My house is overrun with cellar spiders

[FO70]

They’re everywhere, in every room, even the bathroom. In corners everywhere, in kitchen cupboards, under window sills, everywhere!

I vac them all up but the next day they’re back again.

How do I get rid of them?!

@thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter

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Yes yes yes and yes all around like a moat

How can these spindly little spiders prey on beefy house spiders? That's baffling! I know its true but it seems impossible

@SherryPalmer

There not useless they are brilliant. They eat the big, black house spiders.

This! And I speak as an arachnophobe! I let them stay. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that

The big fast tank-like spiders reduce me to a quivering jelly, but the spindlies generally just hang about in corners, so I'm not scared of them at all. If they are too near my bed I'll carefully relocate them to another room, but I never kill or evict them.

When we moved house I even considered carefully boxing a few up in case the new house didn't have any, and also I was sad to leave them behind and think the new residents would probably just hoover them up DH told me I was being bonkers, though. Luckily, new house did have them!

I have them. I also have a spider scooper for use by the family member screaming the least (generally me), plug ins to deter them and intend to get shedloads of conkers this autumn. Will investigate that spray you mentioned

@Janaih

How can these spindly little spiders prey on beefy house spiders? That's baffling! I know its true but it seems impossible

It is true. I've seen the big buggers dead and wrapped up in their webs.

They butcher them with spider-knives then carry the useless leggy parts and drop them in the kettle overnight. That is why I always swill the kettle before I boil it. Otherwise the leggy parts boil up in the water and makes the tea taste funny. And all along you thought it was flouride in the water.

You might not see the good they do but that's because they do it under cover of darkness. I was up at 3am today and watched one wrapping up a huge, hairy house spider 3 times its size. When I got up again at 7am, there was no sign it had even moved overnight.

Believe me, they do a brilliant job of stopping other bigger spiders and they generally stay in one spot unless disturbed. Mine also deal with midges atm.

Leave them be if you can.

I'm tempted to search youtube for videos but also a bit scared.

If it's true they eat other spiders and flies etc I'm happy to leave them be, I just thought they hung around doing nothing as I've never seen them move unless disturbed. I had a huge one in my downstairs toilet, he was called Cecil/ Cecilia, I thought he/she was cute until I realised he/she had a large family all living under my roof.

My puppy eats spiders. This makes up for him being a total arsehole in every other way.

Don't hoover them! They lay eggs in the hoover and then crawl out... Put them back outside.

And buy one of those high pitch frequency machine things (humans can't hear it) that deter all creepy crawlers

@NotExactlyMrsCurrentAffairs

I have loads too. I always Hoover them up as they're the webby buggers that create cobwebs everywhere. A few years ago I was sat watching TV with a box of xmas decs beside me that DH had got out of the cellar. One of them crawled out of the box and across my face, scared the shit out of me!

Fucking hell

Apparently they bite the legs of the big spiders so they can’t run, and then kill them. They are also very good mothers. They are not what one could call a beautiful spider though, with those horrible fragile limbs, and tiny bodies.

you have probably got all boys. Its the females that are lethal spider killing machines. They also eat the boys after mating.

I loathe spiders with a passion. I’m paralysingly afraid of the big hobnailed boot fuckers but the cellar spiders are my BFFs for keeping the population down.

I call them my spindly babes. They never ever stomp across the floor towards you like they’re about to demand rent like the beefy ones just chill in corners all ethereal.

Unlike most other spiders they don’t scoff up their ruined webs so the cobwebs can get a bit much but it’s a small price to pay for not having to scan the room every time I enter one like some sort of bloody Mission Impossible.

I’ve just ordered the sonar thingy

I have loads!

I’m leaving them there.

They eat the big buggers ....

@SirVixofVixHall

Apparently they bite the legs of the big spiders so they can’t run, and then kill them. They are also very good mothers. They are not what one could call a beautiful spider though, with those horrible fragile limbs, and tiny bodies.

Like a spidery version of daddy long legs? I need me one of those as I have the ones that look like they could beat you up. DH caught one and chucked it outside away from the house - apparently it legged it back to the house before DH did! 😬

Are cellar spiders the same as daddy-long-legs then?

(which is such a weird name!

"What shall we call this creature with long legs"
"I know, we shall call it a long-legs"
"Hmmmmm, no. Needs more kink!")

The thing is that I would rather see one massive house spider a month rather than these cellar ones every day. They’re even in my kitchen cupboards, where I store pots and pans. The other day I hoovered all the cupboards, every corner of the kitchen. The very next day I opened my own cupboard and there was another cellar spider in its place. Surely that can’t be hygienic? They’re on the bathroom rack, they’re behind the bedside table, they’re everywhere!

I opened my PAN cupboard

@TheLastStarfighter

Are cellar spiders the same as daddy-long-legs then?

(which is such a weird name!

"What shall we call this creature with long legs"
"I know, we shall call it a long-legs"
"Hmmmmm, no. Needs more kink!")

I am an arachnophobe and I love these spindly babes, they mind their own business and eat the nasty fuckers. They're good mothers. Leave em be.

@Manolin

They butcher them with spider-knives then carry the useless leggy parts and drop them in the kettle overnight. That is why I always swill the kettle before I boil it. Otherwise the leggy parts boil up in the water and makes the tea taste funny. And all along you thought it was flouride in the water.

Thanks. I didn't need to sleep tonight anyway.

Yeuch OP, a bit embarrassed to say I am not as magnanimous as other posters here!
I spray a mixture of citric acid and geranium essential oil and orange oil on the buggers and in corners/dark places, window sills and door cracks.
They hate it
I spray it on cat litter and Hoover a bit of that to kill any potential Hoover hiders too