Spiders! Eeeeekkk! Help!

[MarianneOnAMotorcycle]

I get so upset when I see all the posts about spiders being evil, stamping on them, burning them with a blow torch, burning the house down, etc. I saw this today and thought it would be a good perspective for all MN users to adopt!
Peace and love.

Nope

Totally agree. I am terrified of spiders but would never hurt one!

That doesn't make any sense. Why would any person hope to be trapped in a glass and a napkin?

That doesn't make any sense. Why would any person hope to be trapped in a glass and a napkin?

You wouldn't. The point is you trap the spider so you can carry them outside and and then let them go!

House spiders have evolved to live in houses. If you put them outside they’ll probably die. Best to hit them with a shoe and get it over with.

You don't believe in "live and let live", then?

I most certainly will not adopt this.

My mum always used to say "the spider is more scared of you than you are of him"...

I see spider! I post spider

Why not?

Not with spiders, no.

When I see one of my 8-legged housemates I just say hello. Or help them out of the bath. A lot of the spiders that live in houses don't do very well outdoors.

I particularly like it when I have a resident house spider (probably Tegenaria domestica given how they look and where I live, but species identification can be tricky). Those things are so big you can practically hear them walk, and the females can live for years. Most of the time they're so little bother that you don't even know they're there. They're evolved from cave spiders and can cope even with very little food and no moisture, so you only tend to see them much when the males start roaming around in autumn to find a lady friend (and then get eaten by said lady friend). But they need the indoor cave/house environment to survive so it's not nice to chuck them out.

I can't get rid of them myself so however the person getting rid of it wants to do it is fine by me. But really are their brains even developed enough to be aware they are alive anyway?

How about with this slight modification:

"If my children are ever caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, I hope they are treated with the same kind of mercy."

Aww, he looks like he has little green fangs!

Bloody love spiders. They eat flies. Flies are disgusting.

Spiders make beautiful webs, are patient and (for the most, in the UK), do us very little harm.

Please don’t kill the spiders.

Exactly! And if they are inside your house it means they are finding enough other critters in there to eat for survival (fleas, louse, carpet moths, mites etc)!

I was an terrible arachnophobe but cured myself last year by forcing myself to hold a giant house spider because I'd had enough of living in constant fear. The only time I'd freak out now is if one was in my bed. That's crossing the kine!

I’ve got the biggest false widow I’ve ever seen living in a gap in my bathroom window frame. The bastard likes to come out and flaunt himself after dark. As soon as I approach with a glass and piece of card for a trap and release intervention the (not so) little fucker whips back into the gap😡 Hate knowing he’s there, can’t quite bring myself to kill him though.

*line

I love spiders - fascinating and clever creatures who clean up the genuine pests! We have three tarantulas and watching them grow is so interesting - can’t wait till they are big enough to hold!

I don’t get the obsession with killing them. Australia has some seriously dangerous breeds yet Aussies manage to cope without killing them with a shoe. It’s cruel and unnecessary IMO.

I understand genuine arachnophobia but killing something just because you don’t like it? Nah. Get a glass & napkin ( along with a grip ) and release, instead of killing these amazing little creatures.

I wouldn't like to be trapped in a glass and carried outside full stop.

He does!

Ugh... I saw what I thought was a mouse out of the corner of my eye in the dark last night... It wasn't, it was a huge, fat, black spider. The worst thing is, it's not the biggest spider in the house, the most humungous giant house spider I have ever seen took up residence in one of DS's shirts a few weeks ago. You couldn't have caught it in a tumbler, you would need a vase! The one last night wasn't a house spider though, it had short, chunky legs and was the wrong colour.

It's getting to the point where I am considering burning the house down.

Both my cats kill all the spiders in my house, I only see them splatted on the carpet. They won't eat them but they will flatten them.