Solving Omlet Smart Auto Door Timing Issues with Alexa Routines

[CatieB]

Now I know many of you will read this and think how ridiculous... you are right

 

I'm living in fear there is a HUGE spider in my house and I'm terrified, terrrorised and can not relax. To make matters worse I don't know where it is.

 

Last night my DH had gone to bed when this massive spider (and I am not exaggerating - it was at least the size of my palm of my hand) shot across my living room floor from the doorway (ie my exit) towards the sofa where I was sitting. I was so scared that I threw my laptop on it (and if you realised how precious that is you'd know my terror) only to miss. I then realised that as I was stood on sofa that it had climbed up the side. I managed to hit it with a cushion to no effect and run out of the room.

 

DH was not impressed at my screaming at midnight as he gets up at 5 for work. He couldn't find the spider as in my panic I hadn't made clear it had gone under the sofa.

 

So there we have it. It remains somewhere. I couldn't sleep and was frightened to come down this morning. Needless to say I have shoes on. I can not satisfy myself that it has just gone.

 

I know this is so ridiculous, even more so if you knew me, I'm renound for being a hard nut with no emotion.. DH says I'm a bloke. I am confident etc in everything but this. I need to do something about this terrible phobia. I once fainted as my dad held a spider near me. Even more so now that I chose to live in the middle of a field with no neighbours and a 6 year old son who is picking up on my fear and hating spiders too. WHAT CAN I DO?? Anyone managed to cure it. The thought of going anywhere near one makes me feel clammy, sick and mega nervous and I hate not knowing where the thing is to. Not knowing it has been got is just as bad.

 

Please give me wise words

[debbier]

Oddly enough, I had a spider in my bedroom, the night before last. It wasn't so large, "only" around the size of a 50p, but I couldn't go to bed with the thought it was in the same room. Luckily, my daughter has NOT inherited my phobia (for which I feel reasonably proud, as I managed to hide it when she was younger), and she caught it and put it outside.

 

So, I can very much empathise. I'm not as bad as I used to be, and can cope with them up to the size of around 5p, but any larger than that an I freak out. Snakes, wasps etc. I'm fine with. I'm the one who catches wasps in our house. Spiders, no way.

 

So, I can't really help, but you do have my sympathies. For what it's worth, I've never felt the need to "cure" my phobia, as I don't see them that big in my house so often

[BeckyBoo]

putting conkers in the corners of the room is supposed to help, bit early for conkers tho...

Get a cat? My cat deals with them for me - I don't like them but I can leave them be, just can't hold them or go near them. I do sympathise though, it's that time of year unfortunately

 

BeckyBoo

[CatieB]

I ask about cure because I now choose to live here and I guess that being surrounded by fields that are currently being harvested this can only get worse.

 

I'm relatively ok if they are small (smaller than a 10p) but not if they are the bulbous ones and even with the small ones I can't touch them but can squish them with a tissue, I know thats bad but I do always apologise. Sorry

[Aunty e]

I throw phone directories at them and then jump up and down on them I can't help with the fear, both OH and I are terrified of them, especially the ones the size of MICE in our garage. We're going to try conkers in the autumn, and luckily our cats keep them down in the house. Do you have a cat? Could you get one? If you get a cat that's keen on hunting (we have two) they honestly do get all the spiders. If you want a good killing from a distance thing, and you don't have pets, cheap ant killing spray works brilliantly, but is very toxic to cats and dogs. They shrivel up and make a tiny squealing noise. It even worked on a cockroach once.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I completely understand your fear - there is nothing worse than being made to feel like a victim in your own house by an 8-legged terrorist.

 

I have no personal experience of a cure, I'm afraid I just scream the house down until DH removes the spider. I make him feed them to the hens now, so that I know they are gone for good. Before, he just used to chuck them out the back door, what good is that? They just come right back in.

 

Anyway, you could perhaps look into hypnotherapy. Apparently people have success with that.

 

I hope you find a cure for your fear, and if you do, please tell me what it is!

[HappyhenSG]

I have every sympathy - my fear of spiders was so great that when I left home and got my own place I once called my dad to come and get a huge spider out of my living room - it was a 20 mile round trip!!

 

I'm nowhere near as bad now - I too live in the middle of nowhere but also have two young children so have to put on a brave face! I normally just breathe deep, swallow hard then put a large glass over the top, a card underneath and deposit them outside. My flesh crawls and I get goose bumps but I really don't like to kill them. Let's face it - the fear is completely irrational - they won't hurt you so why hurt them?

[CatieB]

I know its irrational - the point is I can't rationalise it no matter how I try. With smaller ones I've managed, even some quite big ones but this one was MEGA, I'm not sure it would have even fitted in a glass and it didn't stay still it was like lightening. So that wouldn't work for that type which is why I need a cure.

 

They can be so large here that when my DH found the last one he commented that it was the biggest he'd seen and it even worried him. Palm size plus is no exageration

[HappyhenSG]

Just remembered - we took this photo of one we found in our bathroom a few months ago - beware scary photo

 

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1528913&fbid=1572582598917&id=1366098395

 

It just about fitted in a large tumbler and went straight out the window!

 

Have you tried a bug-catcher? You know, long stick with a plastic box on the end with a trap door to capture scary things!!

[chick wiggle]

Oh my goodness, you have my utmost sympathy! The one and only time my OH has ever hit me (dont panic, read on ) was when i was walking past a doorway and the most gynormous spider was just there right at face level staring at me and i swear it was licking its lips! I let out the most horrendous scream and totally stopped breathing My poor OH had to slap me to start me breathing again, and then i was totally scared stiff, he picked me up and he said it was like lifting an ironing board i was so stiff! Needless to say the spiders demise was swift and complete.

 

Back to your problem, do you not know any of your neighbours you could call upon for a search and destroy mission? I think any pride, dignity or stiff upper lip goes completely out the window at times like this.

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[henriette]

I SO sympathise with you. I am terrified of all but the tiniest of spiders. Unfortunately, like your son, my children all inherited the fear from me. My eldest daughter went to Australia a few years ago and before she went, knowing that she would come across all sorts of spiders there, she went on a type of hypnosis course at London Zoo. At the end of it she was able to hold one of those really big spiders in her hand. She is still frightened of them, but is much, much

better than she was before.

Have checked and they still do it! Maybe worth a try.

 

http://www.zsl.org/london-zoo/news/scared-of-spiders,20,NS.html

[henriette]

Have just visited the site myself = sorry, didn't realise how expensive it is!! Maybe someone else does a similar thing

[chick wiggle]

That looks brilliant and sounds like it has quite a success rate but £110. ? Not cheap is it?

[patsylabrador]

My son says get a gun, but that piece of useful advice aside, I believe the big spiders come inside in the Autumn to find a mate and somewhere dark and quiet to live. They quite quickly find their way under the floorboards and you won't be aware of it again.

That is what I believe and it makes me cope better with the big ones so please don't tell me I'm wrong.

[winterwren]

We live very close to national forestry, so close in fact that it has become part of our garden. We regularly get the massive 'wolf' spiders in our house. I am petrified of them and the only way I can deal with them is by using the hoover! Keep the hoover to hand and then suck them up if you see them. If you have ever seen any one hoovering a spider up and screaming at the same time then you have seen me lol.

 

Big hugs I hope you are able to relax soon x

[CatieB]

Ha ha just reading the description of the course made my heart race, mouth go funny and temperature rise!! Maybe I should see it as an investment. Going to search for other courses.

 

The plastic tube thing would require me to be too close (LOL) but seriously would have been far too tiny for this monster- it gets bigger each time I tell it and as for neighbours my nearest is quite some distance away so DH will have to do a major dissection of the house when he gets in after a long day at half 7 tonight. Isn't he going to love me.

 

I can't see the photo that was posted as I'm not a facebook member, and would probably require oxygen anyway so probably for the best!!! Sense of humour obviously now returning and I have just been brave enough to go in the lounge and look at the sofa........... from a distance.

[Space Chick]

Am I alone in quite liking spiders

[Lavenders_Blue]

Am I alone in quite liking spiders

 

Yes

 

Actually the hoover isn't a bad idea, I have been known to suck the occasional spider up the hoover when feeling particularly brave (or faced with no other choice). My favoured method is to put all the attachments onto the nozzle to make it as long as possible, so I can stand a long way away, and then to put on a glove with my sleeve tucked inside it just in case it runs up my arm. Why I think it's going to escape the suction and run up my arm I don't know, but it always seems like a sensible thing to do at the time.....

[C&T]

Why so many of us in the UK are so terrified of spiders is beyond me. After all, none of our local spiders are going to harm us in any way!

 

But I HATE them!

 

For me it is the number of legs they have. Nothing needs that many. Nothing. We function very well with 2, many animals find 4 perfectly sufficient. So why do Spiders think they need 8?? It is on this basis they must be evil!

 

I second the hoover technique, and in extreme cases the glass over the top of them - the trouble is I can't bring myself to put any cardboard under the glass, so they have to stay under the glass until someone else is around to deal with them! (More than one died in this way before OH moved in... )

[chick wiggle]

Am I alone in quite liking spiders

 

and YES again!

 

wierdo!

 

[Looney]

Am I alone in quite liking spiders

 

I quite like spiders too, they are welcome visitors in our house

 

I used to be terrified of them when I was younger, not sure what happened to change my opinion of them though!

[hippy chick]

I'm terrified of spiders, I have had one that used to lurk under the bath panel and come out where there was a hole for the pipes to go under the bath. I once had my dyson on stand by but not switched on. I aimed at the huge monster and before I could turn the hoover on it set off running towards me I swear I could see its eyeballs it was that big I ran out of the bathroom to get hubby and his faithful glass and it kind of waived its prongy things at him and took a step toward my Hubby, My hubby then dropped the glass and flew out of the bathroom slamming the door behind him.

Have you seen the interactive spider game, it gives me the creeps

http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/

[whoopsie]

I hate spiders too, they freak me out but it's not as bad as your phobia (a REAL one by the sound of it). The cat idea is a good one - my old cat used to eat them but lately i've just found a few dead ones where apparently they have become boring once they stopped moving! I can't pick up the bodies though - it still has to be the hoover.

 

I must get better though as OH is terrified of them and WAY worse than me!!!

[Rhapsody]

My son says get a gun, but that piece of useful advice aside

 

tea/screen interface

 

There is an obvious solution- let some chooks into the house for a search and destroy mission

[beach chick]

maybe, just maybe, you could look at spiders' usefulness? cultivate the lurrve for the web, which catches other nasty bugs, like horrible bluebottles etc? dont know if that might help; personally I dont mind spiders or bugs that much, but m 11 year old freaks out at the sight of one!!