AIBU to say it’s the spider’s house now?

[bloodyspider]

Massive spider crawling up my leg. Barely saw it as I am wearing black leggings. Reflexes kicked in and I brushed it off quickly, which flung it to the other sofa. It’s now somewhere in my lounge and I can’t find it and daren’t look for it. I know spiders are harmless but I cannot deal with them. DH is asleep as he has been working nights, so can’t help find it till the afternoon. AIBU to say it’s the spiders house now? Frantically searching Amazon for repellant spray… to make matters worse it was one of those huge ones with elbows and knees 🤮

I hate it when they have the bloody cheek to crawl on you, like it's not rude enough they are living in your house rent free and without notice.

There was an article recently that said the whole conkers thing is completely useless, there is nothing in them that repels spiders apparently.
Last season we had some enormous ones coming in so I bought the repellent spray, spiders literally walked through it to come under the door, they didn't give a crap about it.
I switched to Peppermint oil rubbed around the doors and windows. After that we didn't get any more spiders, and I've not had any yet this year (that I have seen).
I use neat peppermint oil on a cloth and rub it every week around the front and back door frame.
It doesn't hurt them, they just hate the smell and don't come in.

Otherwise, I catch them in a glass and chuck them in the garden. I cannot bring myself to kill anything.

I'd like to think that if this happened to me, I'd stay calm and flatten it, but I know I'd probably toss it too then wonder where it was!
I don't know the answer, I have had a phobia for as long as I can remember, tried a few things to get rid of it and no such luck. Every so often I'll have vivid nightmares about several of them being in the house and wake up panicking. 😂 I can calmly ask DP to remove them when he's here, and have done my best to make sure I don't make our children scared (they aren't, so far!). It's strange as literally no one else in my immediate family, parents included, is in the least bit bothered by spiders.
Although DP has said that some of the recent ones we've had have been absolute, he isn't scared and will still take them outside, but has been extra careful not to give them any opportunity to run onto his hand/arm!

I welcome spiders. They eat flies, which are objectively worse to have in the house. They're on our side.

Tee hee hee 😂I so wish there was a spider EMOJI

I do this too, left them in my loft and while there are a few of these knocking about there are no other spiders up there! I am not overly bothered by spiders but the thought of being bitten by one doesn’t fill me with joy!
Seem to have had an influx of large reddy coloured false widow looking type spiders round here which I don’t like!

Give it a name and consider it a housemate.
I used to have a terrible phobia but it IS possible to get past that. I love spiders now, though I do evict cellar spiders when I get too many of them as they eat everything else and start to take over.

Please don't do this. Conkers are highly toxic to dogs.

There is? My phone has one, and a cobweb.

They may have way more eyes and legs than is reasonable but on the whole spiders are the good guys

We do fear them in a way that we have hard-wired in us to fear things like snakes and rats too - in our cave-dwelling days doubtless for good reason. But the fear can be overcome.
I've posted on here before about me watching a Paul McKenna video late one night when I was half asleep. It was about two minutes long and said about making fun of your fears, and had a big hairy cartoon spider with a hat and red boots doing a silly dance. I thought nothing of it, but next time I saw a spider I didn't hear the Jaws music! It might just as well been a fly.
So now they have colonised all corners of our house. They go away in the spring. I try not to disturb them. Actually the house environment can be quite harsh for them (dry) and DH did once put down a jar lid of water for Boris, who lives behind the telly. I don't go that far. I can use a glass and bit of card to get them out of the bath.

Do you have a phobia of anything? Most people who do, are well aware that to most other people, their fear is irrational. It doesn't stop their fear though. It's real to them.
Even a fear should not be belittled by people who don't understand the feeling.
It's like telling someone with depression to just cheer up.

Make millions of spiders 🕷️ 😱

Ours are all outside. We had two, Boris and Bertha, in residence on the washing line, but when I ent out this morning no sign of them ☹️

This Is the one time of year I’m quite happy to have my cellar spider infestation. They seem to take care of the big horrible ones without disturbing me too much.

My husband has not only named all the spiders in our place, he often has one sided conversations with them. This often results in me thinking he is having conversations on his phone or calling out to me in when he is merely talking to the huge spider.

We are most grateful for our spidery housemates as they do a good job of trapping the flies and wasps in their webs and slowly devouring them. However, I didn't appreciate it when a whole bunch of small spiders returned our hospitality by simultaneously "abseiling" down from the ceiling and landing on me when I entered the bathroom. Did they think they could trap me in their web and eat me?

I love spiders and it does make me wince a little bit when people kill them willy nilly, but I'd never take the mick out of somebody's phobia. Fuck me, my phobia is of my knees being touched, does the spider phobia still sound silly?

Anyway, we had our first absolute monster of the season a few nights ago. Size of my palm. It was roaming around on phobic DDs bed, I only spotted it as I went in to say goodnight to her, and I had to practically flying body slam it to catch it. People's elbow, camel clutch, the lot. Big fucker it was. Even DH did a weird little skip on each foot when I walked past him on the landing to put it outside. We usually only get cellar spiders or little nobles so it was quite exciting.

Peppermint balls or oil are good deterrents.

🕷️

Eugggghh i feel your pain! I bought peppermint oil on Amazon, mixed with water in a spray bottle. Cheaper than spider spray and same thing. I spray it around entrance points, windows doors etc. it’s supposed to deter them. Think it’s actually helping but who knows. I also use my spider radar to check rooms, blankets etc before I use. It’s a full time job. Especially those blasted false widows, gives me shivers.

I think the traditional approach at this point is to let a bird in to catch the spider.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well if you vote Labour, what do you expect? Tenants have all the rights now, and landlords are fucked. You've got at least four years of this.

Wear white maybe?

This is so well said. As someone with two (genuine) phobias, one of which potentially life-threatening, I've seen a few threads on here recently where posters are just absolutely clueless as to how debilitating phobias can be. There is a huge difference between someone 'being scared' of something and having a true phobia and the attitude of 'grow up it's pathetic' is completely akin to your example of telling someone with depression to cheer up.

Hehehe! Happened to me once - I was getting something off a shelf in a cupboard and withdrew my hand to find a huge house spider on it. Screamed, waved my hand frantically and the spider flew back into the cupboard.

I had to empty the cupboard, item by item, until I found it again.

Interestingly, this year, I read to keep doors and windows closed from mid August to end of September to avoid those giant buggers strolling in, trying to set up residence. I've done that, and am probably tempting fate, but I've not had one indoors yet. I do allow two cellar spiders to live rent free, one in the bathroom and one in the lounge, because they eat the giant ones. Actually, they are looking very healthy...

The conkers thing is nonsense. My Mum gets huge spiders in her house and has found them just sitting on top of the conkers.