What's the biggest you've ever seen?

sazz` - respect! very brave.

I am a widow and have to deal with spiders myself now.

I keep down the number of big spiders in my home in these ways: I got a man to put draft excluder at the bottom of my front door. Its actually a double door so he put it on both doors. There is a little gap in the middle which I seal each evening with wide Sellotape at the bottom. Same with the back door.

I keep beds away from the wall and make sure no bedding touches the floor.

I have jars of various sizes in every room so I don't have to look for them if a big spider appears.

I have tried conkers and cinnamon and bought expensive repellent over the internet. None worked.

The best thing is to try to prevent them coming in in the first place. Some still manage to get it, but not so many.

The one comfort I have from all these emails is that spiders are universal, they get in every home, and they terrify a lot of us, but very few people die from them. at least in Britain.

I was told about cookers (fresh) being a moth repellent some 70 years ago by an elderly neighbour and have always found them effective. And a lovely excuse to gather such beautiful things - nothing more splendid than a fresh conker in its green overcoat!

Absolutely terrified of them and it's only got worse over the years. Always look around corners and ceilings when I get up in a morning and never go into a room without putting on the light and doing a quick spider check first. Not so happy about light switches after reading the posts above. Even when I can't sleep at night I never go downstairs at this time of year as there's always one lurking somewhere.

I used to work in a care home & 2 of my friends were terrified of spider's. This time of year I would often hear my name screamed which would be my cue to pick up said spider & put it out of the window!

Last week I went to turn off reading light about midnight and on the floor was an enormous spider also with knobbly knees, clogs and god knows how many eyes. I screamed but I didn’t wake up husband in the snoratorium next door. It ran under bedside table. I opened bedroom window wide then got toothmug ready. Used my phone spotlight and tea towel to flush it out, caught eventually caught in toothmug (barely fitted in) with coaster and threw out of the window.

At the weekend I sat in our very warm conservatory with the doors open. Bluebottles flew in and 2 were caught in webs on the ceiling. Immediately they were despatched by 2 very similar spiders smaller than their prey and then carried off to their lairs. Pretty gruesome.

I live in Central Italy. Here the spiders are not so huge, fat and hairy as I remember them being in England - Always found one sitting in the bath when I wanted to use it!

In my house, they have smallish, round bodies but endlessly long skinny legs but they BOUNCE up and down when you get near them. Most peculiar! I think they think they are frightening when they do this.

Spiders make me physically sick and this time of year is my most anxious time. I am so phobic that I couldn't have a picture of one against me. I try to be brave but I am just repulsed by them. I have been known to turn up at the DH's place of work in a nightie to get him to rescue me before the days of mobile phones. People think it is really funny that I get so panic stricken but I nearly killed myself swerving across 4 lanes of traffic when one fell off the visor. It was an instinctive reaction to just get away. I don't mind anything else in the same way.

What's the biggest you've ever seen? Now that would be telling H1954
Oh spiders? Years ago I went to close my daughters bedroom curtains and a gigantic spider was sitting in between the folds! I've never seen one as big as that since. I pressed the two folds together and killed it.
I hate the crunch when the big bodied ones ket killed.
I don't mind the smaller versions though, I pick them up and put them outside.

Years ago we had a huge spider which visited the sitting room every evening, and perambulated around for ages, we decided to call it Clyde as the dog was called Bonnie, and I think she thought it was a friend as she followed it around but never tried to catch it. If we said "Where's Clyde "? she would sit and look around the room, examining the walls and carpet looking for it. It suddenly vanished underneath an armchair and was never seen again.

I rarely see spiders when visiting the family in Australia, but you learn to be cautious about putting your fingers where they might be lurking. When my Aussie DIL lived with us in the UK I had to stop her from swatting ever one she saw.
Talking of 5" crickets - my DH was trying to get a photo of one which was on the top of the door frame. He had the camera up to his eye when the cricket suddenly leapt on to his head. Luckily the camera strap was around his neck, or it would have gone flying! We all nearly wet ourselves laughing!

Many many years ago, we had one that was so big that when it walked across our lounge floor, we could actually hear its footsteps. No exaggeration!

Thankfully I'm not at all bothered by them, but my sister in law, who was staying at the time, was hysterical and climbed up onto the back of the sofa. Which fortunately, was against a wall

I had whopper that lived in my veg rack in the kitchen for two years, I called her Hairy Mary. One morning I found that Hairy Mary had fallen into my sink so I carefully scooped her out and gently dropped her on the floor behind me. Big mistake!
Unbeknown to me my greedy Labrador had entered the kitchen.
There was a scuffle of paws and a great smacking of lips.
Sadly Hairy Mary was no more.

I'm ok-ish with spiders, enough to catch them and put them outside, but daddy long legs have to die! ?

Oh dear! I bet they are much more
frightened of you than you are of them, think how tiny they are in comparison to us. they don't eat human food they
kill and eat bugs, I like to get close-up with a magnifying glass to have a good look at them, they are amazing little creatures.

My kid told me that a former colleague of mine (my kid knew her through her mum's drama group) found a tarantula in her bananas once! My colleague didn't feel it was right to kill the tarantula because it had been through so much to get here, so she and her husband named the thing Lady and kept it as a pet for several years.

I worked with a 'spiderphobic' and was (unofficially) assigned the spider catching and removal duties. Once, I had a desperate call on the classroom phone as she was trapped in her office with a spider sitting above the door!

When we lived in Greece there was a massive one living under our outside stairs. It was wearing a red hat! We called it Sidney.

I would sooner have spiders than flies which I hate. I have a large spider which runs across the living room floor in the evening and disappears into the empty fireplace.
Once in France. I was bitten by a tiny spider. It was very painful for a day

I've just chased a bat out of the holiday we're in - taken us two days because its open plan and he can fly! He was quite beautiful when we got up close.

HI924 ooh you are awful, nudgenudge wink wink.

If you find a spider in your bath, drape a length of toilet paper from where it is, over the edge of the bath and then leave it. It'll make its way up and out.

Cute song about a poor, wee spider:
folksong.org.nz/spider/index.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cUiCW-KfUQ

There is absolutely no chance I'd drape toilet paper over the bath to let a spider out!

I call them Boris. I hate the damn thing's, can't step over them, walk past them and depending in the size they reduce me.to tears.

If I never saw one again it would be too soon

Last night as I went to put on the bedroom light, a huge Daddy Long Legs was sat next to it ? Found a cup, sliding a piece of paper under it before chucking it out the bathroom window x And yes I had to open up this thread as it intrigued me ?