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 .

@Norachance

People always say that house spiders don't survive outside but where do they come from in the first place?

Presumably they hitch a ride on the furniture, fixtures and fittings or bags and boxes. I have never seen a house spider outside unless someone put him there.

I had an arachnaphobe friend who would strongly insist the spider be squashed and then vehemently ask over and over again if it was dead. They literally could not rest knowing it was alive. I used to lie and say yes but just chuck it outside not realising that I was condemning it to death anyway!

@Mothership4two oh no poor thing it's not it's fault it's terrifying - I always want them to be re-homed very far away from me humanely but I really struggle to get close enough to do it myself!

Ffs ! Bertha has a homing device. She's back in the bloody sink .

This is the second time I've taken 7 legged Bertha to the shed ! She obviously thinks I'm the perfect housemate.

I'm sort o touched that she keeps coming home but the sink ? Why the sink ?

I like to have a little chat with them. We make an agreement. Mr spider is fine to live under the living room chair and eat as many flies or bugs he can find but in return I expect him to stay away from my bedroom and not run near my feet.

DH and DC look at me like I'm a nutter when I do this.

I've just taken Bertha back to the shed but given she keen I expect her home within a few days .

My daft cat brought a mouse in to the house....let it go then just sat watching it.. absolutely didn't give a hoot.. just lay there cleaning hind legs then went to sleep. Lazy cat. This mouse was bold though....we would try to catch him her to put him out .. evaded capture..when we were completely knackered from trying...he would come out... stand on hind legs with wide eyes. He was a sassy mouse that one!

I love this post, I like spiders (always feel it's ott saying I love them lol) I'm always the spider catcher but also quite often leave them to their own devices depending on the size and their location. i live in an old barn conversion , so I swear there are more and they don't seem to quite do the job of fly catching. For the amount of spiders and their webs in the house there seems to be very few deceased flies lol. Sometimes the odd one does end up in vacuum cleaner I'm afraid to say. We also have a rubber spider hanging in a bathroom that my mum.put there for a joke it's still there over a year later but she has carers in now keep meaning to move it, but so far no one seems to have freaked out, probably because they are still getting over the excitement of meeting our Rottie lol who I have to say is also rubbish at catching flies , but she does leave spiders alone

I’ve seen this first hand. I once found a grey goose that had become entangled in the net of a football goal. From a distance it looked like a rubbish bag blowing in the wind. The goose went strangely calm, as did my dog, and let me untangle it without even a flap! Luckily it seemed uninjured and flew away to join its flock. It felt like a pretty magical moment.

As for my resident spiders, who live in the conservatory; They do seem to act like a barrier to mosquitoes getting in the house. Just before the recent heatwave I had to clean away their webs prior to redecorating and I got bitten horribly by mozzies in the aftermath. As far as I’m concerned they can stay (as long as they don’t come in the house).

I was looking for a mention of cats in this thread and was surprised that both the mentions I saw were a divergence from the spider theme. Our cats eat spiders and any other creepy crawlies they find in the house! Possibly slugs too, which get into our kitchen by some as yet undetermined route. Doubt they've ever met a mouse as they're only allowed out under supervision (the cats, not the slugs).