I hate spiders!

Even thinking of the hairy, dirty, creepy, crawly little things gives me the heebie jeebies. I hate getting rid of spiders but I despise knowing they are crawling around my living space and any second could scurry across my foot or drop into my hair... so for tiny spiders, I can usually gather my courage along with a huge wad of tissues, then squish the thing to death and flush it down the toilet. But when the spider is a little bigger (let's say, than the head of a pin), then I rely on the mercy of others. For example, I found a big spider in my classroom one day and I avoided it until the janitor could come take care of it for me.

About 5 days ago I found a huge hairy monster spider in the hall by my bedroom. There was no one else around, so the only thing I could think of to do was put a plastic container

over the top of it. Ugh, by the way. And there the spider stayed. I didn't want to get close enough to be able to get rid of it. After 3 days, I thought maybe the thing had died (no air, ya know?) but, lo and behold, spiders can apparently live without air. (Can you see him in the picture? Appreciate the bravery it took for me to lift up the container long enough to get a picture.)

Finally, I got some good advice from a couple of people. Suck it up with the vacuum hose! Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? So that is exactly what I did today - as I tried to blot out thoughts of him surviving the immense suction and crawling around inside my vacuum bag. Let's hope the thing didn't survive. My home is safe from spiders.... for the present.