I read this headline today and laughed out loud, “Man tries to kill spiders with blow torch – ends up burning his house down.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Grab the blow torch,” when I see a spider.

In fact, I once told a boss of mine, after seeing a spider dangling from the ceiling, that we needed to burn down our workplace. And he agreed with me. Seems he was terrified of spiders, or more formally, was Arachnophobic too.

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I know spiders serve a purpose on Earth and all that stuff but they are just so creepy.

Although the thought of killing spiders with a blow torch is comforting, I would never to that. Although, after reading the man with the blow torch story, which took place in Tucson, Ariz., I can understand how it could happen.

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Seems they have something called spider mating season in Tucson where the spiders, some measuring 8 centimeters, invade homes. I once spent a summer in Tucson at an editing school and they never told me about the spiders. They only warned me about checking my shoes for scorpions every morning so all I wore was sandals.

In case you aren’t familiar with centimeters, that’s a little over 3 inches.

And there were probably several in the Tucson home.

OK, so maybe I would bring out the blow torch.

And now, thanks to this story, I will probably have spider nightmares all weekend.

P.S. I will never go back to Tucson. ❖