You already know a fair bit about my ongoing battles with arachnophobia.
And you know how, in very-very-small-but-significant ways, I’ve become increasingly able to cope with encountering spiders in my daily life.
Kind of.
On the positive end of the spectrum, there was the time I saw a spider in my hair whilst driving and managed to restrain myself from freaking out and crashing my vee-hick-el, which would have been to the detriment of not only myself but everyone else on the road at the time.
That was a triumph. A triumph over the nasty spider gods.
I’d much rather find this flower in my hair.
On the less positive end of the spectrum, there was the time I stopped breathing and froze in place on my bed because I saw a big black spider in my room.
A big black spider that turned out to be an image of a spider printed on a sock I’ve owned for years.
That was a defeat. A defeat by the nasty spider gods.
Then there was two days ago. Two days ago, I’m not really sure who won in the ongoing saga of Spiders vs. Hannah. You see, there was a really, really, really scary-looking, non-huntsman, thick-bodied, big-fanged arachnid in my bathroom.
It was curled on its back on the tiles, not moving.
Despite my rational self knowing what the situation was, and knowing that the spider wasn’t going to be able to harm anything, human or insect, ever again, I still found myself putting an extremely large bowl over the top of it and leaving said bowl in place for 24 hours before sliding a newspaper underneath and taking the spider’s body outside.
You know…
Just in case it was faking.
At least I can always win at making Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake in a Mug.
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Didn’t remember this phobia of yours Hannah. Can you get a cat? They are wonderful at warding off the critters.
I only wish, Tammy! Unfortunately I rent an apartment with a strict no-animals policy, and I myself am allergic to cats (or at least to some cats).
:::Shudder::: Not much of a spider fan myself, but I’ve been dubbed official spider killer in my house because Jeff is even worse!
Bahahaha! Oh heavens, I hope I don’t meet someone more arachnophobic than me!
Haha I do the same thing with spiders and insects! Put a cup/bowl over it and scoop paper underneath!! My friends think I’m weird for doing that
Another great way is using a vacuum cleaner to suck it up 
Wow, really?! I’m so surprised that anyone thinks that’s weird; honestly, everyone I know deals with spiders that way! The vacuum idea scares me though… what happens to the spider once it’s sucked up?!
lol keeps spinning inside the vacuum and dies from the dust! seems somewhat humane..cause it’s a quick death
btw I’ve got a Father’s Day giveaway on my blog atm if you’re interested!
Oh my gosh, that sounds horrible! But then again, as much as I hate spiders, I really hate killing them in any way too
Shall check it out!
Eek. I don’t think I would have been able to get close enough to it to put the bowl on top! I don’t think I’m scared of spiders, exactly, but I do find them horrifying. WIth the big, disgusting ones I normally spray half a can of spider spray at them, and then cover them with close to a whole newspaper before wrapping them up to take outside. Unless I can find someone else to deal with the situation, and then I stay out of the room altogether
Teehee, Kari, it was already dead at that point, but I must admit I still found it hard to put the bowl over (as I said, “in case it was faking”
) I’m exactly like you, too, in that if I’m the only one at home I can deal with spiders, but if ANYONE else is here, it becomes their responsibility 
Ohhhhh, nothing healthy in that cake at all, but, I LOVE Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Almost more than anything edible known to humankind. I could seriously live on them. I am an addict. There, I’ve said it! But, as I have zero metabolism, I have to restrict their entry to my cakehole, or pay the price – obesity (and presumably diabetes at some point in the future). But, I really do love them. I have to tell you that I recently found AN ENTIRE BLOCK of Reese’s butter cups at the Asian grocer at the Fyshwick markets. I also have to tell you, I could not stop at a couple of pieces, I tried, really I tried, but I was not satisfied until I ate the entire block
) Whoops! Haven’t been brave enough to go back to Fyshwick markets since though. And spiders, they really are tricky, aren’t they? I can’t kill things, and have a red back who lives at my front door and several in my garage, but I just can’t bring myself to hurt them, so I tell myself karma will look after me and thus they won’t hurt me. I hope I’m right…!
There’s love in that there mug cake, and what’s healthier than that?
I used to be utterly addicted to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and in fact bought two of the massive (1.5kg, are they?) Costco bags of them last year. However, I’ve started finding the chocolate a bit too mediocre for my liking – darn my upmarket chocolate reviewing! I wish we could find the dark chocolate ones in Canberra…
Oh gosh, you let the redbacks live? You’re a kinder woman than I; I don’t think I could do that…
O no! I had a feeling I’d be clicking through to a microwave recipe. We don’t have one, evidently I’m going to have to awkwardly befriend my neighbours so I can knock on their door at all hours saying “yoo hoo! I have a sudden cake craving! I’ll only be five minutes, seven tops!”
*laughs and laughs and laughs*
I love you sometimes, Laura.
Blehhhhh, spiders totally freak me out. I’m with you on all counts.
Anna!! We must talk properly soon! Call me sometime (free vodafone, wheeeee!
)
I hate spiders.
Now I want a chocolate mug cake too…. ughh! Tomorrow!
Amen on both counts.
How would you deal with someone who has xocolataphobia then?
Why, I eat it all first so they have nothing to worry about!
I have a bit of a rational vs irrational argument when I encounter spiders but I usually insist that E is the one to take it outside – just in case!
Whenever there’s a man (or a woman!) in the house, spiders become their responsibility too
i love flowers and i love wearing one in my hair. if only i lived in hawaii! chocolate pb in a mug sounds amazing!!
I bet you’d be awesome at the hula
Its strange – spiders, bugs and even snakes……meh…. no problems. But put a bird within 50 m of me and I am running for cover!
But that makes perfect sense, Lisa! After all, it’s birds that can fatally injure you
I grew up with a house that backed bushland. Learning to cope with spiders was a matter for course. When my parents first moved in there was one so big they could hear it walking on the wall – I kid you not. All that said, I still absolutely loath them, however I am an efficient killer. I find a thong gives you the required springiness and dexterity combined with superior killing velocity.
I’ve never made a mug cake, I hear mixed reviews. But yours looks great, I might have to finally give it a go.
Are you trying to give me a heart attack, Lisa?! A spider you can HEAR walking aroubd?! *curls into a ball and cries*
I’m no good at killing the blighters, though. I feel guilty!
Re: mug cake, the peanut butter cups take it over the edge
Oh my goodness, I was going to comment on the spiders but that image of the PB cake seems to have prevented me from thinking about anything else! It looks delish!
I wholeheartedly support forgetting spiders in favour of cake
My favourite (?) spider story Hannah. Once upon a time (when I was about your age) I was sleeping in my bedroom in Adelaide and woke up in the middle of the night hearing this humming noise and feeling a kind of vibration in my left ear. I lay there for a while wondering what this noise was. I couldn’t work it out so went to turn my head on my pillow to go back to sleep. That’s when I felt a tugging at my left ear. I turned on the light and guess what? A lovely surprise. There was a huge hunstsman, spinning a web between my ear and the bedpost, about a foot from my ear! Hail holy hairy huntsmen! One day I will tell you what I tried to do to that spider overnight. Well, anyway, when I let him go in the backyard the next morning he scurried away and I hope he found a happy life elsewhere. His rellies still come back to haunt me in my garden (dozens of them) and occasionally inside my home!
MIKE. OH MY HOLY BUCKET.
I actually, hand over heart, no joke, flapped my hands around like a crazy woman while I was reading this comment of yours. HORROR. I cannot believe you just did this to me! I’m borderline insomniac already, and now you’ve given me this nightmare story?!
Safewarmplace, safewarmplace,safewarmplace….
P.S. I still like you.
Oh! Now I know why
You were freaking out last night
It was my story!
I am so sorry!
I hope you slept well last night
No huntsmen, Hannah?
Unfortunately my mind is currently operating under a hazy fog of wooziness, so I shall have to confer on you the haiku crown for now. For now…
OK Ms Hannah
But I’ll be waiting for you
For the next challenge
Chris has just asked me
To arrive early on Wed,
Hope that’s the challenge!
I LOVE this post! I love saying vee-hick-el!
Many years ago I worked from my boss’ home. She lived in the bush and we all encountered frightening spiders most days of the week – there were funnel web spiders and white tail spiders. It was actually very helpful in that I became desensitised to spiders!
I was always paranoid that I’d take a spider home in my bag or car, but luckily it never happened!
I ended up killing two mice in my house a few weeks ago. I was worried that the mice were only playing dead when it became time to dispose of the dead bodies!!
Oh no, the mice came back into your place?! I’m going to go recheck the safety of my chocolate right now…
*back*
Margaret, thank you!! I wasn’t sure about this post; to be honest, I posted it accidentally by clicking “publish” when I really meant to click “save” and decide later whether it was worth putting up! You’ve made me feel better about my mistake.
Also, you’re welcome in my vee-hick-el anytime
Flowers have spiders
Charlotte was a spider.
that reminds me of preschool
The fair is a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord….
I was going to tell a creepy spider story from yesterday, but Mike’s story above has anything I could possibly think of to say beaten by a mile. Or a kilometer, perhaps.
Instead I will say this: I had a deep-fried Reese’s peanut butter cup last week. Om.
Thank you, my dear dear friend, for making me happy with anecdotes of deliciousness rather than tales of gut-wrenching horror. I truly appreciate it.
*shudder*
I have my issues with crawling, many-legged things as well, be it spiders, cockroaches, bugs, or whatever. Eek. Now that it’s getting colder outside, they like to come in …
Oh, really? I definitely get more bugs in Summer than Winter!