What do you do with spiders at this time of year?

[Mygardenandme]

I've just caught 2 disco spiders in our shower. It's too cold to put them outside so I just released them into another room. We get a lot of spiders, I dont really want to be keeping them but equally I dont want to kill them by leaving them freeze outside.

Disco spider - cellar spider. They spin and jiggle if you get too close so they look like they are dancing.

It depends, in the bath I hang towel over the side and they quickly get the message. In corners of rooms, as long as they know their place and scuttle back, then I leave them be. Those that do get evicted are the ones that wander across the ceiling, poised to abseil down into my tea or on my face in the night - now, those are whisked off with a feather duster and shaken out of the window. They'll soon work their way back in but hopefully with better manners.

So I did a bit of googling and apparently many spiders go into 'diapause' over winter, not the same as hibernation, but they become inactive so as to survive lower temperatures. Some produce their own 'antifreeze'! Some will naturally die however, on exposure to cold, such as the orb spiders, who will leave eggs behind that will hatch the next spring. So if my 3 indoor younglings are orb spiders, putting them outside will kill them. I presume once spring comes they'll get active then I can put them outside.

If they’re trapped in the bath I make a ‘ladder’ out of toilet tissue for them to climb.

i don’t like spiders* so I say very clearly to them all that if they stay away from me I’ll do the same to them.

*except the Garden Cross Spider who lived behind the water butt this year. Missing the front 2 limbs on their right side - and a tiny part of the next foot - and still managed to spin a beautiful web each day. Much respect little spider and I hope you liked all the fruit flies I released your way and flew into your web.

This thread is heartening!
I went on a spider course with the wildlife trust. It was fascinating

@LadyIrony I make mine a little ladder in the bath as well. It knows what to do now and walks over when it sees me hang it down.

I would love to do something like that 🕷 💕

Skinny ones which live iabove my bath - I leave a towel over the side for their convenience, and usher them in to it with a loofah if they’re in the bath and it’s my turn.

big ones with lots of knees - DH puts them in the wood shed.

I have a pet spider in my boiler cupboard need to check how she behaves if I put some disco music on.

I hoover them up like I do the rest of the year.

I put them outside in the leaves or under a plant. If they wish to seek shelter in the sheds, garage or someone else's house then they are very welcome.

They will stay alive in your vacuum cleaner but probably not for long - long enough to put a hex on you possibly?

Oh god! Don't tell me that.

I like to think it's like the Waltzer for them so they're going out on a high.

I usually ignore them unless they are getting underfoot or crawling on my face when I'm trying to sleep. Then I will scoop them up and pop them elsewhere in the house where they won't be harmed. We do actually get false widows here quite a bit and one got trapped in my jogging bottoms once and bit me about 4 times on the leg which was a bit nasty but not too terrible.

Spider lover here too. I gently rescue them from bath, sink or shower and allow them to find a hiding place of their choosing. I even distract the dogs who would happily eat them. Same courtesy extended to the ones that bite, but more cautiously - false widow spiders that generally live in the door frames.

40-odd years ago, we had an original TV (4/5 channels, aerial sprouting like ears and no remote but 2 well-trained children who'd do the necessary) and there was Fred the Spider who lived in the box. As it warmed up in the evenings, he'd crawl out on to the carpet and lie upside down, cooling off. About an hour after it was turned off, he'd climb back in, very gingerly. He moved house with us and we were all chuffed to see him reappear the first night. Yay 🕷

I watch them in awe of their website spinning skills. Why on earth would you kill a harmless living creature? Barbaric frankly.

I just leave them unless they are in the bath.

Same as I do at any other time of year.

Outside: ignore them.

Inside: if they are in a catchable position I gently assist them outside - apart from the weird spindly long-legged ones we get in our bathroom which I researched once, and they can't survive outdoors in the UK. They mind their own business in high-up corners and cause no trouble.

I expected a thread full of recipes for spider and winter vegetables soup.

I try to get them in my spider catcher and will then dump them unceremoniously outside. If I can't then they will probably get clobbered.

My concern for spider welfare has severe limits.

I leave them be, I heard once that if you don’t see many spiders in your house it’s because you have one mega spider that deals with the rest … we have just started seeing spiders in the house again after years of not seeing any, so I assume the big spider has died and we are just waiting for another to take its place.

Well there would certainly be a leg for everyone..

I leave the disco dancers to it

as to the rest - cats - I have cats!

Any spider that comes in my home as signed its own death certificate.

A friend of mine once crotcheted a special spider ladder which hooked over a bath tap and helped them climb out.

If anyone crafty needs a business idea here you are.