To be scared about the spider season this year

[Whatever555]

Had a bad time last August-October. I lived alone back then in a very old house which was riddled with giant house spiders, on the worst night I had 4 palm-sized ones in the house in the same evening, they'd just run out across the room. It was horrible coming home and seeing them every single evening and having nobody to help me out.

I ended up paying someone
from pest control to come round and fumigate the house, they found a nest in my kitchen. It worked for the rest of the season as I didn't see any more living ones. I also went around with sealant and eliminated every gap I could find. I didn't see a single one again for 6 weeks after that before I moved, but it made me anxious for a while. It sounds dramatic but I had frequent nightmares, I hated being there alone especially at night and I was constantly inspecting rooms.

No longer live alone and not had any huge ones here, just a couple of smaller ones which I can manage better. I've got some Indorex which I spray round every month, I have looked into the London zoo spider course but it's always booked up.

I've used apps to try and improve things but I don't think it'll ever fully go. Even if I can get spider catchers or whatever your home is meant to be your safe haven, and it doesn't feel like that when they're around. Anyone else feel this way, or got any tips?

I don’t know if it helps to know this, but cellar spiders hunt and kill giant house spiders. You might want to adopt one or two! 😊

You've described that so vividly that you've brought back repressed memories of a year or so spent in a similar house.

It was dreadful, but I had forgotten exactly how awful it was until now. The spiders were a major reason why my family moved! My mother always said afterwards that she thought the landlord needed to fumigate the place before it was let out again. I doubt he did.

Why are some houses like this? We had a house like this when I was a teenager, used to wake up and find them on the wall above me, at one point I slept on the landing as there were THREE giants in my room. It was a fairly modern house but had a big garden that went all around the house. Thank god we moved as I was a wreck. Our current house is a Victorian semi in the middle of a town and I've only seen two or three in the nearly ten years we've lived here. Just a tip on your next house 😂

I have a phobia of spiders and always hate spider season.
Like you OP, we’ve had some absolute huge ones.
Last year we had 7 in one night - yep 7.
Despite our house not being particularly old, it’s always been the same. One year we had 2 or 3 every night appear and I was a nervous wreck!
I don’t sit on the floor. Lights have to be on. I always laugh and say I have spider sensors as I tend to see them before anyone else.
We’ve had 3 just recently - assume it’s the hot weather.

For those saying fears are irrational, we know that, but for me it’s like telling an anxious person to just not worry, I can’t control it. I have one friend who is petrified of slugs and snails and for another, it’s frogs. I can’t imagine being scared of any of those but I don’t dismiss it because I don’t feel the same way.
Should people with this fear kill spiders, maybe not, but I don’t act relationally when I glance up an a huge spider is sat on the floor and think of all the good things it provides to mature - just that it needs to go as I’m standing on a chair shouting for my husband to come quickly before I have no alternative but to burn the house down.
He used to put them outside but honestly, I think they then just find their way in to terrorise me the next night

OP I feel your pain and hope it’s not too bad this year

Can’t you get the house treated towards the end of the summer? When we got bed bug treatment (a whole palava it did mean that ever spider that entered the bedroom died immediately for about 8 weeks after that)

You need Ardap Spray from amazon.

I spray all windows and doors, haven’t seen one (touch wood) in the last 2 years I’ve lived here.

I’ve always been scared but our last place was horrific and we’d have anything from 2-6 big ones a night. I was putting laundry away one day and the biggest one I’ve ever encountered ran up my chest onto my neck, I grabbed it and threw it but I also grabbed the necklace my DH had bought for me for my 30th and ripped it, our DD was 2 months old at the time and I’m sure I would have dropped her had I been holding her at the time.

I ended up being prescribed sleeping tablets short term so I could actually sleep. It’s a horrible phobia. Really feel for anyone who suffers. X

I have no idea why but I read this in trumps voice for some reason the way it’s written reminded me of him!

Yes I find they run at one

We've had one so big I could see it in the dark. Even DH was shocked. It was the size of a mouse quite easily. He trapped it and I made him walk 3 streets away with it!

I let the cellar spiders go wherever they want though. I even rescued one from the bath last week because I do think they stop the horrible running fuckers.

I also did this but I can't see any more I wonder if my cat got them. But they are not easy to see and very slow

Send them my way. I absolutely love spiders, live in an ancient house but rarely see any.

I know it must be awful to be scared of them, but please don’t kill them. As you don’t now live alone, can’t you get someone to put them outside?

I have a phobia (not spiders) and a short session with a hypnotherapist and boom - gone..it really was amazing.

3 of my family are phobic about spiders. I am the spider catcher. What's interesting to me is I don't even see them. I think you and my family members must be finely attuned to them.

I completely sympathise with you OP.
To all the sanctimonious people saying they gently pick up spiders and take them outside - they're called GHS because they live in houses. They can't survive outside. It's probably kinder to spray them with poison, much quicker death.

A friend was saying this the other day, but I presume that house spiders evolved before houses were a thing. So I reckon they are fine outside. In my view the link shows the best kind of bug catcher and actually has lessened my fear of spiders, as i know i can control the situation. Not wishing to minimise others' horrible experiences, they are true and valid . But over my life time I have noticed how many fewer insects( I know spiders are not insects) there are now and that is also a worry to me, in fact it's overtaken my fear of these companions on our planet. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/366455557615?_skw=bug+catcher&itmmeta=01KXWK7EPBH1Q10T0STWQE0TAT&hash=item5552740def:g:vNMAAeSw80RqIaT9&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0DKQclQvzFwZQpmMrsO4LurCQrXcBRz0Z8FqdQ18AOeR76yDLe9HLUk6akm%2BNHH6zUHDGsx%2FBzKtEN98BDO24DFAouqP%2FlrOYG4NTfcKXg%2FeDWuS5JiJZZpXH5N0H5S6%2BUesB38uMZn0KtWAxcz5zc374Azd%2BY2X9df%2FevBcYQFmCLIb7fbcXq29PMhPNOz7BgopZpHEsaoMWFOtVl%2FuHBf6OF03Kg1SFBUyPyRcH85RhpQb%2Bd3rWgB46tCcspr8uwPleviP5A9Rg4FbdnnSahU%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR67rnZPvZw&var=636201844202

We do this too. I've not seen a massive spider since we started to do this!

I’m sure it’s to do with the location rather than the house. I live in an old house and don’t see half as many as my brother who lives in a modern house but his garden backs onto loads of big trees. They get some fricking monstrous ones.

You really think we can help it?
this is so incredibly ignorant.
im a therapist who treats phobias too. They can be debilitating.

Ugh that’s awful OP, I get ones as big as that too in my house. I recommend a cat, and a cordless vacuum with an extendable nozzle/stick thing. My cat will either eat the spiders, or play with them long enough for me to hoover them up. Or the cat is helpful in showing me where the spiders have run off too so I can then hoover them when I otherwise would have lost sight of them. Keep the cordless vacuum plugged in charging in the easiest room in your house to get to. Saves so much time that going to find the corded hoover, drag it round, plug it in etc. Good luck!

OP, I hate this season too.
a couple of years back I bought this spray (hope picture has worked). Whether or not it was just coincidence I don’t know but never had an issue since.

it’s safe to use, doesn’t harm them and I’ve used it all around and on my bed. The reason I focus on my bed is because that’s where the buggers seem to get me. Running across my face and what not. I don’t really have a problem with letting them be in other parts of the house, I just had to find a way to stop them going on me in bed.

If house spiders couldnt survive outside then new builds would be completely spider free.

No, they're the spindly, thin legged type. I would paste a photo of them but don't know if the OP would want a photo of a spider on her thread!

My best tip is to close all the windows before it starts to get dark, August to November. I started early this year because I've seen a couple already. So at the moment I'm closing them about 8.30pm. We did that last year and saw only 1-2 spiders the whole season. They are most active in the dark and that seems to stop them coming in.

Omg I love cats deeply but that is fucking gross. Slightly better than finding a living one but so much more sinister.

I live in a new build (Scotland) and I always get some big buggers in SS, always dread this time of year 😱.
You are not alone in your fear

I do sympathise with your fear.
However, spiders in the UK won't hurt you and they eat a lot of bugs. I happily coexist with them in my house, I don't kill them.
My children are sometimes scared of them but I have a special " spider voice" I use and pretend that the spider is scared of them. " Mummy, I saw a child! Oh it was hideous! It only had two legs! And it moved smoothly" etc.