Never will I ever.……….

I could never decide which I disliked the most - the huge cockroaches that lurked around most of the apartment, whose footsteps I think I could hear as they scurried away, or the tiny baby ones that crawled out of barely-visible holes in the bathroom grouting at night and were there in huge numbers to greet me if I got up to go to the loo.
Oh, and deciding whether to risk walking on them with bare feet or risk putting on slippers that might have squatters in them!

Until we lived in that apartment, I'd only ever seen cockroaches out on the streets or the occasional one on the floor in a bar or restaurant, and really didn't understand why so many people got hysterical about them. That attitude soon changed !!!

LadyJus
When I lived in Spain the cockroaches were so big, we used them as substitute cricket balls!

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MamaCaz

I'd rather find a spider in the bed than cockroaches. I woke up after the first night in a rented apartment in Spain to find squashed cockroaches around/under me. ?

When I lived in Spain the cockroaches were so big, we used them as substitute cricket balls!

I picked my jeans up off my floordrobe and didn't shake them before putting them on.... I went to the cinema and felt an itch on the back of my knee - inside my jeans! I felt something bulky next to my leg so formed a pocket in the leg of my jeans and squashed whatever it was. Once the film finished I ran to the ladies and fished out....... a huge crushed beetle. I'm still traumatised 32 years later and I ALWAYS shake clothing once lifted off the floordrobe!

As I understand it, house spiders usually die if you chuck them outside - it's kinder to put them in your shed or garage.

No, I will never kill a spider, I try to get them in a plastic jug and put them out in the garden and if they’re upstairs they get to abseil out of the bathroom window ???????

Oh my days. Don’t think I will ever sleep peacefully again after reading this! My biggest phobia is rodents. ?

I don't like spiders but I wouldn't kill one.

But.....once many years ago I was ironing the sleeve of a white shirt and didn't realise there was a big spider inside the sleeve until a reddish-brown stain and a slight bulge appeared in the sleeve.

I nearly threw up at the thoughts of what I had done!

I had this happen to me last week.

A few years ago when I lived in a cottage with beams, I had just put my head on my pillow and within minutes I had something drop into my ear. I flew out of bed, crashing into the wardrobe while grappling for the light and simultaneously plucking at my ear. Once I'd got my bearings, I found a dismembered spider. It had fallen from the beams, so late at night I was dusting the beams in my bedroom

I don't like crabs. Too much like spiders.
And they sidle, into the bargain.

I wish I had not ready any of this as I have phobias about many creepy crawlies: spiders, beetles, earwigs. I put Deet on my arms and legs when I do the garden also I do not swim in the sea as I am phobic about crabs and lobsters.

Years ago when we lived in Cyprus I felt something in my hair just after we turned the lights out, I dozily brushed my hand over my head to hear a clunk as something hit the headboard. It was the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen. This summer I slipped my foot into my slipper to receive multiple wasp stings, took weeks for the pain to go.

I always check my gardening shoes, which I leave in the garage. The record is, 1 wasp, 3 snails, a few slugs, a frog and 2 newts. All in one shoe.

I once lived in an old cottage near a farm that had a problem with rats. I used to lie in bed hearing a scuttling under the floorboards and realised there was a rats nest underneath us. We put poison in the nest and had the most foul smell of dead rat wafting through the house for weeks!,p!

It happened to me about a year ago. It took us 2 hours to dismantle the bed and find it before I would go back to sleep in it. In the end I went to sleep in the spare room as it was 1am (spider still not located!). Spider eventually found in between valance and mattress at bottom of the bed.

Lakeland sell a great spider repellent - Spider X. It really seems to discourage spiders in the bedroom. We also use it in the shed to keep down the amount of cobwebs.

Should read "old barn" not "old bar".

Two hideous experiences involving spiders. A few years ago I got up, got washed, dressed, washed hair and make up on. So far so good. I was busy drying my hair when I felt something on my arm, under the sleeve of the cardigan I was wearing. Glanced down and saw a slight bulge, jumped up and the biggest spider ever came flying out the cuff. My darling late husband found me unable to speak coherently, standing on the couch. I never get dressed without shaking my clothes now.
Other incident was when I was brushing my teeth. I usually just stuck my mouth under the tap to rinse but for some reason that day I used a glass tumbler. A massive spider came out the tap into the glass. I ran screaming downstairs, foaming at the mouth with toothpaste. My poor Mum thought I was having a fit! I never drink from the tap now.
My current home is an old bar and I fight a daily battle with cobwebs, festooned from the beams but seldom see the culprits.

I was in Cyprus a few years ago and heard a scuttling noise coming from the bedroom, my partner approached the noise thinking it was a mouse (whilst I climbed in to a cabinet!) but it was the biggest spider I have ever seen! Luckily it went towards the door and left the apartment!

On the day of princess Diana's funeral, our cat came in with a mouse, just as the coffin rolled out with the "Mummy" card on the flowers.

The mouse got away and disappeared into the airing cupboard.

The cat once thoughtfully stowed a dead mouse in my handbag. I found it when I reached in for a tissue during my evening class. Nice.

No no no! Bed getting checked from now on. Haven't shared my bed for 10 years and definitely not starting now!

I was asleep on a hot summer night duvet down but kept being disturbed by a tuckling on my leg, then my hip and finally my waist. Half asleep l sweeped my hand across but realised pretty soon there was something on me.l sat bolt upright to see a massive spider in my bed, l can tell you l have never moved so fast in my life and dispatched it quick sharp!

Such a funny, scary thread.
We spent time in Asia when newly married and from Japan to Hong Kong joined a cruise ship and met up with many other young foreigners. Those of us who wanted to go on to Singapore a few weeks later persuaded a Chinese shipping company to let us travel with the locals in the hold, not usually allowed but since there were 8 of us they reckoned we could look after each other. Sleeping accommodation was floor to ceiling, wall to wall, narrow metal bunks with a thin mattress and we soon learnt before we climbed in to give the mattress a series of sharp smacks whereupon large red brown cockroaches exploded out from under it and shot in every direction. I don’t know how I ever got to sleep. We had lots of other cockroach adventures on other boats and ferries. We would stay up on deck where we could and watch the rats scurrying to and fro. At least if my memory is correct there were no spiders.