I'm now officially "back" in Melbourne, after spending the last 3-4 weeks in Sydney with my mother. (I do have one brief trip to Tas next week, but after that, I'm seriously back, and jumping into my summer CPE placement).
One of the things about the flat where I live is that although I don't have any flatmates per se, I do not live here alone. There is a great variety of six-to-eight-legged creatures who freeload off me by living here without paying any rent. Some strategic applications of Baygon seem to have taken care of the cockroaches that had a tendency to jump out of cupboards at me when I least expected it, but I seem to be fighting a constant battle with spiders.
Every nook and cranny of this place seems to be a target for spiders' webs, and whilst most of these seem to be created by small and very innocuous daddy longlegs spiders, I do, on occasion meet some of their larger cousins around the place. And of course, the fact that I have been away for the most part of a month has given the arachnids free reign to take over the joint in my absence.
I have noticed various webs around the place (and I'm sure that when my dear friends did a "loungeroom blitz" a fortnight ago to tidy up the place for my brief return, they must have dispatched quite a few webs), but this morning I received a startling wake up call.
As I staggered, half asleep, into the bathroom to have a shower, a HUGE huntsman came scurrying out from behind my towel, and sat, looking at me, on the door frame.
I yelled.
Not because I'm terribly afraid of spiders, but more because having one come running out of my towel at me was a bit of a shock.
Needless to say, I was 100% awake by this time (and that the spider didn't last very long on the door frame. If there is an arachnid afterlife, he will now be experiencing that). I also closely inspected every wall, corner, nook and cranny of the bathroom before I got into the shower, and gave my towel a mighty shake and close inspection before using it (just in case the huntsman had a friend or two having a party in there).
For the next week or so, I think I will be a little hypervigilant when it comes to looking for 8-legged critters around the place... and it's probably time to buy a new can of Baygon... just in case.
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2 comments:
ha! you should hear my Dearly Beloved squeal whever she encounters a creepy crawly...even moths make her panic!
you should have lived in the western suburbs...rawling with redbacks... ;0)
Hey, I grew up in Sydney (with bush at the bottom of the back yard)- I am very used to redbacks and funnelwebs.
I also used to share a house in Hobart with a highly arachnophobic friend... whenever she shrieked and went non-verbal, I knew to come running with a fly swatter in hand.
(and in case you're wondering, I have an almost zero tolerance policy when it comes to arachnids inside. If they are outside, I take the "live and let live" position and just get out of their way, but if they are inside then that's a completely different matter, and they need to live - or die- with the consequences of their actions)
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