My Freaky Southern U.S. Experience - Spider Edition
Warning: Spiders scare the crap out of me, so if you hate those little buggers then don't read any further. Feel free to upvote because I had the balls to post this hating them, but don't read further. I am not responsible for you getting scared.
I hate spiders. Like, hate hate spiders
Have a fear? Mine, spiders. They freaking creap me out. With their 8 long legs, weird eyes, ability to bite and evil kill you with their bite. Okay, I know most spiders won't do that, but still, it freaks the hell out of me. Plus, the can come out of the weirdest places, they come down on a very thin little almost unseen thread, they make webs in the middle of trees outside and then you walk through it and it feels so gross. Plus, I mean they kill, wrap, and then eat bugs. Who the hell likes that?
I realize there may be quite a few people who like them, you can keep that to yourself :P. Anyways, like I said, I hate spiders.
Welcome to the Southern U.S of alot of spiders
Damnit. The south. a few years ago I lived just north of Atlanta in a place called Marietta. It was an interesting few months we lived there. Beautiful place. Rolling hills, lots of trees, lots of bike trails and inline skating trails, very beautiful rivers, and then there were the bugs.
The first thing I encounter, of course, would be a spider. Not the measly little spiders I am used to from being anywhere else, no...this was a nice Brown Recluse spider. I don't know how it got into the place we were renting at the time or how it died, but thank gosh it did.
[Pixabay image - royalty free]
That thankfully was my biggest run-in with spiders in Marietta. Little did I know that my spider streak in the south would get even more interesting.
Welcome to the sunny state of Florida, and it's damn spiders
I love Florida for so many reasons, but of course, it would have to have a bunch of spiders. I mean, come on it almost never gets anywhere near cold where I live, so why would spiders die any kind of weird death? So, let's go on what seems like, my never-ending journey of spiders and their sometimes disturbing introductions.
You know what's fun about building a house in a new neighborhood?
The fact that you get to choose everything, choose where you want your house, your floor plan, your finishes, etc.
You know what's not so fun about then having more houses built around you after you live there?
The fact that apparently it disturbs spiders and they come visit you in your nice home.
It is amazing how this whole situation happened. When we closed and moved into our home we have a good couple of months before the lot next to us started to get built on. It was great. No side neighbors, no light was being blocked, no work crews waking you up. However, once it all started I still didn't mind any construction noises or anything of any inconvenience, until...
[Pixabay image - royalty free]
Enters..The Wolf Spider. So, how did I come across this spider, or should I say about 4 of them. All at separate times I may add. Well, it turns out this particular type of spider burrows in the ground and doesn't really make webs. So, when they started to dig around to start building the house next door, it looks as though their habitat was destroyed. Naturally, they somehow made it into my house. I last of the 4 I ran into was actually on my wall in my hallway, I am not really sure where it had come from as the other 3 seemed to be entering in through some pipes or around some pipes in the bathroom, so this one was actually the least scary.
What freaks you out while you are in the washroom, having your own personal potty time?
Easy, while you are sitting there and from out of nowhere, a decent sized spider hops into the doorway. It came out of freaking nowhere, and it was not small by any means. I freaked out and screamed for my husband to come save me. One, I was a bit busy. Two, I was literally paralyzed with fear, other than screaming for help. Trust husband came to my aid and used a vacuum thankfully. After that, 2 more followed suit and entered into our home in the same area, thankfully though none of them scared me that badly again. I was able to vacuum up one of them but couldn't bring myself to empty the bag as I was too scared.
After the second one I called the pest control person whom we subscribe with and they identified it, as we had taken a picture that time around. He was quite pleased we vacuumed it up because apparently, the Wolf Spider is one of the few spiders who actually carries its egg sac with it, so if we would've tried to squish it or anything we would go from having one dead spider to thousands of little baby spiders. I honestly would have done this if that happened:
[Pixabay image - royalty free]
Okay, maybe not really done that, but I would've felt like that. I also probably would've moved out for a while until I was absolutely positive any sign of those buggers were gone.
You would think with all those spiders that eventually my luck would kick in and I would be spider free for a while. Well, not exactly. About 8 months later I came across another wonderful surprise. Insert eye rolling emoji here to show sarcasm
[Pixabay image - royalty free]
What's that? You might be asking (Or not asking, who knows)
A Black Widow Spider, Isn't it amazing?
No. No, it is not Like holy crap, these things are not as big as I expected. I expected something really huge, but instead it wasn't that big at all. I spotted it one day around my freezer in the garage. It had set up a nice little spot in front of the light. Apparently, the light drew bugs in and so that was a prime feeding spot. I honestly was just going to leave this little spider, it had been living there for weeks. No matter how much I hate spiders I have convinced myself that they are around for a reason and it is usually to eat other annoying bugs. So, if they are not inside my actual house I will tend to avoid them and let them be. However, once I saw that nice little red mark I called the pest control in. I swear I am surprised I didn't start setting this guy a place at the table to eat dinner with us because he was over so much.
It's not really that bad, I am over-exaggerating on the number of times I have called them. Anyways, I had the guy come in and verify that indeed it was a Black Widow, he sprayed my garage but said that the spider ran pretty quick. He thought he had killed it but was not sure since there were boxes stored in the corner and he couldn't verify a dead body. It does look as though he got it though as I have not seen the Widow again. Other spiders eventually took its place but nothing I have been too worried about yet.
I have had my fair share of run-ins with spiders, it must surely be over.
What a cruel cruel joke this was.
Today, I would be introduced to a new foe.
It started out as a nice Saturday. I got up, I made some eggs and pancakes for the family
Then after my daughter played some old throwback video game on the XBOX One, we decided to head to the mall to rectify a problem with my husband's phone. So, naturally, since my daughter has been begging us to stop and get some fresh coconut water, we did do just that.
We got some coconuts and drank the water inside. Yummy.
Then, of course, we got the guy to cut it open so we could enjoy the wonderful jelly inside.
It is nice, a little area that sits in a parking lot outside of a latin market on a busy road. We got to enjoy sitting in the shade underneath a faux grass canopy and watch the guy chop some coconuts.
It was quite enjoyable, until...
I felt something drop on my foot. I pushed my foot to the side naturally of course and looked under the picnic table I was sitting at. It took me a moment to realize what the hell I was looking at. Then I freaked. I was up so quick. With the commotion the huge spider move to the side of the picnic table.
Introducing...The Huntsman Spider, complete with egg sac
I couldn't sit back down. I took this picture zooming in as much as I could but I just couldn't be near it. I think I will now be on high alert for a while.
Let's Recap my new found friends who I have met over the last few years.
Brown Recluse Spider
Wolf Spiders
Black Widow Spider
Huntsman Spider (complete with eggs)
Can I please just have a break from spiders?
That's it. I have no sufficiently freaked myself out again and am strongly regretting typing this post, and looking at the pictures and now sharing it. But, it felt like this type of day to day so I hate to share it. I hope you enjoyed reading my post, and for those of you who hate spiders I hope you don't hate me, but to be fair I did warn you in advance. Thanks for reading.
Are you afraid of anything? Such as Spiders, Snakes, Bugs? Would love to hear your story of it if you have one.
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Some Spiders are so Big it's not funny when you suddenly find it crawling near you.
Gives me the Shivers.
I'm afraid of spiders to and our here are not that big..... Holy crap
I would freak out if those spiders crawl on me.
I feel you darling not a pleasant experience.
I hope they keep their distance from you in the future 😉 thank you for sharing, hade a good laugh. Well written. Cheers 😘
Haha glad I can give people some laughter. Yes, these are bigger than I am used to for sure, I could certainly do without. But, since I don't have that choice I will just hope they don't come visit me.
Yes a smile or two or three 😆😁hahaha
I probably won't be if I was in your shoes.. Lol
Since you are stuck with those monsters I do hope they keep their distance from you and don't bother or scare you 🤗😘 cheers
I am glad you couldnt see my face while I was reading this as you could have mistaken my looks of concern with a bit of a giggle while reading parts of this
but honestly it was just concern about how all these encounters must have been so traumatic for you
But I do understand some of the spiders here are huge, and Damn a Black Widow that is scary, I know my wife would have had thoughts of torching the place as well
I hope your encounters with spiders become less frequent or non existent
Happy Sunday
I wish so much that the encounters will stop, but doesn't seem to be going that way haha. That's ok if there was some giggling. If I was reading it from far away I probably would too, well no I would still shudder when I saw all the pictures but..that's ok. Haha, when the wolf spider was in my house I could not walk through that room with the light off for like a month because I was sure I was going to encounter another one. Haha, why do they seek me out?
My wife would be the same there
My thing is seagulls and pigeons I have been five bombed by them multiple times so always watching out for them
I agree. They are freaky! We have huge garden spiders here and wolf spiders are wooly this year! Have you ever researched the Camel Spider?!?!?!
oh my!! I wish I would not have googled that. Crap those are freaky. I don't need any bigger spiders, smaller fine, but not bigger oh my. I would run away screaming from that one.
I have been told a few troops do AK47 target shots on those things. Good riddance. I am wholly creepified!
I feel your pain. I don't like spiders either but as long as they stay a long way away from me, I can live with them in the general area. But someone forgot to tell them that. I live in Central America, so we have spiders and other vermin such as scorpions in various colours and sizes. They are right up there with spiders for me. I have managed to be stung three times by scorpions. The first two weren't too bad but the third from a back one sent me to the hospital. So, I can understand your fear of these things...
Oh dear gosh scorpions. I have had the luck of never coming across one of those except looking at it while it is behind glass. I feel like scorpions would be one of those right up there with spiders. Damn that sucks that you have been stung a few times already. So, maybe a Central America trip isn't on the top of my list for travel destinations yet. Don't need to meet anything more freaky yet haha
I found a way to see the little vermin before they get me...use a UV light (UV flashlight works well). The scorpions fluoresce in UV light.
Oh noessss! Spiders are yuckkk! I am not scared of them, but I do not like them.
That coconut water and jelly looks darn dericious!
Spiders and their creepiness aside, yes the coconut water and jelly was delicious. One of the things we are lucky enough to get up here because this guy sources the coconuts from a bit southern (we are a bit too north I believe to grow them up here). So it's a nice time when we stop by to get coconuts nearly year round if we want.
Spiders from the US are way bigger than the spiders here in the Philippines.
Oh my gosh! it is not even funny how big some of these are. The one today took the cake. It was like a crab size.. Shudders
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Once upon a time, spiders frightened me, too. Then, I kept seeing this one particular species of spider on the outside of our house and was curious about it, wondering whether it was poisonous or not. So, I went to the library (this was before the public could access the Internet) and checked-out a book on spiders, full of color illustrations.
I was so afraid of spiders that I handled the book carefully, even refusing the touch the illustrations in the book as I held it and turned the pages! LOL! Before long, I was able to identify the beastie as a harmless Garden Spider, and I read that they were beneficial to the environment. I looked for other spiders in the book that I had seen and read more about them. Before long, I had gained a better appreciation for them, how they keep populations of bugs under control, some aerate the soil by burrowing, and so forth. I began to feel better about them.
Fast-forward to several years later when I was helping a friend move. As I placed yet-another box into the back of the truck, I noticed a harmless, orb-weaver on the back of my hand, smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil. I calmly said, "Oh! An orb-weaver wants to go with you!" The friend I was helping started shrieking and trembling, and couldn't believe I was just letting the thing crawl on the back of my hand. It was hilarious! Now, I am only freaked-out if it's a Black Widow or Brown Recluse.