Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

There was a post floating around my Facebook feed over the weekend that asked a very simple question: "Are there any arachnophobes out there who have been helped by jumping spiders?" This got me to thinking about my own situation, and the answer is....yes. I was as arachnophobic as it was possible to be for 30 years prior to my mission to get over it. I would freak out when ever I saw a spider sometimes I'd scream, sometimes I'd freeze, other times I would throw things. I would hallucinate spiders when awake and have nightmares when I was asleep. Some examples of how ridiculous my phobia got include: - There was once a time when my sister sent me a Facebook video that included a spider coming out from under a cabinet - I threw my phone across the work lunch room, and my manager had to pick it up and cancel the video for me because it was on a loop. I couldn't face it. - Another time I was playing World of Warcraft with my eyes shut because there was a spider ...

Webster wasn't really due for a housing upgrade, if I'm entirely honest, but somebody bought me this amazing enclosure from Tarantula Cribs and I had to decide who to put in it. As it is an arboreal enclosure, that meant that the slings in arboreal pots were the only ones it was really suitable for - Lucifer, Asmodeus, or Webster. I am not putting my fingers into the enclosures of Asmodeus or Lucifer for all the Cribs in the world. As such, that left Webster. The benefits of putting Webster into this enclosure were mainly aesthetic. Firstly, Webster likes to web, so seeing it all webbed up will look awesome. Secondly, as Webster grows he will change colour, going from blue to purple, red and green. These colours would look amazing when backlit against the purple acrylic. And to be fair, his arboreal keeper was pretty boring, although he had made a rather impressive tunnel web in it. As with most of my recent rehousings, I opted for the natural look again. However, I did ...

This spider keeping malarkey is getting addictive. I'm really starting to think I have a problem. I currently own one mantis, one jumping spider, nine tarantulas, and by proxy, four stick insects. I have just ordered more . A few days ago I was lying in bed feeling very sorry for myself. I had been ill with a lurgy - nothing serious, but ill nevertheless. My daughter came into my room, and we chatted for a while before she looked at me with big, sad, blue eyes and told me "I miss Winnie. When can we get a new spider like her?" And damn, I am such a soft touch when it comes to my daughter! So.... long story short, I have ordered another Phidippus regius female to be delivered next week. But as I was putting in the order and paying the £10 delivery anyway, I also checked off one of my wishlist - Caribena versicolor . The Spider Shop had a very good deal on the sling plus enclosure for £20, and I couldn't resist. My daughter keeps asking for a "black and pink"...