Fucking harvest spiders

[pleasedrivecarefully]

I’m in bed and the biggest fucking harvest spider I have ever seen in my life has just run under my bed. I was alerted to it when I heard its stupid feet tip tapping over a piece of paper DD had left on my floor, as it sprinted towards me. It was so loud!

what the fuck do I do?! I’ve shone a torch under my bed but no sign of it. There are a lot of storage bags under there.

I’m usually a bit eye rolly at the “burn the house down” comments but I have to say I’m seriously considering it.

Dd is absolutely terrified of house spiders. We used to get the biggest bastards imaginable. I don't mind them when they mind their own buisness, but they always seem to want to be ON you.

Then I read that those skinny orb/cellar spiders EAT the big hairy buggers. DD didn't mind those too much as she thought they look like daddy long legs, they tend to just stay out of the way, and we had a few of them in the outside loo.

I moved a few in.

That was three years ago. I haven't seen a big house spider since. Even during the spider seasons.

One big upside is dd gradually getting over her arachnaphobia for some spiders at least. Another upside is I no longer have to dust in the corner of the upstairs hall. DD is watching over a mother cellar spider holding a cluster of eggs. I hear her talking to it in the mornings.

Spider spray is on Amazon. Sprayed round door and window frames, cuts the number right down!

Jesus, there are GIANT house spiders? How big are they exactly?

It’s the wolf spider you need to worry about, they’re big buggers.

Been getting spiders for weeks now, every bloody day there seems to be another spider appear. The cats aren't doing their job very well this year!

At this time of year I spray all my windows, corners of room, radiator pipes and a circle around my bed with my home made all natural anti can’t even write the word but in our house we call them “web monkeys” to alleviate the fear spray. It’s mostly peppermint essential oil in water but here’s a pre-made one. Buy as many as you can, hoard it, bottle in every room… https://ebay.us/m/3UU7lT

I accidentally traumatised my child the other week...

Arachnobes scroll past quick...

I was doing some tidying and found a gorgeous fleecy sleepsuit that used to make him feel like a teddybear when he wore it as a toddler. I took it into his room to show him, but he ended up gaping and pointing in wordless horror.

Odd reaction I thought...

Until I slowly realised that on his side of it, Aragog's grandchild was sitting on the front!

Oops!

Personally I prefer the chunky Aragogs. The "spindlies" as we call them leave annoying little stringy cobwebs everywhere which make the house look perpetually grubby.

Just to say, I survived the night. Some of these stories have filled me with horror.

thanks also for the recs for the spray/oils. I’ll be ordering today.

I had one getting cosy in my bed the other month, I had the same thing happen as a child and slept on the landing. Sadly as an adult I couldn't do that so it had to go and I slept on the edge of the bed as I didn't want to sleep where it had been 😬🤦‍♀️.

I don't mind spiders but daughter is terrified. I let cellar spiders have their little hidey holes and now we don't get the big ones.

House spiders hate the feel of chalk so if you go round your doors and windows with it they won't come in. My sister, who can't even stand the cellar spiders does this.

I'm hyperventilating just at the thought of this! I woke up to find a massive spider in the bathroom (type unknown, because as you rightly suggest, nobody needs to be looking at these things on their computer screens!).

The problem is having the windows open in this heat 😫 But I think I might have to start shutting them anyway due to the arachnid threat.

By cellar spiders do you mean the pholcidae spiders that have thin legs and hang from ceiling corners? I don’t mind those at all. Do they really eat the big house spiders?

Harvestmen, or Opiliones, do have eight legs because though not a spider they are an arachnid. However you will often see them with less than eight legs because one of their chief defences is Autotomy - voluntary detachment of appendages. They do this to distract predators whilst they make their escape, and the detached legs can twitch for up to an hour afterwards because they have a sort of teeny pacemaker in the lower end of the leg. Twitch long enough to distract a predator and run away - though they can’t regrow their legs so this is quite a high cost benefit. Another distract strategy is to ‘boing’ or bounce around (like cellar spiders do) to confuse a predator. And unlike spiders, Harvestmen do have willies so they really can wipe their willies on your washing left out overnight (I know this is a subject that really exercises lots of posters on MN 😁). Opiliones are really interesting.

Yes, they really do. I get a lot of both in my house but it was only recently I witnessed this with my own eyes. Felt quite sorry for the hairy MF that got caught in the boingy cellar spider corner. 😔

I like spiders.

I was in the dentist once and this huge fucker ran across the floor. The dental nurse was hysterical. The dentist told her that her eyelashes had escaped, so it wasn’t harmful.

She was then screaming and laughing at the same time.

Lightened up the filling l was having,

Not nonsense! I've seen a big hairy spider caught and wrapped up neatly by a cellar spider. You'd have thought there was no chance. So now cellar spiders are allowed to hang out in many corners of my house. Legends.

Omfg I wish to god I hadn’t read this 😭 I’ve never seen or heard of this yet now I’m looking over my shoulder convinced there’s one behind me and I am definitely not going to sleep tonight! No way in hell am I googling this. I do not have a single other phobia but my fear of spiders may as well be 10 phobias rolled into one

I’m confused! They’re house spiders, they’re already in?

We only see them during their mating season when they pop out to look for a mate, but they live in the house year round.

I swear by these Critterkill glue traps, which feel massively inhumane are so effective: https://critterkill.co.uk/insect-sticky-trap-st11.html

I put them next to skirting boards around the house and, if they catch one, squish it when I see it so it's not caught for too long. One year I caught 28 monsters, shudder! Autumn is less scary since using the traps.

My bed is 4 inches away from the wall and no bedding ever touches the floor, just so I feel I have a safe island from them. I try to keep the floors clearer in autumn so they're more visible when sneaking up to terrify me! Having a tidy is this weekend's job as it must be almost giant spider season here.

Also, no wandering in bare feet from August to November!

Those cellar spiders DO kills the big'uns, I've seen them, but I think only when they have webs near the floor.

That’s amazing- the pholcidae are so thin and insubstantial, you’d think they couldn’t kill a thing, never mind the big spiders!

Glass + card = safe removal of your insect devouring chum.