Wed 17 November 2004 - Daniel vs Spider
I stood there, facing my eight-legged adversary. It was still, near the top of the fly-wire door. I was armed with my broom.
Wait for it… wait for it.. whack! The door rattled as the broom hit the spider, which took cover under the metal and curled into a tiny ball. It wasn’t a humungous spider, admittedly, but certainly big enough to make me nervous about its presence. I poked at it with the broom a bit more, and it fell to the ground. Whack! Whack! Dead yet? One more whack to be sure.
I swept it off the porch into the garden, then inspected the broom. The metal part holding the bristles onto the stick had cracked. Slithers of plastic had also fallen onto the porch. I cleaned them up, and put away the broom.
Daniel 1. Spider 0. Broom 0.
November 17th, 2004 at 11:31am
I wasn’t afraid of spiders until I saw the movie “Arachnophobia”. Siders, yeesh, bleech, etc. Just remember, their out there, those little varmints.
November 17th, 2004 at 12:16pm
I’d gave to give the spider at least 0.5 for getting you to destroy the broom.
November 17th, 2004 at 1:27pm
I’ll comment later when I can manage to stop giggling over images of Daniel the Broom-Weilding Spider Slayer.
November 17th, 2004 at 2:10pm
Maybe you should think before you just bash something and kill it. Being afraid of spiders is nonsense. Most are harmless. You’ll probably never see a redback in your life.
I refuse to harm a spider. I do capture them and fling them out of the house - but only to satisfy the cute and exaggerated terror of females living here.
November 17th, 2004 at 6:42pm
I’m all against cruelty to all sorts of creatures. EXCEPT for spiders- the way i see it- its self defense no matter what type or size! Yuck!
November 17th, 2004 at 11:57pm
No comment on destroying another living being. Today I had been standing under a tree and a short time later felt something crawling on my head. I madly brushed at this crawling critter, as you do and it turned out to be a ladybid bug, which clean aphids off roses among other usefull things. If fell upside down and was still, but when I looked a few seconds later, it was gone. I was happy.
November 18th, 2004 at 12:37am
Glass and card?
November 18th, 2004 at 3:27am
Actually that really should read - Daniel 2, Spider 0, Broom 0
November 18th, 2004 at 1:26pm
You shouldn’t have killed it. Although putting it outside usually kills it anyway apparently, housespiders can’t stand the change in temperature. Still I put them outside and hope they survive by crawling into my neighbour’s house.
November 18th, 2004 at 5:52pm
Our backyard is full of redbacks. They hide in the compost bin and in my potplants.
But redbacks aside I usually try the glass and card approach.
November 18th, 2004 at 7:29pm
Of course, there’s lots to be said for bashing things. Back to spiders (now that I’ve stopped giggling) - any eight-legged freak that shows itself in my presence is fair game. I would have done the same thing.
November 18th, 2004 at 11:25pm
Not surprising. I’ve read of guards at Auswitch having a good giggle too.
November 19th, 2004 at 8:57am
I saw a programme on Discovery not so long ago and they reenacted the circumstances surrounding the death of an innocent little girl who was bitten by a “recluse” spider (a creature which I believe is found in the USA). She must have died in excruciating pain from the bite she received. Another person still has a gaping ulcerating hole in his back resulting from a bite from the same type of spider. Kill them all I say.