Posted on 06/29/2014 5:58:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A WOMAN has been arrested after burning down part of her home in an attempt to kill a spider, police say.
Ginny Griffith, 34, used a cigarette lighter to set fire to some towels after seeing the arachnid in her bathroom.
But as the blaze spread, five fire trucks were called to her apartment in Hutchinson, Kansas, US at around 1.36am (local time) on Friday morning to put out the inferno.
Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control within a matter of minutes.
Deputy Fire Chief Doug Hanen said in a statement that firefighters had found smoke coming from smouldering clothes just inside the doorway as they entered.
He confirmed the team had also found multiple other points where the fire may have been started.
Police said the woman confessed to lighting the towels with her cigarette lighter.
As a result of the fire, Griffith was arrested and charged with aggravated arson because she owns a shared home.
It is not know what happened to the spider.
Unless it was a tarantula, (I get them into a cup and release them outside), all spiders in the house are smashed with a shoe to atoms. That said...
I was the manager for a storage facility for 3 years in the northern Sierras. The pest control guy said he had never seen black widows as large as the ones at the facility. Their “butts”, (I know that is not proper name), were over the size of a quarter and larger. The previous manager finally emptied his unit and I went in the clean it. He said their was a few spiders in there...
For spider-infested units, I tightly braided my (then) over 4’ long hair and wrapped it in a bandana tightly. I opened the unit roll-door. I had a long stick in one hand, a brick and can of laquer hairspray at my feet. A big flashlight was positioned to shine through the unlit unit. I lit a cigarette and blew smoke inside to see the full extent of webbing and “ leaders” anchored to various surfaces. Once I knew where they were all situated, (and finished my cigarette), I entered the unit, swinging the stick in a circular motion like a demented fairy, gathering the silk as I worked my way through the unit. A spider would come down the leader, only to be shot with a blast of hairspray, temporarily freezing it. The brick took care of the spider. I killed 25 of those nasty beasties in that unit and smashed a dozen nests. Sadly, a couple were not gooey, meaning they had already hatched. Widows are very aggressive and if you are not quick... shudder...
We do not have black widows up here, but do have recluses and hobos. They hate our house since iI ripped up the carpet, for some reason.
They do have cute little faces.
WHY are people so afraid of spiders?
Really big third eye...blind...
Sometimes centipedes get into our house. I’m never tempted to burn down the house.
Flip out of my sanity and land in the psych ward, yes....
You’re exactly right. A phobia is an irrational fear.
I’m scared to death of bugs. You can tell me all day long that they can’t harm me, but that doesn’t matter. I’m going to be flooded with adrenaline and a desire to flee when I come across one.
Snakes and mice are no problem, though...love ‘em.
How can a spider have puppy-dog eyes?
Killing a spider can make it rain. Bad luck? Not so much...
Oh! That is sooo cool! They’re my favorite spider, and we have a lot of them in the garage, but not that many, unfortunately.
They’re delicate, regal, and beautiful.
I don’t mind them either...but that one pic shows like 1000 of them at once.....idk what I would do with so many. I wonder why they grouped up like that..... I never knew them to be social...
Spiders are tough. I crazy glued on down once, and it survived and escaped.
I have spun several in a centrifuge at several thousand g’s. For about an hour. The spiders walked away fine.
According to Tom Sawyer it is bad luck. If I remember correctly his “adventures” began when a spider dropped into the flame of Tom’s bedside candle. And we all know how his summer turned out. But that novel was full of old superstitions that we’ve forgotten.
I haven’t read Tom Sawyer since the fourth grade.
Thank you for refreshing my memory about the spider’s being
associated with bad luck in the book and in superstitious lore.
I am not superstitious, but I am careful... ;-)
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