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Daniel vs Spider

I stood there, facing my eight-legged adversary. It was still, near the top of the fly-wire door. I was armed with my broom.

Wait for it… wait for it.. whack! The door rattled as the broom hit the spider, which took cover under the metal and curled into a tiny ball. It wasn’t a humungous spider, admittedly, but certainly big enough to make me nervous about its presence. I poked at it with the broom a bit more, and it fell to the ground. Whack! Whack! Dead yet? One more whack to be sure.

I swept it off the porch into the garden, then inspected the broom. The metal part holding the bristles onto the stick had cracked. Slithers of plastic had also fallen onto the porch. I cleaned them up, and put away the broom.

Daniel 1. Spider 0. Broom 0.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

13 replies on “Daniel vs Spider”

I wasn’t afraid of spiders until I saw the movie “Arachnophobia”. Siders, yeesh, bleech, etc. Just remember, their out there, those little varmints. ;)

Maybe you should think before you just bash something and kill it. Being afraid of spiders is nonsense. Most are harmless. You’ll probably never see a redback in your life.
I refuse to harm a spider. I do capture them and fling them out of the house – but only to satisfy the cute and exaggerated terror of females living here.

No comment on destroying another living being. Today I had been standing under a tree and a short time later felt something crawling on my head. I madly brushed at this crawling critter, as you do and it turned out to be a ladybid bug, which clean aphids off roses among other usefull things. If fell upside down and was still, but when I looked a few seconds later, it was gone. I was happy.

You shouldn’t have killed it. Although putting it outside usually kills it anyway apparently, housespiders can’t stand the change in temperature. Still I put them outside and hope they survive by crawling into my neighbour’s house.

Our backyard is full of redbacks. They hide in the compost bin and in my potplants.
But redbacks aside I usually try the glass and card approach.

Of course, there’s lots to be said for bashing things. Back to spiders (now that I’ve stopped giggling) – any eight-legged freak that shows itself in my presence is fair game. I would have done the same thing. :wink:

I saw a programme on Discovery not so long ago and they reenacted the circumstances surrounding the death of an innocent little girl who was bitten by a “recluse” spider (a creature which I believe is found in the USA). She must have died in excruciating pain from the bite she received. Another person still has a gaping ulcerating hole in his back resulting from a bite from the same type of spider. Kill them all I say.

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