[Closed] Scared of Spiders?

I hate them

I have a scar from a spider bite which reinforces this quite logical stance

Thanks for the warning in the thread title.

Thankfully i have 2 spider catchers that are sat next to me purring away

I like spiders. The catch and eat other insects in your house, and don't spread disease like cockroaches and flies and that. Spiders are cool.

Your dad put it outside!

It'll be there in the morning, cold, angry, hungry and... waiting.

Spiders are cool.

Correct.

0_0

I didn't realise we got them so big round here.

Should have owned it with a set of bombers.

I once had a similar sized one downstairs in my house, thought "ah he's a big one, i'll let him live" that night I awoke and took a drink from the glass of water next to my bed. I cannot describe the sheer ANGER that coursed though me as I my brain anounced "contents of mouth: H2O + fuxking huge spider!", the contents which were then immediatly spat onto the floor. I then lept out of bed and stamped upon it only to then have my brain announce "foot now wet, includes sizable spider mulch between toes". not one of my best nights to be honest.

These are part of my collection. 🙂
They really aren't that bad when you get to know them.

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I they are amazing little creatures and I can't get enough of them.
Well done for not squishing it too 🙂

The catch and eat other insects in your house, and don't spread disease like cockroaches and flies and that. Spiders are cool.

Apparently big house spiders mostly eat smaller house spiders. The smaller ones (<1/2" or so) are the nice ones that do the fly and bug catching, the big ones are essentially nasty parasitic bullies and should be stomped on or fed to the cat on sight. (This may be complete nonsense - I heard it from a pest control chap who came to nuke a huge wasps nest, when I commented that it was a shame about all the gigantic dead spiders littering my attic space after he gassed everything.)

There is one of a similar size above my head right now. Keeps out the flies so is more than welcome.

roper - looks like I'm going to live in Brazil. What can I expect to be bitten by? Any worse than the little shit that got me in Oz?

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I don't dislike them so much that I'd kill them, its the thought of it crawling on me that I don't like. I can't sleep with any sort of insect in my room in case it starts walking on me while I'm asleep.

Roper - I was looking at those pictures and hoping I'd start to like them, but I can't do it...in fact the more I look at them the more I don't like them I'm afraid 🙁 😯

my spider experience then got worse, I've now been bitten four times by wood louse eating spiders, those little fuxkers I kill on sight! others I'm prepared to let live as long as they respect my boundarys 😀

i'm not scared of 'normal' spiders - y'know [i]normal[/i] ones... i wouldn't ever want to hurt or kill a spider, but the big ones do give me the willies.

i've always thought fondly of these handsome little fellas:
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We've had a few big ones in the house recently. Personally I don't care but my wife is really quite scared (where she comes from they have spiders that are actually dangerous) so they have to go out.

This lot lived in my washing line last year.

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In my garden, I have a bush full of these;

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Lovely to look at and very interesting to watch, they range in size from tiny, to a couple of big ones with abdomens the size of a penny coin.
I really need to take the hedge trimmer to that bush, but don't want to destroy their habitat at the moment.

Been proper arachnophobic since I was about 12. I even visited my doctor about it as it was stopping me sleeping at night, usually about this time of year when these big bastaRDs start coming into the house.

So I'm 31 now and I seem to have got a little bit better as the time has gone on but my wife has to get rid of them now and they still make me feel physically sick and sweaty, even just the photos (though strangely I don't mind the really big tarantulas as much, just these awful house spiders).

And as for 'purring spider catchers'...our cat just plays with them like they're a toy, nae good at all.

I'm away to lie down.

Roper - Love the Mexican Red Knee, I had one about 12 years ago but way to aggressive to handle. 🙁

Becky couldn't you have just left it? Looks like its heading back into its cage, just slam the door behind it!

iDave - Brazil has the wandering spider which is a truly nasty piece of work. The locals say that rather than run away from you they'll actually run at you! Check out this video for more on it:

- though a side effect of the venom is a permanant erection 😯
I did read somewhere that people eat an average of 8 spiders over thier lifetime while they're sleeping (the people not the spiders)though that might be bull.
There is also a theory that because spiders evolved before insects the reason why some of the venom is so potent is that its to kill other spiders.
Got to say I'm with Roper- spiders are very very cool beasties!
Roper do you have pink toes - they were always my favorites.

I admit they are quite beautiful, but only when viewed from on a computer screen! Still pretty terrified when up close; they get caught in a glass and thrown outside.

My gf has a proper phobia though. We have been out climbing sometimes, and for no reason at all she's leapt from the cliff and taken a fairly big fall. 'I thought I saw a spider...' 😯

Lovely to look at and very interesting to watch,

If they're on a bush outside I have no problem watching them, I find it interesting watching them wrap up their prey and eating them. I even rescued a bumblebee from a spider once. But if they're in the house, or try to come near me its a different ball game!

Been proper arachnophobic since I was about 12. I even visited my doctor about it as it was stopping me sleeping at night, usually about this time of year when these big bastaRDs start coming into the house.

I must admit after my initial "braveness" I'm not feeling it any more! I keep getting a crawling feeling on my arms and legs...don't think I'll be sleeping well tonight.

Think I was lucky that I only had a few tiny ones in my room at uni last year - I can catch those ones on a piece of paper and let them out of the window. Its odd that it happened today, because I'd noticed earlier there were a lot of the ones in ahwiles picture about. I guess its due to the changing weather.

Becky couldn't you have just left it? Looks like its heading back into its cage, just slam the door behind it!

darn it, why didn't I think of that 😉

I then lept out of bed and stamped upon it

Cowardly murdering bastard.

My flatmate would regularly get me to remove them from her bedroom. She'd make me take them some distance from the house, as she claimed she could see them coming straight back towards her room. A fair claim, as I found one bugger in her room 3 times, and I'd taken it right away from the house. Funnily enough, they only seemed to go into her room, rather than other areas of the house. Must have been something in here room that attracted them, some chemical or fibre or something.

No need to be scared of spiders in this country, or most places tbh.

My GF also has the full phobia - will scream the place down and weep uncontrollably if there is a house spider in the room. As a child she spend an entire day in her bed clothes "trapped" in the kitchen by a house spider, until her mum came home.

I don't like them in the house, but her reaction is really extreme

The Garden Cross spider in mtbCols pic is a real beauty, and the pic above of the spiderlings is a web full of baby Cross spiders. I didn't used to mind spiders as a kid until a Cross spider I used to feed flies too got pissy with me playing with it and it bit me. I don't mind little ones, and I'll always get them out of the bath very carefully, but big house spiders just freak me out. It's the glass, card and door for them. As elfinsafety says, while there are quite a number in this country that can bite, none do a human any harm. Brown Recluse Spiders on the other hand...
Just thank your Deity of choice they've not got into this country, they particularly like sharing houses with humans.

Some posters may remmeber this delightful little fella living in my sitting room a couple of months back:

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Oh yeah, which one of you lot is 'overly curious bystander' on flickr?

Regarding the OP, that's probly a Cardinal Spider. I am led to believe theyr'e named after Cardinal Wolsey (who was apparently scared sh!tless of them when he lived at Hampton Court)
Dunno how true this is though.

Just had to kill yet another like the one in the OP - we are over-run by them at the moment and Mrs Mastiles will be having another restless night after finding it. I would happily pick up and put outside but I have to kill them to settle Mrs M (so she knows it can't possibly get back in).

Can't you just pretend to kill it? Keep one you've already killed, and just swap it over to appease her?

I really can't condone the senseless slaughter of any creatures. They're not doing any harm. People with phobias need to face their fears, and stop being so bloody hysterical.

I frankly don't care what you think - my wife is more important than any amount of spiders.

Glad to see I'm not the only collector of spiders here, nice pics Roper.
Here's my recently addition to the family, a lovely Nhandu Crhomatus or commonly know as a White Striped Bird Eater - isn't she lovely. Also have 2 Chile Rose, Red Knee and a Blue Femur - plus more to come 😀
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I frankly don't care what you think - my wife is more important than any amount of spiders.

S'fine. Keep pandering to her attention seeking then, because 99% of the time, that's all it is, you know. Why is it almost always women who scream blue murder when a creepy-crawly appears? It's so that they can get men to act all brave and save them from the terrible monster! 😀

A real phobia, however, should be addressed properly by trained professionals.

Elfinsafety - Member

......... stop being so bloody hysterical.

.

mastiles_fanylion - Member

I frankly don't care what you think - my wife is more important than any amount of spiders.

Stop being so bloody dramatic.

I find the big ones to fast to catch by hand so its usually a pint glass and out the back door. The last one was like a cat, legs spread in flight, made an audible thud then tchk tchk tchk as it scampered off.

Hadge, is it eating a potato?

mastiles_fanylion - Member
I frankly don't care what you think - my wife is more important than any amount of spiders.

You won't be saying that when you're infested by GHOST SPIDERS! (possibly from outer space)

No Elfin, that's her "home" - she is eaing crickets at the moment and bigger stuff when she gets bigger. I absolutely shit myself last night when I was doing a bit of housekeeping and she ran so fast at my hand I bloody jumped out of my skin! Hopefully she will get a bit more calmer as she gets older - he says 🙄

She lives in a potato? What's that brown stuff?

I do like spiders. We had loads of Common Garden spiders in our, er, garden. Our dopey landlord (he was a thick ignorant tosser, him) came round one day and cut all the hedge back, destroyed much of their habitat. Which is why they moved into my flatmate's bedroom. I've got a couple of long legged ones in me bathroom atm, they feed on silverfish.

Very VERY scared of them but try to MTFU and get them out of the house without harming them.

Which UK housespider is capable of biting?

None really. Well, maybe one or two species. Most are simply too tiny to bite. They'll stay well away from you anyway.

There are only a few species of UK spider that could give you a little nip, but a mozzie or wasp would cause a lot more suffering.

Spiders are lovely. They kill pests, they're fairly intelligent for little crawly things, they build awesome nests and webs and such, and they're cool to watch. Moths on the other hand are evil.

"Some posters may remmeber this delightful little fella living in my sitting room a couple of months back"

What the burning f*** is THAT? Almost as scary as a moth.

¡Dave, the best thing to remember is just about all spiders are venomous and can bite if you let them, so don't let them. There are some dangerous spiders in Brazil but there are also some fantastic ones that are pretty harmless. There are quite a few tarantulas and they have never been known to kill a human. The ones in Brazil are new world and so have a milder venom and are less likely to bite. They have urticating hairs which feel a bit like fiber glass when they get on your skin, and can irritate quite badly. New world T's will rathther flick hairs than bite.
Shakey, my [i]B.smithi[/i] is typically docile and gentle. She is a great show spider but has issues with her water bowl, but very nice.

magowen100 I have two juvenile [i]Avicularia purpurea[/i] which are dark purple pink toes. I've had them since slings and just starting to get adult colourations.

Hadge, nice [i]N.Crhomatus[/i]!! Looks lovely and healthy. I mainly collect African and Asian Tarantulas with a few funnels webs and true spiders. Though a friend is sending me some young centipedes from Singapore and they look fascinating.
I also have a commune of 6 [i]P.regalis[/i] which are just about ready to be re-homed as they are getting too big for their enclosure. Herding six should be interesting.

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Glad I didn't find that one, it even has a skull on its back!

I'm both fascinated by them and terrified of them in equal measure.

what "issues" does she have with her water bowl?

Next time you are in a petrol station at night look above the pumps to see if there are any webs stretching up to the canopy.

We stopped at the Tesco filling station in Carlisle on our way back from Scotland last month and there were loads (100+) of very large garden spiders like these:

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Fascinating to watch as they moved steadily around their webs sorting out the day's catch.

Was a gibbering wreck when we camped (yes CAMPED!!!) in Oz. We had a massive huntsman spider in our tent one night, saw loads of redbacks, etc.

Used to wake up thinking I was covered in them - got to near phobia stuff.

Don't like big UK spiders but I'll happily splat and remove them. Will pick smaller ones up and remove them - big ones need killing IMO!

Looking at this thread just proves you poms are a bunch of p**ftas! LOL!

... just kidding.

Seriously UK house spiders are really chilled. If you really need it dead, get 2 paper towels go up slowly to it, grab it, squish it, done. It won't move and it won't feel a thing. You won't even get guts on your wall. Just don't go playing whack, chase with a rolled up magazine as you'll miss, it'll run about and you'll panic, your aim will get worse, it'll crawl up your leg and you'll scream like a girl! ... p**ftas!

House spiders can bite - not nasty but it's like a little sting.

We have big fat black orb type spiders in our garden. I got bitten by one of them while clearing the garden this summer. Hand was sore for a week but was no worse than I get from wasps and bees. Went a little black and unpleasant looking though.

we have one similar to the OP's. It patrols the house, mainly living in the bathroom but visiting the living room every couple of weeks. Like elfin, I approve of them and rescue them when they get stuck in the bath 🙂

i have a 'big phobia' of spiders...even looking at those pictures made me cringe....how come they are soooo much bigger in the 'autumn/winter' time ? i guess the little critters have been feeding their bellys up over summer and some of them on stretch machines for their extra long legs...grrrrrr 😉

Yesterday, I looked at Becky's photo of her critter and thought "Wow, not seen ones like that since I used to live back in my hometown, glad we don't get them here".

Went to brush my teeth and there was a mahoosive one just like it in the bath. It was still there this morning, so Mr Toast ejected it from the premises. Then I noticed there was ANOTHER ONE under the sink.

I swear it's like Ringu or something. Everyone who's looked at Becky's photo will now have massive spiders in their house, emerging from their hiding places for viewing pleasure.

I swear it's like Ringu or something. Everyone who's looked at Becky's photo will now have massive spiders in their house, emerging from their hiding places for viewing pleasure.

There's definitely something going on, went for a ride this morning, there was a spider on my bike in the garage, another that fell on me when I pulled my bike out and then 3 had made their home around the mirror on my car (none as big as that one mind...). It's not good!

There's definitely something going on

been a while since i've seen owt quite so big as the OP one in our house. Had one last winter that patrolled the lounge though - I wanted to try and train it to light the fire, bring logs in and collect cold beers from the kitchen, however, the Mrs insisted it left the building... I'd shift it, next day it was back...
This year we have the puppy so I guess spider chasing games will ensue...

S'fine. Keep pandering to her attention seeking then, because 99% of the time, that's all it is, you know.