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I so understand your fear!

I live in a very warm city in Southern California, and had to kill a Black Widow spider the other night I discovered making a "condominium of web" along the walkway to my front door! I did not think that spider had "my best interests" in mind and was trying to be "friendly!"

Black Widows are poisonous, especially in the summer months of June, July and August. Their venom is most potent.

If you have Brown Recluse spiders where you live, as you mentioned, I don't think I need to tell you how serious their bite can be! I have gone on line to research spiders and saw the open sores Brown Recluse spiders can leave on the skin!

I have always been fascinated with spiders, but also very frightened of them.

Somehow, you must find a way to convince your precious daughter the seriousness of staying away and not touching or playing with those poisonous spiders. But, you don't want to scare the heck out of her where she has nightmares.

If you could rent a movie or go on a cable station that would depict the various spiders that could harm her, that would be a very educational way to explain it to her.

While there are some harmless garden spiders, it is best to teach her just not to touch spiders.

My suggestion would be to get her a stuffed animal and let her call it "Charlotte" as in "Charlotte's Web". Tell her it's a good spider (if somehow the stuffed animal could resemble a bug), but all of the other spiders in the garden are bad spiders. And that she must keep her stuffed animal and herself safe from all the other spiders!

Another suggestion would be to have a jar in the kitchen, in which you would give her a point for every spider she sees in the garden. But she is not to touch them, just run and tell you. She will only get the point if she does not touch them, but tells you right away. Perhaps that may be a start.

And just think...when you get done with the spider routine...you can educate her on the dangers of bee stings!

Good luck!

I have a little Buddhist daughter too :-) It is better not to kill spiders in her presence, just put a glass over them and a piece of paper under them and take them outside. After the first 10 or so times, I got used to it.

It matters how old she is. If she is old enough to spot the dangerous spiders then inform her. If she is not, then hope and pray she will not get bitten...or if she does, the spider is not poisonous and it will keep her away from them :-). You can also try telling her that spiders get really scared when she picks them up and that they would prefer that she just watch them and not touch them.

My daughter has drug everything in our house and I have found that most of the animals and insects know that she is kind and do not bite. We have Black Widows, Born Recluse, and several poisonous snakes here and she has yet to get bitten. She is 10 now. She started bringing home (unwanted) "pets" around 2 1/2 and quit, for the most part, around 8. We still get the occasional caterpillar, but it is no longer a daily thing.

I would try explaining to her that some spiders can be dangerous. That unless you know what kind it is. Don’t pick it up and play with it. There are spiders such as the daddy long leg that are perfectly harmless. Since your daughter is sensitive perhaps try catching the spider in a cup or glass and set it free in a nearby park.

You might even get her a book on spiders so that she can learn about them. Most humans who get bit its due to Human error, reaching into a dark space with out a flashlight etc. Spiders would prefer to stay away from humans.

explain to her that spiders are an important and good creature since they help kill off some of the bad icky bugs that no one wants around. Also explain to her that even though spiders are good, not all of them like people and can hurt people if they get too close. You could show her pictures of black widows, recluse spiders, and other kinds of spiders on google or something so she knows which spiders to stay away from.

You could also try buying her a stuffed animal spider or a toy spider to play with, and then tell her just to play with that one and leave the other spiders alone.

Try to let her figure it out first. Give her a book about spiders (including the poisonous ones etc.) and see if she can learn from that. If not, you'll just have to tell her the truth, it'll hurt, but I think it'll be better than having her play with a black widow or something like that.

Explain it to her as if the spider were a dog; some dogs are dangerous and some aren't. You don't pet strange spiders, they could bite and hurt you.

Or you could explain that spiders are very, very delicate - like baby birds - if we touch them they'll break instantly.

Maybe try and get a toy spider, and pretend to bite her with it or something. It might scare her a little bit but she'll get the picture and know that she needs to stay away from them.

Be happy she's not afriad of them like my son he is sooooo scared of them, so don't make her afraid of them maybe she moght grow up researching spiders as a profession never know maybe she'll grow out of the spider faze good luck

first, it is important to know that only some spiders are dangerous. They are quite important. However, the question to be asked is how did you get your daughter not to play with the electric outlet? didn't you slap her hand when she got focusedly near? then that is what you should do around spiders. Also your own behavior will help drive her understanding.

you need to sit her down and make her understand that charlottes web is s film. Be frank and tell her such spiders can cause her to get really sick.

I was going to suggest she watched a horrible spider film but that would just totally freak her out especially if shes young.