[motorpsycho]

Originally Posted by prguru

@Clevermax Talking about spiders I had taken a picture of this spider around my house few months back , it was not as huge as the one you have posted but looks huge , I think it was taken in macro mode. I am guessing it was around 6cms to 10 cms. Forget about spiders and lizards people here ( including us ) are not even scared of snakes in Nagarabhavi ( the place I stay )

WOW ! that looks huge , looks like a Tarantula ( Tarantula has a lot more hair and is not found in Nagarabhavi ! ! ) I have never come across this species of spider.
I love insects , bigger the better. Had crabs in my fish pond as pets.

[Cyrus43]

I hate all insects. Spiders, Bees, whatever. I make it a point to kill them. I hate them so much that I usually have a can of hit close to me to kill them immediately.

[aargee]

Ah Clevermax, I know what you're talking about the ones you find in Kerala. So ditto me, trust me I have killed only one ever in my life & that too with Mortien spray. I love watching snakes crawl, but can never withstand to see a motionless spider on the wall. Once I happened to see such a spider catching hold of a cockroach & God!!! I feel the uneasiness writing about it even now.

Thank God that my Wife is not scared about it; she's only scared of lizards like how I tremble for these, so we have a exchange policy.

Use one of these sprays like Mortien, Baygon, especially the ones you get in pressurized can, they're very effective.

PS - I use these sprays to kill even the toads.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by motorpsycho

WOW ! that looks huge , looks like a Tarantula ( Tarantula has a lot more hair and is not found in Nagarabhavi ! ! ) .

Yes it looks like one, but I don't think Tarantula is seen in India. Friend of mine was saying that he could buy one as a pet kept in a transparent jar, when he was living in the middle east. These would be the last species on earth I'd consider having as a pet!

I checked out other rooms in the house, and found no more big ones yesterday night. Wife coming back tomorrow, so I am relieved!

@aargee: These sprays are poisons right? I am concerned about spraying them over the floor or wherever I see a spider, because my daughter crawls and walks around the house almost all the time. She should not come in contact with this poison.

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Why do you create a thread for Arachnophobia and put pics of large spiders? You guys should get an infraction just for this. The pics above give me shivers. I have had this phobia and don't even like to touch a photo of these creatures.
@mods, please remove the pics above.

Jaguar, I can understand how it feels to see these pictures. You know what I did to post the picture in my first post? I found one high resolution image on web, and as my browser was loading the image, I reduced the size of the browser window, so that the spider picture would zoom out. Then I opened a photo-shop window made it very small, and opened the picture in it, re sized to something like 300x200 for posting it here. I could not imagine myself viewing that picture in full size.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by clevermax

@aargee: These sprays are poisons right? I am concerned about spraying them over the floor or wherever I see a spider, because my daughter crawls and walks around the house almost all the time. She should not come in contact with this poison.

Right, I've a 2.5 years too; take care of them while & after spraying. But you see these creatures prefers sitting over the walls rather than on the floor, so you actually don't have to use the canister on the floors. Most of the time I've seen they hiding between the wall & cupboards or wall & bed or underneath the refrigerator, so its easy to spray in the gap & where the younger ones cannot reach too.

[pramodkumar]

i told you to come with me yesterday, you would have had the courage to kill all the insects in your house after our expedition.

Thats why i tell you listen to me, i told you, you would have had a reason to convince your boss for leaving early.


Pramod

[heavy_foot]

I am also phobic of spiders, have seen the same ones as in pic posted by the thread starter gobbeling up cocroachs. I have handled snakes, scorpions chameleons etc but nothing gives me creeps like a spider. I remember this incident as a kid i was visiting my native place in Kerala and i saw one huge colorful spider sitting in the centre of its net. I tried to kill it with a stick and make a swing. After that i could not spot it anywhere, next moment i almost had a heart attack when i felt somthing crawling in my shorts. I removed my shorts then and there and i then crushed the spider inside the shorts with my hands.

[planet_rocker]

please don't laugh at me

Spiders of all sizes and i usually do not gell that well. Usually when i suddenly encounter a spider (of a larger size) - people around me usually see me running away crying at the top of my voice, "Kheye Phello Go!! (Bengali)" (translated - That thing is gonna eat me!!).

Emergency rescue team - Mom and Wife.

My company of the "brave" army include my Dad and Bro.

You guys should see my dad's act when he sees a spider

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

please don't laugh at me

Spiders of all sizes and i usually do not gell that well. Usually when i suddenly encounter a spider (of a larger size) - people around me usually see me running away crying at the top of my voice, "Kheye Phello Go!! (Bengali)" (translated - That thing is gonna eat me!!).
Emergency rescue team - Mom and Wife.
My company of the "brave" army include my Dad and Bro.
You guys should see my dad's act when he sees a spider

Yes, the fear will be at its max when you suddenly encounter a spider in close proximity. If one sees the spider from far, one can go nearer to it with much less fear. For me any big spiders within 3 meters is a fearful thing.

The most horrible experience so far was when I saw a big one right in front of my eyes within some 30 cms, while I was closing the bathroom door. Imagine the situation where you are trapped inside bathroom with a huge spider sitting right on the door which is your only escape route.

I even thought about what is going to be the most dangerous encounter - imagine a huge spider popping up in front of you on the inner side of your windshield when you are driving the car at 80Kmph! I once saw a big one sitting on the outer side of my windshield, when the car was parked (was lucky). Suddenly I opened the door, and abandoned the car.

I was checking on the internet on therapies to cure this problem, there are even virtual reality simulations to get rid of this phobia! But I can't even think about touching a virtual spider!

[aargee]

Years back, I saw a program on Discovery as how they cure arachnophobia; however I must admit that after watching the program, I got a good lesson for life too.

Some excerpts from the show is that the therapist/doctor shows some pics of beautiful spiders to the patient; then the next course is to encourage the person to enter into a large hall where a spider is put into a glass box; next step is to get closer; then the next step is to touch the glass box; Sorry I don't want to recall other steps as I begin to feel something crawling on my feet

The theme is simple - face the fear to overcome it.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by clevermax

I even thought about what is going to be the most dangerous encounter - imagine a huge spider popping up in front of you on the inner side of your windshield when you are driving the car at 80Kmph! I once saw a big one sitting on the outer side of my windshield, when the car was parked (was lucky). Suddenly I opened the door, and abandoned the car.

Something similar happened to me as well. I was about to start my Kinetic honda when I saw a medium sized spider run into the plastic behind the head-light (near the handle). Immediately dropped the vehicle down and washed the entire interior with a hose and made sure that the spider was washed out, damaging the horn in the process. Still I feel I was lucky, what if I hadn't seen in initially and it came out to my hand when I was riding the bike?

[prguru]

Originally Posted by motorpsycho

WOW ! that looks huge , looks like a Tarantula ( Tarantula has a lot more hair and is not found in Nagarabhavi ! ! ) I have never come across this species of spider.

It looks huge because it was shot in macro mode so it is looking magnified, it was may be half the size of the spider posted by clevermax and am sure it was not a Tarantula . I guess you are talking about the type of spider in the movie Home Alone where that kid had one of those as a pet.

[speedfreak01]

I hate all bloody insects and spiders top the list...but i never kill an insect..i would either call my mom or my servant to deal with those lil monsters.

[Wolfheart]

Clevermax,

I love spiders.That is such a beautiful specimen. It's got long slender legs and that lovely grey black pattern that probably acts as camouflage in an urban environment. I'm glad to know that you didn't kill it.

Most spiders found in India are absolutely harmless to humans. In fact they keep the fly, mosquito, ant population in control and indirectly reduce the spread of diseases amongst us humans.

Remember, spiders are our friends and arachnophopbia is totally irrational. My GF is a big time arachnophobic. Many a times I have almost gone into cardiac arrest after a bloodcurdling shriek from her, only to find that she saw an itsy-bitsy spider.

I think the best cure for any phobia is to face your fears. Just plunge into the abyss headfirst and you will emerge victorious. For arachnophobics I recommend that you guys be put in a big glass box (a la fear factor) and have thousand of spiders poured on top of you. Trust me you will stop being afraid of spiders after that. I've tried to have my GF volunteer many times but strangely she's very reluctant.

[rkbharat]

I simply hate spiders and seeing a big one around make me paranoid of them everywhere around me.

yes me too have Arachnophobia.