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...?

My house isn’t very spidery but the last one was and I’m terrified of the buggers. My methods include flea spray, flea bombing every room at the start of sept and also we put those sticky traps down (controversial but we have caught some huge buggers in them). My fear at this time of the year is all consuming and I am constantly on edge.

The ones you mentioned in your earlier post, that stay high up on webs (and are usually spindly) are called cellar spiders, or pholcidae. They eat other spiders. We let the cellar spiders hang around too, and don't see too many house spiders.

We have lots of cellar spiders. This morning while I was on the bog(!) I saw a huge house spider and it was coming towards me. I quickly changed toilets! Then later my husband said he'd looked for the spider (Cyril he named it) but couldn't find it. He was going to catch it and let it out.

I lifted up the bath mat expecting Cyril to scuttle out only to find him flattened underneath. My husband must have trodden on him by accident.

I guess, if husband hadn't got him, the cellar spiders would have!

I’m with you on the sticky traps, we have them and they really work and spiders are dispatched promptly. It also helps to desensitise me seeing them I think.

We leave them too;my kids give them names

Yes, I think they are! I used to live in a converted garage and it was wild...at least 2 or 3 big ones every night. When I first starting looking to buy a house, I viewed one property that had a huge spider sitting in the bath. The house was pretty nice otherwise but I decided to not put an offer in on the basis it was likely a 'spidery house'!!

We now live in a new build and I spray round the windows and entry points with a spider repellent. It's definitely better than some of the other houses of horror I rented as a young adult!

Can I just ask how often people spray around the house with peppermint oil? Should I be doing every day?

I grew up in an old farmhouse surrounded by fields, and there were tons of them.

Then I lived in various flats for several years in Edinburgh and I don't think I saw a single one. It was bliss.

Then we moved back down to Wales and there were loads again 😭

In our last house, though, there were loads the first couple of autumns - like, 3-5 huge ones a day in Sept/Oct. All were either killed or caught by DH and taken for a walk right down the road before being released. Just putting outside not good enough, as I feared they would come straight back in. So I made him take them far away.
I started gathering conkers and putting them everywhere round the house, and that seemed to help. I used some of the repellent sprays. Each year there were fewer. I got window netting and NO WINDOW was allowed to be open without it. Doors were not to be left open.
Then I heard the gospel of the cellar spiders and started welcoming them, and by the time we moved, we did not get a single large house spider. We had several years with none. I became such a believer that I seriously considered packing some cellar spiders in a tub and bringing them with us when we moved, in case our new house didn't have them.
Fortunately, it did 😁They are ace!

Is that really true? I shall buy all the peppermint if so. All of it.

I love a thatched roof. I'd never thought of the price you pay for it. Sympathies.

It's not a breed! I mean the house spiders are ranging around because they are looking to mate.

SO SO helpful. I'm no longer phobic. 30 years of phobia cured in an afternoon. It was so gentle and easy and non threatening. Even the entirely hysterically panicking woman at the start was calm and in control by the end! Please trust me and take the plunge. Changed my life.

I saw a skinny one catch a massive black on in the web and eat it once. Grossly fascinating.

It seems to repel them. Not fully but certainly reduces them. I mix peppermint oil with water and a drop of washing up liquid and spray it round all the doors and window frames. Worth a shot 😂

I used to live very close to a banana plantation, found some interesting characters in my apartment at times 😲🧐😱 I can post a picture but it's not for the faint hearted!

We used to live in a 1960s house, surrounded on all sides by gardens. It was spider heaven, I remember one night there were three massive ones in my room and I had to sleep on the landing. Can picture it now, even in the dark I could see the shadow of the biggest one, I swear it was bigger than a tarantula. I was about 15 and was traumatised for years.

Now we live in a late Victorian semi and I hardly see any. There have been a couple of big ones on five years. I don't know if they just have more places to hide..

We live on the edge of a wood and get loads. 🥵
I hate them, I don’t kill them- but I can’t stand them.

This seems like an appropriate place to tell you what happened in my house last night...

I was with DP, on the sofa. He was sitting up and I was snuggled into him, head on his chest. All of a sudden he said "Don't move" and blew something off my head.

It was a great big fuck off black spider😱On my head. ON. MY. HEAD.

We trapped it and put it outside but I felt twitchy all night. And I couldn't even text my best friend to tell her cos she's terrified of spiders and would never come and visit me again😂

Absolutely they are.
My mum's house is like spider hotel.
Grew up terrified of them
Very rarely get them in my house but not so scared these days!

Our Victorian house in the countryside is much more spidery than our city Edwardian terrace was , but I put that down to the surroundings. We also have more mice, birds and bats coming in windows and down chimneys and escaped chickens wandering in the conservatory doors and that's all before you get to the wildlife in the garden (badgers, foxes, deer, owls - bloody noisy owls, pheasants, hedgehogs, rabbits, squirrels, weasels, bats, frogs, toads, hawks and lots and lots of birds)
I used to be bothered by it all now I'm remarkably relaxed.