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?

You do know they’re not actually running at you, or wouldn’t that spider in the garage be leaping on you every time you go near it? You are just an object in the way.

Those of us with a real phobia are unable to get close enough to use one of those.

I have taken to sealing the bedroom window and any gaps in skirting etc with a polyfiller type substance to try to keep them out! I never use the bedroom window anyway and I'm sure it would be easy enough to bust it open in the event of a fire.

It’s a long tube, you have no actual contact. Spiders can flatten themselves very well and can get through the narrowest gap or crack. Sealing all the windows and doors won’t prevent them. You have to open them sometimes! They can also get in via other routes, fresh veg, on shoes etc etc. Phobias can be successfully overcome with therapy - have you tried it?

Fly screens get them up

You can get cognitive behavioural therapy for phobias from the NHS.

https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/

In your shoes I'd give it a go, as just the possibility of spiders might be enough to make you anxious

Don’t think you realise how good spiders are at flattening themselves to get in the tiniest of spaces!

Can anyone recommend spray that works ( that they have seen work)

This is what we did (after seeing it on a post here a few years ago!).

The cellar spiders stay up high and out of your way. The ones we have seem to have learnt that they are tolerated as long as they don't come near me. They are also ruthless and efficient hunters of giant black house spiders!

We used to have a nightmare with them every year. So I got DH to bring in four cellar spiders from the outside toilet.

Haven't seen one GHS for the last two spider seasons!

It's Raid Ant and Cockroach spray that I use - I use "too much" and it always works. I do feel bad but I reacted so badly to being bitten that I can't risk it again. My quite brutal DM sprays them with extra hold hairspray them sp they curl up in a ball then gets them with her "spider stick" :S.

Do you think that heart attacks never hurt anyone @hahabahbag? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if a giant, scuttling, spider gives me a heart attack one day! I cannot even touch a photograph of a spider, and even if they are dead I can't stand to pick them up in a piece of kitchen paper to throw them out.

The smaller spiders called false widow spiders, that have a design on their backs that look like a human skull, can give very serious bites, that often swell up, and have been known to cause Sepsis in some unfortunate people!

Spiders make me have nightmares about them, and the constant fear of them cause me, and obviously a lot of other people, to spend the whole of spider season very stressed. Severe constant stress can cause all sorts of problems to our minds and bodies, so please don't say that the spiders in the UK are harmless 😩

Ardap from Amazon!!! I use it every 2 months on my windows, doors and skirting boards and haven’t seen a spider in just over 2 years that I’ve lived here. (Touch wood).