Eight Legged Foe

Spiders are a subject that I definitely try to avoid talking about. I've had a phobia of them since I was a small child. I call it a phobia because it goes far, far beyond a fear. The fact that I can even sit here typing the word spider without cringing is pretty amazing, actually. During this time of year though, the house seems to become overwhelmed by my eight-legged 'friends,' and while I've tried to use my Jedi mind tricks to convince them to stay outside of the house, this rarely seems to work. My deal has been, as long as they stay outdoors, I will have no reason to have them killed, but once they come indoors, they've invaded our home, and this is unacceptable to me.

For the last couple of weeks, we've had two visitors hanging out quite near the front of the house, but not actually coming into our home. I've kept my word to leave them undisturbed, but I'm starting to become disturbed and a bit concerned because they are growing astronomically in size. I was able to get a couple of pictures using my extra long lens (as I cannot be too close to them).

The first one is a type of spider I've seen around, but even posting the picture below, is causing shivers to run through my body. For some reason, it looks as though it's just ready to burst and hundreds of little Charlotte babies will come spewing out (likely into our house, since the spider is a mere couple feet from the front door).

Spider is spinning its web, making me nervous about baby spiders
I've just discovered these are called Cat Faced spiders

The second one is truly one of the most beautiful spiders I've ever seen, and even despite my utter fear of being anywhere near these creatures, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the color and long legs of this creature.

Colorful, long-legged spider, hanging out in our front bushes
This one is called a Banded Garden spider

Though it's difficult to see here because the bush is so green, his color is actually a bit of a sap green, and the patterns on his rear side are absolutely gorgeous!

While I'm not a fan of these insects, I truly don't want to disturb them, but I believe Sam has intentions to remove them from their current resting positions (mostly for my benefit), because if I happen to come fact to face with one of these indoors or walking out the front, it may just send me over the edge.