Spiders!!!

Morf

salamanca22 wrote: »

It does look like a false widow alright going by the markings on the thorax. Totally harmless if left alone. They do have a nasty bite though if they are cornered and if you are super allergic it can cause nasty effects including death in kids. It's VERY rare this will happen though!

Sorry to be a Entymological pedant but spiders and arachnids don't have a thorax.

They have two body parts, the cephalothorax and abdomen.

#ReadBugsMagazineAsAKid #BrokeTheGlowInTheDarkModels

angeldaisy

I used to be terrified of spiders, but living in the country for the last 14 yrs has desensitised me. I still can't do what hubby does and pick them up with bare hands but they get the glass and paper treatment. I would never have killed them though.

That said, this year we've had very few in the house, very unusual, but I'm not complaining!!

tk123

I just tuned one of my pillows and there was a big spindley spider on the other one!! The dogs didn't know what was wrong with me!! Can't sleep now lol!

greedygoblin

Having only seen 2 or 3 big spiders indoors this year so far, I've pretty much doubled that number in the last 15 minutes. :eek:

2 scuttling around the sitting room carpet (captured and evicted one; the other one escaped) and one gigantic one in the bedroom (also quickly evicted).

I think the windows are staying closed from now on

Morf

angeldaisy wrote: »

I used to be terrified of spiders, but living in the country for the last 14 yrs has desensitised me. I still can't do what hubby does and pick them up with bare hands but they get the glass and paper treatment. I would never have killed them though.

That said, this year we've had very few in the house, very unusual, but I'm not complaining!!

Having adopted a more open to new things attitude my arachnophobia has decreased in proportion.

I would still be bothered by one in my bed, or being close without warning but one running across the far side of the room doesn't provoke that panic response any more thankfully.

angeldaisy

Think I've fathomed out why there are no spiders inside my house!
They are all outside feasting on all the daddy long legs!

Mountainsandh

I kill spiders. I wish i didn't, in fact I don't always, I can tolerate the spindly ones, but with the big huge ones I go into survival mode, really. Heart beating, hyper focussed, I become another animal in defence mode. I couldn't even place a glass over one, I throw a shoe at them and that's an ordeal. I'm still afraid of them after they're dead, and it takes me ages to recover. Maybe some day I'll manage tolerate them too, but I doubt it.

Morf

Take responsibility that it's you and not the spider. The spider is an external trigger for your psychological and/or physiological response and not (in most cases) a credible threat to your safety in any way.

Charlie19

I dont really mind them but I have noticed a large increase in them around the house this year.

Mountainsandh

Morf wrote: »

Take responsibility that it's you and not the spider. The spider is an external trigger for your psychological and/or physiological response and not (in most cases) a credible threat to your safety in any way.

I don't reason at that particular moment, if I could reason I would use a glass and take it outside, I'm well aware the spider triggers an exaggerated response.
I've improved to the point where I'm tolerating skinny ones now, which didn't use to be the case, so maybe in a few year I'll have found a less cruel way to deal with the bigger ones.
But I'm not going to get therapy just because I have to kill a few spiders each year.

I can see your first edit by the way : I don't go looking for the spiders, I don't go rolling in the grass, and then kill a spider on me, or in the grass. It would never occur to me to go look for a spider on a tree, and then kill it.
They come to a sad end when they are intruding on my space. They search/they have opted for a habitat that is not safe for them (when they opt for my house), in the same way that if they approached a hedgehog's den they could end up eaten.
Some are lucky and get away with it, some don't.

larrlin24

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I kill spiders. I wish i didn't, in fact I don't always, I can tolerate the spindly ones, but with the big huge ones I go into survival mode, really. Heart beating, hyper focussed, I become another animal in defence mode. I couldn't even place a glass over one, I throw a shoe at them and that's an ordeal. I'm still afraid of them after they're dead, and it takes me ages to recover. Maybe some day I'll manage tolerate them too, but I doubt it.

I'm exactly the same!! I'm sure it's quite funny for my family members to see me running around screaming because of a spider, but I can't help it. I'm terrified of them. I don't know why. I found another one on my stairs yesterday and I knew if I didn't kill it, I'd more than likely find it in my bedroom later. I threw my shoe at it and I was on edge for ages afterwards.

honerbright

I'm terrified of spiders, the kind of terrified that even reading this thread is making my hair itch.
Can't kill them though, never have. Always get someone to remove them nicely.
If they stay far away from me in a corner though I can usually manage.. And even often name them to keep track of them.
But last Saturday we were watching TV and a gigantic one came out of no where and actually just ran straight at me. I was standing on the couch screaming like it was a rat or something.
Just can't justify killing them just because I'm scared of them, they're just living their little spider lives.

New Home

honerbright wrote: »

They're just living their little spider lives.

Honerbright, that's one of the best sentences I've ever read, and it's so, so true. :cool:

scudzilla

Any idea what this little (:rolleyes:) fella is?

New Home

Is that in a 1:1 scale? o_O

He seems to resemble an orange garden spider - or so says Google... didn't even know such a thing existed...

Try these for size...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LICvhGIRDcg/TnY_wNnHi2I/AAAAAAAABZU/JeY19GHo07k/s1600/spider_orange_large.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pwVAZtJ-lKg/TJLd_2ya3aI/AAAAAAAAJPs/UcUM0nDGg_s/s1600/20100926.JPG
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/205/7/3/orange_garden_spider_by_kajm-d58eaoq.jpg

scudzilla

New Home wrote: »

Is that in a 1:1 scale? o_O

He seems to resemble an orange garden spider - or so says Google... didn't even know such a thing existed...

Try these for size...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LICvhGIRDcg/TnY_wNnHi2I/AAAAAAAABZU/JeY19GHo07k/s1600/spider_orange_large.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pwVAZtJ-lKg/TJLd_2ya3aI/AAAAAAAAJPs/UcUM0nDGg_s/s1600/20100926.JPG
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/205/7/3/orange_garden_spider_by_kajm-d58eaoq.jpg

I'd love to say the scale was 1:1 but no, it was about half that size, maybe a touch bigger, still big enough to put the fear of christ into the wench

Tesco TripleChicken

Get a few pepper mint breath sprays from Penneys and spray on the floor

AlanS181824

I am a severe arachnophobia.

A few days ago I was lying on my bed and I seen my dog move her head really quickly and then this black thing walked right past my shoulder and down my bed!

Or a good few weeks back when the weather was bad I used to leave my window open as I love the crisp air, went to close my window and seen this massive and I mean massive spider hanging on my curtain!

Got out the hoover and it ran behind my bed!

Slept on the couch that night!

Hate them hate them hate them!

The Cool

I am also severely phobic of spiders, and if one of the big brutes comes in the house, I will kill him. Otherwise, I will be sitting frozen in fear wondering where it's gone, imagining him finding a new hiding spot to leap out at me from or crawling over me in my sleep. As far as I am concerned this is my territory. I'll put up with the small/medium kind of standard house spiders but those big wolf spiders - just no fecking way. Even the dog won't go near them.

ncur

I really love spiders, I think they're great. But then, we all have a phobia about something that the rest of the world generally doesn't get. I'm not mad about wasps, tbh.

Genghis Cant

Thus far in this thread we have "huge", "massive" and even "gigantic" spiders.
An elephant is huge. A mouse is small. These spiders are smaller than a mouse.
It's all relative I'll be told. But even as spiders go these house spiders are far from huge. But if it salves people's conscience to turn them into some sort of monsters who am I to contradict them.
I dunno why I bother.

ando

scudzilla wrote: »

Any idea what this little (:rolleyes:) fella is?

I think my buddy here is the same type as yours!! Call Attenborough!!

The pics attached are of it wrapping up its dinner. Anyone know what it is?

miss no stars

Genghis Cant wrote: »

How are spiders impacting on the child?

I can't abide anyone killing a spider. It's completely unnecessary. It's a slippery slope, what next butterflies, moths, cats dogs?
Serial killers in the making.

I think this needs to be addressed. Spider bites are painful and can cause an allergic reaction. I am allergic to spiders. I have absolutely zero fear of them at all, but because I'm allergic to their bite I remove them with glass and card rather than picking them up.

If I had a newborn baby in the house and there were big spiders getting in all over the place I would be concerned, in much the same way as I would be concerned if there were wasps getting in. It's a little bit of cop on, to be fair.

When I get bitten by a spider, the bite area swells up massively, becomes hot and itchy and painful. Based on my reaction to previous bites I would be extremely concerned if I got bitten on my neck. I would be concerned about a spider seeking warmth in under the baby's neck, the baby moving and the spider biting the baby on the neck. Babies (and even small children) are far more vulnerable to ill effects from bites and stings.

Saying it's ridiculous to be worried about a newborn baby when loads of big spiders are getting into the house is in itself ridiculous.

DBB

ando wrote: »

I think my buddy here is the same type as yours!! Call Attenborough!!

The pics attached are of it wrapping up its dinner. Anyone know what it is?

Your question has already been answered
It's a garden spider, Araneus diadematus

ando

DBB wrote: »

Your question has already been answered
It's a garden spider, Araneus diadematus

Thanks At least I know I wont be eaten tonight!

DBB

ando wrote: »

Thanks At least I know I wont be eaten tonight!

Ah now, I can't promise you won't!




:P

New Home

ando wrote: »

Thanks At least I know I wont be eaten tonight!

DBB wrote: »

Ah now, I can't promise you won't!
:P

Worst case scenario, you'll be all over the Web - Instant fame! Well, probably hanging from his web, :eek: but still...

Mountainsandh

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Thus far in this thread we have "huge", "massive" and even "gigantic" spiders.
An elephant is huge. A mouse is small. These spiders are smaller than a mouse.
It's all relative I'll be told. But even as spiders go these house spiders are far from huge. But if it salves people's conscience to turn them into some sort of monsters who am I to contradict them.
I dunno why I bother.

My conscience is perfectly OK I have to say, and I'm a spider killer.
If I can/could avoid killing them, I do/would.
I leave some of them there.
As for the others, I will simply repeat what I said previously : they have chosen the wrong habitat.

Every creature on earth is faced with the same difficulties, find a habitat, find food, mate.
When spiders come inside my house, they simply choose the wrong habitat, and that is fatal to them. Same as if they chose to settle near a hedgehog.

I am not phobic when it comes to butterflies and moths, so I send them out gently whenever I can. If I was phobic there, they would probably end up the same as spiders.

Cats and dogs are invited in my house, they are part of my family. Their habitat is my house. That's a completely different situation.

If rats came into my house, they would be killed.
Same with mice.

When an animal comes in by accident, like a bird, I try to evict it nicely.
When bugs or vermin claim my house as their habitat, that's when conflict erupts.

borderlinemeath

I quite like spiders, I love looking at them, their markings, the way they work to weave their webs and the way they ruthlessly dispatch any winged insect that has the misfortune to get tangled in their webs.

But even I got a bit of a fright today, I had a quick shower this morning and threw the towel in the bath, went back later on to put it in the wash and a very very large spider ran very quickly out of it! It was one of the biggest I've seen this year and it was moving fast. I let it cling to the towel and brought it out to the garden. I made sure it didn't get into the laundry!

copey

They are getting bigger but not as bad as oz