It’s the next to the last day of October and tomorrow is Halloween. I have not participated in any of the numerous Halloween prompts, including Tourmaline’s Halloween Challenge, because, when it comes to Halloween, my overall feeling is “meh.”
However, her Halloween Challenge prompt word today is “spider,” and a few days ago I took this picture of a spider that had the audacity to be crawling up my bathroom wall. I’m not a fan of spiders and I don’t like it when they come into my house and invade my space. But I also don’t like killing them, either.
I managed to coax this spider onto a piece of paper and to carry him, her, or it out to my backyard where I let it walk off the paper on its eight spindly legs and presumably to see, with its eight freaky eyes, another day. But I did warn the spider that, should he/she/it darken my doorstep (or my bathroom wall) by venturing into my humble abode once again, I may not be so forgiving.
And now I can also brag that I did, in fact, respond to at least one Halloween-themed prompt.
Too little, too late?
This, That, and the Other 
The way it works for me is that if it is not paying rent, then it is not staying.
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I should have asked for money before setting it free, huh?
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🕷🕷🕷
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That one’s a male. The females have much larger abdomens. Males run faster, but the females are nastier, more inclined to chomp
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So do the females ask their mates if their butts look fat in this web?
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No. She knows he’s going to be demure and do only what is permitted. And she can change her mind at any time she finds him slightly irritating. And she may eat him out, but there won’t be any spitting out.
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That was supposed to be ‘chew him out’ …
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😂
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You are kinder than I am. Spiders are no nos in my house.
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My daughter used to get very angry with me if I killed spiders, so I learned to catch them, put them outside and let them go.
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Very compassionate of you. I kill them if they come in. No second chances. Well they frighten me badly, so it’s justice in a way…. Happy Halloween Fandango, I bet your grandchildren will have a great day (within reason) any how! Cheers!
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I taught my children to take spiders outside (on a piece of paper or in a cup) rather than kill them. They liked the idea, and mostly followed it through. One summer, there were… not a crazy amount but sort of an abundance of daddy long legs on our deck. I was out there a lot (not at the high sun hours) to get some vitamin D and sweat a little bit, and the creatures didn’t bother me. My middle son would actually pick them right up. I’ve never been very afraid of spiders. But I don’t especially want to touch them directly.
Daddy long legs are known to not be dangerous, but I’m not particularly fearful of spiders generally. Nevertheless, spiders can be a threat. One of my sons (not the one who would pick them up in hand) got bitten by one that is similar to the photo above. He had a fairly large brown spot on a thigh for a while. When I worked at a ”health food store” in the early eighties, a customer said she was bitten and rushed to an emergency room. I don’t know about those details; my son’s life wasn’t endangered in my view.
Now… as a “theme” for fall, I enjoy spiders and spider webs. A third one of my sons (the fourth-born) was always sort of terrified by spiders [the third-born got a kick out of playing on that with rubber spiders under his covers, for example… yet they are close buds]. He couldn’t even bring himself to go after one and smash it with a shoe. But I tried to show him the creepy crawlers weren’t so bad. I once bought him a robotic, remote-controlled (like-9-inch) silver spider. He did enjoy that, but it didn’t get him past the whole matter.
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{The above… in specific… are my second, third, and fourth sons. The third one is the middle child (of five).}
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I’m impressed, Fandango. As a self-tormented self-confessed Coleoptera executioner, I think you are to be commended for your charitable act.
And I assume you told your daughter that she “brung you up good”?
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Exactly. But I admit that I’m not that “humane” to all spiders. Most, but not all. 🤨
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Spider, eww! I like that your daughter taught you to transport them outside. They are not that lucky here.
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