Below is a terrifying true story from Ian. Read it and be amazed at Ian and Joan's courage and decisiveness, and don't forget the peril little Oliver was in!

If you have a terrifying story, please send it to us and we'll post it - usual details!

I was clearing an air brick in the garage wall yesterday, and had to move
some breeze blocks that were obstructing it outside. Joan had put a
cardboard box on top of the bricks a few weeks earlier which she had packed
some groceries in from the shops. I lifted this box up and there,
underneath in the gap between two breeze blocks was a spider.

I knew immediately what it was, I had seen them before in the zoo and they
are native to Northern California. Without panicking I went inside and got
Joan, who was dusting whilst Oliver had his morning nap. "Come
and take a look at this spider", I said, and led her outside. "It's
between the two breeze blocks outside the door, it's a Black Widow."

Joan lent over the blocks to look. "Yes it is." she said. It's body was
jet black and just over an inch in length including the legs. It was upside
down in it's web, with it's underside facing us. In the middle of it's body
was a bright red hour glass symbol, almost like two perfect triangles side
by side. There it was: one of the most deadly spiders in the world,
certainly capable of killing Oliver with a bite, and probably capable of
doing the same to an adult.

"Shall I kill it?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said, "get the big broom."

"Alright," I said, "stay here and watch it to make sure it doesn't move."
(This was a trick we had perfected in Winchester).

I went inside the garage to get the broom, but was momentarily confused by
the selection of brooms that we have hanging up. So I poked my head outside
the door to her, "Which broom shall I use?". Joan came into the garage and
helped pick the implement of death - I settled on the washing tongs, because
I wanted to squish the spider. Satisfied we went back outside, hearts
racing, but the spider had gone!

Looking down at the ground (by my open toed sandals) I saw it crawling over
the soil toward the path where we stood. It walked slowly and I was able to
get the washing tongs into position before pinching them closed. Got it! I
squished it good and proper before treading it into the path under the sole
of my sandal. Yuck!

Joan then recommended that I wore gloves before continuing removing the
breeze blocks, which was a good idea! I cleared the site and then swept up
all the cob webs. Later in the day we bought a book on bugs, and read that
many Black Widows do come in from crates of fruit, so maybe it wasn't a
local after a ll. But they are also native to Northern California and
usually live in log piles in dry areas. And we have had a heat wave
recently. But apparently they don't come inside the house...

So there you go, our garden is not so friendly after all. We'll have to be
extra careful now when Oliver is running around the garden picking
through the dirt, because you never know. The strange thing is that
neither of us were as panicked as we should have been, then or now.
Perhaps it was because it was a small, slow moving spider? Perhaps it
will only sink in over the coming days or weeks?