Spider season

@BrawnWild · 02/09/2023 18:04

I was scared 7 years ago and decided not to be as I didnt want to pass the fear on to my son. Which sounds ridiculous but that's the truth.

I told myself they are tiny compared to me and challenged myself to take the smaller ones out and worked up to the larger ones. A big glass or bowl and some card or paper is all you need. You CAN overcome this, i promise.

I told myself I find them interesting, not scary and at first I pretended I was watching someone else take the out and gave a positive narration "look how confident she is, she isnt scared of a small spider"

I really hope that helps as they really are helpful little creatures just trying to live their lives!

Signed
An ex-arachnaphobe

Awwww, I have to say that's a really cute post. How lovely - and how brave of you too! Well done! 😁

I've never, ever been scared of spiders and am able to just take any massive spider (or not-so-massive) from anywhere - with a glass and a piece of card - and take it into the garage. But I wouldn't want them particularly staying in my house and I certainly wouldn't be able to sleep in my bedroom with one in there, not even one the size of a small fivepence piece. As with some other posters, only cellar spiders are welcome to stay!

So I can imagine it being really harrowing and difficult to have a really morbid fear of spiders because there's so many and there's always at least a few in the house at any one time. It must be a terrible phobia to have. The only phobia I've got is claustrophobia and it's quite rare that I encounter that ... Certainly not as often as I see a spider - thank goodness.

Yeah I didn't realise that til I read this thread. That these gentle gangly slow movers munched up the big feckers!

@Lovepeaceunderstanding It totally reframed how I thought about spiders, the first bit was a talk about how they behave and fit into the eco system. The second bit was hypnosis and the last bit you handle them (house spiders and tarantulas). I thought their legs would feel spikey but it was like an eyelash really. Touching them in a controlled environment just disolved my worries.

The other day i saw an ENORMOUS one in my house and instead of having a breakdown which i would have had before i said "oh a spider", fetched a glass and popped it outside. Sometimes if i see one now i just shoo it into a corner and happily go on with life. It's helped my kids now as they think i am some sort of spider superfan. They dont love them but they do say "spiders keep nasty flies out".

I can also now freely go into my garage knowing that i might see a big spider but i dont really care.

Thank you @TheGuv1982
It does have two legs that poke out forward yes, when it decides to pop out of its web. (And scare the bejesus out of me!)
Again, no way am I going to inspect its green fangs 😩😱
I just want it to move house away from my window!

I've never known a year for so many spiders!

I'm constantly putting my hand through very very fine invisible webs each time I reach into corners or up onto shelves. They aren't the traditional black hairy legged dirty 'arry spiders that look like they have tattoos and wears doc martin boots but instead they're ones with tiny pale brown bodies and massively long very delicate legs, like apple pips running along on stilts. And because I have such bad eye sight I can hardly see them until its too late. They're everywhere. I might get 2 or 3 hairy black ones every year, so big and black you can still see one making a run for it across the living room out of the corner when you're watching tv in the dark. But this year, none. Just about 3 dozen gangly bambi-legged apple pip spiders spinning strands that disappear into thin air as soon as you put hand through then.

That is probably a tube web spider. Thy have greenish fangs? And have 6 legs, or two that point forward (I can never remember)

The good news is, they’re pretty chill in that they don’t really wonder. They’re really aggressive though and can give a nasty bite if handled.

Thanks @KnittedCardi
It’s black and shiny. That much I can see. With a funnel shape web.
I’m not going close enough to inspect its belly!

False windows have fat shiny black belly's with white markings on the top. Sometimes they look like skulls 😱

Just had a fucking massive one which followed me up the fucking stairs 😭 it is now an ex-spider, and I am ordering some indorex. I don't often get big ones inside, and didn't see any dead ones when I fully indorexed the house a few years ago on vet's advice, but if I can do a room at a time and keep the cats out it's worth the hassle if it works.

Every year I think I've got better and every year I have an encounter that makes the phobia worse :( I'd love to do the London zoo course but two people I know who have done it now keep pet spiders and I don't want that either 😂 just would be nice to not be terrified of my own home, sleep better and not have to kill them...

40 spiders??? What???? I'm burning my house down now!

That's what I don't like as well; they just appear from nowhere and they run so fast so you no warning at all.

How can you tell it’s a false widow @KnittedCardi ?
I think one may have taken up residence in my bedroom window frame (which I’m horrified about, as a lifelong arachnophobia) especially given the weather forecast for this week. But obviously I can’t get too close to check…. 😩😱🫣

We have had a few at home but they have been the ones with thin legs and they don't really bother me. I do use conkers and have found that they work.

However when sorting out my new classroom one ran across the floor that was bigger than my palm! Luckily our premises officer came and caught it and moved it to a safer spot. I am absolutely phobic about the bigger ones and they love school classrooms!!!

this week i have had one in my hand towel in the bathroom shushed him out and said he could live on the landing where i cant see him,

the other day got out of bed spotted a weird little black blob on my pillow touched it and oh yes mr spider flew off the bed and straight under it that was a bit freaky

this morning i have watched a lovely tiger striped outdoor spider in his web on the corner of our washing line sitting there waiting for something to land quite fascinating

used to be terrified of spiders when i was a kid but as ive got older realise how useful they are

Ergh I really don't like spiders.

I've tried to rationalise the fear and I think it's because they just bloody appear out of no-where when you least expect it!! They just pop out from somewhere I.e. between stuff in the airing cupboard and frighten me half to death! It's ridiculous given how big I am compared to them. So I don't think it's actual spiders I'm frightened of, it's just that they appear when you least expect it.

Still can't kill them tho...I use a glass and thin bit of card or get OH to deal with. A spider expert on beeb once said that an average newish house ie less than 10 years old has at least 40 spiders sharing it with you...dont even wanna guess how many are in victorian or edwardian homes!! Gaaaaaa 🕷

I used to have a real phobia (inherited from my Mum) but over the years it has receded a bit. I now try to capture under a glass and put outside. I realised I'd made progress when I accidentally put the glass on the spider's foot and then moved it, saying sorry!! Another time I put a large female outside and was surprised to find myself thinking that she walked off very elegantly!
They still make me shudder but I'm trying to respect them!

The really big ones are the ladies, they eat the smaller ones (males) after mating so not so many of those around!

Why are they soo huge this year?! We've had a few massive ones in the last week or 2. I have a phobia which has diminished as I've got older. I've also a DH who works away from home for weeks/months so have had no choice but to try and reign in my phobia. I've tried not to pass it onto my DC with slight success

My observation is that each year there is a particular type of spider that is abundance, and you see more of those than in other years. I can remember years when I saw many many quite small ones as well as years where it was the gigantic ones. We live in the country and the spiders that live in our shed/garage are monstrous. But I've been persuaded to leave the cellar spiders in the house and we have cats and so far it hasn't been too bad.

I love my cellar spiders. I watched one catch and consume a big house spider the other night. It was awesome.

The spiders I don't like are the false windows. We get quite a few in the conservatory...... But they do an excellent job of eating flies.

We have a pretty good eco system going here. I wouldn't want to kill them all off.

I also have a lovely colony of cellar spiders to protect me, zero effort on my part and haven't had any giant house spiders in years. (Touch wood)

This is a lovely post

I got one of those catchers on Amazon the ones that pick them up harmlessly. It's brilliant!

Yep. Those are the ones.
It's surprising how they catch even the knarliest looking house spiders.

Have also heard about indorex being a great spider repellent.

The cookers thing is total nonsense, though.

Yet another vote for indorex. Kills everything from Woodlice to flies and spiders. If you have pets just spray it when they aren't in the room and I usually wait half an hour to an hour before I let them back in. Spray around entrances, skirting boards etc. Lasts for months but no harm topping up every so often

Noooooooo 😳🫣 this is my worse nightmare.

We had one in the bathroom tonight. Quite a fair size. I hate this time of year.