Spider confrontation
By clrumfelt
@clrumfelt (5490)
United States
August 9, 2008 10:50am CST
Last night when I turned out the light and laid down to sleep I felt something crawl across my face. I grabbed it and held it( on my nose, of all places, but I was afraid to move.) I thought it was one of the harmless night bugs that fly in sometimes when we open the door. I screamed and when my husband turned the light on I quickly dropped the bug. Imagine my horror when I saw it was a brown recluse spider I had grabbed onto. It unnerved me for awhile, but we checked out the bed well before getting back into it and I didn't lose any sleep over it.
We live in an old house and it is just a fact of life that a lot of old houses have the spiders. We kill them when we see them and have never been bitten by one. The exterminators have told us they can treat for them but never really get rid of them. Have you ever had a spider problem? How did your resolve it? I'm just thankful the little bugger didn't bite me and hope I don't have any more close encounters.
3 people like this
11 responses
@memorable (114)
• United States
10 Aug 08
I have problems with spiders due to the change of weather they are small but i do not like them i have had my home sprayed inside and out but they still sometimes continue to come and i think it is also due to the many plants i have on my porch.
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
12 Aug 08
Plants probably attract a lot of different insects and the spiders may come to them looking for food. If you treat them with an insecticide for plants it would likely get rid of them from the plants and cut down on the ones that get inside the house, too.
@kbjunior15 (1309)
• United States
9 Aug 08
I know you are not a man...but you are more of a man in me in that situation. I am absolutely terrified of spiders. HATE...HATE...HATE them. I would have screamed like a junior high girl and ran out of the house. 
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
12 Aug 08
Nothing much scares me, but when I saw I was holding that spider, I screamed like a girl, too.
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
9 Aug 08
If you do get bit by a brown recluse, put ice on it immediately. This gels the venom at the bite site and limits the circulation of the poison through your system. Next, call a doctor.
As to getting rid of the spiders, killing their food works wonders. Kill bugs in general and the spiders move to where they can find a meal. Use a general purpose insecticide like you can get at Wal-Mart around the baseboards and under the bed. Where the smell won't bother you, moth balls works wonders and they last awhile. Yes, moth balls kill more than moths. Moth balls are fatal to most insects.
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
9 Aug 08
Thanks for your good advice. I am informed that our local pest control now guarantees to get rid of brown recluse so I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to pay the exterminators to do it.
@littleowl (7157)
•
11 Aug 08
Hi circumfelt am glad that wasn't me I dont mind picking them up and throwing them out of the house but when it coms t crawling on me I'd scream too! Fortunatly I've never had a spider problem only with ants but they are just as bad cos they bite too..hope you dont have anymore encounters as well
1 person likes this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
12 Aug 08
Thanks for your comments. I wasn't alarmed by the bug until the light was on and I saw what I was holding. Brown recluse spiders normally try to stay out of everyone's way. They don't like humans so I never thought one would be crawling on me. I still think it is a miracle it didn't bite me because they can be quite agressive when you have contact with them. I'm glad to know the Lord is looking out for me especially when it involves a potentially deadly spider.
@Remembering1996 (2219)
• United States
9 Aug 08
Yes those spiders can be very creepy especially if they did what they did to you while trying to sleep. I have them here in my apartment complex and thank good for my cat for he will kill them as he see's them. I know there a part of god's creation and I hate killing them but they scare me when I see them ewwwww.
I do hope you get your spider problem under control and you don't have to deal with anymore crawling on you like they have good luck to you.
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
9 Aug 08
Thanks for your response. I consider it to be self defense when I kill them because some of them are extremely poisonuos.
@pehpot (4762)
• Philippines
9 Aug 08
No way!! If this would happen to me I don't know what I will do. I have arachnophobia. There was a time when a spider was crawling in our ceiling, I just screamed and screamed for my husband to kill the spider. I'll definitely have a heart attack if I have heart problems.
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
9 Aug 08
I'm normally not too afraid of spiders. I don't want them crawling on me because they tickle, but some brown recluse are extremely poisonous and I get real nervous when I see one of them. They move very fast but I kill all those I can catch.
@kareng (54680)
• United States
10 Aug 08
That is not how I want to be awakened in the middle of the night! We just bought an old plantation home (circ 1860) and I have been busy with eradicating those things and sweeping down the spider webs from the high ceilings and every nook and corner! Hopefully, I will win this war soon!! We are moving in slowly because there is so much to do! I'm going to be thinking of this now! I hope you don't have anymore of these "close encounters" either!
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
11 Aug 08
You really can never completely get rid of them. You could of course call the exterminator once a year, lol. There is something you can spray around the house that is pretty good in preventing any new critters from coming in. I think it's from Ortho. It cut down on our critter problem. Remove spiderwebs, as soon as you see them. And of course kill the spiders you see, lol. Once they lay eggs you have many, many more to deal with. Also make sure that you don't let in too many other 'harmless' bugs as they are the spiders' food.
1 person likes this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
12 Aug 08
The exterminator sounds like a great idea to me right now. I am trying to move furniture and other things I haven't touched in awhile to try and flush them out. They tend to hide in places where they won't be disturbed. That one came out when I moved my bed out to clean because we got a new one. It crawled away before I could kill it, and later came out to haunt me.
@joyadalia (1408)
• Philippines
10 Aug 08
I live in the Philippines and spiders are pretty common. Children would go out at night with their gas lamps and look for spiders in the bushes. They place them in a matchbox then let them fight on a stick. I don't approve of it but it is common here.
In the house we tolerate spiders as long as they don't create webs. These latter stuff we sweep with a 3-meter long broom designed for ceilings. :-)
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
12 Aug 08
I hope the spiders your little ones play with aren't poisonous. I'm not bothered too much by nonpoisonous spiders. I probably played with them as a child myself. Friendly spiders eat ticks and mosquitos and keep their populations down a bit, so I catch those and put them outdoors when I see them.
@lixiaos77 (1030)
• Shijiazhuang, China
10 Aug 08
If there are spider there web will easily covered with dirt which make the room looks untidy. If I found one I will carry it to the garden and let it go, it will live a better life in wild environment. We should get on well with all the wild animals, but house are our private place.
