OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!

[kitanzi]

Lots of people don't like spiders - I get that. Some folks even have a flat out phobia about them, which is a damn shame, especially here in the south where the tend to pop up in unexpected spots. But what is it that causes eight full grown women to absolutely, utterly lose it over a largish spider (inch and a half, maybe two inches) ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A WINDOW OF GLASS AT LEAST A QUARTER INCH THICK THAT CAN'T EVEN BE OPENED?

I mean flailing around, screaming (fairly quietly, but that just makes me think they could have shut up if they wanted to), peeking through the blinds like a five year old to see if it was still there then running away, full out idiocy. If this is "proper female behavior", save me from it. Not one of them could give me a coherent answer on why they were scared of it when it was OUTSIDE - they were too busy freaking out and blithering over whether they should make the maintenance man go out and kill it. Finally one of my co-workers (not one of the blithering ones, to be sure!) grabbed a styrofoam cup and a sheet of paper, and went out to scoop it up and dump it in the bushes. She's my hero - I just wish I'd thought of it first, but I was too busy boggling over the collective insanity. Is this an example of collective or contagious hysteria in action?

Comments

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I am terrified of spiders, and that behavior sounds ridiculous even to me. WTF?

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't get it at all. Especially at work, where you figure you're trying to look professional and like you have your shit together - not like you've completely lost it. :)

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I really loathe spiders. And I even more loathe centipedes. But I really only dislike them if there's any possibility of their getting to me. The centipede in my sink that I put a bowl over so he couldn't get out (although he could crawl back down the pipe he came up, if he chose) was fine - I kind of liked watching him when I knew he couldn't get to me.

So a spider on the other side of a window? I might not enjoy looking at it, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Sheesh.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I think they're interesting, but I admit if I found one on me I'd freak and throw it away FAST, then stop to think whether to kill it. (If I could even find it again.) But honestly, this is one of those big plate glass windows. There's no way a spider is getting through it.

[aeshna_uk]

I currently work for the Insect Information Service of the Natural History Museum here in London. We tackle all the odd enquiries from the public and go through seasons where we get dozens of enquiries about the same thing - we've just about finished with Volucella (hornet-mimic hoverfly, on the increase) for the year, are still working through hawkmoth caterpillars (yes, honestly, they ARE native), and now we're getting into Tegenaria territory. Man, you'd think people had never seen a big harmless house spider before, but despite it being a very common beastie, there are grown men out there convinced they're about to be eaten....

As for your guys - they're idiots just having a good wallow in their supposed arachnophobia! Leave rubber tarantulas on their desks next week, teach 'em a lesson. ;)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to figure out what kind it was, but I didn't get a good enough look at it. It wasn't your standard house spider, though, definitely. I really don't think it was anything worthy of the reaction it got, though. (I suggested to the co-worker that she put it in a jar and leave it on the desk of one of the screamers - I'm mean - but she pointed out she'd get fired. Then she smirked and said maybe she should just walk up to the woman and offer her the empty styrofoam cup with the paper over it... I'm pretty sure even that would have wound up with LOUD hysterics.)

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

rdmaughan has suggested that it should be a game - an upturned cup on each screamer's desk, and an announcement or email that *one* of them has the spider.

He's evil. I love that about him. :)

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Oh, for pity's sake! Your grip, let me show you it.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Nooooo kidding. "Lost, one grip. (Well, more than one, really.) Reward offered."

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

I'm quite funny about spiders. Outside, they're great - I'm happy to go up and examine them closely. Inside, there are house rules. Dear spiders: If you're in my kitchen, you will be firmly evicted. If you're in the bedroom over the bed, eviction. If you crawl over me, possible death. If you're large and in the bathroom, rdmaughan gets sent in for the eviction. If you're fairly small and in an unobtrusive corner, I'll probably ignore you as long as you don't violate earlier rules. No promises about the cats.

I must have a word with the garden spiders outside again, though, to explain that webbing *across* the front doorway is unacceptable behaviour.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

I can picture her having that conversation. Either she or I should worry about that, I'll get back to you if I figure out which one.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Yeah, me too!

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

You, too, can imagine it or would have the conversation? *grin*

[bardling.livejournal.com]

I, too, can imagine grey_lady having that conversation. :)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Neither - you should tape it and put it on Youtube. :)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about outside spiders being left alone to be spiders. They're useful and interesting and not doing a damn thing wrong - that's their home. If they show up in MY home, it's variable. Back when we had an ant infestation there was a very happy house spider hanging out in my kitchen in a corner by the counter. :) Loooots of little black specks on the floor under it, but he was welcome to all the ants he could eat.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Good grief, I'm so with you. I mean, I don't like spiders, or insects at all, but *outside*, when I am *inside*? Not a problem. Noone forces me to look, after all...
Now, inside and moving/whereI can see it - yeah, that causes eviction by similar means to those employed by your coworkers.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Completely and absolutely. I wouldn't have blamed them if they squished it while it was inside - in fact, I've done that with a rather fast moving spider that kept popping up on a co-workers desk then ducking back behind when someone got near. (She's the biggest screamer, serious phobia territory.) It was the idea that a spider on the outside that couldn't possibly get in and was no threat by any stretch of the imagination warranted all of this.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it was a sort of mob psychology thing. One person got a little freaked, everybody felt free to freak out, they gradually egged each other on into serious freakage.

People in groups will do things they wouldn't contemplate for a second alone.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

I have quite a bit of arachnophobia, though I've gotten a little better over time. I still don't think I would let one crawl on me no matter how small it was :), but I no longer default to kill on sight.

I would probably have freaked for a moment just by the sight and surprise of it, let out one shriek and jumped back about 4 feet -- and then realized it was on the outside of the glass and calmed down. Then I suspect I would have been so disgusted with everyone else that I went and got the maintenance guy just so they would all stop screaming (and so I could stop looking at the spider).

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Eh, I can take spiders or leave them. (Well, there was the one time I killed one on sight, but only because it was one of the kinds that might kill *me*.) I hardly ever see them in the house (one of the three reasons is shown in the accompanying userpic).

Who Ya Gonna Call?

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

Just for curiosity sake, what has the BBQ!!!1! (or, maybe, BBQ!!!!!) part of your subject got to do with your journal entry? Most spiders (Shelob excepted) wouldn't go very far at a barbecue. :)

Chosen One, while nowhere near as bad as your co-workers, definitely had a fear of spiders. I could tell by the tone of her voice when she was calling me to "Exterminate! Exterminate!". [g] She did get to the point where she could take a Kleenex box and squash the spider with the box's bottom (assuming a flat target surface).

She really hated spiders in her car. There are bushes next to the driveway, an easy spin for a spider to get access to a parked car. Usually at face level as I walk by. :(

Someone above mentioned webbing across the entrance to the house. Yeah, I've had that happen to me. Yuck, but a quick wipe and keep on going. Inside the house, however is another story. Multi-legged creatures can have the rest of reality, but not the inside of my house, thank you.

BTW, your heroine was taking a wee bit of a chance - there are spiders that jump, not just skitter. Ah, well. Let's hear it for herd behavior.

Ann O.

Re: Who Ya Gonna Call?

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

The BBQ was just for silliness, to make it a set of three TLAs. Yeah, herd behavior is odd at best, and frequently bizzare. It's stuff like that which still makes me say "I never claimed to be a people." I just don't get you all, sometimes.