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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

97 replies

bloodyspider · 04/10/2024 09:29

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 🤮

OP posts:
divinededacende · 04/10/2024 11:03

He's the landlord now and rent is due. Bring the finest flys in the land or you'll be dinner.

curtaintwitcher78 · 04/10/2024 11:04

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 04/10/2024 10:06

I let the cellar spiders live so they eat them for me. I’ve only had one this year and I put him outside but now I feel bad he’ll perish in the cold.

our garage is cellar spider HQ they are massive compared to the house cellar spiders.

I have basically started a cellar spider farm this year. They're everywhere in various sizes. I think they're doing the trick as I've only had one small 'giant' house spider. This time last year the giant house spiders were huge and plentiful.

LoveSandbanks · 04/10/2024 11:09

If you can, get your husband out, then set fire to the house. The only way is to kill it with fire.

How did your screams of terror not wake your husband?

dutysuite · 04/10/2024 11:12

My husband saw a huge spider run across the living room, by the time we’d all run around trying to find the plastic spider cup with lid we use to capture spiders to put them outside, the spider had vanished. My husband moved everything including the sofa and he couldn’t find it. I couldn’t sit in the living room for a week and even now I keep thinking it’s going to appear.

newcatmam · 04/10/2024 11:28

Its just saving you money in Halloween decorations :)

frecklejuice · 04/10/2024 11:34

You need to move house!! I hate spiders so much, I'm absolutely terrified of them and having one crawling up my leg would have sent me screaming (totally over dramatic I know)!

FussyPud · 04/10/2024 11:53

There are two huge Borises engaged in a turf war in my bathroom at the moment. I’m not a huge fan of them, but I just leave them to it for the most part.

I had to evict one from my room once. It was tap dancing on some polystyrene in what sounded like hobnailed boots. I put him in the kitchen.

crackofdoom · 04/10/2024 11:56

notprincehamlet · 04/10/2024 10:19

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

Wouldn't you love 8 limbs though? So useful, especially if they were 6 arms and 2 legs.

DontBiteTheCat · 04/10/2024 11:56

OldTinHat · 04/10/2024 10:57

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...

I hate to be the barer of bad news, but they don’t come in from outside. They’re house spiders, they’re in your house all the time but come out in September to find a mate which is why they are much more visible at this time of year.

I do agree with the cellar spiders keeping things under control. Not to tempt fate, but I’ve only seen one this year - already dead and wrapped in a cellar spider web. I actually felt bad for it!

Threewheeler1 · 04/10/2024 11:58

kab89 · 04/10/2024 09:39

Yes I have one, now called Brendon living in the bathroom. When we first moved in here we had a shed which seemed to be spider central and the biggest one looked like he had paws he was sooo big.

I've got one like that - it lives in the half of my greenhouse that I have kindly donated to it.
I accidentally jangled it's web the other day and it came flying out...
Oh my word 😮
It's so big, you could actually saddle it up and ride it 👀

crackofdoom · 04/10/2024 12:00

There is nothing more satisfying than being kept awake by a massive bluebottle buzzing around the room, only to hear the buzzing suddenly getting more frantic- then intermittent- then falling silent, and glancing up at the cobweb in the corner of ceiling to see Boris doing his job.

I'm definitely team spider.

savannahowl · 04/10/2024 12:01

Surely spiders live in your house 100% of the time

SunsetSkylane · 04/10/2024 12:17

FussyPud · 04/10/2024 11:53

There are two huge Borises engaged in a turf war in my bathroom at the moment. I’m not a huge fan of them, but I just leave them to it for the most part.

I had to evict one from my room once. It was tap dancing on some polystyrene in what sounded like hobnailed boots. I put him in the kitchen.

I was feeing my son in the middle of the night once and two big house spiders were fighting each other on the carpet, rearing up on their hind lives.

Gross but also totally fascinating.

I just let them live and do their own thing. Our kitchen gets colonised in autumn while all the ladies look for (then eat) a mate. It's kinda cool.

KnittedCardi · 04/10/2024 12:31

I had one IN my bed, UNDER the duvet the other morning. Now that is really taking the piss. I am afraid I vacuumed him up. Bloody cheek. I have no regrets.

On the upside we were trying to find one that had hidden in DD's wardrobe a couple of weeks ago. As we were moving everything out, we discovered a carpet moth infestation. Honestly, I really am fed up with insects in my house. Outside fine..... I have a wonderful insect friendly garden, but in my house, just no. They got sprayed, hoovered, and steamed too. They ate my carpet 😭

Puddingcakes · 04/10/2024 12:43

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Nice to see a fellow vegan on here!

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 04/10/2024 12:55

Puddingcakes · 04/10/2024 12:43

Nice to see a fellow vegan on here!

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AddictedToBooks · 04/10/2024 13:18

We've got a huge one that's made her home in the velvet mirror frame above our fire - I can cope with flat-bodied house-spiders, but this is one of those with a bulbous back and they terrify me.
To make it worse, she seems to have created a cocoon (meaning pregnant spider) - noticed her before we went on holiday and ordered DH to evict her and he refused because he "likes her, she's cute".
She's still resident and is now called Ariadne and thankfully, we no longer think it's a cocoon, as she comes out every night and there's no evidence of eggs but I'm still very wary of her (don't want to evict her now it's colder and wetter in case she dies - after all, she's only trying to live her life and keep warm).

Bloody sure she was "waving" at me last night as I passed the mirror to go to bed. Can't wait until she moves on of her own accord.

whiskeyarmadillo · 04/10/2024 13:18

There's a spider on the ceiling and I'm naming him Dave
Spider Dave, you'd better behave

Tillow4ever · 04/10/2024 13:19

blobby10 · 04/10/2024 10:03

I've been collecting conkers whenever I see them whilst walking the dog then placing them near doors and windows in every room. so far I haven't had any visits from monsters. Have no idea where this tip came from but will do anything to keep the biggest ones away.

I can generally deal with them by putting them in a jug and chucking them outside but occasionally a really big one in an awkward place gets killed in the Henry. My daughter is properly phobic - she can't even pick them up in a long handled spider collector tool as the handle touches the case they are in.

I'm the same as your daughter - my mind knows it's ridiculous, but I just can't do it.

Although I think I know the cause of my phobia - when I was a kid, I didn't like spiders so my dads solution was to shove me into our "bottle store" (I lived in a pub, this was a building outside, part of an old garage that housed all the bottles for behind the bar and it was full of cobwebs and spiders), he turned the light off then shut and locked the door. I was terrified and screaming. I'm not sure how long he left me in there, I don't think it was long, but it felt like forever.

These days I can cope with those "spindly leg" spiders that you find on the ceiling in corners usually. But any fatter bodies/legs and I'm a mess. Those huge ones at this time of year (my mum told me they were field spiders as they fled the fields during harvest and came into houses - I know this isn't actually right, but I call them field spiders to differentiate) I'm terrified of. I can't even vacuum one up. I certainly can't "rescue" a spider and put it outside (sorry). I'm often paralysed with fear, start to feel sick, etc. I hate seeing or hearing people minimise this very real fear just because they don't have the fear themselves so don't understand how it feels.

TimmyMalletsSpecs · 04/10/2024 13:22

SunsetSkylane · 04/10/2024 09:37

Well it's already literally sat on you and you survived so 🤷‍♀️ what's the worst thing that can happen after that?

The spider hysteria on here is wild. Also just saw someone on instagram saying she used her crème brûlée torch to kill a spider carrying her babies on her back. Can't get my head round people setting fire to creatures and thinking it's ok.

What the actual fuck? That's so sick.

blobby10 · 04/10/2024 13:26

@PyreneanAubrie omg I didn’t know that! Thankyou for telling me- Fortunately my dog hasn’t touched any conkers but it will pick them all up when we go home 👍🏻👍🏻

AlmostCutMyHairToday · 04/10/2024 13:28

Huge spider crawling across DS's pillow as I was tucking him into bed last night. 😭

ZeroFucksGivenToday · 04/10/2024 13:31

What's a cellar spider? Is that the tiny body but long spindly legs. I don't like the look of those ones. And haven't had any in years.

Fred however is a chunky beast that lives down the side of my washing machine. Every time I go in the utility he dutifully scuttles off, but hates the spin cycle on the washer and pops back out until it's done.
I really don't love spiders but to deal with them means getting closer to them. I name them and we reach an agreement.

5128gap · 04/10/2024 13:36

GladAllOver · 04/10/2024 09:45

We have this nonsense every year at his time. Grown women screaming over harmless little creatures.
To be clear, a small minority of people have a genuine phobia of spiders. That's awful, but it can be treated.
For the rest of us, let's grow up and not pretend we're frightened. And most of all, don't behave like that in front of children, or you will be teaching them to behave the same way.

How do you know how many people are phobic, how many are merely frightened and how many are pretending? Have there been reputable research into this that you're referencing? Or are you just making stuff up?

Ihateslugs · 04/10/2024 13:40

I get quite a few spindly spiders, look like a daddy long legs, not sure if they are cellar spiders as I have never seen them make a nest or kill a big fat hairy spider. Even though I don’t really like spiders, I tend to leave the spindly ones alone as they don’t move around much and seem to disappear after a day or so. Any bigger ones get caught in a spider catcher and evicted.