[clevermax]

You must have already figured out that this thread is not about Ferrari F430 Spider or Alfa Romeo 8C Spider.

This entire week I am staying alone, as family is at my hometown. I was enjoying the temporary bachelorhood I was endowed with, until half an hour ago.

Today I came back from office after having dinner, opened the front door and turned on the light in the main hall. Then I opened the bedroom with the intention of changing cloths, and as I was standing there in the dark, I saw something black sitting on the white tiled floor. Next moment, I turned on the light in the bedroom only to realize that I am standing very near to a huge spider!

Quickly I stepped back with shock, and then I am seeing one more huge spider sitting on a travel bag which is kept next to the cupboard!

I have Arachnophobia – the fear of spiders. But I have absolutely no fear of any large insects, rats or wall lizards. Though Arachnophobes will try their best to avoid any direct encounter with spiders, they may not be able to get rid of a huge spider by killing it. I am phobic when it comes to huge ones with a diameter or about 10cms or more. My bad luck, there are lots of them in densely vegetated areas in Kerala. To give you an idea, these are the ones:


(Not uploading a bigger image as it is even disturbing to see it on screen. Scale shown is in cms)

So here I am, an Arachnophobe, alone in a house with two huge spiders. As I have to sleep in this house, I decided to kill the spiders, temporarily overriding my phobia. Grabbed a broom, and with the sudden rush of courage, I killed the one sitting on the floor, but at the same time, the other one vanished somewhere. To be honest, I was doing it probably for the 3rd or 4th time in my life. This is too hard a task for me to do and chances are that I miss the spider when I hit. Usually I call 911, be it mom or wife.

Disappointed, I came to the second bedroom, this time turned on the light immediately to see whether that room is inhabitable – shocked again, another huge one sitting on the bathroom door. Later, somehow I killed that too.

Now I am more worried. Why is there a sudden invasion of big spiders in my house? Are there any more? I still have to check out the bathrooms and kitchen. I am sure there will be more.

Anyone in here who share the same phobia? How do you get around without being exposed to these creatures? It seems getting rid of this phobia is impossible.

EDIT: As I write this, the dead body of one spider started moving - a bunch of ants are taking it home for dinner.

[vivekiny2k]

if ants are so close by, it means you have a very active ecosystem within your house. spiders are just a part of it. you need to totally clean your house of insects if you want them out. remember, spiders eat insects.

follow the ants and see where they go.

do you also see lizards very often?

[clevermax]

Yea, Ants took charge of the dead spider within minutes. They are those small black ants who run like mad. I think spiders invaded because the house remained closed for 4 days during last weekend - very low human activity and dark most of the time.

Yes, I see wall lizards very often. My daughter just gets excited seeing one. She has not seen a big spider yet - no idea whether she has the same phobia like me

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Yes, I see wall lizards very often.

you know they make a great subject for photographs. add a nice background and you have a Jurassic park in making.

[download2live]

If that scale is the one which I used to have in my geometry box then man!! Those are some seriously big spiders. Never saw such big ones in real till now. I can understand your fears. Best way I think will be to take a long stick , wrap a small rag (small, you dont want to burn your house!!) dipped in kerosene, light it up and touch them. That way you are saved of seeing those yucky internal juices when you splatter one with newspaper. But again.....These are big spiders. Seriously big.

[karthik247]

Hold a lit candle near it (about 10-12cms away will also do), take a dio, aim it at the spider and spray into through the flame. There you have it... burnt to death. Works with roaches too. Instant kill

[clevermax]

@vivek: That's true, especially if you have a macro lens..

@download2live:
Yes, that's the scale you have in your geometry box. I just added the scale to the picture to give an impression about the size of these spiders.
Do you think they will stay at the same place when you try to touch them with a stick? They move around really fast!

I major reasons for my phobia are
1) Their long legs
2) Speed - they run around very fast, should be something like 2m/s.
3) The darker color

I lived in Blr for 5 years and I never saw such a huge one there. I think it's only found in much humid places like here.

@karthik247:
Nice method, but what if the cloths catch fire

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by clevermax

@vivek: That's true, especially if you have a macro lens..

You SLR owners...
if you have a S2IS or a fuji HS10 you always have a macro lense

[navpreet318]

Oh my god.I'd have a heart attack seeing one that big.i was in uttarkashi a few days back.and there was one about 5-6 cms big with a big centre body.did i make a run or what!

got it removed by the servant.but couldn't sleep that whole night.a small trick might be good.which i'm using too.every few hours spray some hit or baygon on the entry points like doors, drains etc.generally works.other than that that it just is sheer testosterone courage which takes me around the house once i have spotted one.

[clevermax]

@navpreet318: I guess you have an intense phobia then. I don't have a problem with those smaller ones, like within 5 cms diameter.

Anyway, Phobias do not infer a cowardly or otherwise weak mind.

[prguru]

@Clevermax Talking about spiders I had taken a picture of this spider around my house few months back , it was not as huge as the one you have posted but looks huge , I think it was taken in macro mode. I am guessing it was around 6cms to 10 cms. Forget about spiders and lizards people here ( including us ) are not even scared of snakes in Nagarabhavi ( the place I stay )

[clevermax]

Never seen this kind of spiders before.
Yea, I don't have phobia for snakes, but I fear them because they are venomous. I can touch one if it is assured that it won't bite me. Bhpian pramodkumar can vouch for that

[prateekm]

Damn! I am even afraid of those insects that get attracted due to light. Seriously, these insects would scare the **** out of me! Thank god you don't find such in Mumbai and it's a boon to stay on the 13th floor. Though I am afraid of those creepy insects, I am an avid pet lover Have taken pics with a (trained) snake around my neck when I was young.

[Jaguar]

Why do you create a thread for Arachnophobia and put pics of large spiders? You guys should get an infraction just for this. The pics above give me shivers. I have had this phobia and don't even like to touch a photo of these creatures. I still remember when as a child I had an encyclopedia type book on animals and I used to skip the page with the pic of a spider eating a rat. But like clevermax said, I don't have issues with smaller ones, maybe because we mallus are so used to seeing the small ones on a daily basis. Good that I am safe in bangy now.

@mods, please remove the pics above.

[csentil]

Living in rural India at times has its charms While staying in a hostel in Madurai, TN which was situated with a lot of fields of one side and a dense scrubland on the other side, we were used to a lot of interesting insects. My room had very less mosquitoes as I always refused to clean out the webs. I probably had tens of spiders living on them. The young spiders (are they called spiderlings?) used to cling on to their moms back and scurry around the walls of my hostel room. Thankfully my roomie was pretty tolerant about it.

I've seen some pretty big spiders in Kerala especially Thekkadi and in Athirampalli. I think there are no venomous or rather spiders that can kill human beings in India. Any spiderman/spidermen amongst us??