Spider Revisit

Last night there was another huge spider in our house, like the last one

We have established that they are Rain Spiders, aka the Huntsman spider.

I think this one was slightly smaller, so not the same spider, but ANOTHER one... and this one was in the boy's bedroom. So I couldn't just leave it, I had to get it outside.

I have recently been blabbing about how I am not really scared of anything... well I am going to have to revise that, because although I am not scared of spiders in pictures, or even in real life - over THERE - and especially outside, it turns out I am actually terrified of the thought of them ON me, or even interacting with them at all. It's the movement which scares me the most especially when they get riled. They behave very threateningly. Well these BIG ones do anyway.

Rationally, I thought I would just get a long stick, pick it up on the end of the stick, and carry it outside... But in reality every time the stick got close, the spider would rear up, and I would scream. Not like a little squawk, but a sustained horror movie ripper of a scream, with running on the spot and general idiotic freaking out. *blush* (Think scary movie type stuff)

Quinn was laughing his ass off at me, although I could see he felt the same. I kept explaining to him how I was being totally silly but couldn't help it, and I was apologising to the spider too.I kept telling myself to stop doing it, but it kept happening!

The freaking spider was well aware of us, and as we walked around the room strategising it was following us with its (many) eyes, and would change the orientation of its reared position to be able to strike which ever direction we were in. YIKES.

Then Quinn told me they can run fast...implying it would just run down the stick and get me in no time. Flip! I must have prodded the thing about 10 times, and yelled and bounced around after each time, until the spider must have been either terrified itself, or just very p'ed off. Probably both.

Then Quinn told me I must 'phone daddy' to come sort it out. And I thought, dammit I CAN and WILL do this. I need to be able to do this. (Aside: He often acts MORE terrified of stuff like this than me anyway)

So I changed my strategy, and decided to put a bin over it, to try to get it to fall in and then cover the bin etc. By this time the spider was in the middle of the room, and not by the pelmet any more.

Quinn had had enough at this point and was also scared/hamming it up, and leapt into his cupboard slamming the door behind him to hide away, leaving me to handle spider on my own... Griffin had come through from the lounge to see who was being murdered (judging from the screaming), and joined in on the action.

Finally, I tried to place the bin over the spider, but he ran away too fast and I missed 'him'!

I screamed, ran on the spot and flapped some more, and then decided to do the stick prod again. He was getting close to the bed and I wanted him back in the corner of the room. Well, next time I touched him he abseiled down from ceiling to floor in like 2 seconds (I swear I could hear the Mission Impossible theme playing softly!).

As he approached the ground, my brain and body clicked into gear, and time slowed down (think The Matrix) and as he hit the ground I slammed the bin over him (about 95% sure that he was actually under there, and hadn't escaped under the bed!).

Some more flapping, whooping, and indecision ensued, and we finally found something to slide underneath (a Lego base board). I did this carefully, imagining the spider either sneaking through the tiny gap of the lifted side of the bin or being squashed by the board etc.

Then I picked it up gingerly and we marched outside. A debate followed as to what to do next, and we decided to throw it down at the edge of the driveway, so we could get proof that we did actually have the spider in there. I stood back threw it down and sure enough spider scuttled out and climbed up the side of the bin. I do believe he shook his fist at me too. ;)

I gave the bin a prod and he scurried off into the bushes.

Mission Accomplished!!!

Sorry Mr Spider. But we ARE scared of you, so please stay outside.

I feel proud of myself for doing it, but also rather silly. But it was kind of 'fun' in a way. I guess in the way that roller-coasters are terrifying but also fun.

Never a dull moment here!