Are some houses just more spidery than others?

[Nachobutt]

Living in a 1930s house. Very spidery. I slightly dread this time of year because it feels as though they all pack their suitcases and come indoors. Chunky ones, long legged ones with many joints, the ones that look like hair - all types.

It feels as though in our previous house - a Victorian semi - we had far fewer spiders.

Could this be? Are some houses just more spidery than others? Or am I not vacuuming properly...?

do you have a large tree nearby/garden ?

attic ?

I haven't seen one for ages but a big archy one landed on my arm last night 😳

I think so yes, when we lived in a house with big gardens front and back there seemed to be more. I even found a frog in the kitchen cupboard once ha.

If you have lots of bushes or trees under/near windows and doors that will be a big factor. I lived in what I thought was my dream cottage for a while, in a little woodland with ivy around the windows and doors… it was HIDEOUS for spiders, I mean you’d see 10-20 a night during autumn. It was grim.

Absolutely drenching your windows and doors and any draughty brick work with deathlac really helps by the way.

Our house is 4 years old and very spidery at this time of year. I just had my son remove a house spider a few hours ago. We’ve had some real biggun’s…and I’m terrified.

We’ve also had a few large false widows, one fell on my son’s face when he was asleep in bed.

My last house also felt less spidery…so perhaps the last few years have just been particularly bad.

When we moved to our new house I noticed that there were lots of cellar spiders, had never seen them in our previous house and they seem to keep the big ones at bay.

Yes my new house has spiders, beetles, silver fish and slugs. It’s because there are gaps everywhere for the wretched creatures to live in. Once I sorted the pointing in the floors and been round with the sealant and decorators caulk it’ll be fine.

Yes, our house is very spidery. I think it's because it's close to woods and we sort of share a room with the garage.
The last place we lived was a middle floor flat, I think I saw less than 5 spiders in that place in the 13 years we lived there.

Definitely OP.

It's one of the benefits of living in the inner city I think! Although it's a big old Victorian terrace with a cellar we see only one or two of the big house spiders a year. One in the bath last week that I had to get DH to evict.

We do have loads of spindly cellar spiders though. I leave them alone since I started reading MN!

Oh I didn't know they were called cellar spiders. We call them hair spiders!! 😁

Yes I think a combination of more gardens around us and more little holes and gaps. It's quite a draughty house.

A friend of mine said she would never again live in a house with wisteria around the windows. Beautiful to look at but an actual proper ladder for spiders. Urgh.

Oooh I've just read what cellar spiders do!! I didn't know this! I too will leave them be and will tell DC!

Our house is only 2 years old and it’s very spidery. It’s very rural though and backs on to trees and a stream.

I was woken in the middle of the night yesterday with a feeling of something walking over my face and falling down my top. Leapt up and turned the light on to see a massive spider in the bed.Im afraid to go to bed now.

Our house is very spidery. We only moved in last year, 1970s build, not much of a garden but quite a rural location. I’ve been decorating over the summer and have evicted countless spiders from corners of rooms only for them to return hours later. Most of them are quite big with long thin legs and they do this weird spinning motion when you confront them close up that I’ve never seen before. Thankfully they don’t bother me and I just toss them out of the window with my hands.

No!

You must sell the house immediately.

Oh Christ @Joonio

You have to nuke the house from space now I'm afraid!

Been in a very old house for one year, just had our first spider! We've named him and he is officially a housemate.

Our previous home was a new build and jeeeeez the amount of spiders, BIG spiders, we will never forget. At one point I came home from work to find DP had shut himself out in the garden waiting for me to come home so we could tackle one together 🤣

I live in a fairly old cottage (around 300 years old). The first few years were horrible. Huge house/field spiders - I dreaded this time of year. The first year the cats were fairly helpful - would come down in the morning to find 2 or 3 dead bodies to clear up. After that - useless! They’d sit on the sofa watching them.

Over time, while decorating, I e filled in gaps etc - definite drop in spider infiltration.

The only ones I tolerate now are the cellar spiders (or hairy as you call them). I’m in a timber-framed cottage and had problems, from prior years of neglect, which meant that quite serious work had to be carried out. The timber specialist told me that cellar spiders are a good friend in an older property - they deal with many of the critters that can cause damage. So now I leave them be wherever possible - and it’s definitely true that they deal with the chunkier house spiders. I witnessed an attack a couple of nights ago, still amazes me how they do it.

They love houses with black cladding. Nice and warm to sunbathe and build webs on.

My bastards must have been colourblind - my house is white.

Im a summer lover - the only reason I tolerate winter is the fact that the buggers are gone for a while!

You need to spider proof your house! Put filler in every gap....skirtings, floorboard gaps, gaps around pipes coming up from the floor or down from the loft. Ensure loft hatches are close fitting. Draught excluder round external doors.

Spray entry points, especially doorways, with spider repellent (get it from Amazon, it usually has stuff like mint and horse chestnut extract in it).

When you have windows open, put up gauze, the sort that stops flies and wasps coming in. I have the very fine, black gauze.....it's so fine you wouldn't know it was there unless you looked closely. It lets in all the fresh air but no larger insects or spiders at all.

Be very thorough with your cleaning....missed cobwebs are an invitation to other spiders to make more. Constant vacuuming the floors/carpets and persistent feather dusting all corners, ceilings and so on discourage any spiders from staying around. Vacuum under beds, sofas, move heavy furniture frequently, don't have piles of clutter where spiders can hide.... eventually they give up and leave.

Can I ask a (probably) stupid question? Why do people mind spiders in the house?

I leave all my upstairs window upstairs open constantly from Spring until Autumn unless I stay away overnight so naturally there's a lot of spiders in the house.

But they just sort of hang out in webs near the ceiling and then when they move on I clean the webs away.

They don't come near me or particularly bother me apart from the odd few that seem to fall in the bath and I have to rehome to the garden but that isn't many compared to how many visit the house.

My last house had loads! It was modern no bushes nearby but did have a woody area at the end of the decent sized garden.

My new house is a 1930s semi, no trees or bushes. It has a suspended floor. I've seen less here in 2 years than I did in 2 weeks at the last place.

I did see a huge house spider on Thursday though. 😩

Yes my last house was extremely spidery. 1930s semi also that backed onto fields. So much so that I did the friendly spider programme after I'd been there a couple of years because I couldn't cope with the mounting dread every August.

my current home is a flat in a town and I've only had two so far this year and maybe two last year.