Spiders and other such bugs in the house

[NameTaken]

Dammit, summer. You punish British people with no sun and an excessive abundance of insects.

Me and my sister just found a massive spider at the top of the staircase (by which I mean probably only palm size with it's legs all spread out), spent 20 minutes screaming whenever it so much as twitched, until I eventually got the biggest pan with the longest handle we owned just so I could catch it.

I think we nearly fell down the stairs screaming when we actually put the pan over it. And now it's just chilling under a big ass boiling pot, literally a foot in diameter, while we wait for my dad to show up and remove it. There is no way paper can completely cover the bottom of that pot, and I don't think my heart can take a rabid spider attack if it gets free (it's one of the thick, chunky ones that jumps around and climbs everything).

I feel bad for the poor thing (it just wants a comfy home to live in, right?) but umm. No. I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

Ughhhhhh. Why am I so good at being calm with everything else, but a moth or some shit flies in my direction and I'm re-enacting the matrix to get away from it?!

Anyone else react stupidly and irrationally to creepy crawlies, or do you just suck it up and *gasp* pick them up with your hands? If you do, I commend you on your bravery

[Joal 555]

Anyone else react stupidly and irrationally to creepy crawlies

ummm....me!

I've just invested in a spider deterrent. You plug it into the wall and it emits ultrasonic waves and electromagnetic waves (apparently) which will supposedly make spiders uncomfortable and thus disappear.

It's a bit of a punt, but I thought I'd buy one just in case it does actually work!

[Galaxy]

Ugh, God, I'm the exact same way. I hate being such a feminine stereotype of freaking out over insects/rodents, but come on, they're terrifying! I don't understand how people aren't freaked out by them

Not exactly a spider story, but still creepy and crawly. My cat May brought in a mouse as a gift, and my mom and I assumed it was dead because it was bloody and staying still. I got a broom and pan to sweep it up, and the mouse hops right up and scurries between my legs. My mom and I were screaming bloody murder and standing on the couches, and we tried to take care of it ourselves, but just got too squicked out over it. So we had to call my grandpa, who lives about ten minutes away, and he said he couldn't come, so we stayed up on that couch for about a half hour as we waited to see the neighbor get home from work so we could call him over, but my other cat Sardeen just calmly went under the table, picked the mouse up in his mouse (the mouse didn't even squirm or anything!) and took him right back outside like it was a walk in the park. That cat got stuffed with Fancy Feast that night, I'll tell you what

[tma]

My icky phobia isn't spiders or millipedes. Mice/rats/bats (I'm totally fine w/ ferrets gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs- and have a gerbil and guinea pig)- EEK!!! Just can't even look at them (esp. rats).

Also cockroaches. OMG... I saw one in a shower stall after I was showering in a camping area when I went to AZ as a teen. I was frozen in terror over this stupid little creepy thing.

They had the zoo come into this preschool group my kidlets were in. I had no problem with petting the snake or the hedgehog. The hissing cockroach... couldn't even look at it.

[Chanel_no5]

As someone who always has a note book and/or a brick size novel nearby, spiders never bother me. If they're too big to squish with your hands, throw the note pad or the novel on them and step on it.

Now silver fish however, is a completely different story... luckily I have a cat who is crazy about hunting insects, so all I have to do when there are creepy crawlies around is to call his name, and he comes running and eats the damn monster. I recommend everyone to get a cat. They can be very well trained.

[murphy dee]

ONLY the size of your palm with legs stretched out? That's still way too big for me. *cries*

Also WHY DID YOU CATCH IT?? I thought you had grabbed the frying pan in order to crush it to death, hahaha. Pans can always be soaked in bleach, after all.

Spider or scorpion walks into my house and it's already signed its own death warrant. The only bugs I capture and release are (big) moths and potato bugs (pill bugs/roly-polys). Everything else dies the minute I see it.

[Chanel_no5]

Anyone had a giant stag beetle buzzing around your living room? They sound like tiny dragons (sort of hissing, scraping noises), if anyone wonders. And kind of looks like them as well, without the fire of course.

Not even my hardass superhero cat wanted to chew on that fucker. I screamed for two minutes, got myself together (knowing I had no man to call for) caught it in a plastic mug, searched the creepy giant bug on the Internet, and...

...ended up feeling sorry for it.

The poor creature had gotten into a place she (that specimen was a female) didn't know, she was frightened as hell, and a two-legged giant scooped her up into a box with no air. I kind of saw myself through the eyes of the creep I had captured, and I felt sick at what I saw, so I went into the woods and released the damn thing. Important life lesson at that one, but ew, I don't want to be reminded of it too often, thank you.

[Blah!?]

My reaction to a lot of things is to freak out, but when it comes to things spiders and house centipedes (the fuzzy-looking ones with the disgustingly long legs that sort of ripple as they walk), I instantly shift to "Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Frak, even thinking about these things is making me paranoid that there's one under my desk. I hate this so much. xD I had more to say but I just can't, so I'll give you the short version.

Wanted to go to Australia for my school project, but that's land of the giant spiders. So I went to Japan instead which is land of the giant millipedes. Lucky me.

[bloom]

<snip> (by which I mean probably only palm size with it's legs all spread out),

<snip>

The only solution is to BURN THE HOUSE DOWN.

*runs screaming from thread*

[Vendetta]

yeah we must have thousands of spiders in our basement, mostly just the usual little round fat ones. but once in a while we'll get a big one, i mean the kinds that have long fat bodies, and the legs that are about an inch long. we never really bother with them, and theyre always in the same spot, right by the stairs...damn spiders. i remember when i was a kid i woke up to my mom screaming in the other room, and when i went out to see wtf happened, she said there was one of the giant spiders on the couch and she almost sat on it LOL.

oh and you know those really big house centipedes, theyre the ones that have really long legs and look almost fuzzy...well when i used to live with my ex, he had an apartment in the basement, and there were tons of these ugly things. youd just be sitting there and outa nowhere this big furry thing would scale the wall...i got sick of them after a while, and once i decided to throw the biggest shoe i could find at it

[Anonymouse]

LOL you poor thing. I can't take bugs in any environment. You should have seen me in my lifeguarding days whenever the bees flew by the lifeguard stand.

I seriously believe if a bug came near me while I was at the edge of the Grand Canyon I would probably spaz out and fall to my death.

When my sister and I were younger we would camp outside of our room for HOURS crying and throwing magazines at spiders on the ceiling. We drove our parents crazy with that bullshit.

[PuddinPop]

I think I'm the only one who isn't completely freaked out by spiders

I could never touch one, cos touching bugs is icky, but my SO is shit scared of them, so I have to be the dominant spider killer in our house. He won't even come near me when I've caught one and makes me flush them down the bog "to make sure they can't crawl back up"

Big-ass spiders I am no good with, especially those monster house spiders we get in England with massive fangs with balls on the end but small to medium sized spiders are fine.

Bees and/or wasps on the other hand is a different matter. I cannot stand those suckers, especially wasps. I'm very lucky my SO is fine with them, so he's the dominant bee and wasp killer

I remember when I was about 14, I was laid in bed in the morning and heard a buzzing. I actually laid in bed and convinced myself it was a lawnmower ( ) until I saw this big-ass wasp fly up over my curtains. I shit you not, I lay under the covers for about 5 minutes until I thought I felt it land on the covers (cos you'd feel a wasp land on a thick duvet right??) and ran out the room and wouldn't go back in until my mum proved to me that she had killed it

[Dusty15]

I'm surprisingly calm about most of them....I guess that's what living on your own does to you! I generally don't mind spiders and depending on what I'm doing/where I am, I usually catch them and release outside. I dislike large moths and other flying things, but I can usually get it together long enough to either guide it out a window/door (if it's a bee or fly, which are always harder to hit!) or kill it (ciao, moth...sorry).

I DO NOT like millipedes, centipedes, earwigs, or silverfish. Thankfully I rarely see them but the few times I've encountered a silverfish (AGDIGHDSHGDFH!!) I've managed to get it together after a good scream and get rid of it! YUCK!

I've only seen a cockroach a few times (never in my own place...KNOCK ON WOOD!) and I usually just screech and then forget about it. Blahhhh

*feels all icky now....*

[Anonymouse]

[Shay]

Spiders do tend to freak me out. How much really depends on the size. Sometimes I feel like I'm able to catch them and either squish them or throw them outside and sometimes I just freak out too much and need someone else to do it. It's the worst if no one can catch it and it hides in some corner where I can't see it and I never know if when it's going to come out.

Part of my problem though is that I seem to have a moderate allergy to spider bites. I don't always feel the bite, but when I do, several hours later it will be bright red and extremely itchy. None of the normal OTC anti itch creams do anything for it. I have to treat it with prescription topical steroids and sometimes numbing creams. It's not too bad if I can start treating it quickly, but if I can't get the medicine for a few days the the red itchy area will grow larger and the area will start to swell up.

There were a few years where I used to get spider bites at least a couple of times every summer but it hasn't happened in the last couple of years and I hope I'll be spider bite free this year too. *crosses my fingers*

Another thing I really can't stand is ants. We get ant infestations all the time and we are reluctant to call a professional exterminator because we don't trust that they'll have something that won't be toxic to my pet parrots, so we just try to deal with it the best we can with ant traps(which don't seem to be nearly as effective as they were when I was a kid) and all natural sprays. What really gets me about ants though is that when there is an infestation I'll often get phantom sensations that they are crawling all over me and sometimes in yucky places like in my nose or ears. Then there are times when they actually are crawling on me which only reinforces the phantom sensations. It just creeps me out so much.

[NameTaken]

ANONY WHY

[The Dead One]

I've just invested in a spider deterrent. You plug it into the wall and it emits ultrasonic waves and electromagnetic waves (apparently) which will supposedly make spiders uncomfortable and thus disappear.

Those things are bloody painful to me.

I'm not bothered by bugs of any kind. Which I guess is just as well being a gardener. Though I was called soft for moving ladybirds out of the way of the lawnmower.

Also, the spider in that picture is brilliant. Why not give it to someone who likes spiders so they can have a pet?

[Anonymouse]

ANONY WHY

SORRY. I thought about putting an arachnophobia warning above the image but figured that nobody with arachnophobia would be clicking on a thread entitled "Spiders and other such bugs in the house."

Consider it a dose of exposure therapy.

I've just invested in a spider deterrent. You plug it into the wall and it emits ultrasonic waves and electromagnetic waves (apparently) which will supposedly make spiders uncomfortable and thus disappear.

Those things are bloody painful to me.

Are you, perhaps, a spider?

[_Daisy_]

I. Hate. Bugs.

This is probably not my best quality, considering that my parents (and me when I'm on vacation) live in the country. My boyfriend and I were messing around a couple of days ago in a forest trail, and it was all really great and sexy until I looked down and saw a TICK latching into my skin. Worst buzz kill imaginable.

[All Time No]

I am okay with butterflies, ladybugs and bees but give me a beetle, grasshopper/cricket, moth, or spider and itl sound like a horror film. I'm not normally the type of girl to scream all high oitched and stuff, but those bugs creep me out. I was with my dad yesterday and we were hanging out, having a good day. We get home and I'm sitting on the couch. He comes in and tells me to close my eyes and hold out my hand. Me being the idiot I am, I complied. I felt something hit my hand. I opened my eyes and found a half-dead cockroach in my hand. I screamed bloody murder and dropped it on the floor. I refused to pick it up and let it lay there for the next two hours. My dad finally came and got it and promptly THREW it at me. Naturally, I freaked out and jumped back, falling over the back of the couch and ran to my room screaming. This is why I don't trust my family lol

[Heavy-Chevy]

I'm generally fine with most insects. I don't mind spiders, as long as they're not venomous. Centipedes, on the other hand, are the only bugs that creep me the hell out! I'm just thankful I don't live someplace where they get REALLY long and they're deadly venomous.

[NoV]

SORRY. I thought about putting an arachnophobia warning above the image but figured that nobody with arachnophobia would be clicking on a thread entitled "Spiders and other such bugs in the house."

I can normally cope quite well with spiders and the like, but that image almost tipped me over the edge...

Imagine putting your hand on that unexpectedly...

[Chanel_no5]

Imagine putting your hand on that unexpectedly...

Thank you in advance for the topic of my next nightmare...