Stupid habit!

Those are not stupid habits if you don’t like spiders. I’m in total sympathy!
I always tap my gardening crocs before I put them on, having once killed a spider by putting them on without looking and finding dead on my foot when I took them off.

Please don't kill spiders intentionally.

I've got one of these:

It's useful for catching bees which venture inside too.

I was never frightened of spiders, but when we moved here near a lot of farms we got a lot. The farmer opposite a few years ago warned me he was getting the ones that have a pattern like a cameo on their back and their bite was meant to be poisonous not deadly but nasty.
I did see one in a shed we have and got bites on my eyelids and arm twice in the night that I could not account for. Now I can't go to bed without looking under the pillows and on the beam above the bed.

I was rooting around in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago for some pots to pot on my tomato plants. A few hours later, my finger felt a bit sore and I thought I must have caught it on something. The next morning my finger was swollen and numb. When I looked on the underside of it there were two clear fang marks!!! I still won't kill spiders intentionally, but I do check inside my gardening gloves before putting them on and you will be pleased to hear the greenhouse and all the pots have now been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected...

A few years ago, when pulling back my duvet to get in a huge spider galloped up the bed and disappeared down the back of the headboard 😬🫣(nothing I could do bed far too heavy to move)
Ever since then, I do check my bed and my pillows, but I do have one of those electronic devices in my room and touchwood have not seen a spider for ages, but then I am terribly shortsighted and unless one was actually on my nose I doubt I would see it!! 🕷️
I would never intentionally kill a spider I would trap it in a glass and put it outside..🕷️

That looks good Callistemon.

nadateturbe

That looks good Callistemon.

Yes, it is. You have to be careful to let a bee or spider make its way into it properly before you close the hatch but it is effective.
There are different types with batteries, not sure how they work.

I will bash a fly though.

Your bite sounds like I have had one on my eyelid and arm Askalice.
So I probably had been bitten in the night. There were clear red marks and sore swellings. Thanks for confirming DH said it was my imagination until my eyelid would not lift.

Spiders in the UK can and do bite but the only ones which are poisonous have jaws which are too weak to bite a human.

Apparently the fear of spiders surpasses all other fears among humans. Ive never been afraid of them and if I find them in the bath I try to life them carefully to safety.

My sister was terrified of them. As children in the 1950s we had an outside loo at the bottom of the yard and spiders lurked in the crevices. She would not go in there until I had gone out and got rid of all the spiders.

Sometimes I missed one. Then I would hear her scream when she spotted it and run up the yard with her knickers around har ankles.

Since I was bitten by one in Australia, British ones don't hold much fear for me.
Years ago I remember finding a huge one in my house and went to ask my neighbour to catch it, he came in, looked but refused and said he was scared of it 🕷

Omg, I’ve got the heebie-jeebies now, after reading this! 👀👀👀👀👀

My partner was working on a ship in a Swedish shipyard many years ago and had to go down into the 'hold' for some reason. There were not stairs - just a fireman's pole to slide down.

He slid down and landed on a mass of tarpaulin - whilst disengaging himself, hundreds (or, according to him, "millions") of baby spiders started to clamber all over him and run up his legs - he'd landed on a nest.

He doesn't quite know how he did it - but he shot up the pole he'd slid down - at lightening speed, and staggered around the deck trying to get his work trousers off whilst swatting away at the (big) 'baby' spiders clinging on and moving up to his sweater.

He's had a fear of them ever since. He actually goes pale and feels faint if he's confronted by one.

Poor him - I wouldn't have enjoyed that either, Dickens

One at a time is fine unless it's poisonous!

Callistemon21

Spiders in the UK can and do bite but the only ones which are poisonous have jaws which are too weak to bite a human.

I’ve got a scar on my leg from a spider bite.
I’d still never kill one though.
If I accidentally kill anything it upsets me and I’m convinced it’s bad luck.

I'd swat a fly.
And a mozzie.

Oh yes. Perhaps a mozzie 🤔

Preferably before it bites!!

Nope, they're treated like any other home invader in this house (apart from bees - I do make an effort to catch them and put them outside)!

False widow spiders bite in the UK, very rarely cause a problem.
I check all pots in the greenhouse for slugs before handling, slugs make me feel yuck.

Blondiescot

Nope, they're treated like any other home invader in this house (apart from bees - I do make an effort to catch them and put them outside)!

Spiders catch flies and other nasties.

I know they do, but can't stand them!

I too dislike spiders. I shake my shoes upside down before I put them on incase there's anything in there.

I was brought up to believe that it was bad luck to kill a spider and I never (knowingly) have. I'm sure they find us far more scary than we find them.