The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

...Does not live at my house. But his big brothers and sisters do!

In honor of the season, here is a delightfully creepy post all about spiders.


We are basement dwellers. And though we love it, it comes with it's downside. Like this guy...


And these guys...


Nasty, right? I am pretty sure they are just regular old house spiders, but they are big, fast, and gross!


Not that long ago, we had a patient come into the ER for a spider bite. This isn't terribly uncommon, but what was unusual is that the patient brought the spider with them in a cup... alive. I waited around the room for a while since I needed to finish the registration anyway, and one by one I watched the Dr, nurse, and tech all come out of the room individually shivering away the hebbie gebbies. So I decided I wanted to take a look too. What they had in the cup was about the size of a silver dollar, I would guess, if the legs were all spread out. Creepy bugger. And it looked just like the first picture above. I heard the Dr tell the nurse that it was a Hobo spider. Oh now that's just great. A Hobo! Big creepy spiders in my house aren't enough - but a Hobo?! I called Ryan to let him know, so as soon as he got home from work, he jumped on the Internet and started comparing the Hobo spider to our little friend. It's close, but not an exact match. But we can't exactly rule it out either.

You can see the monster above the quarter there. I am pretty positive if he was alive, or if we could spread him out and measure him, he would be the size of a silver dollar too. Sick. Sick. Sick.

Our biggest help in combating these lovely little creatures is what's pictured above. A sticky glue board. They wander onto it and that's that. Obviously they don't make it very far - that's why there aren't any in the middle. Sadly, yes, they just starve to death. If there was a mouse trap type mechanism for a spider, I would own it. I do feel bad making them die this way, but I can't tell you how nice it is knowing that these little traps are doing the work for me. The other day while Ryan and I were moving furniture around, he paused with his eyes open wide and said, "Don't look up." So of course I did. And there directly above my head was one of those "Hobo" looking spiders - just as big as the one in the picture - but alive... and not on a glue board. I wanted to scream like a little girl and run. I did my own hebbie gebbie dance and asked Ryan to smash it, which he obliged. Thank goodness for that! I can handle most spiders and bugs - but that one was just too big and too creepy.

If anyone is great at identifying spiders, I would love to know officially what that guy is. Just throwin' it out there.

Aside from the sticky traps, Ryan has spent a good amount of time cleaning out all the window wells and spraying them down with bug spray. It has helped a ton! Due to the fact that our home is old and the windows are single paned and not completely air tight, we are going to put plastic window wrap over the windows we don't use and seal them shut.

I know having a few spiders around the house it totally normal. And I know they are good to eat other bugs too. But I don't need them in mass quantity - especially when they are unknown species that are fast, ugly, and creepy beyond belief (if it's possible for a spider not to be creepy.) In the last few weeks as we have been working on deep cleaning, we have gotten rid of lots of hidden spider webs and hide outs. It is such a nice feeling knowing that things are really getting clean! And it's nice to know we won't be bringing our little guy home to a spider mansion. This is our home - not the spiders' - thank you very much.

And with that, I hope anyone reading this is enjoying a nice, spider-free morning, afternoon, or evening. Happy Halloween!