"Friendly" nocturnal visitors
Sitting in bed this evening reading Wikipedia, I saw movement on my floor (very sharp peripheral vision, which I keep training to be sharper, and it pays off!). A quick look established the presence of a large spider on my floor, the body perhaps 11mm, the legspan in total about 1.5". I quickly grabbed a glass plate from my bed and got it over him, whereupon both of us freaked out. After zephyr consultation (mostly to help me stop freaking out) I transferred him to a pyrex bowl and evacuated him to the front porch and relaxed a bit.
He's either a Hobo spider (which are fairly poisonous, but dry bite often) or a Giant house spider. With that size, a hobo is more likely, especially with the rapid movement, nocturnal pattern (male, so wandering to find a mate, typical hobo behavior), and seasonal period of activity; the giant house spiders are bigger and their leg:body ratio is a little more on the leggy end. Whatever species, definitely a male (huge palps). But it doesn't much matter; he's outside.
This post is mostly about arachnophobia. My sister is arachnophobic; she saw Arachnophobia when she was 10 years old. I was not as a kid - I was the designated spider and bug evacuator for girl scout camping trips as a kid. I liked spiders, didn't mind handling them, and knew which ones were bad and which ones good.
That all changed in my early teens, when I was bitten by a female black widow while camping in New Mexico. She crawled into my sleeping bag and bit me four times in the leg near my hip. Nausea, cramps, intense pain, a hospital trip the next morning when we found her dead body on my shorts (where I'd flung that strange crawling bug that I crushed on my leg), narcotics, and a full recovery (though, with the neurotoxins, perhaps some lingering nerve issues; no clue).
I've continued being okay with tarantulas, small house spiders (the type with the tiny bodies and long legs that spin small webs), orb weavers, and harvestmen (which aren't technically spiders anyhow), but anything past that is more than I can handle at this point. I've still managed to avoid killing any (to my knowledge the only spider I've intentionally killed was that widow), but I freak when I see one, and need psychological and physical support to evacuate them from the house. Sadly SJ is gone for the weekend, but we managed to get him outside anyways.
I should probably stop being arachnophobic (and I try to practice systematic desensitization; I can look at large widows in zoos for about a minute before freaking out at this point), but it's one of the few phobias that has a pretty good root in a real experience. The claustrophobia and fear of falling (not acrophobia, but related) are more nonsensical, though I've heard theories that acrophobia relates to inner ear imbalance, but at least I have an excuse for this one :^)
He's either a Hobo spider (which are fairly poisonous, but dry bite often) or a Giant house spider. With that size, a hobo is more likely, especially with the rapid movement, nocturnal pattern (male, so wandering to find a mate, typical hobo behavior), and seasonal period of activity; the giant house spiders are bigger and their leg:body ratio is a little more on the leggy end. Whatever species, definitely a male (huge palps). But it doesn't much matter; he's outside.
This post is mostly about arachnophobia. My sister is arachnophobic; she saw Arachnophobia when she was 10 years old. I was not as a kid - I was the designated spider and bug evacuator for girl scout camping trips as a kid. I liked spiders, didn't mind handling them, and knew which ones were bad and which ones good.
That all changed in my early teens, when I was bitten by a female black widow while camping in New Mexico. She crawled into my sleeping bag and bit me four times in the leg near my hip. Nausea, cramps, intense pain, a hospital trip the next morning when we found her dead body on my shorts (where I'd flung that strange crawling bug that I crushed on my leg), narcotics, and a full recovery (though, with the neurotoxins, perhaps some lingering nerve issues; no clue).
I've continued being okay with tarantulas, small house spiders (the type with the tiny bodies and long legs that spin small webs), orb weavers, and harvestmen (which aren't technically spiders anyhow), but anything past that is more than I can handle at this point. I've still managed to avoid killing any (to my knowledge the only spider I've intentionally killed was that widow), but I freak when I see one, and need psychological and physical support to evacuate them from the house. Sadly SJ is gone for the weekend, but we managed to get him outside anyways.
I should probably stop being arachnophobic (and I try to practice systematic desensitization; I can look at large widows in zoos for about a minute before freaking out at this point), but it's one of the few phobias that has a pretty good root in a real experience. The claustrophobia and fear of falling (not acrophobia, but related) are more nonsensical, though I've heard theories that acrophobia relates to inner ear imbalance, but at least I have an excuse for this one :^)