Arachnologists, are you out there?

Question

I just need to know that you exist and are so not afraid of spiders that you made a whole career out of loving them. One just came running at me across my desk while I was doing schoolwork. It was so terrifyingly gigantic and chunky and oh, sweet Jesus, that was a BUSINESS spider! I was totally paralyzed and possibly having a heart attack whilst shaking and crying uncontrollably. When I started screaming it went running away. Now it's probably in my bed waiting to finish me off and all I do is look around having a heart attack every two seconds because my brain is on some serious fight/flight hormones and thinks everything is a spider. I wish I could just be a little more rational, just a little more like you brave, intelligent, and did I mention RATIONAL entymologists. (sigh) I'm going to be awake for the next week wearing boots inside my apartment and showering at the Y.

Answer 1

I'm so sorry that you have to suffer this phobia. I know exactly what you mean by the fight or flight response because I almost jumped from a moving car when a mud dauber flew in. My phobia used to be wasps. I'm a gardener so being afraid of these guys just wasn't working for me so I made it a point to learn all I could about them. I did a lot of reasearch and I worked very hard not to run when a wasp flew by and I even learned to work side by side with them. I've even been stung once and discovered that the sting is not that bad. So, it is possible to work through your fear, but it takes time and information. I don't know where you are, but you sound like you are from the US so I will begin by saying that there are only two relatively dangerous spiders in the US. The Black Widow which is not what you described and the Brown Recluse which is also not what you described because it is small and no where near chunky. Also, these spiders are extremely shy and you'd pretty much have to be digging around in dark unused corners or turning over logs to find them. As for the remaining spiders, they can bite and their bite may smart but the worst of it will be an annoying itch. As a matter of fact, most spider bites aren't painful at all and a lot of people don't even know they've been bitten.
Anyhow, the spider you described sounds like it could be a Huntsman or Wolf spider which are notorious for coming inside. It could also be an Orb Weaver, but that is highly unlikely unless someone walked through it's web and it hitched a ride inside. Here are some pics of the spiders I've mentioned that you can use for comparison. These are all harmless garden spiders.
Huntsman:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A9gnMiFEwAtHLB0BfhGJzbkF?p=Huntsman+spider&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&x=wrt&js=1&ni=20
Wolf spider:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A9gnMiLgwwtHIOsACWaJzbkF?p=wolf+spider&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&x=wrt&js=1&ni=20
Golden Orb weaver:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dbrown%2Borb%2Bweaver%26sp%3D1%26fr2%3Dsp-top%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dks-ans%26x%3Dwrt%26js%3D1%26ni%3D20%26ei%3DUTF-8%26SpellState%3Dn-540850554_q-VmqBoSPYrqig1bhlLeqg2wAAAA%40%40&w=500&h=500&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F84%2F247936394_c7ece7f124_m.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fdamongreen%2F247936394%2F&size=145.4kB&name=247936394_c7ece7f124.jpg&p=brown+orb+weaver&type=jpeg&no=19&tt=42&oid=5dbff6998c44f838&fusr=Damon+Green&tit=Close+up+of+scary+spider&hurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fdamongreen%2F&ei=UTF-8&src=p

Good Luck

Answer 2

Nyah ha ha, I love spiders :P
K, sooo, since this spider is living around your house, i most probably is one of those common house spiders. COmpletely non-venomous and tiny. The most it can do is crawl into your mouth, but that's while you sleep, and it doesn't hurt. I hear on average we swallow 8 spiders a year :P
Next time, I guess you could just smack it with your papers or soemthing. that would probably help you out too :P