Spider haters heads up

[AVB]

A few years ago we were on holiday on a Island off of Malaysia. The wife and I were in one room and my eldest two (who were then aged about 6 & 8) were in adjoining room. Whilst they were in bed they let out a blood curdling scream and ran into our room shouting "spider, spider, spider". I crept in and was faced with the biggest mother ****** of a spider known to man. It was about as big as a dinner plate, covered in hair and had muscles on muscles. I was scared and I don't mind spiders. I threw a shoe at it and it promptly caught the shoe, took a bite out of it and threw it back before running behind an air-con unit. I knew the children wouldn't come back in if they thought it was still in there so I crashed about a bit and then opened and shut the door. I told the children that I had thrown it out. They went back, a bit scared, but reassured that big, brave dad had sorted it out.

 

When I went to wake them up in the morning I was half convinced that they would be encased in a cocoon waiting to be devoured later. They weren't.

 

Give me UK spiders any day.

[Walker570]

I try never to kill a spider. Our home is 400yrs old and full of them. Get some real monsters walk across the kitchen floor occasionally. I was sitting in a box seat waiting for a fox or two to show the other evening and a really tiny spider appeared on the window frame. It was no more than 3mm across including legs. It abseiled down from the top, fixed the strand, then climbed back up at the same time feeding out another strand which when at the top it attached about 2 inches across the frame. It dropped down again and attached the thread, climbing back up etc etc. In 45 minutes |I watched this tiny little creature construct a web some 8 inches across which even the strong wind could not destroy and which would have taken a team of men a week to put up. It was perfect in every way with each attachment exactly the same distance. No tape measure, levelling devise, plans. They are amazing little creatures.

[kingo15]

A bowl of conkers in every room that you fear for your life.

[digger]

The conkers work.

[Livefast123]

We have false widows all over the place in Somerset, only one way it's ending for them!

[lord_seagrave]

I am very afraid of spiders, but Lady Seagrave is even worse!

 

Consequently, I have to be the one to remove them.

 

It makes my skin crawl having them in the house, but to observe them (knowing that they cannot get on my person) is perfect fly OK. Fascinating, industrious creatures.

 

I would never kill them though. Just put a glass over the top and a bit of stuff card underneath and transport them away.

 

LS

[NatureBoy]

The conkers work.

Yeah they do! Put em round your doors and window frames. gather in season and freeze some so u have fresh ones. As they dry out they don't work so well. NB

[fortune]

I dont like flies, but I dont like spiders. Their OK outside but not in the house. Especially when they are wandering about my bedroom. Imagine having the beat absail down into your open mouth in the middle of the night. Crunchy snack >>> Naahhh. they have an appointment with the hoover if the Mrs sees them. I'll have to round up some conkers this year.

[digger]

I have a titan hoover, an absolute beast of a machine. I put pea shingle in the collection area so any spider gets mashed up.

[7daysinaweek]

i think they are fascinating creatures but i am petrified of them. i can vaguely remember i must have been three or four and my sister picked up a huge spider out of the bath and threw it at me, i was ok with spiders but after that incident i was traumatised and still am. can happily handle most things but arachnids i cannot.

[norfolk dumpling]

As a rule I love spiders but we have a massive number of what appear to be harvest spiders invading our old house this year. They are everywhere and if you find a big one in its web and touch it it bounces! These get hovered up daily. We have a few of the big ones but our young lab eats them. This is a funny but slightly nauseating routine almost every night - I don't know if she smells them or if they make a noise but she will be laying at our feet asleep until one appears and then a little pantomime occurs as she kills it first with her paws before eating. Disgusting.

[Penelope]

The fear of spiders is innate in some. Experiments have shown, that when baby chimps, that have never had previous contact with spiders, recoil with fear, when first shown one.

 

I would love to not be petrified of them but I suppose it started from seeing my mum and sister screaming when I was young. Just wish they were better looking things.

[bobt]

I like spiders,

in a forst in Croatia, I had one running about on my hand until a local told me it was a black widow, ( wont kill you but worse than a wasp sting) I blew it off my hand and it scttled off.

the wifes cat like to play with them, until the stupid animal pounces on them, then wonders why its stopped running about.

[leeds chimp]

Just think that when you are asleep they drop down and wipe their Willy on your face or you swallow them

 

Personally they don't bother me at all

[old man]

Only 4 species of false Widows so don't get over excited?

[mel b3]

over the last couple of years , the population of spiders in our house has changed , we now have(indoors) lots of daddy long leg type spiders , similar to the type that appear on walls after rain , only these have even thinner legs and slightly more elongated bodies . while splitting seasoned logs this year (outside) , i came across dozens of false widows , we had a couple last year but the population has grown massively now , i often get quite painfull little bites/stings on my arms when bringing in wood for the fires , im starting to think that they might be spider bites. weve also had a massive explosion of earwigs , id left a camo net set up in field for several weeks , when i brought it home it was alive with hundreds and hundreds of tiny earwigs , they seem to have thrived in their new residence.

[JimLondon]

I like spiders, especially the big house spiders, they're cool. I also like the little black and white zebra spiders that jump around the place.

I won't tolerate steatoda nobilis in my house or garden though, they're not native to the uk and they bite (not too nasty a bite, but more than I'm going to put up with from a creature that doesn't belong here), so they are killed on sight.

Let me get this right,you like spiders,but not those that are not "English" spiders??? .

[Jamesey1981]

Let me get this right,you like spiders,but not those that are not "English" spiders??? .

I actually like Steatoda Nobilis as creatures, they are pretty cool looking spiders, not generally aggressive and at the end of the day their bite isn't much worse than others, but they're an invasive species so I don't want to make it easy for them, we're stuck with them now, but if I can thin out the numbers in my little patch of the country then at least that's one place that our native spiders can have an easier time of it. Edited June 13, 2016 by Jamesey1981

[JimLondon]

So sorry when you said you won't torelate them I thought you didn't like them because they weren't native to the UK

[Dbw1shrops]

I have them Daddy long legs with elongated bodies in my house Mel b3 and there horrible looking things, they pop up all over the house and I have to kill them on site and can't seem to get rid of them.i might have to try the conkers as I've heard from a few people that they work.

[mel b3]

I have them Daddy long legs with elongated bodies in my house Mel b3 and there horrible looking things, they pop up all over the house and I have to kill them on site and can't seem to get rid of them.i might have to try the conkers as I've heard from a few people that they work.

weve only had them for the last couple of years , i assume that i brought them back in my shooting gear(like the massive family of earwigs)as they first appeared in my pantry , ive fumigated it with fly spray several times but it hasnt worked and theyre spreading around the house , theyre quite sinister looking and they just seem to appear near to you , and sort of wobble lol.

[winnie&bezza]

Those Daddy long legs ones I have witnessed killing larger house spiders. They say they have very poisonous venom but their fangs aren't big enough to penetrate human skin.

[mel b3]

Those Daddy long legs ones I have witnessed killing larger house spiders. They say they have very poisonous venom but their fangs aren't big enough to penetrate human skin.

well ive just spent half an hour reading all about them , im off to bed now to have nightmares .

[Dbw1shrops]

These spiders look evil and as you say Mel turn up anywhere and normally like dark places like under the stairs / pantry and yes they do wobble / shake when there thin strand of web is disturbed have also noticed no house spiders since there arrival which could of been on my shooting gear ! Horrible little critters

[Zapp]

Funny that the topic of those spindly Cellar Spiders should come up - I was only remarking to my arachnophobe wife the other day that since they turned up (in droves), we havent had any other spiders in the house, except those that come in on logs.

 

It turns out, as has been suggested, that they do indeed eat tegenaria (house spiders), which feels like a bit of a shame, since although I am no great fan myself, at least the big hairy ones have a bit more character than these strange interlopers. I cant remember ever having seen one until I lived near Huntingdon for a couple of years, and then upon moving back home to East Northants they are everywhere here too.

 

We have also had a big increase in Woodlouse Spiders, which I really dont like on account of their massive fangs and painful bite, and am starting to see more and more Tube Spiders, or segestria florentina, which can be quite aggressive and also pack an unpleasant bite.