The sacrifices we make for our fids ...

[Buy A Paper Doll]

OK so here's one of those It's-Only-Funny-If-It-Isn't-Happening-To-You moments. :rolleyes:

I will start this little story by stating that I am afraid of large bugs. Yes, I know, Florida is not the place to be if you are afraid of large bugs. And so it seems, that whenever my husband must leave town for a few days, a large insect of some kind, usually a big old spider, finds its way into the house and presents itself to me.

Tonight was no exception. A nice thick chunky spider, climbing up the wall in the alcove between Milo and Melody's cages. :eek:

Now, back in the days before Milo and Melody came to live here, I would have just blasted the thing with whatever bug spray happened to be in the house. But we all know that aerosol spray is off limits if you have birds. And anything else I could think of to spray on the spider, would have hurt the birds. So I had to work up the nerve to get the spider without spraying it. With every hair standing on end, skin crawling, and uncontrollable whimpering, I coaxed the spider to the floor, and dropped a half-full gallon paint can on it. And you can believe that the paint can is going to stay exactly where it is until hubby gets home.

Don't laugh. I learned this trick from my sister, who once sprayed a spider with WD-40, covered it with the phone book, and left it for 6 weeks until her daughter came home from college for spring break. I'm only leaving the spider until tomorrow night. :rolleyes:

[linda040899]

Gotta laugh, Jennifer! :0 :) :) :)
FL sure has its bugs and there are some pretty big ones!!! My solution to the problem? A vaccuum cleaner. Around my house, my vaccuum gets emptied several times/week so nothing ever stays around here for very long!

[zlatushka]

Jennifer,

I too am an unabashed bug-o-phobic... especially spiders. :eek: I favour Linda's method... The vacuum cleaner is the way to go if at all possible, no guts to remove...I even used to have a special song I'd sing as I'd do it :)

But in the event that vacuuming wasn't an option, I too favour the squish-with-a-ridiculously-large-object-that-I-will-leave-there-forever-or-for-someone-else-to-remove-as-so-to-avoid-having-to-see-the-dead-spider method.


rachel

[Mummieeva]

I am not scared of snakes but Bugs :eek: . last week I was in bed and had a centipede drop on me. I did not sleep in my bed for 3 days..lol. Here is GA we got some big ones too.


Steph

[LauraO]

I can deal with spiders, mostly, but CENTIPEDES :eek:. I hate those nasty things and they are everywhere on Oahu especially in the neighborhood where we've been living over the past year. We've been lucky and have only had a few. I always worry about a big fat one slithering in and damaging my little birds. In fact, I think the only way I would get near enough to kill one is if it was threatening my flock.

[shylevon]

You do know there is nothing stopping a spider from crawling right back out of the vacuum cleaner, don't you?

They get sucked up into the bag, they turn around after you stop vacuuming, and make their way right back down the hose they came through. And now they are pi$$ed, and looking for the person who sucked them up in the first place. They have revenge on their minds, and they have very long memories. And very good eyesight. Don't think they can't see you from across the room with their beady little black eyes that are probably watching you right this minute. They had that long journey back up and out the vacuum hose and plenty of time to plot their vengence.

I think spiders are a plague on the earth worse than any, but vacuuming them up is not the answer in this house.

[bellarains]

Yep,

If it is a spider or a bug, it's gotta got. Squish!!!!! My hubby keeps telling me to leave those spiders alone that they eat the bugs, but....... NOPE!!!!! They gotta die. I could not sleep at night if I left one alive that I had seen :eek:

Jennifer,

I lived in FL for a few years, long story short, my ex moved back down there with me for a short time, and you know how those palmetto bugs come up the tub drain???? Ever see a grown man squeal??? :D I don't like em, but I do know how to get rid of them. Those are a bit big to squish, so I just scoop them up in a cup, place a magazine over them and throw them out. I don't even want to clean up those bug guts,YUCK!!!

TTYL,

Lori

[Buy A Paper Doll]

I just scoop them up in a cup

Lori, I would never, ever, EVER try to pick up a palmetto bug with a cup. Good God. That would mean I'd have to work up the nerve to get near it. No, throwing a phone book on it from 4 feet away is the way to go. Then again, you are talking to a person who once used a lawn and leaf sized garbage bag to remove an obviously dead frog from my house. Oh, and I double-bagged it. :rolleyes:

My sister normally leaves the spiders alone. If they're small. And they stay way up in the vaulted ceiling corners where she doesn't have to think about them. The one that got the WD-40 then phone book treatment was the size of a saucer. :eek:

[linda040899]

Shy,
Once I vaccuum up a spider, I can usually find more to vaccuum while I'm at it. I've never had one come back out by the time I get done. The thing that scared me the most, however, was the small mouse that bolted out of my shop vac when I took it out to the garbage can to empty it!!! He/she apparently crawled through the hose, looking for a dark place........ I now have a hook in so that I can hang up the hose when I'm done using the shop vac!!!

[TGerard]

I came across this pic and was amazed by it:

http://www.tobias-graml.de/aust/days/2003_10_17/gal01.jpg

Don't worry, this bad boy is is all the way in Germany.:p

[BarbieH]

Byaaahh!! :eek:

I am not good at killing bugs. I tried to kill a humongous hairy spider once in my parents' house when I still lived there. First I looked for the largest book on their shelf: Armageddon. (Seemed like a good title for spider killing.) But I couldn't justify messing up a hardcover book with spider guts. So I took a small wooden mallet from Dad's tools; didn't want to mess it up, so I wrapped it in Kleenex (held on with rubber bands).

By that time the spider was gone and I was late for class. I had to leave the book and the mallet near their bathroom. Oddly, my Mom figured out what I had tried to do. She always was good at mysteries.

[Sparkette65]

ok fine!!!! I no longer want to move down south!!! I will Keep the umteenthousand inches of snow, and the LONG cold drawn out springs! But no way Im moving somewhere that a centipede can fall on me in bed!!!!!
OMG I would have a heart attack!!!
we used to have those little anole lizards, and you have to buy them live crickets to eat, well one day my husband bought like 6 dozen to feed to them and forgot the bag was on the dishwasher, around 11pm that night, my son said MOM< there are crickets all over the house....we needless to say, HAD to catch them....well the can of hair spray and a fly swatter came out, and I had to go around killing them, while the brave little children caught as many as they could and put them in the tank with the anole's...."I WAS NOT TOUCHING ANY OF THEM"
while sleeping that night one of them Jumped ontop of the blankets that were on me in bed....I FLEW right off that bed, mind you I WAS sound asleep,,,,,I was in standing position at the foot of the bed in like a milasecond!!!, needless to say I didn't sleep again that night!
Just thought I'd share....lol
Everyone has a fear....my fear.......ANY BUG!! :eek:
Lori

[Bella]

My mother found a really huge spider once. She didn't have the guts to squish it so she vacuumed it. Here's the thing - it held on to the carpet and the vacuum was only just strong enough to get it after it got tired of holding on!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

So once she had vacuumed it she covered up the hose, the air vents, any hole she could find with sticky tape. The vacuum went into the garage and was left there until the cleaner came a few days later. It took him ages to get all the tape off!

[Mummieeva]

LOL Lori your safe in south. But do not live in the sticks like I do. We are in a pre-fad(fancy word for trailer..lol) and with a space under house we get many things. We had a snake last summer under house. Funny big snakes i can handle but bugs i run like a baby.


Steph