I've just been traumatized! (free, house, daughter, phobia)

[robinhood]

I feel like the people from City-Data have become my friends and so I need to share my latest scare with someone other than my husband. He took care of the problem, but thinks I'm silly for getting upset. This evening, my daughters and I were out in the backyard practicing their softball skills. My husband was up at the fire station meeting with his fireman buddies. Upon completion of our softball session, the girls and I went on out to the garden to pick some of the squash. I was bent down parting the large green leaves of the plant to expose the yellow buds when my oldest exclaimed, "What is that?" I looked down and right upon my flip-flopped foot would appear to be the largest tarantula I've ever seen crawling across my foot. It was about 5 inches in diameter and had babies hanging on its back. We all three screamed as I kicked it off and we sprinted to the house. Of course the girls took off on their own, before me, with intentions of saving themselves. Anyway, because of my lifelong arachnophobia, this was traumatizing for me. I can still feel it crawling on my foot. If any of you have read some of my posts on the Texas forum, you would know that we have seen these occasionally where we live, but never this big. My husband came home when I called him and he went out to kill it. He admitted that it was the largest one he'd seen around here, but he has been laughing at my state of distress ever since. I have to wonder, am I the only one that turns into a big baby over spiders?

[Lisa_from_Debary]

I don't know what I would have done had I been in your place and I KNOW for sure it would take an enormous amount of alcohol or some Xanax to get me to go to sleep.

I don't know how I could walk through that garden again either. I have a similar reaction to snakes.

That is the stuff of nightmares...I'm sorry your husband is not more understanding.

[robinhood]

Well, at least I didn't go into cardiac arrest. And, I have had a Miller Lite in my hand since the episode. Also, its about 1:15 a.m. here and I'm not anxious to go to bed.

[Lisa_from_Debary]

Originally Posted by robinhood

Well, at least I didn't go into cardiac arrest. And, I have had a Miller Lite in my hand since the episode. Also, its about 1:15 a.m. here and I'm not anxious to go to bed.

I would have had a panic attack ON THE SPOT and probably a few more thinking back over it...

[Blueberry]

Oh, honey, your story makes me very thankful I live where I do (Alaska!). I absolutely despise tarantulas and wolf spiders; I don't even like the little bitty ones we get here! When my dd was little, I would put on a brave front, suck it up, and deal with the occasional spider; but at a very early age, my dd took to rescuing the spiders and setting them free outside. She is now my go-to person if dh isn't around!

I hope you're feeling better now. Tomorrow, you can have a talk with your daughters about abandoning ship when you're in distress! LOL!!

A short story...

We had very good friends who moved to Arizona from California at the same time my husband and I moved to Alaska. Our mutual friends would hear from both parties quite routinely. These friends all came to the conclusion that Alaska was a much safer place than Arizona; they would much rather deal with the occasional bear or moose than live daily with spiders or scorpions or snakes or whatever other nasty thing was found down south. I agree with my friends!

[Rance]

Your giving me shivers! Do you stomp on something that big? Run for your life? I'm tellin ya...I'd rather meet a bear then a snake or a spider on the trail. Gross! Shivers!

[PinkString]

I wish you didn't go out and kill it. It had it's babies on its back. That's sad.
I don't why people are taught whenever they see a bug they have to kill it. You don't have to do that. You could have just let it go on it's merry way and you probably would have never seen it again. They never stay in the same place too long.

[dukester2]

I have to say, I am not terrified of spiders but certainly don't want to pick them up and cuddle with them either. Here in Ohio, we don't have many poisonous spiders, like the brown recluse, but it's impulse to squash them, especially if they are wandering around in the house. We don't have poisonous snakes here in the northern section of Ohio either, but again, I have the no-cuddling clause.

[jwhittak]

I'm scared of the brown recluse spider. They say they are not mean and you are not likely to get bit, but I'm still scared of meeting one. Just last week, for the first time, I know someone personally that got bit by one. They missed a month of work and have nasty pictures of the damage.

[newyorkjetsfan74]

im not afraid of spiders, but i still hate to see them crawling around my house. i love taking out the vacuum and suck them up, cause its alot less messy than smacking them with rolled up newspaper