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Original poster

pholcidae/cellar spiders - care advice (picture warning)

137 replies

MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 14:58

this sounds nuts, but if you are not a fan of the big hairy twats currently running around like maniacs giving everyone heart failure then I STRONGLY advise you to make friends with these babes, the spindly leggy bois who just hang around upside down in corners minding their own business. you may not think they look up to the job, but they eat the fat hairy fuckers. since I learned this, I have stopped escorting them off the premises and can report a downturn in heart stopping OH FUCKING JESUS FUCK style encounters.

anyway. so in the course of making friends with my enemy's enemy, I have found that the gentle, nice pholcidae spider is an attentive mother, staying with her babies until they have their first moult. I have one on my attic stairs who has 12 hatchlings with her. last time this happened (front room, bookcase) the mother was stuck there over a week with her babies and I started to get worried about her eating and drinking and so on. so, does anyone have any advice on how I can support her post partum (or whatever you call it for spiders). or should I just leave them all be? I want to encourage them, they're my house spider death squad. TIA

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Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 10/09/2018 21:32

Plus I wasn’t going to leave it to get it’s spider freak on and produce more monsters, not in my house

FloweringOrchid · 10/09/2018 21:36

It may be because I dont have alot of friends, but i love listening to the mumsnet collective. You lot make me laugh. We don’t get many spiders in our flat, I’m not sure if its because we’re so high up? Do spiders chill further up in the air?

Original poster
MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 21:36

I know, the dirty bastards

shuddering here

this thread has cursed me, I am sure I will meet the fucking daddy of them all tonight now. And Eleven won't be available to deal with it, she's distracted on maternity leave

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Gingaaarghpussy · 10/09/2018 21:38

I'm fairly certain that the 2 egg sacks in my dining room are courtesy of cellar spiders. I've had them in my flat for as long as I've lived here.
If I come across any live ones I think I might try and herd them towards the false widow I have in my kitchen.
I have no problems with sharing my space with any spider except ones with large round abdomens.

Original poster
MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 21:44

We don’t get many spiders in our flat, I’m not sure if its because we’re so high up? Do spiders chill further up in the air

I didn't used to either when I lived in a first floor maisonette (how I miss that). I think it's because they come in from outbuildings or up from cellars looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces etc

hot spots in my house: the front room (above the cellar), the bathroom (is situated over a gennel, terraced house), the stairs (built over a cupboard which has an air brick out to the gennel - also had a couple of sleepy queen wasps crawling around on the stairs in may, nothing but good times in my casa), and dd's room which is a loft conversion and has eaves storage. I keep meaning to seal around my skirting boards with that silicon stuff. I wonder if that helps? I'll try owt.

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Original poster
MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 21:46

I'm fairly certain that the 2 egg sacks in my dining room are courtesy of cellar spiders

no, afraid not, cellar spiders carry their eggs around with them and stay close by till their babies are hatched and good to start the killing spree life. I'd keep a close eye on those bad boys, they could be Undesirables

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Original poster
MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 21:47

note to self: do not google 'false widow'

fuckety NOPE

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BifsWif · 10/09/2018 22:11

I have loads of these spindly babes in my house, and I did know that they are the big hairy fuckers (thanks mumsnet!), but I feel very much in turmoil now that I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes!

I feel sad for the big hairy fuckers. They only come out to try and get a shag.

Original poster
MadameButterface · 10/09/2018 22:14

they need to put it away quite frankly

it's utterly unnecessary

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BifsWif · 10/09/2018 22:15

ate the big hairy fuckers*.

Damn you autocorrect.

PaulHollywoodsSexGut · 10/09/2018 22:16

looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces etc

I’m dead 😂

anunseemlylovefordustin · 10/09/2018 22:23

I can't express how much I love this thread 😆 Although I'm one of those who likes the Ballet Spiders as well as the Hairy Fuckers - because they both get rid of the fecking FLIES which are the bane of my life all summer.

WhiteVixen · 10/09/2018 22:50

Question... how do the spindly legs catch the big hairy fuckers? I only ever see hairy fuckers on the floor, yet the spindly legs are on the ceiling. Do they swoop down and pounce, then haul them back to their ceiling lair? Or is it only if the hairy fuckers venture in a vertical direction and stray too close?

Gingaaarghpussy · 10/09/2018 23:04

See! False widows are supposedly pretty, but they have BIG abdomens, not only that, they are supposed to be noble.

So what the fuck has left its egg sacks in my dining room then?

I have had cellar spiders, I've seen them, other spiders, not so much.

Although I'm not too bothered because no spider populates my bedroom or frontroom.

BlackeyedSusan · 10/09/2018 23:08

have cultivated the cellar spiders as the neighbours were getting fed up of getting deafened . not helpful when there is an enormous fucker that you discover at one in the morning on the way to the loo.

ilovetvandchocolates · 10/09/2018 23:11

Oh shit, I went and hoovered up 3 of these supreme spider killers today, why did no one tell me?

Sparrowlegs248 · 10/09/2018 23:11

I hoover them. They leave bloody cobwebs all over the place.

Worieddd · 10/09/2018 23:14

Wow this thread has been a revelation!

We don’t have the spindly ones in our house Sad

CoughArghCoughArghCough · 10/09/2018 23:14

I love my leggy babes! We have a collection in the bathroom, and had many babies a few weeks ago. One of the mums is awful though, she was sharing a web with what I assumed was her child, until she pounced on him and ate him. So either she's a heartless cow, or it was a DH rather than a DC and she ate him because spiders. Also: leggy babes do one heck of a good pounce.

However, I also love my hairy bois Grin We have a couple who live under the sofa and they are so well behaved. You don't know they're there until you see something the size of a small bison galloping across the carpet.

Pywife2 · 10/09/2018 23:15

I like the big ones that trundle about the floor. Although not when I see one running across my pillow. That made me wonder if they patrol their territory and whether it had been doing that every night when I was asleep.

Also put on a white bath robe that had been warming on the radiator, looked in the mirror and spotted a large dry spider on my shoulder. I did brush that one off fairly quickly.

I feel differently about the fragile ones now, I thought they were benign creatures.

Longdistance · 10/09/2018 23:19

This was in our living last week. Not seen her since. Probably too noisy for her.

pholcidae/cellar spiders - care advice (picture warning)
Bufferingkisses · 10/09/2018 23:42

Madame, I invested in a long handled duster thingumy (technical) so I can de-cobweb without causing loss of spindlers Grin

TheClitterati · 10/09/2018 23:58

I feel sick. Educated. Thankful Gin

I've been keeping all our windows closed for a while now. It sucks.

Fuzzywig · 11/09/2018 00:11

Have you started knitting yet? I suggest booties for all the babies and leg warmers for the Mama - While your at it knit a willy warmer for Daddy spider I am sure he’s out wiping his willy on someone’s washing!

INeedNewShoes · 11/09/2018 00:23

Sorry to say it but one of the biggest spiders I've ever had to share a space with was in my 11th floor flat. He must have taken the lift. I couldn't even opt to cower in the next room as it was a studio flat.