more spider stuff

[hnpcc]

We've had a huntsman spider in our house for a while now. Mostly it sits high up on the wall, trying to blend in invisibly. Which is difficult, seeing as it's dark and the wall is white. So we know it's there, but we're not that fazed by it. In the last couple of weeks it's moved around the house a fair bit, down the hall, in one bedroom, in the lounge room and now into our bedroom.

This is where Dean started getting edgy. Dean is far more arachnophobic than I am - unless it's something obviously poisonous I'll tend to leave spiders alone. So he asked me to get the spider out of the bedroom. I got a broom to try and convince it to move - and realised that even with a broom, the ceilings were too high for me to reach it. So I left it alone, and we went to sleep.

When we woke up, it had moved back into the hall corridor.

The following night, it turned up on the inside of the curtains in the bedroom. I debated moving it, then decided I couldn't be bothered.

In the morning, it had vanished again.

It spent the next two or so nights in a corner of the corridor. Then turned up on the wall next to my side of the bed.

"Oh good" said Dean "I've got a human shield."

I ignored him and went to sleep. Apart from waking us both up in the middle of the night when I dreamt the spider was on me and turned the light on to check (I wasn't fully awake, really) we both slept OK. And in the morning, the spider had vanished again.

Until this morning. This morning I woke up, got up, got dressed, and then noticed that it was now sitting on the bed-head right above my head. Hm.

If it's still there tonight I may have to move it. I'll give good odds though it'll have vanished again.

On the other hand there's a millipede in the bathroom again... God I hate millipedes.

Comments

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Gee... how about KILLING it?!
"Useful" my arse! They're evil, evil evil. I really wouldn't sleep a wink knowing that spider is out there somewhere.

[hnpcc]

They are useful - they eat the other, more poisonous spiders. Huntsman spiders and daddy long legs I'm fine with.

And daddy long legs are cute!

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, they're practically cuddly....

Honestly, Australians!

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

*giggling* we can catch it and send it express?

I've heard of all sorts of weird ways to catch huntsmen spiders, including using hairspray to stick their hairy bodies to the wall. I mean if you're going to kill it, I say kill it quick.

I can't sleep in a room with any kind of insect, so I don't know how you've slept peacefully so many nights with it around. I've heard how great they are at catching other things, but I just can't stand them. One always appears on my window in Summer and eats Christmas beetles, and it is just evil!

I hate how they fall out of trees onto your shoulders, how they hang around the car and then end up inside, and how in Summer there's always a few camped out near the shower. I just can't deal with being crawled on naked so they go down the drain *s*

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

You know, this is exactly the reason why I'll never come on holiday to Australia!
I'd love to see it, honestly, but not with those things about.

[hnpcc]

Honestly? You have a much better chance of seeing koalas, kangaroos and all the other picturesque wildlife than you do of seeing a spider close up. Seriously. The hotel/backpackers will have vacuumed them all up way before the tourists get there... :-)

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

ooooh koala!
;-)

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

Oh but they're not everywhere! We've very many poisonous and ugly creatures, but you only get to meet the cute ones 99% of the time! We're all still alive here! You must come!

[hnpcc]

Seriously? You're not helping... ;-)

Quick example. My host parents came out for a week to Melbourne in 1997. In that time they saw:

Koalas[1][2], seals[1], penguins (ooh, so cute!)[1], platypuses[2] (heh, vogelbecdiertje!), eagles[2][3], kangaroos[2], wallabies[2], wombats[2], echidnas[2][3], lizards of quite a few varieties[1][2][3][4] and a red-bellied black snake[4]. No spiders. Really.

[1] At Phillip Island.
[2] At Healesville Sanctuary
[3] On the Great Ocean Rd
[4] At Toorongo Falls, Noojee.

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

I had a fight with a kangaroo once over a bag full of puffed wheat at Healsville Sanctuary. Sorry that's probably not helping either *s*

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I don't mind about non-poisonous spiders, they're fine and can do as they please. But if something venomous comes into my house I'm assuming it's looking for an early death.

[epideme.livejournal.com]

Your link is broken. I'd be moving it on or killing it, if it refused to go quietly.

[hnpcc]

Fixed the link - damn cut and paste not working! ;-)

I don't need to move it on, it's doing it quite nicely itself.

[epideme.livejournal.com]

I mean moving it on outside the house.

[hnpcc]

I'm fine with it being in the house, although more fine with it staying up in the corners of the hallway.

[epideme.livejournal.com]

as soon as it invades the bedroom, that would be it for me. I've seen the size of them... no way I want that walking across my slumbering face! ;(

Tell it in no uncertain terms, the bedroom is off limits. ;)

[hnpcc]

Ah. I have to admit, I have woken up with a huntsman on my face. So yeah, in general I'm in agreement that the bedroom is off limits. But seriously, it was so hot I couldn't be bothered last night... so I just assumed that it had enough self-preservation skills to go somewhere else. Which it seems to have, so far.

[vestalvagrant.livejournal.com]

Soon after T moved here, I'd been telling him about huntsman spiders. That night I rolled over in my half-sleep and thought I saw a huntsman scuttling through his hair. I turned on the light and start yelling at T that he had spiders on him, and we jumped out of bed and searched everywhere for it.

Nothing.

Then he banned me from eating cheese or sugar before going to bed.

[bungo.livejournal.com]

Never mind the huntsman, stamp on the millipede, quickly!

[dalmeny]

dmw found our huntsman next to the bed this morning and almost put his laptop on it.

[hnpcc]

I am very careful about checking my shoes now I know there's a huntsman around - I've previously discovered that it is possible to levitate 3 metres backwards after finding one in your boot.

[kirstenfleur.livejournal.com]

You really don't want either me or Marcus visiting, do you?!?

Get the horrible thing OUT!!!!!!!

[hnpcc]

It's fine. Really, it's vanished again, so presumably it may even have moved out.