It was Friday the 13th and my husband, our two friends, and I took a weekend trip up to Maine for a relaxing, fun getaway. After driving for three hours we reached our destination way out in the wilderness. We arrived after dark to the cabin style house and started getting settled. We hung out for a while and made dinner using the outside grill.
One of our friends was exploring the property around the house when he called for us to come over to look at a massive spider web he found on a tree next to the house. We looked in the tree and located what looked like a large brown recluse spider. We knew since we were out in the wilderness that it was probably common to run across this kind of arachnid outside.
We continued to hang out and we were watching Friday the 13th since it happened to be on TV that night. Hours passed and we decided it was time to call it a night, so we all started getting ready for bed. After using the bathroom I went over to the sink to wash my hands when all of a sudden I was interrupted by a huge brown recluse spider sitting in the middle of the sink.
I immediately froze and screamed for someone to help kill it. I was horrified and started to feel like maybe this spider was not alone. I have never seen a spider that big. My friend came into the bathroom to kill the spider when I heard my husband yell from the bedroom. He said he had a huge spider crawling up his back when he laid down in the bed.
We ran into the bedroom to find the dead brown recluse spider that my husband had just killed laying on the bed. I was no longer tired and frankly creeped out. There was no way I was sharing my bed with a huge spider that is potentially poisonous. I told everyone that we needed to pack up and leave immediately because at the rate we were coming across these spiders, that most likely meant there would be more.
We called the few hotels that were in the area, but there were no vacancies. We were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere and it was 2:00 AM. As we were packing up to leave, we noticed that there were lots of brown recluse spiders crawling out of the wood rafters on the ceiling so we hurried out of there as fast as we could.
We decided to try to sleep in the SUV rental which was our only option at that time, but it was extremely uncomfortable and none of us could sleep because of the nightmare we had just experienced. We came to a conclusion that it made more sense for us to just drive the three hours home since we had no place to stay.
We drove through the night and finally returned home to get some well-needed rest. We could not believe what we had just experienced and how it felt almost like we were in a horror film. Also it was very eerie that it just happened to take place on Friday the 13th. Anyway we reported the issue to Airbnb and were compensated.
I agree, Howard. Everyone wants to kill anything that they don’t understand. So sad that animals and insects have their little lives snuffed out because of some overreactive dummy. The owner probably should have put repellant around the house or something to prevent them from coming in. We have lake houses and there are tons of spiders, birds, hawks, fish, cranes, eagles, they’re beautiful! We live in a big city but it is fun to watch nature when we go to the lakehouses, so gorgeous! There are coyotes too in the fall and winter, so we have to watch our small dogs. I don’t want spiders in my bed and house either, but you can keep them out. The owner should have warned them or sprayed in advance. If it is really thick woods, there will be insects and animals. There are human animals in the city!
Yeesh. City slickers go to the country and are horrified by a few spiders? Even the basement of our house in Seattle had some impressive ones. Quite large. Truth is that spiders are good. They eat all sorts of bugs that you don’t want around. Usually they just run and hide so what is the big deal? I am guessing they were just house spiders. Pretty harmless.
A quick Google search tells us that brown recluse and black widow spiders ARE NOT typically found in Maine. Google also reveals that black bears and big cats like cougars and mountain lions ARE found in Maine. I personally would have been far more concerned about them than a spider in the sink.
Sadly this “guest” has probably gotten the hosts banned from Airbnb forever because of their “pests” policy. Hell you could probably take pictures of bugs/rodents dead or alive and Airbnb would refund every cent you payed for your accommodation whether before, during or at the end of the stay. Nice huh?
I myself live on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Lots of scary bugs, rodents and the like here. Hardly something to freak out about! Just part of living in the country.
Brown recluse spiders are tiny. You’re in a cabin out in the woods you can expect to find giant spiders but they’re not brown recluses and they’re not deadly poisonous. There are thousands of different species of spiders and you’re going to find them out there. I’m in a cabin too and I found a spider that was 2 inches across in the kitchen sink one night Captured it and let it go out in the yard because she deserves to live as much as you. do.