Massive spider in lounge, shut the door and sealed with masking tape last night,now what?

"Oh, we don't use that room: there was a spider in there in the summer of 2026." 🕸🕷

No judgement at all for the fear, I don't mind spiders at all but ,my God, I can't cope with pigeons. Phobias are such a natural thing, I can't understand some of the comments here. The big spiders are coming inside due to the extreme heat, so you might see a few more. Invest in a spider trap as others have said, you don't have to seal up rooms then!

I'd take the tape off the door asap OP as it will end up marking it as the glue degrades.

Please don’t kill it because you are scared of it. It is probably scared of you.
Get someone to help you if you really cannot get hold of it via a glass covered then with something to release it.

This ^
I would absolutely do it for a friend even not a close one, no judgement whatsoever.

OP you really woke up some spider wankers with this post didn’t you!

My advice in these situations is to run away until a grown up appears to handle it. Good luck.

How big is big? I got one out of the bath recently - glass and card and out already opened window - and I would say leg to leg it was about 2 inches across (sorry, dont do metric, decided I wasn't going to use it at 21). I am a bit phobic but also aware that the spiders we find in our houses are house spiders and they are probably just lurking where we can't see them. Had one in the kitchen sink which was a pain - needed to open two doors to get it into the garden where it will have been miffed and instantly found another way into the house.
Sorry, OP. As I said, I am only slightly phobic - I don't like spiders but unless it's a ten foot tarantula alien invader I can't see the point of killing them (they catch flies and are probably the origin of streamers on Christmas trees, though the baubles are, I think, apples).
Edited for to, too, two

I find the most useful removal device is attracting the help of a person who is not scared of them and will do it to shut you up 😂

You'll have to get it removed or you will never rest easy in your lounge.

We once had someone give us a present of Italian wine they bought in a vinyard ( not as posh as it sounds but anyway) the next day there was a Maooosive spider glued fiercely to the ceiling for several days and I had to duck and cover to use the stairs. The tallest DC eventually got a glass over it and removed it. They wore garden gloves tho.. as no way of knowing what the bite would be like. My BIL was removing a spider with bare hands from his DCs cot and it bit him. Painful.

There is something about them. But I can't pin point what it is.

You should have hunted it down right away OP. It could be anywhere now!!!!!

😥

You clearly never watched the 90s children's series 'Spider!' 😕

I never, ever kill spiders unless by accident when they are playing REALLY hard to get and I end up having to hose them down the plughole because they won't let me take them safely out of the bath and I need to get in it.

I get loads of massive spiders in my bedroom and I gently save them all using the upturned glass and piece of thin cardboard method, then put them out of the window.

I never kill bees, or most bugs for that matter. I will however, kill mosquitoes that are trying to eat me, those minging big fat bluebottles that will lay revolting eggs on your food if you turn your back on them, and my most hated of insects, the bastarding horsefly. Even wasps get a chance to live long and prosper under my benign dictatorship, so long as they don't continue to push their luck after several verbal warnings.

OP, for some reason, house flies give me the heebie jeebies, seriously. Chills all down my spine, so all I can do is open all the windows and hope it flies out!

So I do empathize. It's just that spiders aren't my problem. Hopefully it's disappeared by now. Probably a Tegenaria if it's really big. The males wander at night looking for females. Both sexes also wander looking for water, so if it's been really dry where you are, if you want to keep them in one part of the house where it won't matter to you, you can try putting a tiny dish of water in a dark corner. Keep it topped up and they won't wander around looking for a drink.

ps. this is also why you can find them in the sink or bathtub. They fall in and get trapped. if you leave a towel long enough draped over the side, they can climb out again, and in the morning, they won't still be there!

Masking tape won’t stop a spider getting out! They are able to flatten themselves and get through narrow spaces! Invest in a vacuum spider catcher from Amazon

Are you always so dismissive of phobias?

I LOVE how unhinged this is because I would have done exactly the same!

I don’t like to kill spiders either, but I’m happy for my cat to do it. It gets eaten so it’s not wasted.

🤣🤣

I generally put a glass over it and wait for DH to get home, do you live alone op? I'd open the door slowly with the hoover in one hand and a glass in the other.

House spiders can get fucking massive. The biggest one I've ever seen decided to appear in our bathroom just after me and DH had had a massive row....I had to sheepishly go and get him to get rid of it 😳It was seriously huge

Rocket launcher through the lounge window!

Assuming OP is in UK and it’s not a Brazilian Wandering Spider or something. Even if in UK it could have arrived in the bananas! Assuming it’s a house spider or cardinal or similar, get someone to catch her and put her out.

Knew you’d get loads of idiotic replies from wankers who don’t know what a phobia is 🙄

Another vote for burning the house down 🔥

House spiders don’t go outside. They live in houses. They die outside.

Realistically, it’s very unlikely to be sat in the middle of the room waiting for you. It will have tucked itself under a piece of furniture, or gone out the window or squeezed itself through a gap or a crack and you will never see it again.

Posting this in AIBU was bound to get the mockers who wilfully fail to understand phobias. I don't like big house spiders but I find the types of people who whinny on about how they wouldn't be scared, or patronisingly explain how spiders won't hurt you, are much less happy with a variety of creatures I'm very comfortable handling, from rats and bats to slugs. Or they're not keen on tight spaces in caves, or swimming with jellyfish, but I don't lecture them back.

I've already done the supposed phobia cures and found none of them work permanently. If you go to the zoo programme you'll be able to catch spiders after breathing exercises in the company of other people, but probably won't feel the same about one in your bathroom at night. Hypnosis is a semi-con and has a habit of failing when the initial conditions change. An honest psychologist will tell you genuine phobias are often intractable but can be managed.

The way to manage big house spider phobia is to buy a powerful cylinder hoover, switched to maximum power on its longest extending tube and hoover them up quickly as soon as you see them - the suction vortex kills them immediately, you can get at them anywhere. They aren't endangered. Do it and don't pay attention to anyone who doesn't feel the same. The one you shut in will probably have disappeared but prep a hoover for if / when you see it again.