Like Little Miss Muffet and Spring is Coming

Growing up in the Hollow, in a different world, is where my fear of spiders started. There were so many of them everywhere. Walking into a web sent me into a panic, and still does. Once I ventured to the outhouse in the early hours of the morning before anyone was awake. When I returned I saw a huge long-legged wolf spider on my PJ bottoms. I screamed, waking the entire house and literally jumped out of my PJ bottoms and up into my new father’s arms! Yes, I was very much like Little Miss Muffet.

There was a time I turned down the covers of my bed to find another of those spiders waiting for me. Shudder.

I never remember killing a spider while I lived in the Hollow. Never thought about it. To me they were the Alphas and humans were below them. I remember catching grasshoppers and tossing them into the webs created by the big black and yellow spiders. They were fascinating and yet so fearful.

My hubby was my spider killer in later years. I’d spray the spider with hair spray and stand guard over it until he came home. I had nightmares about a multitude of spiders falling on me from a swing set…and I was an adult! Yes, I have a not so healthy fear of spiders to this day.

Though I’m so looking forward to spring and sitting on my porch, the jumping spiders have tried to claim the area. I’ve tried spraying the table legs and underside of the table, but they just keep multiplying. When coloring and feeling as if I’m being watched only to find a jumping spider telling me I’m in his space…well, that makes me move pretty fast!

I do kill spiders when necessary, but it frightens me to do so. I mean, how does one keep a safe distance and do so? Especially the jumping kind. And spring is coming soon…