almost sorry for it and inclined to just let it go, but Elayne won’t have it, put it out is the command.
Also, the spider is of a species that I don’t ever recall seeing before. It’s all black! That sets alarm bells off. I know it’s not a black widow (shudder) as they have red markings on them, but this could be a false widow (I have no idea what they look like, or at least I didn’t) so I took a picture, and then let it out in the garden.
Today, I looked it up. It was a black lace weaver. Apparently quite common in the UK. Why have I never seen one of these before? Not afraid of it now.
Bills Posts 