April 13, 2011

The Not-So Itsy Bitsy Spider

Two evenings past Ben and I were sitting on the sofas watching the Rays win their second game of the new year, Ben was chit-chatting on the phone with his brother when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye:

Perhaps this pictures doesn't do this spider justice.  It was probably a good two inches, perhaps more.  

I immediately headed for the tallest chair in the room and kept yelling at Ben to kill it.  


So he asked his brother if he could call him back and then we decided on our game plan: a shoe.  This was the first time I've seen Ben bothered by a bug.  He grabbed a shoe and stood like this for a really long time:


Finally, he got close and whacked it:


Then he ran, laughing and prancing.  He kept saying, "Oh gross, I think I'm going to be sick." 


He went back to inspect to be sure it was good and dead:


It was:


I did feel a little bad about killing it, but we do have two and a half children to protect.  

5 comments:

Lori said...

That EXACT scenario played out for me just as we had moved to Florida 10 years ago. I did the EXACT same thing, because Nate was at work, and do you know what happened? The minute the shoe hit the GIANT spider, 100's of very miniscule, homeless spiders began running around. I was absolutely MORTIFIED!! I have no idea how that can occur, as I thought spiders laid eggs. Those eggs must have been VERY close to hatching, because they scampered all over my tile floor. I was absolutely traumatized...for DAYS!!!!!!! Couldn't even close my eyes. Shortly after that, I witnessed one of the cute, green tree frogs that liked to hang out on our glass patio door EAT a smaller, cute green tree frog. That's right...gobbled it right up. At first, I thought it was "helping" the smaller one to safety, as it only put the lower half of it in it's mouth. But then, gulp, and it was gone. TRAUMATIZED, again!!

Alicia said...

Lori, I knew that happened to someone and I was telling Ben about it. And, I know what you mean about being traumatized. I'm constantly searching for spiders in corners and under furniture. I wear my shoes and/or socks all day now! Yuck!!

Shelby said...

EWWW! We had a HUGE cane spider in our apartment. Harmless but almost as big as my palm (probably as big as yours, Alicia)! We just spray it with bathroom cleaner and it dies. Good spider killing trick. haha!

Valerie said...

EWW! I hate big bugs! One nice thing about the north, is there are hardly any bugs around! I love it! They are so nasty!

Alicia said...

Shelby, I figured we could have done something like that but I so enjoyed seeing Ben swirm that I didn't suggest it.

Valerie, I totally agree. That's my favorite thing about the north - the lack of bugs!