Reply #32: REALLY hesitated to click this thread

[Karenina]

especially after a close encounter of the worst kind a couple of days ago with a "Hausspinne." They live in the basement, are COMPLETELY harmless, and control the insect population quite well. The only problem is they are the size of a CD, hairy with fangs, red eyes, swords, maces and have AK 47s strapped to their backs.

I had raided the neighbor's "Sperrmüll" (in which I found some LOVELY OLD crystal goblets AND Staffordshire plates). Dumped the stuff on my kitchen floor. In the morning I was surveying my newly acquired lot when suddenly this HUGE creature shot like a bat out of hell across the floor and under the refridgerator. I jumped on a chair and screamed for say, 20 minutes. My kid heard my screeching and elected NOT to come out of the shower. (We'd seen one in the hallway several days before, so he recognized the scream.) Suffice to say the day was SHOT. We took turns standing guard. Think you can find a can of Raid in this country??? FORGET IT! We finally found a spray which on the back said "Many insects are beneficial and should NOT be killed unnecessarily." We were both completely hysterical, our neighbors all had a good laugh and the poor creature finally met its maker after I TAPED THE WHOLE KITCHEN SHUT WITH PLASTIC SHEETING AND DUCT TAPE. It must have realized it was trapped, tried to find an escape and made an appearance on the plastic sheeting. I interrupted Jochen's harp lesson (banging on his door SCREECHING) and he did the knight in shining armor thing...

Arachnophobia?