The Intruder

[katwoman]

Ok so I really try to love all creatures great and small, but my love for some species is tested when they invite themselves into my unit. I was heading to the loo (bathroom for some) last night only to come face to face with an intruder, big and hairy, a Huntsman Spider bigger then my hand...my heart stopped and our eyes meant (he had more eyes on me so i felt slightly intimidated) .

To kill or not to kill was the question...nah I couldn't do that to the little creature, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he just took a wrong turn and ended up in my unit. Never-the-less a battle ensued as he was not staying, thankfully I had an ice cream container on hand (I knew there was a good reason I ate ice cream) and before I knew it we were on my balcony and he was scrambling over the railing....yes be free, be free, but tell your friends not to mess with me!!

[Sangye]

Yay for saving his life!

Are they poisonous?

[elephant]

You are brave Katwoman! I scream for about an hour or whatever came first...like passing out...

[Sangye]

I have a pretty good spider story. I lived in Sedona, Arizona for a year before moving to Maryland. I had lived in nearby Flagstaff for 10 yrs, where you rarely see any spiders because it's at 7,000 ft elevation. Sedona is desert and they get some major creepy stuff. When this story happened, I was preparing to move to MD and was really upset at leaving Arizona. I loved it there. Sedona was okay, but moving back to Flagstaff was not an option.

One afternoon I had my dogs in the yard and was on the phone with a friend who lived down the street. The dogs seemed very quiet so I went to check on them. They were standing about a foot away from a tarantula, just staring at it. I thought I was gonna faint. I screamed at them to get inside. I started yelling on the phone telling my friend it was a tarantula, a tarantula! What should I do? She said, "Oh, he was probably just passing through." That was no comfort and I let her know. Her husband wasn't home and she was not interested in coming to catch the spider. She suggested another friend who liked spiders.

I called that friend and told her what happened. Her response was "He was probably just passing through." I almost leaped through the phone hearing the same phrase again! I insisted that she come over and help me catch it. She said, "Okay, if it'll make you feel better." She showed up with a big cardboard box and we went in the back yard. I was a nervous wreck, wondering where he was. She was acting all calm. We couldn't find him, but there was a big gap under the neighbor's fence close to where he had been. I wanted her to look over the fence and see if he was over there.

I got a ladder for her and she climbed up, still kind of rolling her eyes at me. She was holding the box and the lid slipped a tiny bit. She jumped like a lion had fallen on her. HA!! She had been totally wound up with fear, just didn't want to show it! I never saw the tarantula again, but I was terrified to put the dogs out there again or go out myself. The only good thing that came out of it was it made me more willing to move to MD. Anything to get out of that desert!

[elephant]

That is so funny. Did you sleep that night?

[Sangye]

I don't think I slept until I left!

[katwoman]

They aren't poisonous, but I didn't really care one way or another - I wanted him out of my home, they are to big/hairy and have way to many legs for me..lol

I didn't sleep much after he was gone and even today I keep looking around (just in case he bought a friend with him!)

Aaahh nothing beats living in Australia we have it all - snakes/spiders (poisonous and not), bull-ants (u know your alive if you've been bitten by one of those little blighters, sandflies (same goes with them), mosquitoes, the list could go on...(no wonder I loved my year in Canada - to cold for anything)

[pberggren1]

Come back to Canada, will you?

[Sangye]

Australia definitely has it all! Don't they have the most poisonous snakes of any country? Something like that.... Clearly I wouldn't care either if the giant spider was venomous. Just thinking of it gives me the heeby-jeebies.

[Luce]

The only visitor I've had that posed a threat to me was the half dressed drunken man that crawled through my window one hot summer night and tried to make a bed for himself on the couch!
Being on so much pred caused me to be awake at 3am, unlike my husband to be who I couldn't rouse so I charged into my front room waving then phone and telling him to get out.
Luckily he was so drunk he was just confused and my shouting woke Martin who kindly suggested he go outside to look for the shoes and pants he wasn't wearing.
Apparently this was a "bloody ridiculous" suggestion as the drunk man didn't have his phone and keys, but after checking they weren't in our front room Martin escorted him out of the door.

Think I'd rather have a tarantula pay me a visit!