Arachnophobia…

NotTooOld
That is an experience I would never have recovered from, it makes me feel anxious to even imagine it.
I have just got up, given my bath robe a good examination, tiptoed around the bathroom peering into the bath and basin, and sat in the sofa not before checking under all the cushions.
My big thing if gaps, any gap where they might lurk is terrifying, and the way they move………

When we were in Cambodia they were deep frying tarantulas and eating them. No one in the party we were with would try them except one brave German man who said they were quite tasty. What made me sick was that they didn’t kill them first, just dropped them live into the hot oil.
One night, several years ago now, I woke to a tickle on my face and it was a big huntsman( look like tarantulas). I was so scared I couldn’t scream. They are fairly harmless, not like some of the other ones we get from time to time.

Fridayschild

Here’s one of my catches in my lid catcher. Yes you do have to be quick and you do get a bit close but it doesn’t hurt them and I can see when I’ve caught them (and when they’ve been too quick) then I can take them outside and give them their marching orders! Ooh I am so brave! ???? (I am terrified and my heart’s in my mouth the whole time, but I do it.)

Oh my good god Fridayschild you deserve a medal!! ?‍♀️?

Here’s one of my catches in my lid catcher. Yes you do have to be quick and you do get a bit close but it doesn’t hurt them and I can see when I’ve caught them (and when they’ve been too quick) then I can take them outside and give them their marching orders! Ooh I am so brave! ???? (I am terrified and my heart’s in my mouth the whole time, but I do it.)

And I thought I was the only one terrified of the b*****s. Once when we had just moved into a new (to us) house and were unpacking I was stood under the open loft entrance and a monster one dropped on my head, then my shoulder. I hysterically screamed blue murder and wanted to call the estate agents immediately to get the property put back on the market. We ended up staying in that house for a good few years but I've never got over that feeling of horror and I've never stood under an open loft again. I'm another who spends the autumn peering into a room before entering, checking the bed before getting into it and moving the washing up bowl gingerly in case a monster is lurking. Spiders on white porcelain are the worst for me. All those legs showing up against the white. I'm always relieved when it's October and the worst of it has passed.

Those gadgets to catch them involve getting far too close to them, I could never do that.
In extreme emergencies I have used my vacuum cleaner, but then I have to leave it at the bottom of the garden for hours!

Oh MissAdventure, you sound like me, I have yet to find anything that actually works.
I’m feeling really twitchy now, I’ll be checking everywhere tonight!

MissAdventure you do make me laugh ?? obviously not so much cutting your hand but wetting your pants!

I have had to persuade a total stranger to come into my flat and catch a spider, once.
Years ago, working a night shift, I woke up one of the residents to come and get a huge (grey, FURRY!) spider out of the sink.

I have been known on many occasions to get my husband home from work to get rid of one.
In the days before we had a phone, he once got home on a dark wet evening, to find me, and the children sat in the garden, because there was a spider in my daughters satchel, we had dropped it, and all run outside screaming.

Now if they look like this……… that I can cope with

I have got to have my windows open winter and summer so just have to take my chances with the arachnids ?

I don’t open windows all year unless I am sitting watching on ‘spider watch’. Also, I have sealed all road the skirting boards. I know the largest can get through the smallest holes so it impossible to spider proof my third floor flat. (What a climb to get here). I don’t mind them outside but not inside. I wish I didn’t feel how I do. As I rolled down this page I couldn’t look at the photos in case someone had put a photo.

This is completely creeping me out!
I am so frightened of them, once autumn begins I’m a nervous wreck, shaking out clothes, checking my bedding, can’t sit still and relax at all.
I spray stuff everywhere, we have these electrical gadgets in most rooms, my husband vacuums all around the outside windows, but still they come!

I used to have one of those gadgets but it involved me having to get too close to my enemy. Also, the big ‘uns wouldn’t go up the tube!

A shoe wielded by Dh has the desired effect.

Teacheranne

I recommend one of these, a bug catcher from Lakeland. You just put the end very close to the spider and switch on. It then hoovers up the spider, powerful even for big hairy ones, and you pop the cap bag on quick then dispose of them. I find some need to be shaken out as the tube is quite long - helpful to reach the ceiling.

It was not cheap but is very effective.

£12.99 on Amazon but then £3.50 for delivery which I think is a bit steep… but I am going to send one of the electronic devices back and get this instead I think. I will keep the other electronic device to put in my summerhouse when it is finally ready…

Teacheranne - yes, that is what I am looking at. Was it about £12.99?

Pop the cap back on

I recommend one of these, a bug catcher from Lakeland. You just put the end very close to the spider and switch on. It then hoovers up the spider, powerful even for big hairy ones, and you pop the cap bag on quick then dispose of them. I find some need to be shaken out as the tube is quite long - helpful to reach the ceiling.

It was not cheap but is very effective.

MissAdventure
Perhaps if I left the hoover running for a while........but then I couldn't hear the TV......or the phone......omg. Will have to tell DH he can't go away.
Am off to order a sucky thing from Amazon before anyone tells me they don't work.

I do when they're outside.
Once they come in though, it's a different story.
I cannot live with them inside the house; they have to go, and I've not found a different way to do it.

Hoover? Yes, they do come back out of the pipe.
Ultrasonic plug ins? Don't work.
Spider catcher from betterware? Chops their legs off as it slams shut.
Glass and paper? Tried that, broke the glass, wet my pants and cut my hand.

You cruel people - leave them alone!

NotTooOld
It's a very fast process with the bat; plus, I think I hit them as hard as I would if they were an elephant.
It's either that, or having to evacuate the flat.

Hope it works …..?‍♀️

A friend of mine used to incapacitate the spiders with shaving foam. My dad would leave an old towel draped over the side of the bath for a spider to come out, nothing as sophisticated as the ladder for us!!
I am afraid of them (I think it’s the way they move, so fast, and they’re not exactly cuddly ????(Ricky Gervais did a fascinating and hilarious description on one of his DVDs I think it must’ve been the “Animal” one )but would not kill one deliberately. I ordered electronic devices from Amazon and they arrived today, it’s very hard to situate them where there is no furniture blocking them though…?