Do you think spiders are surprised when people are kind to them?

[bemorebernard]

I found a fairly large spider in my bathroom sink tonight and he played dead

Only when I popped him into a beaker to put out did he show signs of life

He did a pretty good job of acting , I felt sorry for him

Do you think they just anticipate that people will try and kill them so they play dead to try and circumvent that? He seemed surprised when I put him out

And when he was curled up in a little ball he seemed a lot smaller . I really think he was a thinker .

Little sod told his mates . Found this in my kitchen sink now

(Please do excuse the disgusting sink I bleach it but haven't today and can't run the tap or boris gets a shower )

Hes already got a leg missing

No blue badge tho

I don't think they actively feel anything about being spared, they just freeze in a "if I don't move, they won't see me" kind of way, like many animals.

I don't mind spiders but my teen is terrified so I have to catch and put out. Do house spiders really die if you put them outside? That's upsetting.

I drove to a retail park this weekend and when I got out of the car I found a garden spider clinging to the side. I picked him/her up and made several attempts to move it to a grassy area. It kept dropping on a thread. I managed to do it eventually but god knows what shoppers going into Dunhelm Mill must have thought!

Aw, poor spider. Might have starved to death after this.

We have just had a garden room built and a massive spindly spider has taken up residence. As the official spider catcher in the family, I am now the only person prepared to enter, so the room is now mine, by default. That spider and I shall exist together in perfect harmony, all by ourselves.

Nice one winter working in harmony with nature 😂

The one last night definitely played dead , even when I nudged it it stayed in a ball until it realised it was getting put out

The one in the kitchen sink was placid but didn't have such acting skills

Careful now. If spiders have the capacity to understand human kindness, think of the implications of the converse and spiders having the capacity to understand human spider genocide and the inevitable spiders v human wars. There are more of them than us, and we can't keep them out indefinitely.

I use deterrents in my home and kill (with a spray) any big spiders that do make it through. Feel free to offer your house to all and any ecosystems of pests you wish. Woodworm, carpet beetle and dry rot fungus amongst others, are desperate for your ecologically minded households too.
"Saving" spiders seems to be the flavour of the day - it's a bit boring now, really.

Judging by the amount of large house spiders around this time a year, they are doing very well for themselves despite my pathetic efforts at decimating their numbers.

What do you think slugs think (do they cry? ) when they see a Mumsnetter with a torch, bucket and/or scissors on a night?
I shall let you know I have never ever harmed a slug - I'm ecologically minded, virtuous me!

I just leave them unless they need a loo roll ladder to get out of the bath

I do understand the issue some people have as I'm the same with mice. I would have a panic attack if I saw a mouse

I wonder if word gets round in the spider community as to which houses are safe, perhaps on the web?

Those are probably not dead spiders. They are most likely to be shed exoskeletons carelessly left in the web by a newly emerged bigger and better spider.

😂

I really really don't want to know why someone might have scissors while looking for slugs, do I?

I don't like slugs (does anyone?), mostly because they eat my vegetables. But I don't hurt them either. I tried putting them in the weedy verge outside my house but was finding suspiciously similar ones every day. So now I go a little further and put them on a weedy bit the other side of a stream. Successful so far.

I've largely slug proofed my vegetable growing this year though, which was very successful, slug wise. But I forgot about caterpillars. No cabbage for me again. Sigh. Shall use netting next year and plant some sacrificial nasturtiums elsewhere.

From QI (but I have heard it before):

- A house spider's natural habitat is a house. It is one of the few animals that can only live indoors, and it will die if it goes outside. Similarly, garden spiders will die if you bring them indoors.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/14/11/

I dont just leg them out, I take them to the shed , and then squeal whenever I get the lawnmower out

Why do you kill house spiders @QueenCamilla? They are not pests, in fact they are beneficial to us.

I stopped killing spiders after I had a massive fly in my flat & I managed to direct it to a spider's Web in my hall, the spider practically got out it's knife & fork then started munching the fly.

People always say that house spiders don't survive outside but where do they come from in the first place? Example - A new build third floor flat- do the builders install a couple of spiders in each flat? Does the earth open up beneath the foundations and produce house spiders? How do they get in if not from outside?

I used to be properly arachnophobic but I have managed to train myself out of it (I know it sounds implausible). Now when a big house spider appears they are given a name by either me or DD and then we ignore them and let them get on with whatever it is they're doing.

The one living under the cupboard under the kitchen sink is called Tairy (because Tairy rhymes with hairy...).

Since being able to not freak out I've realised that once a spider has clocked a human is there they tend to curl up and hide whereas I used to feel as though they were all going to run towards me. All you have to do is walk around and the vibrations in the floor tend to make them hide.

I can stand less than a foot from Tairy while I do the washing up and I'm confident he won't try to scuttle over my foot because he is very very wary.

hahahaha my giggle of the morning

Oh gosh if you haven't got the phobia you have no idea how physically difficult that is to do when body is in fight or flight mode!

They are usually named "Colin" in my house.
My son hates them. I tell him they are males looking for females and not to shave his legs in case they think he is one.

I get back "you're weird Mum."

Our cat brings in a lot of live mice which I catch in the type of trap which doesn’t hurt them. I then always give them a piece of chocolate to nibble before I release them into the wild as an apology for the trauma they’ve incurred. I then like to think of them scampering back to their family to tell them about the kind lady!

DH reckons it’s the same mouse every time who has an arrangement with the cat that he’ll bring him in so he can get his chocolate fix.

I give ours a strawberry @Sammysquiz they love it and always munch down on it. Hopefully the cat isn't bringing the same one in again and again!