We have a spider that lives between the screen and the glass of the window over our kitchen sink, and I tolerate her (even though I am a huge sissy re spiders) because she is a smallish, classic, Charlotte-shaped spider: almost more like a drawing of a spider than an actual, hairy-legged, fast-moving spider. She has graceful little legs, and she just hangs out in the corner there, industriously wrapping up little bugs and putting them in her pantry for later. I watch her as I’m doing the dishes.
The other day there was a fly in the kitchen, and it landed on the screen, so I opened the screen a little and quickly closed the window, so the fly could eventually bumble its way out. It flew near the spider, and that spider moved so fast and so alarmingly, I actually opened the window and saved the fly. I saved the gross, probably diseased fly, who given half a chance would litter the house with maggots. But the way that spider moved was so horrifying, and so evocative of my reptilian-brain feelings about spiders, that I acted fast and without thinking it through. I felt so sorry for that fly, seeing that same-size-as-herself spider coming at her like that. So if you notice a slight increase in the fly population of the planet, I’m afraid I’m to blame.
I generally show no mercy to spiders. YUCK!
I was keeping a rather large spider alive in a remote corner of the original entryway to our house. S/he was similar to yours — skinny little legs, non-threatening body and she just sort of hung out happily.
Ha ha HAAA, until the day I thought I couldn’t see her anymore and realized she might be ON THE LOOSE. PANIC PANIC WOOP WOOP. I vacuumed her up mere moments later. Am cruel.
Spiders can paralyze me with fear. As can any arachnid, including the scorpions that run rampant in my neck of the woods. I show no mercy. That is, if I can actually get my body to move.
You are too nice, I would have killed them both!
Death to bugs!
I agree with tuesday girl- both would have been squashed in my house!
Ha ha – too funny!
Jason accidentally let some long-legged monstrosity into our house last night, and as I was attempting to mash it into oblivion, he said, “Let me get it. You’ll just smash it into the wall and leave a mark.” So he gingerly tried to place a paper towel around it and the thing escaped and flew right into his mouth. It was awesome.
Ha ha – too funny!
Jason accidentally let some long-legged monstrosity into our house last night, and as I was attempting to mash it into oblivion, he said, “Let me get it. You’ll just smash it into the wall and leave a mark.” So he gingerly tried to place a paper towel around it and the thing escaped and flew right into his mouth. It was awesome.
Ha ha – too funny!
Jason accidentally let some long-legged monstrosity into our house last night, and as I was attempting to mash it into oblivion, he said, “Let me get it. You’ll just smash it into the wall and leave a mark.” So he gingerly tried to place a paper towel around it and the thing escaped and flew right into his mouth. It was awesome.
Sid saved a stink bug from death by cat last night. That’s right. A stink bug. He scooped it up, opened the door, and let it loose. Said he was protecting the air we breath.
pickles&dimes…OMG…that cracks me up!
I let spiders live in those same spaces in my house. But I don’t save the flies. As long as the spiders stay in that no-man’s land and do their part to control the insect population (which, in the deep south, is atrocious) of my house, we’re cool. The minute they come IN my house proper, all bets are off.
Spider crickets (AKA camel crickets) and roaches (of any sort: wood roach, house roach, palmetto bug) illicit uncontrollable moans from me as I hop up into chairs and screech for my bug-killer boyfriend.
This is like a little STORY! I love it!
One of my coworkers has a biologist husband who will NOT let them kill any animal, including BUGS. They have to capture them and lovingly release them back TO THE WILD. So they can COME BACK. INTO THE HOUSE. Terrible.
We have lizards at our house to control insect population. They come out at night and eat all the bugs, so its great. The only bugs that really get to me are the giant water bugs… AKA giant cockroaches that fly.
my college roommate and i had a HUUUUUGE spider that lived outside our (3 story up) dorm window. there was no way for us to get to him, or vice versa, so we named him henry and everyone was happy.
until we got a hurricane. we like to think henry very spontaneously moved to florida the day before the hurricane hit.
also:
natalie – OH MY GOD i read your comment too fast and saw “scorpion” “run” and “neck” all in the same sentence and FREAKED RIGHT THE HELL OUT.
shauna: that is so awesome i can’t even deal.
That is too funny and you are SO nice! I would have let the spider kill the fly and then? I would have smashed the spider.
I’m not a big spider supporter, but I totally would have let her have the fly. I DETEST flies…disgusting, shit-eating, vomiting, disease-spreading vile things. I go after flies like some sort of rabid dog, snapping and swatting wildly, cussing the whole time…even in restaurants. In fact, I hate them MORE in restaurants…what if they land on my FOOD before it is served to me?? And the disgusting things are crawling around on my dinner with their little shit-covered feet?? AAAAGH!! Also hated with equal ferocity: roaches-because they will COME RIGHT AT YOU with unearthly speed when you try to kill them and nothing should be able to live for even a minute without its fucking HEAD. That is just NOT RIGHT.
I am mightily creeped out by spiders but I can pardon a lot of creepiness for anyone willing to kill a fly or a roach…especially if it involves a terrifying smothering death and gut-sucking.
Okay, uh…sorry about that…I might be a little pathologic in my hatred. heh.
I can’t stand to see anything killed…even a fly so I can relate.
I hate, hate, hate spiders but A. won’t let me kill them.
However, I was this —– close to sort of falling in love with that little spider until she went for the fly like that.
(You wrote this beautifully, by the way.)
In theory I think I’d do what you did. In practice I think I’d have forced Torsten to kill that spider long ago.
All spiders in my house are tenderly rescued and placed outside. Unless it is winter, in which case I put them in the basement because it’s too cold outside.
I’m a spider rescuer. Unless it’s on my head…then I run around screaming like a ninny until I either throw it to it’s death or smash it against my hair.
Flies should only live near landfills, for that is where they do their good.
I used to let spiders live in my house… until I had a baby. Some evil spider bit him on his tiny toddler hand, so now I have no mercy. It took weeks for the red mark to fade! Outside is fair game, though.
You saved the fly, that’s very nearly endearing. Also – alarming! If I had to choose, I’m thinking I’d squish the fly and leave the spider. Or maybe both.
I know that the majority of spiders are generally harmless but I’m for the most part leery of them ever since a girl in my freshman dorm was bitten by a brown recluse and almost died.
I’ll spare you the description of her wound but I will say that I very nearly passed away into the night out of sheer horror when I first saw it.
Amber- I know, right? I saved a disease-ridden, disgusting, buzzy creature from a creature who rids the world of disease-ridden, disgusting, buzzy creatures. I acted purely on impulse—no thought involved. I think it was the shock at seeing that nice little spider move So Fast. I HATE flies, but, well….
I would have done the same thing…but then again I thought my dolls had feelings when I was a child.
Geesh, that reminds me of when I was little and I saved a MOSQUITO from a spider net. A friggen MOSQUITO! Needless to say the first thing it did in thanks was sink into my arm and I smooshed the fuker.
Good times.
I hate flies AND spiders. Flies annoy me to no end. If they land on my I feel like a pile of dung.
As for spiders? I don’t “kill” them per se. I wash them down the sink. All drains lead to the ocean, right?
Eeeek! (hiding under table)
Oh no! There’s a spider under there, too! AAaaaaaaaahhhh!
I generally don’t mind poo, I live in the UK anyway, and it’s not like we have any animals AT ALL that could actually properly hurt you. I can tolerate them if they’re just wandering about doing their thing.
Once though, my boyfriend came up to kiss me and screamed really loudly (a la ned flanders) and ran into the other room shouting ‘there’s a massive spider on your shoulder!’. Needless to say, I properly spazzed out and starting flapping about like a loony. I ended up pulling off my tshirt and throwing it in the corner. He had to check my hair for 10 minutes afterwards to make sure there was no spider.
my boyfriend is a bastard, the above comment should read ‘i don’t generally mind SPIDERS’. NOT POO.
bugger
You should be flogged. Repeatedly. And with gusto.
I admit that I would have watched this like an episode of Wild America. Although, it was your fault that the fly got into that position in the first place, so maybe you did the right thing.
We actually kept a VERY large spider alive one time because it made a beautiful web outside our bedroom window, two stories up, and would watch the male think about mating with her every night… and run away the minute she actually noticed him . He was considerably smaller than she was, and it was quite funny, in a ‘RUN AWAY’-Monty-Pythonesque sort of way. One day, he was gone. Munch.
Generally, my policy is, it it’s outside, I’m in IT’S domain, so I should live and let live. Once something yukky comes into my house, though, that’s MY domain, which is much smaller than it’s domain, so I will squish/flush/rinse it down the drain.
I am a bug squisher in the house, though I prefer to let Matt do the squishing. When I taught, however, we did the capture and release thing, because I felt like many of the first graders were still making their minds up about how to handle bugs. It helped that there were always a couple of kids willing to do the capturing and releasing, and there was a door to the playground that I could supervise from the threshold of my classroom.
At home I once put a spider down the garbage disposal.
OMG!! Ick!! I’m sitting here doing the twitchy I-HATE-SPIDERS dance. You should have killed that nasty, nasty thing a long time ago. I scream like a little biatch every time I see a spider. I actually called my boss into my office one time to kill one for me because I couldn’t get around my desk without having to pass it to escape so I made him come and kill it for me. Big sissy right?