Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

So, firstly a little bit of back story. My name is Ally, though many people call me Tig. I am a 40 year old animal science laboratory technician at an agricultural university. I graduated with a first class degree in Zoology with aquatic biology. In my time as an undergrad I undertook grassland sampling, invertebrate sampling, kick sampling, and I spent several weeks doing biodiversity work of all kinds in the Borneo rainforest. I have had plenty of exposure to invertebrates, and I have enjoyed it. In my personal life, I have kept giant African land snails, Indian stick insects, and giant millipedes. I love all animals and have no fear of insects - I love to handle them, the bigger the better. ......except for spiders. Spiders, spooders, nopes. More recently I have come to call them Ticklers of Terror. My fear of spiders is such that during my first year of uni I resisted all efforts to have me visit the endangered cave spiders at a site of scientific interest. During my seco...