Spiders

there are no medically significant spiders in the UK unless you are unfortunately allergic.

@SquishedMallow old English house spiders may have not given nasty bites but now false widows can give a nasty bite and I've known and seen too many people very ikl needing hospital intervention to know we need to kill and avoid

@SpidersAreShitheads what happened to the second spider !!

@WhiteDiamonds false widows ?

Care to share the breed and also how you found out about indorex thank you

I'll take the 400-800 tonnes of insects thanks 😬

Spiders eat between 400-800 tons of insects per year! Without them we would be so overrun with insects we would not exist

🤣🤣🤣🤣 touche my dear!

Fortunately, I rarely have to deal with spiders as my cat will catch them and eat them 🤢

Also, house spiders aren’t endangered. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. The population has exploded because the sneaky bastards have capitalised on us building houses. They are territorial and only a tiny proportion would survive if there there weren’t nice comfy warm homes for them to live and breed.

I’ve had two bites from spiders and I’m in Scotland, I ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics both times so we take no chances now. This probably isn’t a popular opinion on here but it’s me or the spiders! We use Indorex on the full house at the beginning of August and February and haven’t seen one in years. I see dead bodies but never live ones. Spray all skirtings, cupboards, around ceilings, window frames and door frames as well as nooks and crannies inside, we also spray the window and door frames outside and spray behind all furniture. I go out with the dogs, DH sprays the house then we let it air for an hour. I still have the scars from those bloody bites and I was really ill in hospital, at one point they were talking about taking me to theatre to remove the infected flesh. It’s all out war in this house when spider season comes around.

But where do you put them? House spiders can’t survive outside - as you say, they are adapted to live in houses. If you put them out then they will still die, but probably more slowly. Many of them aren’t even native to the UK.

I don’t think that there’s anything irrational about not wanting giant house spiders breeding in your house and producing zillions of babies.

You’ve clearly misunderstood on several counts here.

Firstly, it’s the spiders that are arseholes.

Secondly, the clothes moth eggs hitched a ride in on some raw alpaca wool that has been locked in the dark in a sealed container. There’s much easier food in my house for spiders to munch on - such as the countless bastard houseflies. Also bees and wasps which keep flying in. We also get countless butterflies but they seem much more adept at finding their way back out.

Thirdly, I don’t kill spiders. That would require getting close to them. Not a fucking chance mate. I don’t even ask DP to kill them - I ask him to put them outside. There’s plenty of other houses nearby they can go and invade.

There’s no spraying of anything in this house. Plus there was nothing little about the spiders in my living room. Monsters is the word you’re looking for.

Also, it’s not because they’re not aesthetically pleasing. It’s because they scare me so much I fear I may have a heart attack.

I’m happy you’re so cool with being jumpscared. I’m absolutely not. I don’t even watch films that have jump scares. I’m not having any creatures in my house that are deliberately setting out to jump scare me. That’s definitely what they do. I think they actually enjoy it.

Shitheads.

Brilliant answer, thank you 👍.

My free (ie, not copy) typing speed's around 160wpm at any given moment.

So all of them.

There is no need to kill them in your homes either and homes and outbuildings are exactly where many spiders are designed to live. Regardless of where you are killing harmless spiders it’s detrimental to the ecosystem and there is no need for it just because you are irrationally scared of them.

Oh blimey, well then she’ll need to get a cat….

@SquishedMallow I've heard a new one important consideration for break ups ! Who will catch the spiders !! Excellent point.

I could never ever use a spider catcher ,no way.
What if it runs up the thing.

I also joined a Facebook group on spiders and I had to leave it. I saw too many posts with people saying argh look at mummy protective over her babies and it was false widows.

False widows are really gentle and sweet just like all over spiders and they won't go out of their way to attack you .
BUT...they colonise , kill native spiders and have large nos which increases the risk of being bitten which can be extremely nasty.

So I had to come off.

Nobody is suggesting going out into the wild and killing spiders. However, there’s a big difference between spiders living outside and allowing them to colonise your house!

completely recommend the spider programme at London Zoo. I was terrified to the point I couldn't even look at a picture and now can deal with them perfectly calmly with a cup & bit of card to relocate them outside.

No she’s right.

I can have some sympathy for people with phobias as a fellow phobia sufferer(Not spiders. I love spiders) but I lose any sympathy when they are pathetic and arrogant enough to insist on killing perfectly harmless and indeed extremely useful creatures just because they refuse to seek help or use tools to deal with it. All the “burn this house down” rhetoric when someone even mentions spiders just feeds people’s fears. We’ve lost enough insects and arachnids in this country, and they are so incredibly important to the ecosystem without encouraging killing spiders whose numbers have been greatly depleted as it is.

I have more sympathy for those who have at least tried the courses/therapy. I’m sorry that it didn’t work for one poster but many people don’t even consider trying to help with their phobia.

Came here to say this. Has really been working for me.

Indorex spray flea treatment.I spray liberally everywhere in spider season.In nooks and crannies especially. I got the recommendation from a thread on here and it really works.

@bekeenraven that's the course I did and I can honestly say you will be a changed woman! Some people were crying in reception before it started but every person managed a glass and card eviction by the end of it. It's honestly changed my life, even just the talk at the beginning broke down my worries

Good luck for your course!

Which ones of your eight legs did you use to type all of that ?

You have my sympathy op! I’m absolutely terrified too. We’ve had 4 so far this month! We get a lot of average sized spiders but these ones are huge. Too big to put a glass over. Luckily dp will get them but if it’s the middle of the night and he’s half asleep he has been known to drop them.
This time of year I cannot relax and dread when it starts to get dark.
I am tempted to get a spider catcher but not sure what one would be best. I like the vacuum ones but imagine grabbing it to get a spider and the battery runs out!