Arachnophobia…

I just know I'll have nightmares tonight after reading this thread.
Yes I've one of those bristle things MaggsMcGee but the spider often falls out and runs for it--often in your direction.
There was a large one on the ceiling above our stairs and my DH was outside mowing lawn when I was upstairs. I really couldn't pass under it so ended up calling him from bedroom window, but he couldn't hear, unlike the bemused people at the bus stop, so was stranded upstairs for half n hour till he'd finished.
I hate the blighters.
When staying in holiday cottages our bedroom always has to go through a thorough inspection before I can sleep in it.
Grateful for all these tips on here in dealing with them.

My narrow boat had lots of spiders, they lurked in the top hatch opening, and dropped on my head! When I lived in a very old house, one night I was sitting reading and I HEARD a huge one land on the carpet. I won't kill them, a large plastic jug, and a piece of paper works for me.

A friend of mine collects conkers , in conker season, and puts them all round the floors in her house near the skirting boards. It’s a deterrent for spiders that she swears by.

So pleased I'm not the only arachnaphobic.
When I was a little girl (8,9 &10) we lived in Singapore and regularly visited a place called Frasers Hill for holidays. It was basically in the jungle! I have cine film of me tickling a tarantula out of it's hole with a stalk of grass, so definitely had no fears then. Now, anything bigger than a money spider starts my heart racing and gets me in a hot sweat and woe betide my hubby if he loses a spider when trying to get rid of it for me.
I wonder what changed? Could it be that my parents told me of the dangers from a tarantula and I applied that to all spiders?
I have chestnuts on my bungalow windowsills which I hope are working, but we still get the occasional spider in.

Being surrounded by fields and farmland we get some real whoppers here! I find conkers work very well, I put them on the window sills, along the door thresholds and anywhere else where they might get in. I also have a catcher thingy to harmlessly remove any that might get through the barricades. The vacuum cleaner is a last resort as I have known them to crawl back out again! I have never actually been in the loft of any house we have lived in because I'm sure there would be spiders up there.

My Mum & Dad used to live among trees and had “a big game hunt “ every night.I have read you can put horse chestnuts in your rooms to keep spiders away ?

Saw my rug "move" few nights ago and one of my cats staring intently at the spot. Put main light on to see an enormous spider. It moved towards the cat who legged it into the kitchen so I got a glass and an envelope and released it into the garden. There is one currently in my ceiling over my window but too high up for me to capture. As long as the big ones don't crawl on me they don't worry me. Frogs on the other hand are tormentors from the devil, terrifying creatures ?

Several evenings my daughter has gone into her bedroom and I hear a scream and half of the wall will be filled with little baby spiders, it’s horrible, never seen an adult though to find where these babies are coming from but must be over 100 at a time, freaks me out

Bluecat
My husband, before lockdown, traveled to Germany several times a year, there was always a trip in September which he wasn’t allowed to attend, they thought it was hilarious that he wasn’t allowed to stay away overnight in spider season.

I always put bleach on them if they are in the bath. That sends them to their maker. They do not like Olbas oil or peppermint. I have a phobia of them and at my age I am not going to a therapist.

Indeed!!

I'd go with the suggestion of tackling your fear/ phobia. Hypnotherapy can be very effective, especially as if you live in the UK there really is no valid reason to feel such fear. Then you and the skinny legs can all live peacefully together ?️?

Shinamae my dd has bats flying round her house! ? ? They live in the loft but a few of the dimmer ones go the wrong way and end up indoors instead of outdoors. If only bats ate spiders.

Sue, I work in a care home which is in quite an old building and a few weeks ago was astonished to see two bats flying around in one of the corridors, managed to get them out but this was in daylight as well so they obviously got confused. I was really surprised how small they were, another member of staff got quite freaked out but I wasn’t bothered at all and helped to get them out…

They’re weird. They look ENORMOUS when they’re flying round your head but when they settle somewhere, they’re tiny. How do they do that?

We used to have a place right out in the bush that was home to red back spiders and I used to worry if we got bitten how far it was to the nearest hospital. At least you could recognise them easily with their bright red stripes. You don’t hear of them so much now, perhaps they are scarcer. I certainly hope so.

I broke my leg a couple of years ago. I woke in the early hours for a bathroom visit. Don't know if i was half asleep and hallucinating or not, but whilst sitting on the loo i looked down and thought i saw a huge spider on my leg. I really am terrified of them, to the extent of not even being able to put a glass over them and card underneath . So i leapt off the loo quick smart, whilst kicking my leg to try and throw the spider off. As my leg was landing back on the floor, i remember thinking that it was going to be a painful landing because my foot was turned inwards and i knew i was going to land badly, but there was no time to correct it. Landed on my lower leg , my leg and foot blew up like a balloon, so off to the hospital. I had broken my fibula. I will never know whether there really was a spider on my leg or not.

I have a house in France which due to Covid not visited for over 2 years. I get lots of spiders which like you don’t particularly like. I invested in a battery operated suction tube which sucks up spiders. I then put the cap
On the end n take it outside away from the house n release them into the garden. It’s been an absolute blessing. Ladybirds can also become a nuisance especially after the winter I was bitten by one on my eye which swelled up n had to get medical attention. Get yourself an insect suction tube.

Maybe this fear of spiders is deep down in the human psyche. My son and his children are really terrified of them.
They have never bothered me and I find them fascinating, especially if I can watch one spinning a web on my kitchen window.

Now mice , snails and slugs I don't like at all.

LullyDully ... "fear deep down in the human psyche"... I think you may be right. Some say elephants are instinctively afraid of mice 'cos they could run up their trunks. I have a similar fear that spiders could run up my trouser leg. I'm raising my feet off the floor just thinking about it!

Nells
I’m sat at my desk, and am very worried about my bare legs!
My brother and I are both terrified, oddly enough my mother was a scoop them up and put them outside person.
I remember as a child we had new neighbors, just after they moved in a very heavily pregnant young woman burst into our kitchen screaming, my parents thought that the baby was coming, but no, there was a spider in her bath!

Years ago i bought a 'Spider Stop' spray which was a liquid in which conkers had been steeped. It worked billiantly. You spray it in each corner of ceilings around the home and I hardly see any of them now. There are still 'Spider Stop' sprays but they seem to contain lemon or peppermint essential oils.

Yikes!!

I did buy some sort of spider spray a few years ago and used it on the outside of my French doors and a load of spiders dropped down but afterwards I read somewhere that the spiders die in agony so although I’m not a spider lover I certainly do not want to inflict any unnecessary pain in their demise …

Shinamae Couldn't find an emoji for hysterical laughter!