what do you do about spiders?

[allthatmalarkey]

DH and I both think they do a job (killing flies) and so we’re pretty tolerant. However, I’ve noticed a lot of spiders in one place, some of them very thin, and I think there’s some time servers who are just messing up my house with dusty cobwebs. DH says the thin spiders are a different species. I think they are ineffective spiders and they should be the first to go. So I hoover the cobwebs and then some of the spiders. Then, I feel very guilty. This all seems a bit arbitrary. To be clear, I have no time for flies whatsoever.

So I have three questions really. Firstly, what’s your approach to spiders and cobwebs around the house and, secondly, should I feel guilty about all the killing? Thirdly, why are some spiders so thin?

Vitalogy, I live in Australia and we have huge aggressive ones and poisonous ones, I hate flies too, but would rather that than spiders. My backyard is usually flammable with all the spray.

Spiders taking over instead of the humans, well, makes a change.

I am terrified but still do the screechy catch them in a pint glass and use something junk maily to slide underneath. I can't bring myself to kill them, even the tarantulas running about our house at present.

Wasps however get one chance to go out an open window and then the cloud of death spray descends.

The spindley ones don't give me the same fear, if you mean the same ones as me then they only have one body section so look different. They move differently too. Amazing how little differences remove the fear for me, I pick the big ones up! But the same size house spiders get a glass and paper.

I am back. Sorry, I couldn't find my own thread. Conkers do not work. My aunt believes in this. She still has spiders and webs and the addition of dusty bowls of conkers all over her house.

Kill them all.
Fly spray kills flies.
Cannot stand them. Not sure how the skinny ones stop the fat ones tbh

I have to admit (@Vitalogy look away) that I was hoovering the cobwebs but then some spiders accidentally got sucked up too and then I thought '6 in the hallway is surely too many for their own good' and before you know it I had culled their numbers down to 2. Then I felt guilty as this isn't really how I've tackled it in the past
(paper and glass method previously), but not actually sorry as I don't really enjoy their presence and it's my home. There is no shortage of spiders in the garden. Is it really damaging the eco system if they all start moving in once the central heating comes on?

@allthatmalarkey I've sucked a few up by accident, I can't help but say sorry though.

I welcome them. They catch flies which really get on my nerves.

I don’t kill animals on principle. I put scary spiders outside and just ignore the rest until they wander off. Flies get wafted out of open windows. Hoovering seems a particularly cruel way to kill a living creature.

A pint glass wouldn't fit over this bad boy so had to use a vase! I remove them as my dog likes to eat them/flick them around and that's not nice. All smaller spiders stay because I quite like watching them.

I used to have big hairy spiders (and scream for help until DH would put a glass over and escort them out), but they seem to have almost disappeared in the last two years.
I have three theories:
a) two years ago I have seen the biggest spiders ever around my house. Perhaps they were the eldest of the group and after they died it takes some years for the small to grow enough?
b) two years ago I was so fed up with this enormous spiders that I sprayed A LOT of spider repellent outside every window and door of my house. Perhaps they got the message and they emigrated?
c) two years ago we replaced all the carpets with wooden floor. House is a million times cleaner now.

Whatever the reason, I haven't seen a single big one (yet). I know, I know, just because I am writing it down I will get a giant one in by tomorrow!!

Thin legged ones I've always known as "money spiders". I leave them alone (there's currently one behind my loo and one behind my laundry basket) because if you kill one you will lose money. FACT. Their webs make a right mess tho.
Wolf spiders - the big fat hairy fuckers - get sucked up with the handheld. OH does the glass/paper trick. Not me!
I use a peppermint / citrus essential oil spray as a deterrent but I'm not really sure how effective it is.

I remove the cob webs when I can be bothered/noticed them. I used to save spiders when I lived in London, because otherwise my cat would kill them, but we moved to the country and they are really huuge here. I've seen a massive one in the shed and had an unpleasant incident when I thought cat's whiskers brushed past my leg and bend down to stroke the puss and saw ... Fucking hell. So I started killing those the cats didn't finish off. I think the spiders that big have had a good life and enough is enough. I don't feel guilty.

I like the fact that I don't scream but hey some people can be really freaked out.

Here's what we had in London (cherry tomato next to it for comparison) and what the cat killed, and what I used to save when had a chance. Much bigger boys in our country house now ...

Is that a false widow @BloodyDisgrace?

Thinkingofausername1

I don't know, sorry. It's been dead for years, that's a certain.

@BloodyDisgrace lol. It looks pretty scary even so!

If they remain outside they can live. If they enter my home THEY DIE

I warn them to stay up near the ceiling as we have a very efficient spider hunter in the family

I like spiders outside. I put them there when I can be asked. There's no food for them in my house.

Clean cobwebs, but let spiders live peacefully.