Dear  Readers, 

It is that time of the year again when the summer temperatures have arrived and hints of the winter mornings to come are as far away as they can be for a short while.  Alfresco eating becomes a possibility once again before we all prepare to come in out of the cold for the winter.  


During the past few years, it has not bothered me as much as it used to because, after the experience of our more violently hot summers, waking up to a cooler environment is refreshing for a while.   Although it only takes a couple of weeks for the novelty of coolness to wear off and we find ourselves not quite so ready to take that first early morning trip to the bathroom without donning a dressing gown.   

In my mind, this end of summer season-change is refreshing for a short while but for one phenomenon, and that is the return of the spiders and I can still remember vividly, that day last September when I switched on the light and the year’s first visitor made himself known.   


It was the aforementioned early morning trip to the bathroom that reminded me of things to come.  I turned on the light, and there in the tub was the biggest set of eight legs I have seen for a long time.  It was all I could do not to shriek but I did manage to exercise self-control.   


My shock was replaced with my fixation on how I was going to get their owner out.  I am a true believer that every one of God’s creatures is entitle  to its living space but when it comes to sharing mine with a spider. I can’t help but draw the line! 


At that time in the morning, getting someone else out of bed is a last resort .  I can’t help it, I  find them petrifying and the sight of one availing itself of my tub before me has forced me into making alternative ablution arrangements and avoiding a bath for a while in the past.   


After the initial shock I doused it with a bowl of warm water even though I felt like a murderer afterword’s, but a court of law would have found me innocent because about an hour later, I returned only to find him half way up the side of the bathtub yet again.  It was then that I learned that spiders can swim, but I gave him another shower that sent him back to the plughole and put a jam jar over him in the hope that he would retrace his way to freedom.   


The jar was there for a couple of days before I thought about removing it and I had a plan.  In the secure knowledge that my visitor could negotiate water, I filled the bath until the cold water was level with the bottom of the upturned jar and I think that my plan worked.  The force of the water aiming for the plug took the spider with it, and once it was all gone, so was he.   

I know that our  8-legged friends have a right to life just like us but now that I think back, at least the spider was contained in the bath and not on the ceiling or wall, so I could use the force of H20 to sort the problem but I know that he is not alone which is why I took the time to look for a few other solutions.   

According to the internet today,  arachnophobia is the 3rd biggest national phobia and I am a sufferer, but I would like to finish with something that my mother used to say.   Spiders are as frightened of you as you are of them.  That train of thought works perfectly as long as I can’t see one. 

PA, Woolwich.  

 

 

PA offers some spider minimisation solutions…

 

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.. and a little advice for arachnophobics… 

 

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