I have to say I know first of all it is a cliche but am petrified of spiders since birth (well am guessing that part). I like to think this deep-seated fear was the result of my first encounter in my crib with a giant spider that I have since blocked out of memory! In Anyways I have never liked these eight-legged creatures who dart around the room and are especially speedy particularly when aiming themselves in my direction. I think they know! I remember two vivid stories about instances with these nasty vile creatures and one of them I wasn’t even present for!
The first was when I was around ten and I was in the hall with my sister when she turned around and I saw a giant spider on her back – cue lots of screaming from me and running away. Since she had no idea what was wrong, she followed with spider and so she chased me around the house. The more I ran, the more upset she got but I couldn’t while gripped with fear string a comprehensible sentence together. Anyway situation resolved itself and you’ll be glad to know my sister hasn’t travelled life with a giant spider on her back – needless to say we wouldn’t be friends if she did!
The second incident happened in Australia. Now I did think twice about going when I discovered that giant venomous spiders live there – specifically the red-back and the funnel-web! I heard all the horror stories and for weeks once I arrived I never put a shoe on before shaking the bejesus out of it and never sat on the toilet seat before giving it a thorough once over but alas this didn’t last too long. After having been there about three months and having no spider instances we grew comfortable. And so one day I came home from work to a horror story of an encounter with a Huntsman, the spider that is not a man who hunts (think tarancula and you’re on the right lines). One of the girls was opening the fridge when she saw something black poking out on the wall behind the fridge what we now know was a black hairy spider leg. Perhaps it was the fridge door opening or the girl screaming that woke the spider but whatever it was it scurried along the wall revealing itself to my housemates who watched with horror as it darted from wall to counter to floor.
As I wasn’t there (thank god cause we would have had to move out if I was), the girls were only too happy to regale me with the story on my return home. And so the chase began around the apartment where they tried several things to maim the spider (seriously he was big, hairy with long legs – you would have done the same). They sprayed him with bug spray which only made him white and didn’t slow him down. They tried to lure him to the balcony. We were on the second floor. At one stage they had him cornered at which point they say he reared up on his hind legs. I was horrified seriously a spider has hind legs who knew? They threw a plank of wood on top of him and one of the braver girls stood on it but alas this didn’t kill the spider although am fairly sure by this stage he was probably a little woozy. They eventually got him to the balcony and threw him over. It sounds exactly like Arachnophobia, a film which I screamed the whole way through and watched from behind my hands. Later we learnt that he was a huntsman (seriously doesn’t the name just say it all – hunts-man!) and actually a pet of one of our neighbours who went missing! I never did hear if he found him again. *shudder*
I have to say I still haven’t gotten over my fear but it has lessened to some degree just don’t go testing me!
