To be scared about the spider season this year

Send them my way. I absolutely love spiders, live in an ancient house but rarely see any.

I know it must be awful to be scared of them, but please don’t kill them. As you don’t now live alone, can’t you get someone to put them outside?

We've had one so big I could see it in the dark. Even DH was shocked. It was the size of a mouse quite easily. He trapped it and I made him walk 3 streets away with it!

I let the cellar spiders go wherever they want though. I even rescued one from the bath last week because I do think they stop the horrible running fuckers.

I also did this but I can't see any more I wonder if my cat got them. But they are not easy to see and very slow

Yes I find they run at one

I have no idea why but I read this in trumps voice for some reason the way it’s written reminded me of him!

You need Ardap Spray from amazon.

I spray all windows and doors, haven’t seen one (touch wood) in the last 2 years I’ve lived here.

I’ve always been scared but our last place was horrific and we’d have anything from 2-6 big ones a night. I was putting laundry away one day and the biggest one I’ve ever encountered ran up my chest onto my neck, I grabbed it and threw it but I also grabbed the necklace my DH had bought for me for my 30th and ripped it, our DD was 2 months old at the time and I’m sure I would have dropped her had I been holding her at the time.

I ended up being prescribed sleeping tablets short term so I could actually sleep. It’s a horrible phobia. Really feel for anyone who suffers. X

Can’t you get the house treated towards the end of the summer? When we got bed bug treatment (a whole palava it did mean that ever spider that entered the bedroom died immediately for about 8 weeks after that)

I have a phobia of spiders and always hate spider season.
Like you OP, we’ve had some absolute huge ones.
Last year we had 7 in one night - yep 7.
Despite our house not being particularly old, it’s always been the same. One year we had 2 or 3 every night appear and I was a nervous wreck!
I don’t sit on the floor. Lights have to be on. I always laugh and say I have spider sensors as I tend to see them before anyone else.
We’ve had 3 just recently - assume it’s the hot weather.

For those saying fears are irrational, we know that, but for me it’s like telling an anxious person to just not worry, I can’t control it. I have one friend who is petrified of slugs and snails and for another, it’s frogs. I can’t imagine being scared of any of those but I don’t dismiss it because I don’t feel the same way.
Should people with this fear kill spiders, maybe not, but I don’t act relationally when I glance up an a huge spider is sat on the floor and think of all the good things it provides to mature - just that it needs to go as I’m standing on a chair shouting for my husband to come quickly before I have no alternative but to burn the house down.
He used to put them outside but honestly, I think they then just find their way in to terrorise me the next night

OP I feel your pain and hope it’s not too bad this year

Why are some houses like this? We had a house like this when I was a teenager, used to wake up and find them on the wall above me, at one point I slept on the landing as there were THREE giants in my room. It was a fairly modern house but had a big garden that went all around the house. Thank god we moved as I was a wreck. Our current house is a Victorian semi in the middle of a town and I've only seen two or three in the nearly ten years we've lived here. Just a tip on your next house 😂

You've described that so vividly that you've brought back repressed memories of a year or so spent in a similar house.

It was dreadful, but I had forgotten exactly how awful it was until now. The spiders were a major reason why my family moved! My mother always said afterwards that she thought the landlord needed to fumigate the place before it was let out again. I doubt he did.

I don’t know if it helps to know this, but cellar spiders hunt and kill giant house spiders. You might want to adopt one or two! 😊

Spiders aren't insects. They're arachnids, which are a different taxonomic class. If you're not interested in learning about the scientific classification system, you can tell insects and arachnids apart by counting the pairs of legs: insects have six legs and arachnids like spiders and mites have eight legs.

As to insects, I tend not to kill them, but you won't see me carefully saving aphids (insects). No gardener does.

And if it's ants in the kitchen, all bets are off.

I used to live in a big drafty flat in an old listed building which meant a lot of spiders. I also have a phobia.

My late OH told me to put conkers around the house - in the corner of rooms, on top of the wardrobe etc. two or three per room in areas where they won't get disturbed.

It might have been a placebo or maybe it really worked but there was a lot less spiders after that. A couple of years later I got kittens and encouraged them with treats every time they killed a fly or spider. Now they see one and go rushing off to earn their keep.

Make an appointment with a hypnotherapist. Get this phobia cleared once and got all.
research one that specialises in phobias.
And ignore people telling you horrible ways to kill them.

https://amzn.eu/d/0hPpbbLb

@bendmeoverbackwardsoh don’t get me wrong, before the Tarantula bit (which is at the end and totally optional) it’s all centred around the British house spider as that the most common spider phobia - they get us to put our hand near one first, then touch its leg, then let it run across our hand (if we dare, it’s not obligatory) and then the next stage is they get you to to the plastic container over a hpuse spider and slip the cardboard under easy so you can catch and release, once you’ve mastered catch and release you get your certificate. Not everyone opts to hold the tarantula

Have you thought about sleeping under a mosquito net for peace of mind while you sleep? You can just get a hook above your bed and a large net covers the whole bed area.

The London zoo course with tarantulas would be useless for me. I’m absolutely fine handling a tarantula and have done so, but big house spiders freak me out.

My oldest dd hates them too so at the end of August we prepare - one spray with peppermint oil, one with citrus oil. Spray liberally and reapply regularly. Plus various sprays from Amazon. And a pile of conkers. We didn’t have too many last year thank goodness.

Uuuugh with eyes on stalks as well !

yes palm size here too in Northern Ireland. Palm includes leg span, but the body alone is about 1.5 inches and legs at least an inch long too

@BinfortheWin your post has given me a fear knot, how awful, I reckon you’re right about the colony.

Palm sized is massive are you in UK

Ive got mesh in all my windows, but if one gets in its signed its own death warrant.

Oh wait - cellar spiders in every room? Is it a type of spider then? I thought you all meant cellar spiders = spiders in the cellar?

Another one here to praise the cellar spiders! I can't remember the last time I even seen a GHS but I've got a good few cellar spiders in every room. Wish they'd catch the woman moths too!

It helps having the eyesight of a mole too, except for when hoovering under things then seeing a huge cellar spider almost eye to eye. Viva La Cellar Spoods!

If anyone is considering using peppermint oil, Google its effects on dogs and avoid using it if you have them. I dab some onto a cotton wool ball and wipe it around my wheelie bin lids and it seems to deter flies, fwiw. Unlike my huge lavender plant that is supposed to repel the damn dirty flying things.