Spiders

[something daft already!!]

Not last night but the night before, I got up about 3am to use the toilet. When I got back to bed and started to drift off, I felt the pitter patter of a largish spider running over my arm. I immediately reacted in fear and horror and brushed it violently away. I could not sleep for the rest of the night
I've always had the fear but I did lose it in my army cadet days while having to sleep in forests and such but it came back again. My old flat in the centre on a city, I almost never saw one. Since moving to a more rural area, there's quite a few


Which irrational fears do you suffer from? Are spiders yours too?

 

[something daft already!!]

Nuke from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

 

[something daft already!!]

My cat is kept in the front room at night. She does like chomping on the odd one here and there.

 

[something daft already!!]

Yeah, the initial pain was not nice, and the muscle cramps for weeks afterwards were worse.

I kept spiders for about 20 years, I've been "in the hobby" for about 30 or so years I suppose! I had over 250 tarantulas at one point.
Now I grow carnivorous plants instead of carnivorous spiders

Madness I say. Complete madness! Spiders are best kept at a great distance. A few hundred miles may just about do it.

 

[something daft already!!]

Had a visit from my arachnid pal again. It was under my quilt and ran down the back of my bed and vanished. I slept above the quilt and with all my clothes on that night. Not seen it since but I'm pretty sure it's just biding it's time to strike again.

 

[something daft already!!]

I now have a line of defence against the critters which is humane.

 

[something daft already!!]

Quick, to the internet!

There was an absolute unit of a spider in my garage this weekend… holy moly, probably the biggest ‘native’ spider I’ve ever seen in the UK.

Snip

Kill it with fire!

 

[something daft already!!]

You get your lady to deal with the spiders?

I know I do where possible.

 

[something daft already!!]

I must have had a visit from my pal last night as I had a large bite lump thingy on my side. At least I assume it was him or her.

 

[something daft already!!]

Low score, looks dodgy, but not sure I fancy this.

 

[something daft already!!]

My spider catcher has been invaluable. I have caught about half a dozen so far, safely, without needing to murder them.

 

[something daft already!!]

Splat with a shoe or slipper and they won't feel a thing

That involves getting fairly close to them and risks them dropping on you and also a tad cruel. The stick device allows me to be around a meter away or so and does not harm the evil little ********. It makes me feel safe and warm inside, tapping them out the window. I removed two the night before last with it. My old flat I never hardly saw even 1 or 2 a year. This place is infested.

 

[something daft already!!]

Regularly moving large spiders from out of the house down here, yay warm south coast.

Loads of false widows around outside our place living in the soffits and sills that pop out at night.

Last time I was bitten (false widow), ended up on antibiotics.

One of my more normal sized (for here) house spider captures recently.

No images without spoilers please.

Just as a note, please refrain from posting pictures of things in a thread about fears without using spoilers.

One of the little ******** managed to escape the spider catcher last night.

 

[something daft already!!]

It's now flying spider season. Have removed two Daddy Longlegs from the living room so far. Apparently they have a very toxic venom but have no way to administer it. I used to be terrified of these as a child and drove my parents mad if they were about. Still not over keen.

 

[something daft already!!]

I think your mixing up two different things - the crane fly (commonly called daddy long legs) and the actual daddy long legs spider or cellar spider

Crane fly - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

*QI Forfeit Claxon*

Pholcidae - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am indeed referring to the Crane Fly. Always called them Daddy Longlegs as kid.

I don't recall where I heard about the nature of the poison but Google agrees they do not have venom.

 

[something daft already!!]

Daisy, our cat just showed me the largest spider I have ever seen outside a zoo, in our bathroom. It was massive, about the size of my headphones cup on my over the head headphones. It made me go cold and had shivers. This monster was too big for the spider catcher and had to go in the vacuum cleaner. I could not risk it escaping. Jesus, I am still feeling cold and itchy from it.

 

[something daft already!!]

I'm pretty sure my giant pal was one of these:

Warning, do not click if you want to be able to sleep again.

Giant house spider | The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire Manchester and North Merseyside

The giant house spider is one of our fastest invertebrates, running up to half a metre per second. This large, brown spider spins sheet-like cobwebs and pops up in the dark corners of houses, particularly in autumn.

www.lancswt.org.uk

 

[something daft already!!]

Thousands of rare spiders the size of rats released across the UK

Their population was revived over a 15-year periodThousands of rare spiders the size of rats have been released across the...

www.joe.co.uk

Well that's just great.

 

[something daft already!!]

They know. Just had one crawling over my arm. Horrendous. My partner is being left alone by them so why do they pick on me?

 

[something daft already!!]

Another monster one just scampered under the sofa and vanished. Not good. That's the third very large one seen in a couple of weeks. The others were dealt with, this one is on the loose.