Spiders

Twostage

Autumn must be happening early this year as the big spiders are coming into our house already. Any other men out there live in a house full of women and feel that their only real contribution is the swift and manly capturing of a scuttling spider, especially one that has decided they want to check out what is happening on the settee (sofa if you prefer) currently occupied by one or more females ?

Additional question - any men out there that join in with the jumping on the settee screaming ?

suzyb

Or women out there that join in with the swift capturing of a spider

Applespider

I quite like spiders... perhaps not unsurprisingly...

I help them out of the bath when they get stuck in there.

Fireblade96

My country residence is regularly inhabited by large spiders. There's a long-term resident - called Boris, naturally - who mainly comes out when my sister (terrified of spiders) visits.

I just usher the spider into a pint glass, deposit him outside, then await his return...

londonlivvy

I used to live in a basement flat that got an annual invasion of large spiders - the kind you can hear scuttle across the floor. And then a friend told me that spiders do not like the smell of conkers. Old wives tale? possibly.

All I know is I collected conkers and put a bowl in each room, like a mad lady, and I only got one spider in the entire winter.

So it's now a toss up - do you want to be taken for a slightly mad sort of pot pourri kind of person? or a wimp about spiders? I voted for the former.

Initialised

That sounds mad but I might give it a try.

cornerblock

Initialised wrote:

That sounds bonkers but I might give it a try.

FTFY

msmancunia

I slept in the spare room on Friday night due to a taratula sized specimen in my bedroom. In the absence of a bloke, I'm definitely trying the conker thing.

rick_chasey

Cornerblock wrote:

Initialised wrote:

That sounds conkers but I might give it a try.

FTFY

FTFY

Applespider

Not sure I believe it. I had a bowl of conkers in the living room last winter (just because I kinda like picking them up when they're glossy) and still got spiders. Admittedly the spiders were predominately in the bathroom which didn't have a bowl of conkers...

Twostage

I'd heard about the conkers thing but it was that you should put one in each corner of the rooms.

Twostage

Applespider wrote:

I quite like spiders... perhaps not unsurprisingly...

I help them out of the bath when they get stuck in there.

Yes, my role is to see them off the premises, no violence involved. Its good to watch the long legged house spiders parachute down to the ground when I chuck them out of the bedroom window.
We used to live in York and they were huge down there. You could hear them running across the carpet over the sound of the telly.
I've got a picture somewhere of the biggest one we had in the bath up here. I'll dig it out.

dunnnooo

Having seem this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRV4d9LCawU ) a while ago, I've concluded that it's not only acceptable, but eminently sensible to get the hell out of the room if a spider is in residence.

Twostage

Here it is :-

spider by twostage, on Flickr

medoramas

Twostage wrote:

Here it is :-

spider by twostage, on Flickr

Holly shit! And you weren't drunk or nothing when letting it climb on your palm???

I remember last year I left my bike uncovered overnight in the garden and one spider decided to set his web-house on the front of my bike (where all the gear and brake cables cross each other). I kept taking it for my commute rides for about two days, then it somewhere disappeared.

dhope

Applespider wrote:

I quite like spiders... perhaps not unsurprisingly...

I help them out of the bath when they get stuck in there.

They should be removed from the bath quickly otherwise they're liable to get close to the pizza.
/threadoverlap

nich

Nice timing of this thread.

Last night I was closing the curtains and then I saw it. I did say a few choice words. I'm not a big fan of spiders you see :oops:

You know the sort, those big fast ones that are often found in the dark corner of your garage. Not meant to be in the house kind of spider :x

My god could this this one move. I spent a while trying to get it, then finally I cupped it!

For some reason I rescued it and put it outside, no doubt it will return and we'll do battle again.

mudcow007

ahh i quite like spiders, i love the way you can hear their hairy legs scratching across the walls as they go

me an my mrs went camping to Devon a few weeks back, i spotted this right next to our tent




god knows what lived in there :shock:

Fireblade96

When their legs are too long for a pint glass to fit easily over the top (for transport outside), then they're BIG.

il_principe

I know I should MTFU but I am terrified of spiders, full on arachnophobia. Even that photo gave me the shivers. Thankfully I live in a new build flat on the second floor, only had one spider in 2 years or so. Win.

bails87

Il Principe wrote:

I know I should MTFU but I am terrified of spiders, full on arachnophobia. Even that photo gave me the shivers. Thankfully I live in a new build flat on the second floor, only had one spider in 2 years or so. Win.

I used to be like this, but when I went to South East Asia last year (should that be "laahst yah"?) I realised that there would be spiders and I should get used to them.

So the next time there was one in the house I made myself grab it. Turns out they're not as scary as I thought. The ones I encounterd in the rainforests of Laos however, are scary :shock: *shudder*

There's two giants (for UK housespiders anyway) in the garage who keep me company when I'm working on the bike. I saw one of them take on two wasps at the weekend. The wasps were stuck in the web, trying to sting and the spider just kept darting in and out, biting the wasp on the head. After a few bites the wasp would stop moving, then the spider dragged them off into it's 'webcave' in the corner.

The other spider is even bigger. Out of curiosity I tapped it's leg with the red straw off a can of WD40. It very nearly pulled it out of my hand :shock:

The Rookie

mudcow007 wrote:

god knows what lived in there :shock:

Funnel web spider at a guess.........

Simon

king_jeffers

I don't mind spiders outside but inside my house is another matter. Not sure about the conkers theory but cleaning your house regularly, moving things like furniture, dusting loads, de cluttering seems to deter them (less places to hide).

Redhog14

STOP PUTTING PICTURES OF EFFING GIANT SPIDERS UP HERE! I CAN HARDLY SLEEP THROUGH THE REST OF MY WORKDAY NOW!

Best story I know of spiders was my ex who after visting her family in Vietnam came home exhausted dumped her bags and went to bed. Got up in the middle of night to go for a wee to find some giant hand sized spider covering the lampswitch. she ran out of the house and woke a neighbour to deal with it but they only caught a fleeting glimpse of it before it dissapeared and was never seen again. Prognosis was it was too cold in Fife for it to survive - no great surprise there.

Headhuunter

The Beginner wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

god knows what lived in there :shock:

Funnel web spider at a guess.........

Simon

Funnel webs don't live in the UK! DO they? Aren't they one of the most dangerous spiders in the world?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian ... web_spider

Headhuunter

At this time of year, I get garden spider webs strung across the path between high sections of vegetation in the back garden. I have to walk down the path every morning to get the bike and usually end up with a face full of web and spider...

woodford2barbican

DDD will also be scared of spiders.

If I see them I just leave them be. I would rather have spiders than flies. However, if any of the 3 women in the house see them, then I have to despatch them out the window.

esspeebee

Headhuunter wrote:

Funnel webs don't live in the UK! DO they? Aren't they one of the most dangerous spiders in the world?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian ... web_spider

The funnel-web spiders are a fairly large family, of which the highly dangerous Australian varieties are members. The species found in the UK are all fairly harmless.

rjsterry

Am currently trying to teach my 2-year-old to not be scared of spiders. Grew up in an old house with lots of nooks and crannies so am well used to them myself - they were usually named Colin, rather than Boris IIRC.

yenrod

Their was once a derivative of the Black Widow in the house - corner of a window... Garden spiders are quite 'meaty' looking...

Once picked up a tube in the garage - then realised a spider had crawled on me - feel queasy talking about it now... - boy did I move when I realised it was there...

That web-in-the-grass DOESNT look promising...!!!

My view of spiders is mixed sometimes I'm weary of the them, mostly I'll just get em in a cup glass etc..and get them outside..better that way than hanging around !!!

I also recall, to change the subjest SLIGHTLY of having a wasps nest in a air vent = funy thing was the expert who we go in to sort things out was more scared of them than me LOL ! - i feel animals can sense your scared etc...like ive been in a room and suddenly felt the need to look at a wall and seen a spider..I reckon these things should just be respected...

Put yourself at ease but dont kill 'em - its unneccesary!

Zombie_donkey

I was fully phobic of spiders up until a few years ago. Now I can catch and release all but the biggest ones. I still scream like a girl at the biggest ones.

I currently have a smallish garden spider living in my car. It likes to drop down and dangle in front of me when I am driving along, not crashed yet. I got it out the other day but it ran up my arm and jumped back in to the car under the drivers seat.