. . . fiend? Whatever the case, I recently enjoyed showering with a being who looked something like …
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She was fairly near the faucet when I turned on the shower. I was prepared for either eventuality, whether she were to be swept down the drain or if she were to escape that watery fate. I was hoping for the latter outcome, and by golly, she made it to the outer shower curtain, protected from the thundering hot stream beyond the barrier of the inner curtain.
I was wondering if she would continue hang around the bathroom or depart to obscure, hidden recesses, but by next shower, she had apparently chosen the latter option. Good for her.
I am not sure if I would have felt as sanguine about sharing the tub with a large, fat, hairy arachnid, but I was willing to accommodate a daddy long-legs, even if it were a mommy.
The Pholcidae are a family of araneomorph spiders. The family contains more than 2,000 individual species of pholcids, including those commonly known as cellar spider, daddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, daddy long-legger, vibrating spider, gyrating spider, long daddy, and angel spider. The family, first described by Carl Ludwig Koch in 1850, is divided into 94 genera. (Wikipedia)
I don't like killing things and often will try to take insects outside in summer, but she wouldn't not have survived in February, so I let things take their course. I don't like killing mosquitoes or houseflies either, but I do it: not gladly but out of what I deem to be a necessity.
I never kill spiders. I'll put it on the book Charlottes Web. Flies I will swat.
ReplyDeleteI flushed one down the drain just last week. Don't think it was a daddy long legs but it was too big to share the shower with.
ReplyDeleteMosquitoes are dead as soon as they are anywhere near me to kill. Maybe flies, maybe not. I'm mixed on spiders, but I think that one would have met its doom in my world too!
ReplyDeleteI don't like those little black & white ones that jump and bite if they land on you.
ReplyDeleteWe often have similar friends in our bathroom. Also an occasional out break of centipedes or crickets. And sometimes a Wolf Spider hangs out there. I put the centipedes or crickets outside but coexist with eh others.
ReplyDeleteI don't look to kill things either, unless there is an ant invasion - that's gotta be taken care of! Or a biting mosquito. I'm glad Miss Spider found a new hiding spot.
ReplyDeleteI have somewhat of a phobia of spiders and their cousins. It is not scream in a high pitched way sort of phobia but it is a swing an object to kill kind of phobia.
ReplyDeleteYou are kinder than I am, AC. She would not have survived I fear!
ReplyDeleteThose guys hold no threat for humans. They don't bite or sting us. Apparently they will look after Silver Fish and other unwanted's in the house.
ReplyDeleteI keep the creepy crawlies out of the house.
ReplyDeleteDaddy long legs are the only spiders I like. Although I've never wanted to shower with one.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that Daddy long legs do love the shower!
ReplyDeleteIt's actually really bad luck to kill a spider so I'm glad you just let it go.
ReplyDeleteI take insects outside too.
ReplyDeleteMy apartment has two problems with insects and spiders. First tiny jumping biting spiders are not at all welcome ( and most missing in winter) second, I brought all those plants inside in the fall, so have had to fight back the critters they carried (jumping spiders)) and lastly the window frames face south and somehow hatch out Stink Bugs regularly. One sat on the sink next to me yesterday. The deal is to capture them alive in some tissue,and toss them outside, no matter the weather. If you kill one they really do stink. I actually flushed that one.
ReplyDeleteJumping spiders and I would not get along very well. 🙀
DeleteYour quiet coexistence with that delicate cellar spider reflects a thoughtful balance between compassion for small lives and the practical realities of sharing our spaces
ReplyDeletehttps://share.google/GvexuCcyTrh7q4EBj
ReplyDeleteYour story reminds me of the poem. I am sorry to say that I do yearly battles with Asian ladybugs. They winter underneath siding and in the spring work their way inside the house. There will be literally hundreds of them and I suck them up with a vacuum. I hate them.
I have encountered them but not lately.
Delete'All God's children got a place in the choir' - hard to appreciate sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI've read that they are eating little gnats that are in the house that we rarely see. I generally chat with them in the shower. Of course if I am having company I try to shooo them off.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad she went on her way. I tend to leave spiders alone too. Might get a paper cup to scoop them up and cover with a notecard so they don't escape. I put them outside but like you, only in summertime. Don't really want them crawling over me but they do interest me and thanks for info on this one.
ReplyDeleteAC, you have just launched an earworm in my rather unfurnished brain. As in "Eensie, weesie spider went up the waterspout". Muttering to myself.
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