Sunday, August 30, 2009

arachnophobia

I'm an arachnophobe. Seriously. Even that word....arachnophobe...is enough to give me the heebeejeebee's. So, imagine how much I love the hot weather, when these guys come out.
*shudder* I can't believe I actually took a picture of him.
He's a wolf spider. I think. At least that's we call them. They usually are about the size of the palm of your hand, but I've seen them smaller, and (unfortunately) much bigger too. They have long legs, hairy bodies, and fangs. They are not poisonous, but I won't get anywhere near one, so it doesn't really matter. They like cold damp places, so during the hot summer nights, they come out of their hiding places and come down to the pool. The sides of the pool are slippery, so when they fall into the pool, they can't get back out again. But, their legs are long enough, that they can climb up onto the first rung of the ladder.

So, far, I've been able to determine that they can't get out, no matter how hard they try. And they don't drown easily. Let's just say I've tried to drown one with the hose for 1/2 hour once, only to have him resurface, shake himself off, and climb back up on the ladder.
To get rid of these guys, you need to splash them off of the ladder. Once on the water surface, you take the leaf skimmer, and push them underwater. Apparently I won't touch these things with a ten foot pole, but an 8 foot leaf skimmer pole works just fine :-)
Then, while still underwater, drag them down to the deep end, and release them just in front of the skimmer. They are then sucked into the whirling depths of the skimmer, and eventually drown. Although I watched one try to climb out for 2 hours before he eventually gave up.
Now, some Buddist monk somewhere is having a seizure because I'm talking about killing spiders. But, seriously, would you want this thing roaming free? Who's to stop it from coming into the house! I have to thank my lucky stars we have the pool. They will likely end up in the pool first, before they end up hiding in my shower. *shudder*
I need to stop posting about this now...the heebeejeebee's are back...

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