To be waiting for the massive B******s?

[ladyjadey]

It's late August. This time every year as the nights start to get darker, giant, evil spiders of doom run at me across the living room carpet. They lurk next to my bed, in the hallway and climb the curtains. They barricade themselves in the downstairs loo waiting for me to inadvertently lock myself in a tiny space and spot them, mid terrified wee. I have been waiting for two weeks now and it hasn't happened yet. Has anyone else been afflicted with the influx of gigantic leggy knobs?

There are SIX spiders within view of my computer desk right now - three Pholcus (recently shown in some whineymoanrag as being GIANT CANNIBAL SPIDERS OF DOOM... yeah they eat other spiders.) and three 'garden' spiders of some sort (havent got close enough to identify them).

Lovely lovely they keep down the numbers of crane flies and moths which we get because I sit here all night with the back door open and the lights on.

Our bathroom upstairs has even moooooooooooooore, including my 'pet' False Widow who is nearly 2 years old, and a really cute little Araniella cucurbitina who is GREEN and tiny and super vicious to small flies!

We quite like spiders here :) Lovely lovely spiders.

Ok, almost a spider story. Have had a fair amount in the house lately. Also had some ant issues and ds (3) hears me going on about getting rid of the ants and I've also told him spiders are ok just don't touch them (poisonous ones here) and they'll run off.

I'm in the kitchen, ds in living room.

Ds: mummy, an ant just ran across the floor
Me: oh I don't think it was an ant, it was probably just a spider (no ants in living room previously, walk over as his tone is a bit funny).
Ds (looking up at me with wide eyes): it was a BIG spider!

Me: looks under couch to see 1.5" tree roach lounging ...

(live in southern US - tree roaches totally harmless but get in the house now and then).

We get wolf spiders here. Hairy fuckers. I was getting ready to go paddle boarding with DH and DS last week when I felt something tickle my neck. I casually flicked my hand in that direction. Said hairy fucker dropped on to my arm. I exercised great restraint in not using my best swearwords. DH was impressed. He said he would have been jigging around like a demented thing.

We're having problems with these other hairy fuckers at the moment

Ugh yes. Wolf spiders everywhere inside and out. Gotta love stepping on front lawn and giant spider springs out from next to your foot.

Ha, I had to laugh when I saw someone say their sister lived here and apparently we get huge fuckers.

Oh boy, anyone up for a visit? We are the spider state. And shark state. And killer mad as batshit wildlife state. I'm in Tassie, says it all (and again, I. Was. Not. Born. Here. I'm normal. Sort of).

We're in the 'burbs right now and touch wood but it hasn't been too bad this winter and thank bloody god summer is coming.

Yup, we are known for our Huntsman, esp in Tas. Down here we breed mutant ones, dinner plate size is not uncommon. We also have a shitload because so many people use woodheaters (oh hell no, I'm not touching wood here, we have a heat pump) and basically anywhere there's wood, there's huntsman.

We've had a heap of wolf spiders, a few black widows, hundreds of nasty black house spiders (you always do, nasty bite), lots of white tails and other weird ones and maybe 6-7 huntsman. I'm absolutely petrified but DH is worse so it's always me manning the vacuum to rescue him.
Oh and daddy long legs are always everywhere here but even we can handle those.

We used to live out a bit and all behind us was bush. No idea if you guys saw the media or not there in Jan 2013, the Forcett fires that wiped out Dunalley and a lot of Copping. We were in Copping, that bush is what all went up in flames between the two places.

There we had literally hundreds of spiders daily. Haven't got a clue what half were as like most bushy areas those buggers just mutate, I swear it was them eating the possums and wombats.

Btw we're famous for our wilderness and bushwalks, ever head this way then let me know, I'll send you off where you should make it out the other side as only a couple will drop on your heads
If it rears up and hisses it's a huntsman so you're fine, they're harmless. If it rears up and doesn't hiss, run for your life.

You've really sold it to me Aussie. Looking at flights as we speak.

Bloody hell Bogan! I've always wanted to visit Australia to see the wildlife but that isn't what I had in mind. I thought that the 'redbacks in the dunny' business was just meant to scare the Poms. Dear God. So if it rears up and doesn't hiss what the hell is it? Really glad I read this in the morning not last night!!

I'm not massively bothered about house spiders. We have one of those spider catcher things and it's great. On the other hand those tigery looking ones that catch you in a web between the hedge and the car - aaarrrgh!

Moose. Where in Canada are you that you can actually see the bears? Is it in your garden?)

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When I first got married we lived in a flat above a greengrocers. We had huge spiders and I was frightened to be in the place on my own. I have got tougher over the years but I still don't like them.

I've had to have a lie down after reading Aussie's post

cd and moose I'd tackle a lizard or a bear any day over a daddy long legs or spider... There's been 2 in our house in the last week.... Cat dispatched one and the other nearly touched me... I'm unashamed to tell you that I ran away and hid in the kitchen... Only went into the room again when armed with a sweeping brush but alas the fucker had disappeared and didn't re-emerge :( I'm a nervous wreck 😭😭😭

Good grief, Moose - was that in your yard??!!!

You have to give this to spiders: at least most of them won't actually harm you

I spotted our first one yesterday, it was HUUUUUGE. I quite like spiders and don't like flies so I'm happy for them to stay.

I also have at least 2 spiders living in my car - one in each wing mirror.

My parents are both scared of spiders so they trained me to be chief spiders catcher when I was little unless the cat got there first

I am off to find the mint spray. then driving to mothers to retrieve my mint plants

conkers do not scare spiders. mint is better. aldi sold it last year.

I've had about 6 huge ones in the last month, really fat bodies and thick legs [shudders]
Hate the damned things. Twice in bed now i've had smaller ones hanging above me while feeding the baby, thankfully not dropped her while flying out of bed!

There was a very funny thread on here last year about spiders. Gallopy fuckers! I have to look up from MN and sweep the room with a penetrating glare like a human search light every couple of minutes.

I wrung a dishcloth out in the utility the other day, only to find a dead, crushed spider IN MY HAND.

I had one big brown bastard sitting on my boob as I was stood looking down into my rucksacky type bag which was on my the desk. I might have screamed a bit and shouted fuck. And no, I was not alone in the office today. Not sure that one will be lived down. I collected the bugger in a cup from under my desk where I had swiped it and chucked it out the window.

((Pic warning)) We had a huge one living in the house for over a week because he was too bloody fast to catch. Ds went out to work one day last week and the spider took the opportunity to jump out at me right in front of 5yo ds so I had to fake the whole 'brave mummy isn't scared of spiders' thing and trapped him under a measuring jug and performed a wholly reluctant scientific examination of the huge hairy fucker 'oh how many legs can you see ds?' 'Oh no ds those two aren't legs they're fucking enormous fangs teeth I think'. Anyway, I managed to get it out and the bastard put up protest on the front doormat and held me hostage - refusing to budge because it was raining. LOOK AT IT!!!

I'm feeling a bit itchy reading this thread!

I was reading an article on the latest arachnid threat from the Mediterranean (the false wolf spider) the other night. DS came running up to me as we had a big one in the hallway - probably just a house spider but it was huge!

To be fair, I don't like them but I don't kill them either. Catch and let them go outside. It's the daddy long legs thingies that I can't stand

At least spiders can't fly, right?!!

I try to be brave in front of the DC because modelling female bravery and anti-scared little woman stereotype and all that, but I had to call DH in the other day because FUCK. I moved to close DS1's curtains and was confronted by a miscellany of LEGS - at least 16 of them, all tangled up together. I shrieked called for assistance and DH calmly took care of it - turns out that it was a single spider who'd chosen a quiet curtain fold in which to shed his old carapace and that was the reason for all the legs. Felt a bit bad for him afterwards as he must have been vulnerable in his soft new skin.

I am generally soft on spiders and try not to kill them - successfully relocated Aragog to the back garden the other day, but was not so fortunate with the tiny one that strayed into a puddle on the windowsill during my shower yesterday. Poor tiny mite

My sister once ate a spider when she was 18mo and has been cursed with a disproportionate fear of them ever since. Shelob's revenge, we call it

I thought there was one of the fuckers behind the telly the other day. Luckily it was a mouse (we live in the countryside and have a cat who likes to bring us gifts) so I caught him and popped him outside. He was so cute!

We have lots of small fat spiders in our house at the mo'. Not a chance of me Googling types of spiders found in Britain though.

Oh don't. I've already had three of the fuckers. There was one in DS's cot!!! I slapped at it wildly.

I hate being scared of them!!

I shouldn't be reading this thread - I just yelped and jumped as I felt a tickling on my lower arm, it was only my phone charger cable

The cats are quite good at dispatching the hairy 8 legged fuckers so we don't see too many alive ones

crosses all fingers and toes and touches all wood in the vicinity just to make sure