Spider season 😭

[Hardknocks]

I need all your foolproof tips. DH and I both scared of spiders, it’s pathetic. I just found a giant house spider in the bathroom and we both spent half an hour working out how to trap it, it involved a broom because both of us were too scared to go in the room and a very big tub!

I hate them so much, I can handle the smaller ones but the giant ones make me want to cry.

Did he knock on the door and offer your neighbour a free spider or stealthily post it through the letterbox or what? I'm intrigued 🤔

Yes please, me too... I'm dying to know.
Did he offer the spider up in the tin with the neighbour thinking they were receiving a gift of shortbread? They must have been a bit disappointed/disgruntled after putting the kettle on, and opening the tin....

Wait a minute, I thought I was safe when it was snowing out! That's why I love winter as I thought it was too cold for big spiders then 🤷🏼‍♀️

Did he wrap the tin up and stick a bow on it?
If they adopted it, did you ever dare go round to their house again?

Well it was an old house and the spider will already have been inside.

Well the recipient - a writer, slightly eccentric, single male, couple of cats (which will have probably killed the spider anyway) gladly accepted our odd gift lol and thought it was highly amusing.

I just couldn’t think what else to do with it ha ha - it got sent round in a washed out dog food tin - no bow or shortbread involved 🤣

We had a spell of them coming in during the warm weather, there has been a lull recently but no doubt that will change. We have a staircase with a double height ceiling above where it turns back on itself and so many bedtimes there’s one up there out of reach unless I get the stepladder out and knock it down with a long bamboo cane. then get down the ladder and catch it in a jar. I find them terrifying and repulsive and hate how they appear at night. We had a huge one take residence for weeks under the cooker and it would only appear at night - I could only see its black legs sticking out. sprayed the area several times with neat vinegar and it decided to move behind the fridge instead. Found it going upstairs one evening! Luckily caught it and DH put it out - right at the end of the garden. I worry they will just come straight back in. I think they come up through holes in the floor from the foundations where pipes come up, there’s no keeping them out. Also they appear from behind the bathroom mirror which is bolted onto the wall, always shocks me. I thump the mirror now to see if anything comes out. And yes if the curtains are tied back they can appear from the folds. Made the mistake of getting brown curtains - never again. Mostly they seem unaware of the consternation they cause but then there are lively ones determined to get places they can’t be extracted from. Found one in my T-shirt drawer once, I never used that chest of drawers again as it had a gap at the back. I’m late 60s and became aware of this fear at age 8 when one was on my towel. Its baked in, not something I chose. I don’t care about them outside, I try not to kill them but if they move too fast the jar catches their legs. I also have those smaller transparent hair mousse lids to get in smaller spaces, I don’t even use mousse now, but may have to buy some or dry shampoo to get the lids!

I woke up just after midnight to go check if I'd closed dds window. The window was closed, but I spotted something black on the wall. Turned on the lamp to see a massive spider right next to dds bed on the wall.

I tried to be quiet to go get dp to get it. The only way he could was to stand on the bed and reach up. He was half asleep so I was worried he would accidentally drop it. He got it but just as he jumped down off the bed dd woke up.

Of course she asked what was going on. I told her dad was getting a little spider. She knows I deal with most of the smaller ones and dad does the beasts. She stayed awake for another hour crying whilst I sat in her room scanning the walls.

Eventually she fell asleep. We're all tired this morning thanks to the spider. God knows how many I've missed and dd has slept through walking past her bed! Makes me shudder.

I noticed some tiny black dots on my conservatory floor , as I got closer I saw a thin thread dropping from the ceiling almost to the floor . Putting my glasses on I saw the dots were moving . Then realisation hit into sheer panic.. The dots were in fact minute new baby spiders sliding down this thread from the nest into my house . OMG I ran for the hoover, vacuumed them up and emptied them onto the garden . There were hundreds . Can you imagine how many monsters would have been in my house had I not noticed . The stuff of nightmares

@Blueglazzier my conservatory is basically a spider hotel 😩

I wish I hadn’t opened this thread, I feel itchy now!
My DH luckily doesn’t mind spiders so takes them outside for me.

I remember when I was a little girl my Grandmother used to (very strangely!) leave sugar in the bath to ‘feed’ them. I went to the toilet one day not knowing this, looked in the bath and there were around 6 of them in there. I ran from the bathroom screaming!

One time I was in the passenger seat of my car with the window open. We'd gone down a narrow country lane and the bushes along the side brushed up against the windows as we were going past.

I thought nothing of it until I looked down at some point to see a long very thin strand going from the door to my knee, with hundreds of baby spiders crawling all over me and the car. I had to wait for the driver to stop the car somewhere safe with them crawling all over. It was awful.

I still shudder when I think about it and this was years ago.

I'm Australian so I see your Uk spiders and I raise you.

Not a fan of spiders, generally though.

However, I always think that they are so scared of us. They are teeny and they see us great hulking horrible humans who tend to kill, main or destroy everything in our path. So i feel quite sorry for them and all the other critters.

DH leaves a towel draped over the bath as for some reasons spiders get stuck there. If there is a towel they can climb more easily and get out.

I think it's made worse by the fact they always appear when I'm trying to relax. Watching tv, one runs across the floor. Led in bed trying to sleep, ones climbing across the wall!

I’m trying to get over my “ick” of spiders. It’s not strong enough to be fear- more so significant heebie jeebies!

Naming them definitely helps and faking being calm and confident about removing them with glass and paper in front of the DC so they don’t inherit my hang-ups.

I’ve also come to be able to co-exist with the spindly looking ones that hang out in the corners of rooms. I name them and I’m actually coming to like them. Are they cellar spiders? So basically spidery spider-control?! If so that makes me like them even more!

For me it’s the speed of the darker, shorter legged fast ones that freaks the shit out of me. Need to analyse that further to try and figure out why this is exactly… maybe a spider catcher thingy would help though. Do they work on fasties?!

In the meantime I thankfully have a DH who loves all living things and carefully rescues and rehabilitates anything I can’t handle😁

I did grow a pair last night when I found another one and took him outside. It helps when DD is asleep because I can only silently scream and I think I feel braver 😂

We live in a new build on an old water meadow and they are BEASTS. I know all the Aussies will be laughing at me 😂 that’s why I will never visit!

I’m trying to come to terms with the smaller ones and just let them live peacefully with us. When they start getting into palm size territory they have to be evicted.

The spiders in my house seem to ‘know’ I’m scared of them and are having a laugh at my expense - in the past week I’ve had one crawl over my foot, and today I went into the bathroom, glanced in the mirror, and there was one on my HEAD!!! 😱

I used to not mind them - in fact when my brother and I shared a bedroom, one day we tried to race a couple of spiders. Then one day when I got my own bedroom there was a mahoosive one on my ceiling. I called my dad up as mum was at her cookery class and my brother was at cubs. When mum got home I told her what happened and she was very surprised as my dad is absolutely terrified of the spiders! He was sucking a sweet once and it felt hairy......

Mind you I love the little jumping spiders I see all over you tube. They look adorable!