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Arachnophobia!

  • 21-09-2001 11:38pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭


    Well, perhaps that's exaggerating a bit, but I still don't like 'em.

    The bathroom here seems to be a favourite spot for spiders to hang out (literally :)) I don't know why, probably something to do with the moisture maybe. Anyway, right now I estimate abot 10-15 little creepy things in there, all around the ceiling. It's worse in the winter, and there's more of them already, and they only get worse as the weather gets colder. If we clear them all out, they come back, or new ones anyway, and we don't want to have to deal with them every second day, SO, on to the point of the topic, does anyone know of smelly candles or little electronic gizmos that are supposed to get rid of bugs? I remember seeing a little box that looked like a smoke alarm that emitted a high-pitched beep every few seconds, well out of range of our hearing, but apparently it bothers most bugs - do they work?

    I'm not a creepy-crawlie person :)

    They don't get into any other room in the house, they seem to really like the bathroom. We had two pretty big ones (by MY standards - okay? :)) a while ago, always afraid one's going to drop on me or something.

    *shudder*

    Thoughts?


«1

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭Alis


    I must admit I do not like those eight legged creatures :eek:

    I'm not saying I have a phobia of them but give me a mouse instead any day!

    Both my brothers 'like' spiders and one of them is usually around, thankfully :) They pick them up with their bare hands :eek:

    They got it from their father. He 'loves' spiders. He used to threaten to throw them at me when I was little :eek: Actually maybe he just used to like tormenting me :mad: Once he eat a huge spider in front of me, just to disgust me. I'm actually not joking here :eek:

    If you don't like spiders check out this fact:

    *An average of 8 spiders die inside your ear in your lifetime*

    I think that is true. I don't have a source right now but I got it of a BBC documentary some years back.

    I sleep with my personal stereo on so they won't get in my ears.

    The best tip I can give you is masking tape. It is those little holes between things they get in. Masking tape them up!!!

    I shall watch this thread attentively for more tips, so if you have a good one, please share it :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    Eeeeeww.. yeah I can remember, a few years ago, I was walking home and something hit my ear, felt like a fly. I touched my ear a bit, as you do, and carried on. When I got home, my mother noticed something in my ear, and found kinda half a spider.

    Ate a spider? Ah well it's all protein I guess! (What someone in the family used to say whenever anyone swallowed a fly)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 127 ✭✭Drakus


    I bought one of the electric Gizzmos - rubbish, a complete con job. You will find spiders and others crawlies in the bathrooms as they come up the bath/sink drain. Get plastic covers for these. Spiders also like to nest/breed on window sashses(the insides of the window frames that only become visible when the window is open), keep these areas clear by hovering/brushing from time to time. If you see one stamp it out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭Alis


    phaxx wrote:
    Ate a spider? Ah well it's all protein I guess! (What someone in the family used to say whenever anyone swallowed a fly)
    Swallowing a fly by accident and deliberately eating a spider are two very different things. I'm not talking small spider either. I'm talking a black, thick legged thing with body about the size of a pea, if not bigger.

    We were having dinner. I was crying because I had seen a spider in one of the bathrooms and I wanted him to get it before it ran away and hid somewhere. He was very annoyed that I wouldn't be quiet so he went out of the room and came back with it in his hand, promply killed it with his fork, mashed it around on his plate and continued eating.

    Lads, it was nothing short of sick :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    That image will haunt me for a while now, ta.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭Alis


    phaxx wrote:
    That image will haunt me for a while now, ta.

    Sorry. At least you can comfort yourself by saying you only heard it on a message board, probably not even a true story.

    I won't forget it, this lifetime and I *know* it is true.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,025 ✭✭✭yellum


    Most of them are meant for mice and rats. Its a high pitched sound that most humans cannot hear. I can hear the damned things. Theres one in the attic at home and I can here its whine go up and down. Most annoying. Stilll th whine from this computer blots it out now.

    Thats not a nice story Alis. Am sorry you had to witness that as a child. Ewww.

    Damien.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    I don't dislike spiders as much as I do those "daddy-long-legs" thingies... (what are they actually called, again???)

    fe<kin little backsterds flitting around my ceiling keeping me awake.

    I've ultra sensitive hearing... AND insomnia...

    dammit.

    --

    Spiders annoy me. They don't scare me.
    I kill them. They then no longer annoy me.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,025 ✭✭✭yellum


    those ones that bite you. They're normally around in the evening. Those ba$tards really get me bad. I have to take antihistamines and apply loads of anti-itching cream when I get the smallest of bites. The bite usually swells and spreads into a big 5inch diameter point of irratation. If I scratch it, it spreads more.

    Whatever those things are freak me out. It can be very amusing actually watching me out in the garden. Paranoid lunatic putting on a good show !


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    Hehe, that's exactly what I'm like with wasps.

    Augh! (runs away screaming)


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    hey phaxx
    hrm
    security guard just told us all to **** off, and get out of the comp room :)

    so don't have time to say much, stil not able to irc, copms here suck ass, there is a possibility of a lan party soon(which is a blessed miracle) , and ....
    i miss irc
    :)

    ttyl


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭Alis


    I have low blood sugar so nothing really bites me. Apparently insects don't like the taste of my blood :)

    I'm a bit nervous of wasps and bees. I've never been stung by one as yet. One day I'm sure I will be and I expect I'll be very worried because I'll be thinking 'Am I one of those people who is allergic to bee and wasp stings? Am I going to die now?'

    This thread is turning into 'admit your phobias'. Where are all the people with tips on keeping spiders out?

    Al


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    Heh, hi mord. You do know I have an email address, right? :)
    End of off-topic-ness


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 972 ✭✭✭havok*


    UUugh, Spiders. Fusking Hate the things.

    A few facts to clear up.

    The dont get in by climing up the Drains, thats a common wives tale. Spiders cant swim, and most cant escape the sufrace tension if they come in contact with water.
    Every room has hundreds of tiny of nooks and crannys just big enuff for them to get in and out.
    The reason ppl think that is The amount of times u'll find a spider in the Bath or Sink. The Actul Reson for this is alot of them (depends on the size) cant get back out. This is why theres always a fusking HUGE spider in the bath :)

    Bard, the "real" name for those Daddy long legs thingys is the Cream Fly. There not actully a spiders (only 6 Legs). There still Horrible things tho:(

    There are Tons of Products for killing the things, but there not the kind of thing u'd want to be spraying around ur bathroom.
    Suppose we're stuck with them :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,689 ✭✭✭orangerooster


    I shudder and nearly get sick when i see any of those things.I kil them in ways that not in the most sick straight to video horror film would show.Bleach+slugs=disintigration.Blocks+snails=white mess.Blowtorch+worm=laughing rooster.Spiders i can deal with i have a disdain for wasps and their ilk but slugs and anything like them scare the sh!te out of me.Anyone feel the same?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭azezil


    When ever i see a spider in my room i grab the vacuum!

    I don't mind them... well the little irish ones anyway, but i prefer not to have little things crawleing around my room in the nite, i feel very vulnerable when i sleep so the less liveing things the better! :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    I can deal with the small fúckers (spiders) as above, just hoover them up, but I believe I'm somewhat arachnaphobic.... if I lived in Australia I'd be a dribbling mess... I'm soooo beedin scared of the big hairy bástards.... really badly.
    The hoover is the king though... also as far as I remember you actually swallow something like 6 spiders in your life, while you sleep of course!!! Once I don't see them, I don't give a ****, if the stupid gits want to crawl into my mouth, be swallowed into a pit of acid and die, then that's fine by me.....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7 MeeMee


    I am NEVER GOING TO SLEEP EVER AGAIN!! Between having them lodge in your ears or crawling across your mouth overnight...eeGADS! Who the hell comes up with these stats?!!

    Best way to get rid of a spider is a hoover. Can't think of any preventions other than sealing every orifice in the house with an industrial supply of wax.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,641 ✭✭✭Canaboid




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    I'm not clicking those links - "http://images.google.com/...&quot; in a thread entitled "Arachnophobia!" ! I hate them enough already :P

    A hoover you say. I hate them, but I don't want to go at them with the hoover... I'm too damn nice. :)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭neuro-praxis


    I likes spiders I does. There are several in my room and I'm quite happy with them. You know, spiders are great. They kill all the flies. And the flies are the dirty creatures that are carrying disease around the place. So, if you have spiders, you don't have yucky flies. And I think I heard something about having spiders means you also don't have mice, because mice eat them or something. But I might as well point out that I'm not sure if I made that last bit up or not.

    I don't like wasps and bees, I have been stung about 5 times and it's not nice. I must have sugary blood. :)

    What I don't like, however, is when I'm going home late at night and I feel the familiar crunch-squelch of my runner hitting a snail on the path.

    Bleugh.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    get a cat.
    not only are cats loving cvreatures, but they have a really nasty habit of playing with spiders for about half an hour until they eat them :)

    at least, my cat used to do that.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭azezil


    I used to keep a cat indoors but the stupid thing kept rolling up in a ball on my face! while i slept! makes it kinda hard to breath! :D

    But ya my present cat likes to eat moths n crane fly's n stuff...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 512 ✭✭✭beaver


    Originally posted by Canaboid
    See here:

    http://www.everything2.com/?node=camel+spider&type=e2node

    That rocks! Time spiders started standing up for themselves! ;)


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 28,633 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shiminay


    I guess I'm lucky...

    Never had a fear or phobia of creepy crawlies - living beside a wood for most of my life, I've always been surrounded by the frickin' things!
    Woodlice were the most common, but loads of spiders and snails and slugs and stuff - an ant colony too.

    I do hate wasps - not afraid of them, they just annoy me cause they're evil looking creatures and they can cause a great deal of pain when they sting - bastids! They always seems to be attracted to my glasses too and having that sort of thing buzzing around your eye is quite freaky and will make the most hardened of us jump and start brushing them away like a lunatic!

    A young man who goes under the nick of bedlam and who can often be seen on the security boards is very afraid of spiders! It's very funny :D My former housemate said he's chased him round with a little spider in his hand and poor old bedlam's goes screaming like a 7 year old girl and running away as fast as possible - I laugh a lot at these sorts of things because I'm a sick human being and I love seeing others suffer from silly things like this ;)

    The only thing to remember folks - in Ireland we don't have any life threatening spiders (unless you're extremely allergic), so be safe in that knowledge.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    Not life-threatening perhaps, but they're big and ugly and and and and....

    So what's the best solution so far, hoover them up?? That's too evil and they'll just come back anway. Aren't there smelly candles or something that they don't like?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,967 ✭✭✭adnans


    Originally posted by Dr. Loon
    I can deal with the small fúckers (spiders) as above, just hoover them up, but I believe I'm somewhat arachnaphobic.... if I lived in Australia I'd be a dribbling mess... I'm soooo beedin scared of the big hairy bástards.... really badly.
    The hoover is the king though... also as far as I remember you actually swallow something like 6 spiders in your life, while you sleep of course!!! Once I don't see them, I don't give a ****, if the stupid gits want to crawl into my mouth, be swallowed into a pit of acid and die, then that's fine by me.....

    its true, he's scared shítless of spiders. for example, just got Thief for the PC and started playing the first level which hooked us both into the game preety quickly. Dr. Loon thought he was on the winner of a game here untill he came to 2nd level (the mines) where there were a good amount of spiders lurking around. he started swearing, switched off the monitor and turned down the volume. i dont think you ever played it anymore :)

    adnans


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,468 ✭✭✭Evil Phil


    I'm not as afraid as I used to be. I'm into rock climbing which has 2 spider points.

    Spider point A: Having to put your hand into a crack full of spider webs to avoid falling.

    Spider point B: Hanging on for dear life on the most difficult climb ever, and having a huge one run accross your hand.


    So as I say I'm not as afraid as I used to be. Still don't like the big brown guys that charge across the carpet when you're watching telly. I nearly had a tarantula crawl onto my head in Indonesia last year. *shudders*


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Originally posted by adnans


    its true, he's scared shítless of spiders. for example, just got Thief for the PC and started playing the first level which hooked us both into the game preety quickly. Dr. Loon thought he was on the winner of a game here untill he came to 2nd level (the mines) where there were a good amount of spiders lurking around. he started swearing, switched off the monitor and turned down the volume. i dont think you ever played it anymore :)


    Nah... haven't played that game since. Why'd they have to put manky spiders in!? Thief 2 was good though.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭Kix


    I don't know what's going on. I've never seen so many fuping big spiders inside my house as this weekend. Perhaps the weather was driving them inside. My girl is terrified of them, I'm not super fond of them myself but she is really, really scared.

    Saturday night there was a huge one in our bedroom. Tried to catch it, I prefer not to kill them, and it escaped under the door of our en-suite. Cue massive search in which spider is finally discovered acidentally squished under bathroom mat.

    I think they're out for revenge.

    Get back yesterday evening and there's an even bigger one in the hallway hovering over the hatstand. Quick remove it to the outside. Spend ages comforting poor trembing girlfriend and assuring her that they like to stay up high on walls and don't like to hide in coats/sofas/beds because there's no food for them there.

    They're determined to make a liar out of me.

    Just before bed we're about to leave the sitting room and another massive one runs across the armchair beside us. Panic ensues and I manage to finally catch the b'stard and get him out of the house.

    The best is yet to come.

    We're asleep, having checked the bed and bedroom very carefully. I'm lying so that my arm is over to my girlfriends head. Some god-forsaken hour, although asleep, I feel something crawling up my arm towards her head. Instinct takes over and slap, I squish this enormous f'in spider on my arm. Thankfully, my beloved remains unaware of what's going on as I stumble about half-asleep trying to wash off squashed spider.

    YEUCH!

    I generally believe in complete honesty in a relationship but I think that if I told her that she'd never sleep again.

    If tonight is the same or worse I think I'm going to have to move.

    K


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,834 ✭✭✭Toast


    Originally posted by Alis

    If you don't like spiders check out this fact:

    *An average of 8 spiders die inside your ear in your lifetime*

    I think that is true. I don't have a source right now but I got it of a BBC documentary some years back.

    I sleep with my personal stereo on so they won't get in my ears.
    Originally posted by Dr. Loon
    also as far as I remember you actually swallow something like 6 spiders in your life, while you sleep of course!!!

    Ok This one has obviously done a bit of mutating. The Original "fact" was that On Average a person will eat 8 spiders in his/her sleep during their life time. This seems to have changed to Crawl into your ear and the number of spiders is constantly changing too.

    Good auld Cecil takes this one from a logical standpoint in his debunking:
    http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspidereat.html

    Whilst Snopes points out that this was a rumour made up to show some of the things people will believe on the internet:
    http://www.snopes.com/spoons/fracture/spiders.htm

    Someone was asking about the real name of the Daddy long Legs. Its a Crane (not cream) Fly. Also because I know this one will be dragged out at some stage it is NOT the most poisonous insect in the world.
    http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/longlegs.htm

    Hopefully this shall put yis all at rest.
    Theres enough horrors in the world without making up new ones.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 258 ✭✭Fand


    What a crowd of great big babies. Spidies are lovely.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,842 ✭✭✭phaxx


    Oh yeah? What are you scared of? Watch it or I'll get that scary guy with no phone to freak you out.

    :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Originally posted by Fand
    What a crowd of great big babies. Spidies are lovely.

    Topic = Arachnaphobia!

    It's a phobia... which is a real fear! If you were scared ****less of heights, and I said "what's wrong with heights? I love climbing mountains/jumping off high walls/standing on top of high things" would it be funny, than if I dragged you up on something very high, so you got some vertigo, possibly vomit and shít like that!!?

    I know you may be havin a laugh, I've got a genuine fear of spiders, and I believe I have arachnaphobia. A very good friend of mine, placed a massive spider (dead) in my room on a sheet of paper on my bed one night... I went into my room and didn't notice it for a while, I was about to hop in when I spotted this!!! I lost the rag! Takin the píss out of someone's fears isn't funny. If you're jokin...fine....still not funny. Just wanted to make that point though. :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭Kix


    Originally posted by Dr. Loon
    Takin the píss out of someone's fears isn't funny. If you're jokin...fine....still not funny.

    Too right, a phobia is a phobia and it's not good to make fun of people for it.

    Saw a really good program about phobias recently. Proved that with the right treatment almost everyone can get over their phobias. Doesn't always matter, you can often avoid the thing you're scared of, but sometimes they really ruin a persons life.

    K


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Originally posted by Kix


    Too right, a phobia is a phobia and it's not good to make fun of people for it.

    Saw a really good program about phobias recently. Proved that with the right treatment almost everyone can get over their phobias. Doesn't always matter, you can often avoid the thing you're scared of, but sometimes they really ruin a persons life.

    K

    As far as I've heard the best way to get rid of a phobia is to confront it!! No way!!

    Let's say for example though... I want to go and visit my brother in Australia next year. I know loads of people who've been and I know people still there. There's these spiders called boatmans or something... they're harmless, but fookin massive!!! My bro lived on the beach (bondai) and sometimes when they'd come in at night these boatmans would just be on the wall... huge things. They're there to get rid of insects (as all spiders are) but he'd have to remove them, as his wife can't stand spiders and she's from Aus.... I don't think I'd be able to handle that, and my girlfriend wouldn't either!! So there's something I've gotta consider.

    There's supposed to be another really common (harmless) spider around Sydnet... can't remember the name! Anyone?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,136 ✭✭✭Pugsley


    do NOT read this post if yer sqeemish :)

    A vicious little bug that lives in the middle eastern deserts.
    Also called the Sunspider, solpugid, wind scorpion, and a host of other terrible, terrible names that do not come close to describing the pure, unadulterated evil that makes up this hell spawned beast.

    The Camel Spider is the size of a dinner plate, it can run upwards of 30 miles an hour, jump several feet into the air, and shriek. Literally scream. That's not the worst part, either. The worst part comes when they catch you. (And they will catch you.)

    It will jump on you and run up your back until it finds exposed flesh. If you're not wearing long pants, it'll go for your legs; otherwise it may have to go all the way up to your face. Its mouth opens four ways to become 4 very sharp fangs. It will dig into your face and rip the flesh clean off of your skull. Don't worry, its saliva will numb the wound almost instantaneously... by destroying the nerve endings. The saliva also inhibits healing- when your face grows back it'll be hideously scarred.

    They're called Camel Spiders because one can kill a full grown camel if given the chance.

    They look absolutely terrifying, too- in addition to the standard eight legs they've got a pair of pedipalpi (like antenna, sort of) which they hold in front of their bodies as they run. On the ends of these are a pair of suckers which they use to hold loose flesh up in order to eat it more easily.



    Sweet dreams :D
    And thank god we're irish :D:D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,834 ✭✭✭Toast


    Originally posted by Pugsley
    do NOT read this post if yer sqeemish :)

    A vicious little bug that lives in the middle eastern deserts.
    Also called the Sunspider, solpugid, wind scorpion, and a host of other terrible, terrible names that do not come close to describing the pure, unadulterated evil that makes up this hell spawned beast.

    Wow what is it with spiders and misinformation?

    The Camel Spider whilst bloody fast doesnt attack humans unless seriously provoked. They wont hunt one down the way its described in Pugsleys post. They purposely avoid humans and live in very remote desert areas. They CAN grow to 6 inches in length which is significantly smaller than a dinner plate. They are also not poisonous so I dont know where all this Nerve Numbing venom talk comes from. Your only danger from a bite is infection or shock (the bite can be nasty but if treated its not going to leave you disfigured for life).

    They have 8 legs but use the first first pair of legs or pedipalpi are held up in front of them and are used like insects use Antennae. I cant find anything to suggest they use them to hold flesh as they eat it.

    Sources:
    http://library.thinkquest.org/28855/camelspider.html?tqskip=1
    http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/expert/Camel_Spiders.html
    http://www.uaeinteract.com/uaeint_main/nature/insect/ins09.html

    Its this sort of misinformation about spiders that adds to the phobias surrounding them.

    Sure they are quite unearthly looking creatures and there are certainly some poisonous spiders (Black widow and the brown recluse) but your much more likely to encounter a much greater number of deadly humans than deadly spiders in your lifetime. That is unless you live in an area with a particularly high population of poisonous spiders in which case your local government should have leaflets and courses on how to identify the dangerous ones from the good ones.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,136 ✭✭✭Pugsley


    Im gonna comment on yer post toast (terrable rhyme :))
    The 1st 1 saiz that they spend most of their time in their burrows and only come out to feed.
    The 2nd 1 saiz f00k all useful.
    The 3rd 1 saiz that they are constantly moving.....
    1st + 3rd seem to contradict each other :p
    And also that was posted from a diffrent soarce and exagurrated in other 2 scare the living hell out of people(as is most of this thread) about how bad spiders can be.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,834 ✭✭✭Toast


    Originally posted by Pugsley
    Im gonna comment on yer post toast (terrable rhyme :))
    The 1st 1 saiz that they spend most of their time in their burrows and only come out to feed.
    The 2nd 1 saiz f00k all useful.
    The 3rd 1 saiz that they are constantly moving.....
    1st + 3rd seem to contradict each other :p
    And also that was posted from a diffrent soarce and exagurrated in other 2 scare the living hell out of people(as is most of this thread) about how bad spiders can be.

    Hmm I dont really understand why you are attacking my sources when you then admit you exagerated your story. Do a google search for camel spider if you think Im wrong about what I said.
    Im sure Im not the only one to think its bad form to be purposely spreading misinformation on a board where a lot of peoples fears seem to stem from misinformation such as this.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,989 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    ur not an easy man to please toast


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    I don't give a fook whether the little gits are poisonous or not!! It's the way they move, the way they look, especially the hairy ones, and the size of them.

    So if a six inch spider was spotted in my vicinity, I believe I would go insane. Really... I would. 6 inches!!? That's rediculous, there's no need for it to get that big. Shít.... 2 inches would have me screaming like a baby! :) I'm serious.... that's gotta be arachnaphobia.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 28,633 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shiminay


    <flame proof pants on>

    I have little or no time for hysterical people in the middle of a spa attack because of a stupid phobia. This includes Spiders, Mice, Needles and Declan Nerney (although I have to admit, I sometimes shudder when I hear his voice).

    In Ireland, 999999 times out of 1000000 A spider CANNOT hurt you (I made those figures up) so why are you so afraid of it? They're an intresting looking creature and they've always been portrayed as an evil symbol. I reckon this is why a lot of people are afraid of them, because they think they should be. Similarly with mice and an ax of mine is the worst for this - she screams if there's one on the telly. She can't even say the word mouse (it's the "pointer" on the computer). She once scrapped all the skin off her feet because she saw a mouse and thought it had walked where she walked - I am not making this up! It's the stuff of lunacy! She won't get any help for it (Chthon knows I tried to get her to try and do something about it), so now I just take the pi$$ until such a time as she might. *sigh* It's not been successful so far...

    I'm sorry folks, but reactions like this makes me want to smack you repeatedly (but I never would - promise). It's OTT and hysterics aren't going to help anyone.

    This may be very intollerant of me, but I'm not sorry for it because I don't have such a phobia and I can't relate. So try see it from my (and others like me) side and COP ON! :) (note smiley)

    <flame proof pants off>

    Fears of heights and flying (and similar fears) - I can understand and would never get angry with someone over that. It's a genuine, life threatening notion. I'm not usually too sure of myself when up high on something (fun-fairs spring to mind), but I can get over it and all's good.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,670 ✭✭✭Doc


    I live in a house with two girls (one of which is my girlfriend) and one guy and they are all scared of spiders. :(
    How I’m not a big fan of spiders myself and over the last couple of weeks spiders about 2.5 to 3 inches from tip of leg to tip of leg have been coming into the house scaring the **** out of my housemates.
    I came home the other night and Paula (my girlfriend) was standing balling her eyes out and trembling like crazy in the kitchen.:eek:
    She had been sat on the stairs talking on the phone when one of these large spiders ran over her hand. She told me that she had ran into the kitchen and grabbed the potato masher to kill it because she didn’t want it to get into our bedroom because it might “get her” if it got away.
    I have never seen anyone as scared as she looked.
    When my housemate (the guy) heard about this he filled every hole around the house spraying foam into the cracks he taught spiders might get in. :rolleyes:
    I have to run all over the house now killing spiders (I don’t like touching spiders as I don’t like getting spider blood on my fingers so I use toilet tissue to squash them). Every night my girlfriend keeps turning on the light to “spider check” as she calls it and this is really pissing me off though I say nothing as I know how scared of them she is.:mad:
    She is studying psychology and is thinking about getting one of the students in a higher year to hypnotise her to try and get rid of this fear. I hope it works! :confused:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Lads... a phobia is aphobia, you can't be angry with someone for being scared of something. It's ignorant. I dont understand people who are afraid of heights, because I love heights, but I also won't laught at them if they have to attempt to climb or get up somewhere high... it's not a nice attitude and someone who would do that is not a nice person. My fear is spiders, otehrs are just insect in general, others have fears of choking, water (drowning), dying, being in open spaces, being in confined spaces.... you just can't get annoyed with people because there scared. It's as though you're some bravado, who fears no thing on earth... believe me there is something on earth everyone is afraid of... it's not a funny thing, to laugh or lose you patience at others, when you could be afraid and need someone's help too!! :( Completely insensitive.

    [edit] Sorry about the spelling...am in a rush :)


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 28,633 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shiminay


    It's certainly not some sort of show of Bravado or anthing mate, it's common sense.

    If someone in hysterics is screaming and crying and wrecking your FUCKING HEAD (ahem *calm place Dav*), then surely you can see the point of the "non-believers."

    As I said, hysterics will get you no where and will result in a Fridge or Washing Machine being thrown at you (and I mean that!).

    It's not that I'm a callous bastid, but I have Zero Tolerance (heh - Quake joke) for (what I consider to be) stupidity of this nature. Before you loose the head, let me explain that last statement...

    Reactions to something that makes you scarred is natural. There is nothing you can do (really) to stop yourself reacting. It's the same as hearing a funny joke (you can't help laughing) or feeling horrified at events such as those in New York a short time ago.

    What you CAN do is learn to control the reaction itself. You can learn to have a little "jump" of fright, but then you can stop reacting - the reaction is over and done and we've all moved on (and the spider's buggered off to eat a fly).

    I'm not trying to make light of your phobia(s) folks, because as you said yourself, there's no way to *NOT* react to it, but keep in mind that you don't need to react in the way that causes annoyance to other.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 317 ✭✭SHAMAN


    Originally posted by Alis
    I must admit I do not like those eight legged creatures :eek:

    I'm not saying I have a phobia of them but give me a mouse instead any day!

    Both my brothers 'like' spiders and one of them is usually around, thankfully :) They pick them up with their bare hands :eek:

    They got it from their father. He 'loves' spiders. He used to threaten to throw them at me when I was little :eek: Actually maybe he just used to like tormenting me :mad: Once he eat a huge spider in front of me, just to disgust me. I'm actually not joking here :eek:

    If you don't like spiders check out this fact:

    *An average of 8 spiders die inside your ear in your lifetime*

    I think that is true. I don't have a source right now but I got it of a BBC documentary some years back.

    I sleep with my personal stereo on so they won't get in my ears.

    The best tip I can give you is masking tape. It is those little holes between things they get in. Masking tape them up!!!

    I shall watch this thread attentively for more tips, so if you have a good one, please share it :)
    I hate 2 disgust u,but u eat an average of 7 spiders while sleeping in ur entire life.UGGGHH!!.And i wudn't suggest gettin 1 of dose alarm tingies.Apparently it kills them,so u have 2 pick up their bodies.I think they hate pepper try dat.And it is the moisture dat draws them 2 da bathroom.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Originally posted by Kharn

    What you CAN do is learn to control the reaction itself. You can learn to have a little "jump" of fright, but then you can stop reacting - the reaction is over and done and we've all moved on (and the spider's buggered off to eat a fly).

    I'm not trying to make light of your phobia(s) folks, because as you said yourself, there's no way to *NOT* react to it, but keep in mind that you don't need to react in the way that causes annoyance to other. [/B]

    Sorry... but that's bullshít! I'm not being aggressive, but you can't control a fear that easily. I admit when I spot a spider I freak a bit, but when it's gone, I'm cool. I will hunt it down and kill it, if it's in my gaff. Otherwise that's the end of it. I'll feel itchy and stuff for a few minutes but that's it. I don't go absolutely nuts. Now, I have seen people go crazy becaus of a little house spider. Whi can be annoying yeah, but I don't believe they can help their reaction.

    I think I know what you're getting at. It's probably when someone seems to be over reacting, and you might think they're faking or some shít. I certainly have seen this happen and it písses me off. What can you do?

    Otherwise, a reaction is a genuine reaction that you can't help. If I was to box one person in the face, it might make them scream like a loon... if I boxed another they might just take it without a sound..... it's like a reflex reaction... you can't control them too easily. It's not funny to rip the píss out of a phobia, so i wouldn't get annoyed with someone because they're standing on top og a building a blithering mess, even though I know they're afraid of heights. I'd help them. Maybe I just have more patience than you!?


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 28,633 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shiminay


    Originally posted by Dr. Loon
    Maybe I just have more patience than you!?

    Most definitly mate ;)

    I think we're kinda on the same wave length. Some people (and I'm keeping my ex-girlfriend in mind) build up a fear so much that they're afraid of the fear itself (does that make sense?) and they've blown it up (or let it get blown up) into daft proportions. I know a lot of her reactions were totally OTT because she's been too daft to get anything done about a genuine phobia and she's let it get bigger than it is and take control of her life.
    eg:
    She will NOT go places if she heard there was a mouse there once and I refer to my point about not even being able to watch telly with a mouse on-screen - she wanted to go see The Green Mile, but couldn't cause there was a pet mouse or something (I haven't seen the flick myself yet).

    This kind of down-right stupidity (of not having gotten something done about it) makes me mad and I think you'll agree with me on this one. The way I see it is if you've got a broken arm, you go to a hospital to get it fixed. If you've got something wrong with your mind that makes you mortally afraid of something, you at least owe it to yourself to examine the possibilities of "fixing" the problem. I'm not suggesting that there's a quick fix available for phobias because little and all as I know about the human psyche, I know it can't be sorted in that way (although a claw hammer and some electrodes might help :D).

    Anyway, aracnphobics - don't get me wrong, I don't hate you. I just hate OTT reactions. ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Aye...as I said in a previous post, the most common method I've heard of getting rid of any phobia is to confront it, and I've done this insmall ways... seeing as my girlfriend hates spiders as well... I'd usually have to get rid of them. This I wouldn't have donw years ago... but can do now, as I've gotten over it a bit.

    If I was in Australia though and a big hairy dirty git appeared, I imagine I'd have a similar reaction to your girlfriend with the mouse :D They say to cure arachnophobia fully, they have a tarantula or some other such nasty arachnid crawl over you!! Now I ain't gonna do that in the near future... but ye never know.


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