Not-So-Itsy-Bitsy Spider

I hate spiders.

 

I'm not sure I have a really good reason to hate spiders, except that they are creepy little hell-spawn. I don't even like to squish them. Every since I was a child, I had this irrational fear, that if I stepped on one, poison would squirt into my eye.

At the age of nine, I had the basement bedroom in our house. I remember little funnel spiders living in the corners of my windowsill. When they would creep out of their little funnel, I would blow on them, until they scurried back in. I spent hours doing this.

I also watched the movie, "Arachnophobia" WAAAAY too many times as a kid. It's actually a really horrible B-movie. But to my adolescent brain, it was just about the scariest thing I had ever seen.

If this ever happened at my house, I think I would have to move.

Ew. Seriously? That is so gross!

When Mr. Wright and I were newlyweds, we lived in my mom's basement (for about two weeks) while we waited for the people to move out of our new house. One night while we were sleeping, Mr. Wright felt something heavy drop onto his chest. He picked it up and threw it, and heard a thunk against the wall.

The next morning, he had a huge red lump on his thigh. It was very hard, very warm, and had little red lines traveling up towards his torso. He ended up having to go to the emergency room, where they diagnosed him with cellulitis and told him that it could have progressed to gangrene if left untreated. We didn't actually see the spider, so we can't say for sure what kind of spider bit him.

We used to live next to a huge field in Tooele. One day, when I wasn't wearing my contacts or glasses, I noticed a strange bug with a big butt crawling across my kitchen floor, so I stomped on it. Immediately, millions of baby spiders scattered, --SCHZOOM, all across my floor. I sprayed spider spray all over every nook and cranny of the kitchen, and used the hose attachment of my vacuum to suck them all up. *Shudder* I think it must have been a wolf spider with babies on her back, like the one in the video below.



That video seriously makes me want to vomit in my mouth.

Another time when we lived in Tooele, I was working for a doctor's office. A lady came in who had been bitten by a spider in her garden. Her skin had necrotized (died), and turned black. She ended up having to have skin grafts.

Warning! These pictures are disturbing.

Necrotized skin after a spider bite

This is what it looked like after the E.R doctor removed the dead skin...how painful!

After years of being prejudiced against spiders, (I'm spiderist), I finally decided to force myself to conquer my fear of spiders. I saw a booth by Creature Encounters at a health fair. They had tarantulas people could hold. It took me several minutes to work up the courage...but I DID it! I asked the guy to take my picture, or nobody would believe I had done it.



Eww, it better not move, or I will drop it and RUN!



I hate these freakin things!



Success (and even a smile)


I'm definitely not as afraid of spiders anymore...but it's not like I'm going to run right out and buy one as a pet.



I saw this in the newspaper in 1996, and loved it. I clipped it and kept it in my journal.



If you want to read an even MORE funny blog about someone's spider phobia, complete with hilarious drawings, go to Hyperbole and a Half blogspot by clicking here. ENJOY!