Whoa … don’t leave just yet.
Some of you fear spiders; some of you tolerate spiders; some of you live with spiders. This post is for all of you. One of the frequent guests in my laundry room is a nice crisp very active spider. After doing a little research I do believe he is a wolf spider … a very common non-web spinning spider that belongs under rocks but does lose his way (he really is not trying to scare you by living in your home) and drops into my laundry tub. I like to think that the nocturnal activity in my basement stays unnoticed but alas, sometimes it is sitting right in the middle of my laundry tub waiting to be dealt with.
Do I kill spiders? No, no, no. I calmly (no spider is going to raise my blood pressure) move the little guy to a more suitable home outside.
Steps to relocating a spider from your laundry tub:
- Gather your wits if necessary. Do not scream but do breathe.
- Put the stopper in the laundry tub. If you are too afraid to do this go directly to step 5.
- Run water until the spider is floating on the surface. Sometimes the spider curls up, sometimes not.
- Dip a bowl or pan or dog dish (size will depend on fear factor) into the water and scoop up the spider and water. Skip to step 6.
- Leave the spider until you plan to run laundry. Run laundry as usual except leave the lid open so you can be around when the water drains. When the laundry water drains into the tub and reaches about 6″ to 10″ in depth, grab your pail and dip into the water and scoop up water and spider.
- Toss the spider and water out the back door. Me, I like to gently pour my spider water into the pile of rocks since wolf spiders do love living under rocks.
The revenge of the garter snake.
Do you know who is extremely fearful of spiders? My very best friend Beth. This is the very same best friend who has saved a toad’s life (at least for a day) by pulling the toad out of a big garter snake’s mouth.
Just think … lovely warm afternoon with the fragrance of apple blossom everywhere … strolling along, hearing a squeak, seeing a garter snake with his mouth engulfing a toad … reaching down and picking up the snake and extracting the toad. Oh. My. Gosh!
This is the same person who is afraid of spiders? I did witness the payback a few days later. A big garter snake was cooling off in the shade of a shed in our gravel garden and Beth picked him up only to have the snake foul her hand with an atrocious smelling fluid – it came from a gland … well, let me just think of it as snake poo. This most foul stink was all over Beth’s hand and permeated the air so much that I backed up and proceeded to laugh and laugh and laugh. Disgusting smell. And the odor was not going to be removed by mere hand washing.
Beth’s popularity that week with:
toads - off the charts
snakes – less than zip
people – not so great (the stink factor)
So, the next time you have a spider in your laundry tub, it could be worse, it could be a garter snake. So get brave and deal with your little spider like the big person you are.
Delightfully yours,
