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katwoman
02-04-2010, 08:34 AM
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) :eek:.

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
02-04-2010, 08:52 AM
Yay for saving his life! :D

Are they poisonous?

elephant
02-04-2010, 09:37 AM
You are brave Katwoman! I scream for about an hour or whatever came first...like passing out...

Sangye
02-04-2010, 10:07 AM
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
02-04-2010, 10:33 AM
That is so funny. Did you sleep that night?

Sangye
02-04-2010, 11:01 AM
I don't think I slept until I left!

katwoman
02-04-2010, 05:18 PM
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
02-04-2010, 09:48 PM
Come back to Canada, will you?

Sangye
02-05-2010, 02:52 AM
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
02-05-2010, 06:56 AM
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!

elephant
02-05-2010, 08:26 AM
That would be very scarey to have a druken man in your house. I don't know drunken man or tarantula? Scared of them both. Drunken man not moving so much, but tarantula moving?? Yikes?

AnnaG
02-10-2010, 04:44 AM
Holy smokes, Luce, I think I'd have grabbed the nearest heavy object and beat the lout senseless. I can't stand drunks. Spiders don't bother me much. I lived in Texas for 13 years with my ex, another lout I'd like to beat senseless. Anyway, about the spiders, Texas has some rather large tarantulas also. One house we lived in must have been built on the motherload of all spider nests, cuz it was very infested. My first experience with the creatures was to walk into my kitchen one morning to find 3 of the big hirsute things staring at me from the middle of the kitchen floor! Not being a screamer, I still jumped a bit and called for my lout to come see. He hates hairy spiders, so of course I took much glee in his reaction. The blood drained from his face and he started sweating, LOL! Of course he was so focused on the spiders that he took no note of my satisfaction. He told me to get a Folgers can with a lid and he set the can over top of them one by one and slid the lid under it and took them into the yard. I had many episodes with them. I was a gardener and so saw them a lot. My flower beds were lined with 4x4's and the spiders liked to burrow under the edge of these to tunnel down and make burrows. Often I'd stick the garden hose in the holes to see them eventually come popping up and run off to avoid the flood. I'm so mean. Ya gotta be living in Texas if ya wanna survive! :P

jola57
02-10-2010, 05:05 AM
Ha Ha, as I was just reading your stories I heard a doorbell, I am in my jammies in bed upstairs, so I look out the window who it is and it is a man in overalls with a cap on and a reflective vest on. I was just debating whether to go down and open the door when he moved and in his hand was a machette. Yes a machette. Needless to say I did not go down. He went away and I heard him chopping some brush close to the road. I assume they are clearing some bushes away from the hydro lines, but I am not willing to go and find out. When it is time to leave I will just go into the garage jump in my car and go.

AnnaG
02-10-2010, 05:09 AM
Holy mackeral, you'd think he'd have the sense to leave the machete by the brush. @@ If they are still round when you leave, be wary. So many lunatics in the world. Yup, I love my HUGE scary looking dog!

Sangye
02-10-2010, 09:22 AM
LOL-- a machete.... :D

moyan
02-10-2010, 11:20 AM
Hi all, I HATE spiders!! We used to have a tenttrailer and one spring when cleaning it out, there was a halfsize Tarantula staring at me. I ran out screaming and asked my x who thought he was a cool spiderremover to please take it out. So, he nonchalantly went in and 2 secs later came out hollering:"get the kids away!!" I had to turn with my satisfied smile! :)

jola57
02-10-2010, 05:08 PM
It was a long machete to boot.

katwoman
02-11-2010, 08:28 AM
I was reading Anna's post about sticking the garden hose down the burrows and it remonded me of a story I read about here in Australia. We have funnel web spiders (they are poisonous) and they have a web sticking out of the burrow that well looks like a funnel (lol I guess reason for there name) anywhoo, this bloke (man) had a number of them around his home and so decided he would pour fuel down all the burrows and light it...might have sounded like a great idea except all the burrows ran under this house and needless to say he got rid of the spiders and his house in the process....smart very smart!!

Sangye
02-11-2010, 09:30 AM
Reminds me of a song : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2opHHNFd0Mg

AnnaG
02-11-2010, 12:08 PM
OMG katwoman, that is scary yet hilarious. Sounds like a redneck guy for sure. I can't imagine a woman ever doing something like that. ^^
I wonder if his home owners policy covered that? lol