I have every intention of getting a picture with Frau Totenkinder being held by the missus, bit by bit I've been getting her comfortable with various insects and arachnids, and now she worries if the spitting spiders are eating enough just like I do.
Gotta keep the spitters in good condition, they naturally help control the recluse population which means I don't gotta kill as many of the unfortunately dangerous little dudes.
She still has an intense aversion to palmetto bugs, but she doesn't scream and cry and refuse to enter the room until it has been turned inside out, and most recently there was a small one that accidentally rode inside on our cat Reggie (who likes to sleep in leaves and whatnot) and when she noticed it she simply asked me what it was and when I suggested she grab something in the other room she calmly did so while I flushed the little bugger.
Over the years I've taken her from running into traffic in a panic over june bugs and screaming in terror about a mantis landing on her jeans near her ankle, or hyperventilating over carpenter bees and mud daubers to actively caring about the little friends we find around the house.
I like to bring little mantis buddies in to visit when I find them, let her check them out, help me with pictures, and we both enjoy the way they sit on my monitor and lock in on the tv no matter how I rotate it underneath them, so I casually told her that since I needed to go grab the dog from downstairs she needed to hold the little mantisbro for me and she hung out with him chilling on her hand until I got back.
Passed her little tiny cute jumping spider younglings, neat little crab spiders, and wispy little spitters without a problem. She actually asked to hold the great big leggy spitter gal I brought in from the attic room once, and bit by bit is warming up to letting me pass a big orb weaver over to her since she's seen how they chill out and just kinda wobble around slowly when she leans in to take pictures for me.
I love spiders myself, bigger the better IMO. Unfortunately my sister became arachnophobic, and went from demanding I give her the Giant House Spider who had other ideas to running in fright from common house spiders.
She has somewhat overcome this fear of late apparently but is somewhat disturbed by the larger tarantulas such as the Goliath (though I would admit it is less irrational to be afraid of a spider the size of a diner plate).
Oh man, she spotted what we're pretty sure was an absolutely gorgeous female
southern house spider but lost track while she was getting me and I haven't seen her since. They're big docile gals too so I was super eager to scoop one of them up like I do the
aurantia's I find.
She was asking me about how a gal like Totenkinder would bite and I pointed out that the little black bits resting gently on my palm were her pedipalps.
Hence the missed focal point, but I don't mind...
The poor quality of that photo is a great reason to have her do the task of posing the spider while I snap some new pictures.