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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be worried about spiders in the curtains.

33 replies

Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 15:03

I need to take some long length wide french pleat curtains down in the living room and I am convinced a giant spider is living in the pleats. I saw movement once, maybe a leg. I am not sure as it was dusk. What if it jumps out on me?

What shall I do?
YABU - take them down you wimp
YANBU - do not take them down, run for the hills

OP posts:
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AllTheChaos · 30/10/2025 23:39

theDudesmummy · 29/10/2025 20:33

OMG I knew I should not have opened this thread. I spray my curtains (and whole room) with peppermint oil every day.

Does that work? Because I am stocking up if so!

Sasha07 · 29/10/2025 22:10

Aww, you'll be fiiiine! Though that's one of the reasons I have white walls and light curtains 🤣 I did actually have a spider in my curtain pleat around a month ago. It didn't run or do anything erratic, when I found it it was just chilling out. Glass popped over the top and card slid underneath and we were both happy.

If you have Cellar Spiders, the long legged, white ones, you're highly unlikely to see a Giant House Spider as Cellar Spiders eat them. Fwiw, there's only ever been one spider that literally almost killed me off. Genuinely.
Not even I could catch it as I couldn't think of anything big enough to go over it (after it had me held hostage in my bedroom, I wasn't willingly walking past that again!)

I'd suggest not throwing something at it, that's how I lost the big one that night... Then I found out that they're called Cardinal Spiders with a leg length of up to 12cm...

MetalliCat89 · 29/10/2025 22:01

This year a massive one trundled into my hallway and made an audible thunk when it hopped down the little step into my front room. Nearly shat myself and the cat was next to useless. Bugger probably brought it in in his fur then had the audacity to fake being asleep though the screeching and wailing until my husband removed it. Can deal with the false widows that perch in a corner but the house spiders seem to enjoy the fear they cause 🕷

BeepBoopBop · 29/10/2025 21:58

As I bent over to pick up a basket of washing, a gust of wind blew the curtain towards me and as it puffed out, revealed was an enormous spider - right in my face.
That was approximately 40 years ago and I still hold any curtains at arms length to open them.

theDudesmummy · 29/10/2025 20:33

OMG I knew I should not have opened this thread. I spray my curtains (and whole room) with peppermint oil every day.

ShrimpBoil · 29/10/2025 20:31

Summertime, doors open all the time, saw a dark shadow in a light curtain and thought 'surely I'm not so slovenly that my curtain's gone mouldy'. No I'm not, it was a bat.

Original poster
Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 19:52

ShrimpBoil · 29/10/2025 18:36

I had a bat tucked up in my living room curtain once ...

How 😂how was it there and you didn't know ???😂

OP posts:
Original poster
Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 19:50

Christwosheds · 29/10/2025 17:45

Friend’s dd had one so large in her room that she could hear it running across the floor …😬😬😬

Show quote history

Again, shudders down my spine reading that too.
My fear stems from being about 8, parents were building an extension in an old house with a woodland at the back and there were loads of gaps in the house where they could get in . I was just going to sleep and a spider the size of my head ran across my hair. Lots of screaming and my dad hunting it down....I have hated them since.

OP posts:
unreasonablyso · 29/10/2025 19:39

As it’s no longer spider season, any indoor malingerers are probably dead. Can you handle dead spiders? If not, you should move house.

BluntAzureDreamer · 29/10/2025 19:30

Had a very long row with my husband recently because I saw a huge one then it disappeared. He swore it didn't exist, I told him it definitely did! Told him it was in the curtain crease which sure enough, was confirmed when we saw a leg curling over the top of the curtain. You must set fire to the curtains in order to be sure. Welcome

ShrimpBoil · 29/10/2025 18:36

I had a bat tucked up in my living room curtain once ...

SamphiretheTervosaur · 29/10/2025 18:27

UnNiddeRides · 29/10/2025 17:30

I once had one so big in the bedroom curtain that it made an audible small thud noise when it fell on the floor.

I had one like that about a month ago. DH heard it from the landing, stood perfectly still whilst I teleported through him, and then dealt with it whilst I rematerialised downstairs, regained my equilibrium and shouted for help!

AstonUniversityPotholeDepartment · 29/10/2025 18:27

Move in with a friend.

OnePiece23 · 29/10/2025 18:25

This is why I don't draw my curtains in the bedroom at night 😆

Happened to me twice .. if I have to draw I do it at arms length with my bum stuck out so less of my body is in Spidey Zone

SamphiretheTervosaur · 29/10/2025 18:25

AphroditesSeashell · 29/10/2025 15:10

Arm yourself with a hoover with the long attachment connected.
Poke Poke Poke.
No beasties = all is well.
Beastie = suction

Vacuum a penny down afterwards as shrapnel, if so inclined.

If only I could do that

But my brain shows me how easy it would be for the spider to run down the outside of the vacuum tube and my skin crawls, my body freezes and I just can't raise the vacuum wand

I know. But that's how a real phobia works

UnNiddeRides · 29/10/2025 18:24

Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 17:32

Just reading that made me tense up😮

Show quote history

The stupid thing was that I noticed it when I went to bed, so I pulled my son’s cot out of the room, made sure all my bedding was well off the floor & stayed awake all night to keep an eye on it & finally felt safe to go to sleep at dawn. When I told my friend she said ‘what? You think spiders are nocturnal & don’t creep around in the day?’ It was when I was getting dressed the next day that it made its move & hit the floor.

Cathmawr · 29/10/2025 18:22

Don't burn the curtains, that would be crazy.

You must burn the whole house down.

GinaDavva · 29/10/2025 18:21

Spiders on your curtains? Worry about spider penises in your washing! 😱

Christwosheds · 29/10/2025 17:45

Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 17:32

Just reading that made me tense up😮

Show quote history

Friend’s dd had one so large in her room that she could hear it running across the floor …😬😬😬

ghostyslovesheets · 29/10/2025 17:45

OSTMusTisNT · 29/10/2025 15:17

Get a cat, they will destroy all curtains and deal with any bonus arachnids.

The only sensible option!

Jackanory1978 · 29/10/2025 17:44

I’m not scared of spiders, I’ll come
over and take the curtains down for you!

tstc1387 · 29/10/2025 17:40

YANBU

back in 2020 during locking me and my sister was watching tv downstairs and a giant spider crawled from behind our tv and up the wall up the stairs, I was hoping if we ignored it it would go away. A few hours later we go upstairs & I pull my curtains to close them and that (I assume) same spider was in the pleats of my curtains and scared the absolute shit out of me. I have blinds only in my own house now 🤣

Original poster
Doobedobe · 29/10/2025 17:32

UnNiddeRides · 29/10/2025 17:30

I once had one so big in the bedroom curtain that it made an audible small thud noise when it fell on the floor.

Just reading that made me tense up😮

OP posts:
UnNiddeRides · 29/10/2025 17:30

I once had one so big in the bedroom curtain that it made an audible small thud noise when it fell on the floor.

SeaAndStars · 29/10/2025 17:27

Full HAZMAT suit. Double bag curtains and bin.

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