Spiders and other phobias.

Some years ago I was living in a house with my Dh and middle son. We had a nightmare influx of spiders caused by an air raid shelter being demolished in our back garden.

My son set about despatching them all, he was a man with a mission and we were very grateful because I am really phobic about s-- and my Dh wasn't too brave around them.

It was around the time of Halloween and Dh and I saw an enormous s- for sale among all the other scary Halloween things.

Dh wanted to buy one and put it in the outside toilet to give my son a fright. The s- was big enough to fill the whole outside loo.

I wouldn't let him do it and sometime later I told my son about is dad's intended joke. My son did laugh but said he was glad I said no because the Halloween s- might have given him a heart attack.

Bats may look like flying mice but they are not rodents.

Pompa thanks for the information. Now I have googled and seen Spanish Slugs I think that is what I have in my garden in Lancashire. Disgusting, huge and leathery creatures!! I humanely dispose of them either with a sharp pointed stone or the prongs of a garden fork. Gross but satisfying! I find smaller ones in the compost bin and hope that by destroying them I might cut down on eventual numbers. Sorry folks but it's the survival of the fittest!

OK, typo - Humanely, it is past my bed time.

Humanly! Love it.

In East Anglia numbers n the order of 4000 Spanish sligs have been reported, Apparently they are bitter to taste (not sure who tried) and have no natural predators. They not only eat veg they will eat mice, other slugs, faeces etc. They grow up to 6 inches long.
www.slugwatch.co.uk/?page_id=174

I humanly kill them, with a brick, very quick, if a little messy. The biggest I have found was about 5" long and as thick as my thumb.

I did mean a tortoise falcon. Must have been having a "senior moment"
I don't care much for any creepy crawlies, even less so now that I have to deal with them myself. I don't kill them though, I catch them and throw them outside.

Hi nannieroz A hedgehog would probably be just as good as a tortoise but I don't have a garden now so I don't have to worry.

I have a sort of communal car park garden area looked after by gardeners but today I pulled out some weeds, it felt good.

Spiders get everywhere. I had to have the plumbing replaced in a shower unit today and there were spiders under the shower floor - I can't stand them - luckily they were only small ones and ran away.

They say a person is always a few feet away from a spider - arrrrragh.

I think they prefer snails (must be like a crunchie bar!)

Hedgehog rescue groups often provide hedgehogs to people.

Oops! their diet. Silly tablet predictive text!!!!!!

Great idea about the hedgehog falcon. I didn't know they're diet included slugs. I've got plenty (slugs and snails that is, although this year not so many, as its not been so wet). If I wasn't planning on moving, I would seriously consider a hedgehog.

More like a porcupine or two!

You need a hedgehog, Falconbird
Or a few families of hedgehogs!

I thought tortoises were vegetarian until one day years ago we were having a bar b cue and the tortoise came along and munched greedily on a beefburger. My cousin also reported his tortoise eating a dead shrew. They are foragers by nature and will basically eat anything they can find.

And I thought tortoises were vegetarian

DD's arachnophobia is every bit as bad as your horror of ........ Thistledoo, so I do sympathise.

You need a moat AshTree!

I don't mind spiders or any insect type of animal, I even like bats and mice. BUT I have an absolute horror of SNAKES.......... Ooooooo arrrrrrrrh.
I can hardly type the word!
I went into our local Pets at Home to stock up on cat food, as I walked in my attention was drawn to a man sitting in a corner by the door, I had to look twice........ He was holding a MASIVE yellow type of snake. My heart leapt in my chest and I ran as fast as my legs would carry me out of the shop, across the car park (which was busy with cars coming and going) jumped into my car, locking the door needless to say. I was shaking, sweating and my heart was pounding.
If by chance I am reading a paper and there is a picture Of said creature I can no longer continue.
Why should this phobia be so strong and disabling at the time of such an encounter? I do sympathy so much with the arachnophobic people as we are likely to meet insects on a regular basis. At least I can hopefully avoid the thing that creates my horrid phobia. Any suggestions?

It was from the link I posted at 17.25 Falconbird. I hadn't heard of Spanish slugs before so I googled them.

Oh God, I hope our kitchen invading slugs don't reach 4000 a month

Ana agreed you would have to buy several at least 10 I think - that is a lot of slugs. Is that an unusual number it does seem like a lot are they on the increase in your area?

It would have to be a pretty hungry tortoise to get through 4,000 slugs a month, Falconbird!

I googled Spanish slugs and they do look fairly horrible.

When I had a tortoise I had no problem with slugs. Tortoises contrary to popular opinion aren't veggies but eat slugs and insects. Mine used to stalk about trying to catch woodlice and often succeeded.

Buy a tortoise and all your slug worries will be over. They quickly dispatch slugs with one bite - more humane that other methods. I think they also eat snails but I've no proof about that.

We have so many baby ones, I fear that we could be heading that way. beer traps work quite well, going to ask the pub tonight, what they do with the slops.

You're lucky, pompa, apparently it's common to get 4,000 a month in some gardens!

Spanish slug invasion

We are overrun with huge Spanish slugs, I reckon I trap/kill 50 or so every morning.

Thanks for the kind offer Pompa but I will have to DECLINE the crate of slugs. Surely you don't have enough of them to fill a crate

I have rescued slugs in the early morning because if they get caught in the sun they dry out - poor creatures.

I admit spiders do have a use in the vast scheme of things and I appreciate that but I want them to do whatever useful things they do as far away from me as possible.