What has eight legs and builds webs?

Apparently, I have been cursed for the rest of my life to deal with spiders and quite frankly it's getting old. For as long as I can remember I have had horrible experiences with spiders from throwing a huge dictionary on top of one and having it survive, to millions upon millions of babies crawling all over the floor once the momma was smushed, my car being infested with them, and of course to finding at least 3 spiders a day in one apartment I lived at for a year in Tampa. Needless to say this turned me into a paranoid, anxious, obsessive individual about not leaving anything on the floor unless I have too especially pillows, knocking my shoes together before I put them on, shaking my towel before I put it on, watching every part of the walls in my residences, and most importantly my bed.

For a while I was so obsessed about spiders that I spent countless hours on the computer attempting to research them and even went to Barnes and Noble to see if I could find books on spiders. However, I never really got what I was looking for. I can tell you pretty much what kind of spider is what if it is in my house but I do have an issue with thinking that all the baby spiders I come in contact with at baby brown recluses because they seriously look like they have little violin's on their butts which is the main identifying mark on a brown recluse.

Now I will fill you in on my spider adventures over the past week...

So last week, I think it was Monday, I was sitting on the porch talking to my Dad on the phone trying to have him walk me through lighting the grill with the long lighter because our igniter is bad and you have to build up a lot of gas before getting it to turn on which is extremely dangerous. Point of me telling you that is- I gave up because I was too scared to stick the lighter down to the burner and ended up cooking my chicken on the stove. Once dinner was finally finished I sat down on the couch- my normal eating place when Bobby isn't home- to eat dinner. A little while later I was finished and watching TV and procrastinating from doing school work when I felt something on my neck, and it felt really strange. My first thought was a spider but I didn't feel anything when I had grabbed my neck immediately after I felt it. But I saw that my braid was on my shoulder and turned in towards my neck and I was like that's weird but I guess it was my hair. At this point I turn off the TV and start reading for school when I felt something on the back of my arm and when I looked it was a....you guessed it, a SPIDER ! So I quickly brush it off and it falls on the couch- I do not succeed in killing it but got it off the couch and decided to sit on the chase lounge for the rest of the night.

The next night, I am in the same position on the couch (after having check it- of course). I am in the middle of eating dinner and I mean actually putting the fork to my mouth when I felt something run down the back of my arm again! It was the freaking SPIDER! So I slap my arm and then swipe it in all hopes to kill it and get it away...this time I can't find it. So I clean up and go do school work for the night. Later on I had got up from the den to get some water when I noticed a dark spot on the carpet next to the coat closet and I said to myself "There isn't a stain there" and I walked closer to it and of course another spider! This time is was a good quarter size... probably a house spider but it looked like a Hobo spider-YUCK! I grab my shoe and smush it to pieces in the carpet and carry on with my school work.

When I returned from SC this weekend I was prepared to kill spiders since when I was gone the weekend before I had so many to kill; however, definitely did not think I would find what I did...

So within the past month I have been finding small black beetles in my house and would dispose of them via the toilet; however, I had been noticing the past couple days in a row that in the same spot in the bathroom I would be picking up beetles everyday. When I got a piece of tissue and picked them up I noticed that they were covered in white stuff and I thought to myself "That looks like something a spider would do to its prey" but didn't think anything of it until today when I had thrown a beetle away this morning before work and when I got home there was another one in the same spot with the same white stuff on it. So I got a little compact mirror out and look under the edge of the bathroom cabinet... and sure enough a freaking spider. Now I'm freaking out and my anxiety is kicking in, telling myself "Oh, I bet it's a brown widow". Once I talked to both Bobby and my Dad- I developed a POA (Plan of Attack) which involved Lysol with Bleach (what I always use to kill creepy crawlers) and a wire coat hanger because I did not want to be close to that horrible creature. So I sprayed the ledge a few times and watched it with my mirror- it was on the run! So I sprayed it again and it had came down on it's silk trying to get away from the toxic substance I put on it! And then I used the coat hanger to get it where I could step on it to kill it. Let me just tell you it was a mess but it was finally dead.

After I cleaned up my mess I proceeded to take the compact mirror and look under everything else for signs of more widow's...thankfully I found no others but since this early evening I have been stressing out about spiders and constantly looking for them to the point that it is again becoming obsessive. It just creeps me out because who knows how long it had been there, where it was traveling to at night, if it was on my bed with me, if it could have bit me or Trip, or what else could have happened. I mean I usually stand in that same spot when I do my make-up and get ready in the a.m. Now everything I feel I think can be a spider and it's making things really hard. Hopefully the pest control company comes this week because them spraying will make me feel better in deterring the spiders even though it most likely won't kill them since they do not crawl on their bellies like most other bugs (i.e. roaches).

That's all- I am open to suggestions! Good night !

xo Grimmy