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DoodlebearsI am sitting here with wet hair and a very scrubbed body...why....because a ******* nasty, big, ugly spider was lurking here ready to get me. I hate the darn things ever since I was a small child when a brat of a boy threw one in my face. My son has dealt with the beast now but I'm sure its's family are waiting around to seize there chance to haunt me. Yikes! I think I need a councilor!
Jane
P.S. Please excuse the *******s
Pandy Potter BearsIncey, Wincey spider climbed up the spout.... Jane you have just got to make a spider. A lovely, cuddly, friendly one! My husband hates spiders. I have had a mouse problem. Eeek!:o A few months ago we were watching TV saturday night, glass of wine in hand, you know chillled out, then a mouse popped its head down and looked at us from the chimney! We spent the next hour trying to catch it. No luck so I went bed. YUCK!
DoodlebearsYou must be JOKING Amanda. I can't even touch imitation ones! Yucky poohy things EEEK!!!!!
Jane
Pandy Potter BearsI have noticed the spiders lately are getting bigger. Still I don't think my Brambly Hedge figures look so cute, now I have seen their real cousins! Stick to bears, I think.:)
Back Road BearsYes, spiders are much bigger these days!!!! Here in the woods we have some really truly ugly ones!! The size of your fist and furry! And they JUMP! Others are not so furry and bigger and move fast. Or is it me that moves fast!!!??? I killed a mama spider in the house the other day. Her babies were in her sack and went running when I squished her. Oh my God I thought I'd die!!! I can't wait until fall when they all try to get into the house for the winter!
Past Time BearsHee hee, you guys crack me up!! 
About a month ago one night we heard a loud bang, went to investigate and discovered a huge possum waddling across the family room floor! He had somehow gotten in the attic, stood on the door in the ceiling (that opens revealing a ladder) causing the door to fall, then climbed down the ladder steps, jauntily walked out to the pet room and out the pet door!!! Such nerve!! I was dying laughing while hubby was just dying!
Back Road BearsOh, Sue Ann, that's great!!!! I'd be in hysterics while hubby went around with hammer and nails boarding up the house!!! Furry things with only FOUR legs I can deal with, no matter what they are!!!:lol:
Kim-Bee BearsLOL you guys are funny. I to have arachniphobia! I can handle snakes, mice but not spiders!
My husband, Tim -- the sentimental one -- actually picks spiders up in the cupped palm of his hand so that he can release them outside.
Me? I show no mercy, although they don't really scare me into hysterics as much as creep me out. I got a spider bite once -- not even a bad one, like a brown recluse (Sue Ann, please share!) or black widow -- and man, did it hurt like the dickens! I could not believe how much ache such a tiny, exoskeleton-encased, creature could inflict with a millisomething of venom.
We have lots of black widows here; we find them regularly in the garage. And jumping spiders, with about ten thousand visible eyes and those white leg spots, although they are small. They're hairy, tho, and they do leap right onto you (now THAT's what gets me freaking out), so I could do without those guys.
Rodents don't bug me too much on a fear level but I keep them well away from my family and our things because they carry disease. I do remember a few years ago, at Christmastime; I had put chocolate stocking stuffers into a paper bag in the garage. I came out the day before Christmas to find that they had been entirely consumed by mice. I was incensed, and had to rush out to replace them.
In the meantime, noting all of a sudden that we obviously had a LARGE mouse problem (the droppings were abundant and never before noticed), we decided to set mousetraps. With little kids around the garage grabbing toys, though, that sounded like a dangerous proposition. So I enlisted the help of my young sons.
Tim and my dad -- who was visiting for the holidays -- set the traps, and I placed large red strips of duct tape six inches in front of them to mark their locations with Toby's help. Noah was assigned the task of writing BEWARE, MOUSE TRAP on the tape.
I left Noah to his work as something from inside the house called.
When I returned to the garage, Noah beamed proudly. Yes, he had written BEWARE, MOUSE TRAP, at every location (probably about five or six) where we had placed a trap.
He had written it directly on the cement garage floor. Of course, using a black SHARPIE.
Now, those words are a laughable reminder of the fact that:
1) We are mouse free (we caught five in a 12 hours period); Merry Christmas, Mickey and friends! (not), and
2) Children are well meaning, but need constant supervision!
Kim-Bee Bearsusually when I come across a spider I hairspray it to death! usually doesnt kill them, just slows them down because it makes them sticky... they just freak me out!!!:lol:
Pandy Potter BearsI had a similar situation to Shelli. Christmas 2004. My daughter accused me of eating her tree chocolate (Me? Never!) only it was the mice! Like Shelli says you do have to think of the hygiene angle. Don't worry Jane, my mother-in-law once spent 4 hours in her chair as there was a spider on the curtain 3 feet away. She thought if she got up it would come at her!
Past Time BearsYeah, I was bitten by a brown recluse back in the late 1980s . . . not a fun experience!! I am very tolerant of spiders EXCEPT for the recluse and black widow . . . although in my neck of the woods (literally) brown recluses seem to be much more in evidence. I hardly knew anything about them until I was bitten, and now I can spot them from far, far away!! And if I get a chance, they will be on their way to that great spidey home in the sky post haste!! I was bitten on my right arm and as the days went by, the place began to look like my skin was rotting. Ugh! I started throwing up and the swelling and redness progressed up and down my arm. I was given antibiotics and the wound was . . . uh . . . cleaned out. For the next 6 months, I would get very nauseous every so often for no apparent reason. I studied cases of recluse bites and some people do continue to experience that symptom sometimes. Anyhoo, let it be known that my bite and the reaction to it was very minor compared to some unfortunate folks' experiences!! The moral: do stay away from brown recluses!
Posts: 8,574WD40 works great on black widows. But don't kill tarantulas.....they are gentle and just want to come out of the hidey hole cross the road, find a mate and move on. They usually don't come out till late September , early October.
My husband like to save spiders too. But he is the terminator with ants.
Now wait a min. If your objection is because sensiate beings should be spared, why not ants?
He gives me a baleful look and cont. spraying.
Sue Ann- very good advice. It is scarry as all get out what happens to people that get those bites.....especially on the tushtag area.....
You can't sit down, you are sick all the time....ugh!
What creeps me out the worst.....Hawaiin cockroaches and Texas cockroaches.....they are as big as ELEPHANTS.....right Sue Ann?
When my Uncle from Houston came to visit the cockroaches carried in the suitcases.
In Hawaii people kept pet tarantualas or geikos to eat the cockroaches.
I lived next door to a slob- so I kept my apartment sterile clean....no cockroaches-they stayed next door happy as clams
Re: Mr. no-set-policy-on-house-hold-pests:
I shouldn't complain-he is a relentless terminator with poison oak.
dilu 
When I read all this Im glad to live in Sweden! We dont have black widows or tarntulas or cockroaches (except in the big citys maybe). We only have small spiders that will eat whole of me!
I cant stand spiders! Cant even thouch a piccie of a real spider! And those in plastic and gum! yikes! I scream, and then I ruuuuuuun!!
At the moment we havea big (not so big actually, just about 1 cm the whole spider) black scary one in out bathroom upstairs. He sits there in his web in a corner, behind the toilet, and I get nervoues everytime I dont see him. As long as I know he is in his corner, I can go pee. But when he isnt there... oh my...
Im sure I have been bitten by "house spiders" several times, in my sleep. But thats ok, cause I dont know what it is.
Maybe the big spiders at you in the US, have read Harry Potter, and wants to be such a big spider, so they can really eat ya! lol Just kidding..
But remember, a house with spidersm is a healthy house. The wood it is made of is still fresh, and your house is in good condition.. To see some positive with all the spiders ;)
If you want my opinion, kill ´em all!
PottersHouse BearsThis is a terrible subject to be into over my morning coffee. I am not near as afraid of spiders as I once was, but I do know about the brown recluse. A couple years ago a friend of ours was bitten on the leg and spent several days in the hospital. She still has the scars from it. Just a few days later my son was bitten on the leg. I knew when I looked at his leg exactly what it was. Some of my grandma's old herbal remedies immediately came to mind. I made a paste of baking soda and cayenne pepper and put it on his leg (he said the cayenne hurt more than the bite). He went to the doctor the next day for antibiotics and was well on the way to recovery. The paste I put on the bite drew a lot of the venom out. Grandma would have been proud of me.
DoodlebearsYay I agree with you Jossan 'Kill'em all'!
Yikes! just reading what you girls have written and boy I'm getting a creepy feeling all over me. Why did I keep on reading...I don't know...crazy creepy feelings going down my spine...NO more spiders... and as for you Jossan, referring to the Harry Potter book made me remember the huge, nasty Aragog.......every time I watch The Chamber of Secrets on film I shut my eyes when it comes to the spidery bit and what for the all clear from Sarah so I can watch the rest of the film. Yep! I know I'm a wimp but I can't stand the nasty little beasties!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jane
Back Road BearsOh Jane, you started this thread so you MUST keep reading!!!:lol::lol:
Posts: 1,153I am sitting here cracking up at all your 'bug stories'...you gals are a riot!!
I have one too.
One day I had sculpted this tiny itsy bitsy fairy and she needed wings. I was working on a piece of antique furniture in the garage and one of those huge bumble bees flew in and landed on the top.
WOW, I spied those wings in a heart beat (now I am not one to hurt anything)...so I quickly put an open jar over him, to keep him there while I thought about my options here!! I called my son-in-law (he is my savior in many of the situations I get myself into) and asked him how I could kill the bug painlessly and without smashing it?
He told me to put a cotton ball soaked with nail polish remover in the jar and it would knock the bee out.
Ok, great...so I put a soaked cotton ball on a piece of aluminum foil and slipped it in.
The bee buzzed and buzzed for quite a while and finally, there it laid...conked out!
I carried my dead bug upstairs to my ~~~~~laboratory~~~hehehehe
and with tweezers gently removed his prize wings, then thru the carcus in the waste basket beside my desk.
Two hours later, I was sitting at the computer and heard this horendous buzzing...to my horror, "my victim" was running around the bottom of the waste basket, fully recovered (not dead)...wondering, I am sure...."what happened to my wings?
WEll, as I said I really cannot physically hurt anything (hmmm, I guess I would have to rephrase that and say, nothing conscience that is) so I called my lovin husband to the rescue.
His immediate question was..."nancy, how did a bee with no wings get into your waste basket int he first place?" :rolleyes:
I sure couldn't say he just flew in there!! :lol:
Keep the stories coming girls, we all need a good laugh.
Nanc....
Past Time BearsHEE HA HA, Nancy . . . you just gave me my big laugh for the day!!
Haha nancy! That was funny!
Winneybears and FriendsNancy,I hope the bee was put out of his misery...can you imagine a huge bee coming along and tearing your arms Off ? Aghhh !
I am very wary of black widows and the recluse...the best thing I found to do is insect bomb you garage and sheds
and even under your house every single spring.
For the mice and rats...get a cat. They are very skilled at cleaning up the mouse population.We once moved into an old house on a acre. Under the house we had a mouse problem and under the pig pen a big rat problem.
One of my sons was given the chore of feeding the pigs. The " Red Dog" pig food as it is called ,would easily get spilled around the outside area when mixing their food so that drew rats....the were so bold to even come out during the day while you were still there mixing the food ! Yikes. huge rats they were... They had a net work of tunnels under the pig pen.
So... we went right out and got 2 fully grown big Manx cats to adopt to keep out side. Within 2 weeks the problem was solved .I think some of the rats just got scared and ran off , for the rest the cats would kill them and lay them out near the pen ...we would then go bury the rats.
Amazing ,effective killers those cats are.
Funny ..years ago we had an insect problem, gazilloins of ear wig bugs in old rotten fence poles near our barn ,my little son of 8 ran to get a bunch of chickens to bring out to eat the bugs...what a genius, he, he..it worked. Man those chickens gobbled up everyone they could find.
I saw on T.V. where there is a grass hopper/ locust problem in some areas of the world..I keep thinking ; why don't they try using birds to get rid of them ? That's what happened in Salt Lake many years ago and the sea gulls came and ate the bugs up ...Is this too easy for our scientists ?...........Winney
DoodlebearsNancy, Oh Boy! what a story. What I want to know is what did you do with the wings...can we presume that your tiny itsy bitsy fairy has some bee shaped wings!
What happened to the flightless bee...........poor fella..............see I do have a heart..........as long as it's not anything to do with spiders!
Jane
Posts: 1,153Well, Winney...David took it outside and put it out of it's misery and yes, Jane...my itsy bitsy fairy was sporting a great pair of wings....but everytime I looked at her, I gave a second thought about the ill gotten booty!!
Kind of reminds me of the story about the farmer who found his dog with a dead chicken in it's mouth. He had heard that if you use the dead animal as a whipping stick on the dog, the dog will never kill another chicken. So he scolded Fido and took the dead chicken from him and whacked him senseless with the chicken. Then threw the chicken down and went into the house.
A couple hours later he looked out the window and saw the chicken staggering down the road like an old drunk. :lol::lol: It had been mauled by the dog and then used as a whipping stick...and kept on ticking!!
I don't know if it is true or not, I had heard that years ago...but your thought , Winney of the bee coming back for revenge gave that story a whole new meaning!!
Who would have thought Jane, that your spider episode would have brought this many responses.
Are we bored today...do we not have bears to make?
nanc.........
Nova Scotia,CanadaOh my gosh,I do feel sorry for the bee and can only imagine waking up missing some of my body parts(or maybe that would be a good thing in the lines of belly fat etc.) but that's the biggest laugh I've had all week and can only imagine us "creative minds" ever doing such a thing.I can just see us bear and doll makers(and sculptors) actually understanding the whole thought process of it.
On the other note,I lived in a basement apartment in Teachers College for a summer and we had a severe earwig problem.They still make me cringe.They were coming down the walls and across our beds like an army of soldiers.I would have given anything for a handful of chickens.we each had a container of dish soap to soak them in because back then that was the prescribed solution.We finally had to vacate during the middle of the night just for our own sanity and the landlord had to "fix" everything.I'm sure the next tenants were confused by all the dried puddles of soap :lol:
Well that's my bug story girls,blessings,Shari.
Wait. Am I understanding this correctly?
Nancy, you put REAL bumblebee wings on a little fairy you made???
:|:P:o
