Incy Wincy. Conquering a lifelong fear.

Posted on by Ark

 

My friend, Mrs R, was always an arachnophobe, and was not at all interested in Mrs Bert, our perfectly harmless rescued rain spider.

She would not even come near when I first introduced her, but slowly, over the past few weeks, every time she has visited she has taken an interest.

And unbeknownst to us all, Mrs R had a secret goal: She  was determined to conquer her fear of spiders.

So yesterday, she decided the time was right. Initially she grabbed my wrist so tightly I thought the blood supply had been cut off! Then she averted her eyes while the spider very gently crawled onto her hand.

Bert is still semi-invalid so there was no super fast scurrying, but rather a very tentative exploratory dabble with her front legs.

After a few moments of trembling, she looked at the spider who had hardly moved, released her vice-like grip on my wrist and was able to pose long enough for Ems to take a photo.

Believe me, to go from pants-wetting fear to this, is quite an achievement, make no mistake.

Well Done!

Ark

20 thoughts on “Incy Wincy. Conquering a lifelong fear.”

    1. No scurrying for this young lady, I can assure you.
      But I know what you mean. I was alerted to an adult Rain Spider in the shed this morning, so I popped up for a gander.
      Merely getting close and pointing the camera gave the spider a serious case of the jitters and boy, did she scurry!

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    1. I think she was quite proud of herself, though I was keeping a wary eye on the spider’s fangs, just in case Mrs. Bert got fed up. However, she behaved herself impeccably.

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        1. It all boils down to your motivation for doing so.
          I suspect your evil streak is already shining through!
          Say three Hail Mary’s and wash your mouth out with soap.

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        2. No thanks. I might handle a pet store tarantula some day, but wild creepy spiders are not for me. I have no problems handling our ball python, and even comfortably wear her around my neck. I used to answer the door to trick or treaters that way. Wild snakes are not for me either though.

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    1. Only ever seen two at our spot. Both examples were the harmless brown snake. Of course we didn’t know this on the first encounter and the second time we saw one it was a baby and bolted as soon as we shined the torch on it.

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    1. We are all interconnected in some way, and yes,I understand your feelings, Nan, really I do.
      There are several bugs that freak me out too! A species of cricket in particular that we get here
      But Romana was able to confront this fear – which was quite irrational -and move past it.

      For her, that took a lot of guts.
      Her partner is even worse that she is!

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  7. Great post. There are indeed some pretty scary spiders in Africa. Or in Mexico for that matter.
    We used to have scorpions in the previous house. Wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole.
    Here we only have spiders. They’re quite welcome to stay at leisure. (They compete with scorpions)
    Cheers.

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  8. We have two poisonous spiders, both of them small, and lurkers. I ended up in the emergency room one day with a fast-moving spider bite, and as the nice doctor said later, “we don’t want to lose that leg, now, do we…”

    It does make you careful, and observant.

    With a few notable exceptions, I usher spiders out when I can. But since they do eat flies and such, we compromise now and then.

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    1. Fascinating!
      There are only a couple of medically significant spiders here in South Africa. I have (likely) received bites on two occasions from one of them; the long legged Sac Spider.
      The bites were painful – afterwards though I was told this could be because os secondary infection.
      But even this spider’s significance has come under scrutiny of late.
      Also, unless one actually catches the little blighter in the act then there is always the high probability of mis-identification.

      What was the spider that bit you?
      Widow?

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      1. You know, Im not sure. All I found in the morning (it was on my shinbone) were 8 little black legs, which sounds like a black widow, but the wound looked more like a brown recluse–but they have long thin legs. Whatever it was, by the time I got in to see the doctor 9 hours later I could barely get my heel on the floor and the phrase ‘necrotic flesh” was being bandied about.

        There was no pain with the bite, I suspect I might have rolled on on it in the night.

        My two rules for emergency rooms: always bring a book, and go alone if possible.
        .

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