Creepy crawlies

I know the thought of big bugs puts a lot of people off coming, or concerns those coming over but it
really has to be put into perspective here.
Until last year I had the biggest fear of spiders, when we decided here was the place we wanted to
be a lot of the decision rode on whether or not I would cope. What I did was started to familiarise
myself with little spiders moving on to the bigger ones in the gardens and stuff when we lived in
England. I decided that it was OK not to like them, but I didn't have to be scared of them, I just had
to have a coping mechanism, which for me was if I see a big spider I walk away because this is
what I choose to do, not because it has made me run squealing like a pig!
This may seem like a load of clap trap but it has worked and even if it's all in the mind I don't care
because it has made me a lot less nervous than I was.

There are large spiders here, primarily Huntsmen, and these can move quickly too, but they don't
run at you, they are much more scared than you are (believe it or not!). The one's you need to be
wary of are the little ones, the red backs which you get here primarily hide in dark covered areas,
such as under outside bin rims or under the rims of plant pots, therefore always use gloves or
check bin handles before grabbing them.

A friend of mine 'Ros' put things into perspective and put my mind at ease, she told me that bugs
are very manageable, get your house sprayed for spiders and cockroaches, don't buy a house
near a creek or in the countryside. You will get odd things but it is manageable.

People will go out of their way to tell you horror stories about snakes, spiders and cockies, but lets
put this into perspective, I have lived here just over 4 months and I have seen 1 largish huntsmen
and 2 or 3 small insignificant spiders in our house, that's less than in the UK!
I think the fear is not knowing if the spiders are harmful or not, so our trick is to treat them as
though they are, don't try and pick them up with your hands to take them outside, it may seem
harsh but in our house if a spider comes in it's on our turf and anything classed as a creepy
crawlie is terminated. I have sprays for every bug under the sun and I'm prepared to use them!!!

19.01.07 - okay so I'm keeping this site honest so that you know exactly what to expect, i feel it's
only fair. Yesterday we saw our first huntsman spider, to put this into perspective we have been
here seven and a half months and this was our first time. They are not pretty and they are quite
large, but it was running away from us so was obviously scared (I can say this quite calmly now
although probably not last night!) I feel I have faced my worst fear ever and come through it
unscathed, i feel surprisingly calmer since seeing it, i think there was more fear over the anticipation
of it than the actuality of it!