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[OMK]

I don't normally fear or flinch from anything. The only exception being creepy-crawlies. Now, at the risk of sounding like some sort of poncy wimp, I only have to see a spider before I start running in the opposte direction.
I just went to the kitchen for an early-morning snack, and there, about three inches above the kitchen doorhandle was the biggest, spookiest spider you ever did see. The sucker must have had a leg span at least all of one inch. The only way into the kitchen is via that doorhandle - so I gingerly inched my hand forward, and as I did the damn spider actually SPRANG forward. I shrieked, the spider shrieked, then landed on the floor with a 'whump!'.
Mercy sakes! I mean, the poor thing was probably more scared of me than I was of it. But that was the first ever time I'd seen one LEAP!
Wearing just my birthday suit, I bolted in the opposite direction in case it started crawling up me leg or something. I nearly had a bleedin' heart attack - not to mention losing the desire for a snack.
Just think though... if it can leap the way it does, then what would happen if the damn thing decided to go for me throat?!

I wouldn't rate my chances of survival if I had to live in Australia.

[bigfella]

PMK

It is something to get used to thats for sure. At every turn you find a creepy crawly and most of them have the potential to cause serious problems to your health. There is this one spider, The White Tail Spider, that if bitten the area around the bite starts to swell and rot. There is also an ant in Tasmania that jumps up at you and if it bites you it has a nasty reaction and I have heard it has caused death through anaphylaxis. Then you have The Red Back, The Funnel Web and various snakes. But the worst of them all is the Huntsman spider although not poisonous to humans they can grow to the size of a dinner plate and they always seem to find their way into your house, now that is scary.

Regards David

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

Sorry couldn't help myself.  ::)

[Shipmate60]

WOW PMK a leg span of a whole inch!!
A good job he didnt get nasty and attack you or carry you off to his lair.
He must have been at least a million times smaller than you!!
Erm, it does make you sound like "some sort of poncy wimp", sorry can hardly type for laughing, shouldnt this be in Humour, its cracking Me up!!   

Bob

[portside II]

Well PMK if thats what it takes to keep you out of the fridge i think swimbo will have to get some for me       
daz

[catengineman]

Thank you PMK ,
I now have sides that are splitting and a jaw that aches but that spider is big! (ish) I live with two arachnophobic's. and my younger brother is one as well !
Daughter was not always scared until the school let her home with the schools tarantella! all was fine until one day she said it had stopped moving? on looking it was light and stiff, 1 dead spiddy :'( we all went out to for the day to console the distraught child.
returned home and wrote the school the letter to say it had died while in our care (not an easy task that one)
Several weeks later my brother and I were in my loft removing the chimney breast brick work, at smoko we sat with legs through the loft hatch drinking coffee and having a puff, my bro reached for his mug and there stood in the defence pose was the biggest blackest hairest tarantella you have ever seen!
Bro spilt coffee missed step ladder and was last seen going under bed, in doing this he had broken the one lead light we were using so I was now in darkness with the creature from hell.
Hey man I am not scared but the size of that thing!

Apparently tranchela's shed their skin when they grow (didn't know that then) wanted to catch the thing for the school but had no luck (not that I tried very often )  Size well at the time it's rear end was around 40mm 1, 1/2 and it was higher than the mug when it was stood in defence mode. Only ever found a dead blackbird  >:(

R, still laughing thanks,

[sheerline]

Parents are usually responsible for their offspring's dread of creepy crawlies. I have seen them shriek and run from some harmless creature, taking their children with them and embedding them with a lifelong fear of the things. I have, at every opportunity, tried to teach my grandchildren to respect the creatures and understand them by demonstrating how harmless they actually are, often by handling them and coaxing the little uns to to have a go with me. It works, and by repeated gentle persuasion they have responded fairly positively and now are inquisitive rather than afraid, but most importantly, they do not let initial panic take hold and run away screaming.
Having said all that, things which are harmful like wasps and mosquitoes get the the death sentance if they come into the house but not in a fit of panic.
I learned to overcome a natural fear of a lot of bugs by realising how harmless they really were and we have some really huge spiders running around here at certain times of the year... all totally harmless. One night, I tuned on the bedside lamp and invited swmbo to turn over and look at a huge black spider walking up my chest. We watched as it traversed my body, walked onto my left shoulder then onto the pillow and  off the bed onto the floor... no panic , no sweat... totally harmless! Just remember, they are more scared of you than you are of them, you are the one who can inflict damage but they can't. Quite often, if we have flies and the like buzzing around the house I will address the resident room spider by complaining to him that if he doesn't shape up and start doing his job, he will be thrown out into the garden... much to the ammusement of the children.

[RickF]

I was once told that the most venomous spider in the world lives right here in the UK. Its poison is so powerfull that the tiniest drop could kill any living thing. However, it is so tiny and its jaws are so small that it is incapable of biting almost anything bigger than itself.

Does anyone know if this is true?

Rick

[malcolmfrary]

My memorable spider experience was at the top of a very rural pole.  I had clambered up, got the safety belt well secured so I was firmly fixed in place, and proceeded to take the lid off the terminal box.  I was presented with this spotted THING that was all hairy legs and mandibles about a foot and a bit in front of my face.  After gathering enough composure I bravely flicked it out with my trusty screwdriver.  Loking at the size of the thing, it must have got in via the wire entry hole, and then eaten everything that found its way in as there was no way it was going out the same hole.
I am sure the thing was sneering at me.

[Colin Bishop]

I am sure the thing was sneering at me.

Yes, it's the way they look at you that does it for me....

[Faraday's Cage]

But that was the first ever time I'd seen one LEAP!

Must have been the sight of PMK in his birthday suit.
At least it missed your dangly bits PMK 

FC

[tigertiger]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21253,00.html

There is the British house spider, and these can be failry big. Up to 60mm with legs is normal.

Then there is the Aggressive House Spider. That will attack and try to bite people.

[catengineman]

I myself am not worried by the spiders, but you could be right in what you say Sheerline, the wife and daughter have been in each others company all the daughters life where I excaped to sea

My younger brother says that the tarantella in the loft had a baseball bat in both front arms/legs and had that thug look in his eyes

I am sure the thing was sneering at me.

Yes, it's the way they look at you that does it for me....

The wife has a spider removal tool its the DYSON

R,

[John W E]

oooo PMK ya havent been smoking the funny stuff and drinking broon ale have ya - cos that's nowt - I had one in me shed equipt with grenade, AK47 and it measured 3 inches across    and I call it Wor Lass 
  Im trying to train it to eat me next door neighbour's noisy kiddiewids  ::) ::)

[FullLeatherJacket]

One of my girlfriends used to have a dread of spiders. She'd squeal and leap up onto a chair at the smallest arachnid. Needless to say yours truly got quite adept at the old beer-mat and glass trick (you know, cover the spider with the upturned glass; slide the mat under it and carry the whole lot over to the window etc).
She was always unreasonably  grateful afterwards but we broke up when she found the family of spiders which I kept hidden in a matchbox in my jacket................

FLJ (Cad, rotter, bounder and all-round swine!)

[OMK]

Terry: Dangly bits or not, I didn't hang around to find out.
It's like Malcolm and Colin says - it's the way they look at you. The thing is though, I didn't realise that they could leap. It happened so fast that my instant reaction was to get the hell outta there. But think about this. What is the height of the average door handle? 40 inches or so? That means it had fallen hundreds of times it's own height - yet when it landed on the floor it scuttled away without even as much as a scratch. Now in my book that makes that diddly spider MUCH tougher than any human.
It's not that which bothers me, though. The fact that they can bite and are potentially poisonous - that doesn't bother me neither. It's the fact that they LOOK at you all menacing-like. And their scuttling motions - that too spooks me. Even worse is now knowing that the little sods can LEAP at you.
By the way, hands up anyone who sleeps with their mouth open. Have you ever suddenly woken with that sickly feeling that you've just swallowed a spider?
Knowing my luck, for my sins, I'll probably come back in the next life as an entomologist or some such.

Hey, Cat', your post didn't 'arf make I laff!

Sheerline, I'm having a bit of trouble with sending PMs from here, but one should be heading your way and, with any luck, should be sitting in your in box in the next couple minutes.

FLJ - now we ARE intrgued. What was her definition of unreasonable gratefulness, pray?!

[OMK]

Hi, Bloob's - good point!
Come to think of it, did you see that TV documentary where a bunch of scientist tested cannabis on a spider? More to the point, did you see the state of its web after the effects had kicked in? Man, that web was anything but a web, but you should have seen that sucker go! The damn thing was whizzing around and around for hours and hours - obviously having a whale of a time.
And that, my good friend, was the only time I'd seen a spider looking happy and not looking at all menacing.

<Edit>

In actual fact, you've just given me a great idea.............

[catengineman]

PMK the younger (youngest out of seven) is 40 this year and still says that it has baseball bats and just will not enter loft spaces without the full monty of hallogen lamps and assistant!
The daughter is now 29 and was eight at the time.
Sent the brother a toy spider for one Christmas, mum said he leapt up so quick he cleared the back of the sofa and would not enter the room untill the "####### ##### ### thing" was killed! took several weeks before he spoke to me or the misses ::)

I took a picture of a spider in macro mode and that worried ME when I say it on the computer screen.

R,

[John W E]

PMK I never saw the documentary where they gave the spider the happy backie, but, did you not hear about Newcastle University feeding the spider they had on Broon Ale    it is now running around with a black and white striped tee shirt on singing I LOVE KEVIN KEEGAN and where's me curry.

aye
john e
bluebird

[Ghost in the shell]

newcastle united, hell id wather watch the spiders!

mind you Stoke City will be  playing NUFC soon and will whip em!

[John W E]

searching the WEB - see if I could find pic of a black and white spider for PMK and found this.....new spider catcher  :) :) :)

[Ghost in the shell]

thats sweet ! however the DY 50 N Spider seeking sucker seems like mote fun.

[bigford]

PMK
 
  i no tough guy but even i back down from a spider    my wife just laugh's at
me saying, my big truck driver 

[hopeitfloats]

cant say spiders bother me that much but one night i woke up and there was one hanging about an inch away from my face and i swear it was the size of a small car. i nearly  ****  myself. needless to say it was dispatched to spider heaven.

[cbr900]

Rick,

You are almost right mate, but the spiders live through out the world,
they are called over here daddy long legs, can be quite large but very thin
they are the most poisonous animal any where in the world, fortunately as
you say they cannot bite you, thank heavens.............


Roy