I find it fascinating that such teeny little spiders can make even many men shriek like little girls and instinctively curl up in tight little balls. I even understand how harmless all these spiders are (in my area, anyway), but if I see one that's not even the size of a pea, I shriek and shoot away. I can't help it, that shriek comes out and my feet start dancing away, and of course my body is going to follow, since it's attached to my feet.
I prefer to be humane to the spiders, since they do do some good, so I try to get them in a cup and throw them outside, but I have my limits. If they keep shooting away from the cup or whatever, and my patience is running out (or the paranoia or the hairs on the back of my neck are getting stiffer and stiffer), I'll go run for my cats. Buffy sneaks outside so often that she doesn't really care about bugs anymore. Gives 'em a sniff, maybe a paw, then loses interest. Willow likes bugs so she'll try to catch them, but she's got long hair and a short attention span, so almost everytime, the act of her sniffing the spider causes the spider to catch onto her whiskers or hair, and when she turns her head (in fear, probably, since she's a skittish girl), the spider goes flying in a new direction. My savior is little Molly, the chubby girl who loves bugs and has the patience and determination to wait it out. We had a spider today (the first of the season, and another one of those smaller-than-a-pea spiders), and Buffy and Willow failed us. So we got out Molly, and she did well, kept staring at it, shooting around the tv cupboards to keep it in sight when it'd crawl away, pawing at it to try to catch it. It eventually escaped under the tv unit, but Molly kept watch for a little while. Good little kitty. She's the most excellent little hunter, and wonderful during that season when moths get into the house. I really have no problem with moths either, but I have long, frizzy, thick hair, and I have had moths fly at me and tangle in my hair. Ugh, it gives me the heeby jeebies just thinking about it. So if there's a moth flying willy nilly around a lamp, I'll scream for Molly to get her butt in here and help herself to an unexpected snack. Heck, the exercise of chasing that thing doesn't hurt her, lol
We don't get many big spiders here, though. I think the biggest I've ever seen is the Jewel Spider (another harmless garden spider), and the size comes mostly from the big abdomen. When you're used to the skinny little spiders, with the biggest being the daddy long legs, then seeing that big fat rump creeps you out.
dont be so sure that we dont have venemous spiders and sharks here in the UK. Summer 2005 my girlfriend and i were followed in by a shark from 50 meters out while snorkeling off the beach early one morning, the shark was a good 6 feet long and came into about 3 feet of water before turning and heading back out, we believe from its long tail that is was a Thresher shark which was off our shores due to the very hot summer we had that year and had followed the fishing boats into the harbour that morning, from talking to the locals apperently it isnt uncommon for fairly large sharks to follow the fishing boats in as they clean their nets.
When I find bugs in the house I toss them to the oscar.
