SPIDERS INDOORS

Hi Sparklefizz,

I use the traps in the link below. I actually just was bitten by a false widow spider last week and am on antibiotics for 2 weeks as I reacted rather badly. There is no shame being scared of spiders, I am too! Someone I know who worked in admin for a museum told me about these traps and I’ve already caught a spider on day 2!

www.amazon.co.uk/CritterKill-Spider-Trap-30-Pack/dp/B0176LV8Z6/ref=asc_df_B0176LV8Z6/?hvlocphy=1006702&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=309801358079&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=gransnetforum-21&hvtargid=pla-597965654831&hvrand=9347370399823033531

I can't believe you all want to kill spiders!!

Perhaps you like a house full of flies, mozzies etc?
They are spider food.

There are far more flies outside than inside my house!

I love spiders

My children all love spiders and they're teaching their offspring the same. I think it's conditioning. We show no fear and assist as and when and the children grew up seeing this and they don't have a spider horror.

We even have a tiny rope ladder in the bath to allow spiders to escape

Spiders are great friends to us

As Callistemon says, they eat all the nasty midges and mozzies

Long live the spider`!

Glad you all don't live here ladies! There are some HUGE ones in my house and don't really know why, do like the windows open and have a lot of trees at the back. Can't understand why they are so massive. I just pick them up and throw out of the window and can't understand why someone would be frightened of something so little. Now don't get me onto big cattle....... I am frightened of them when out walking.

DillytheGardener Thank you for your link Dilly, which I'll check out, and also for your kind words "There is no shame in being scared of spiders." I didn't think I'd have to justify on here why I am, as it's such a common phobia.

I am sorry you've been bitten by one, and have seen photos online of the nasty reactions people can have. Hope you soon feel better.

Oopsminty My parents were fine with spiders so I have not been "conditioned" to be fearful, nor have I "conditioned" my children who have never seen me afraid of them, (which has taken a supreme effort on my part) and they are fine with spiders themselves.

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions.

Thank you Sparklefizz. False widows bites cause lots of problems and are very painful. I can’t put weight on my leg atm and have to have it elevated.

I’m also terrified of spiders and while many (like daddy long legs which I’m not afraid of) are perfectly harmless, it’s the ones like the false widow and yellow sac spider where the neurotoxin in their bites can cause some very nasty wounds and fever etc that I’m TERRIFIED of. So to those saying unkind things to Sparklefizz have some empathy. Everyone is afraid of something and how would you feel if someone judged you on your fear?

Can any of you remember or work out when and how this phobia started. A book, a film, a childhood memory, inherited by a parent?

I do feel for you- but I just don't get it (and yes phobias are phobias) - spiders are such useful and helpful creatures- it upsets me to know they are so persecuted in the cruelest of ways.

Hope you find a way to overcome this.

I think my spider phobia began when I was little, we lived in a Victorian cottage, and I remember waking up one night to see a humongous spider on my pillow! Luckily my mother was not bothered by them and scooped it up and put it out the window.
My sister was a nightmare when I was in my teens and going to nightclubs - she is 10 years younger than me and we shared a room. She frequently used to scoop a spider up in a cup, turn the cup upside down in my bed the put my duvet over the top so that when I used to creep back in in the early hours, I used to fling back the quilt, knock the cup over , and there sat the spider in my bed!
I had the screaming ab dabs until someone came and removed the blessed thing- my sister, meanwhile was laughing herself silly under the covers!

I didn’t have a phobia until about a decade ago I was bitten by a false widow. (They are very common where I live). My foot swelled up to about three times the size, I had a fever and then had to be in hospital for about 4 days to be treated, having an area cut out where the bite occurred. So I think my fear is well founded, much like my friend who was bitten by a dog that is now afraid of big dogs.

So yes spiders are useful, but I’ll spray and trap them if I choose as I don’t want to go the rigmarole of hospital and pain again if I can avoid getting bitten again.

Many people have phobias that have no background to them, just like the fear of heights one of my sons has had since he was a baby. Be kind and compassionate, people don’t choose to have phobias and are less likely to try and get over them if they are made to feel belittled.

Thank you for your kind comments Dilly, and well said in your last post (10:26:58) I appreciate what you've said.

You have had a horrible time with your spider bites, and I do hope you soon recover from your latest one. If I were you I'd be doing everything possible to avoid getting bitten ... you'd be daft not to!

Dilly I have had a bad spider bite, not in this country, but I still try to rescue them. Nor sure that I'd rescue a false widow though! The spider which bit me died and DH was able to take it with us to hospital for identification, luckily not poisonous.

A colleague of mine used to use counter conditioning techniques including exposure therapy with people who had a spider phobia and it is worth trying that.

eucalyptas oil on the window frames...smells nice too. me personally i like spiders they keep the fly population down ,a healthy home is a home with a spider..

I think some of us are hardwired to fear spiders.

Lots of information here about the illogical fear of spiders

Conditioning is high up there

Genetics

Women are definitely more affected than men

s/features/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-spiders-10263450.html

Sorry, wonky link

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-spiders-10263450.html

If you hate spiders, how would you feel about half a dozen of these flying and crawling around your living room? I nearly passed out when, one after the other, they hatched out of a pile of logs at the side of the wood burner, crawled along the floor and then suddenly started flying around the room. I can hardly bear to even look at the picture. So I thought I'd share it with you!

Ooh, what is it, Chewbacca?

It's revolting!

I used to be spider-phobic and although I still can't pick one up (that's what Mr. G is for!) I am no longer terrified. I was told to wear a spider brooch, keep touching it and appreciating how pretty it was and that eventually I'd get over my phobia, and for me it worked. I now appreciate that they are invaluable to us in our homes otherwise we'd be up to our oxters in horribleness, and that they are more scared of me than I am of them.

It's a Giant Wood Wasp Oopsminty And they are, as MissA says, revolting. I have never been so scared in my life as I was the night they all hatched out of the log pile. They must have been laid in the logs, as eggs, when I bought the logs. The heat from the log burner encouraged the pupae to gnaw their way through the log and hatch. They crawl along the floor whilst they unfurl their wings and the zoom! Off they go, smashing into windows, doors and furniture, trying to get out. If you don't get the buggers out, they settle in, lay more eggs in your rafters, floorboards, wood etc and begin all over again. They're terrifying because they're so damned big! And they can bite too.

have you got flying insect spray? Can you spray the room and shut the door?

Crikey, Chewbacca

I'm a lover of all creatures, great and small, but I would not be tending kindly to these. I'd never heard of them. Learn something new every day.

I think I'd have been a hysterical mess!

Very pleased to have a gas fire ;-)

Insect spray wouldn't have touched these blighters Callistemon; they were huge the minute they hatched and apparently double in size within days. With shaking hands, and an extended vacuum hose, I sucked them straight into the Dyson. But about a week later, I went to empty the Dyson out into the bin and the whole lot of them were still battering around inside the dust bowl thingy. I just flung it in the bin, slammed the lid and fled!

Conkers used to work for me in my last house. In my first floor flat, I have not (yet) seen any of these creatures. Do have a spider catcher, as I do not like harming them.
Love it when people tell me that they cannot do me any harm, - suppose a heart attack is no harm! I have always just been terrified of spiders. When I was younger, if a spider appeared in the same room as I was in, I would need to change all my clothes and put them in the washing basket, and have a bath or shower before I could calm down!!!
I brought up six children (fostered many others), - my greatest parenting achievement has always been that none of my children are scared of spiders. Not sure now I how I managed to achieve that. Can remember when my eldest was a small baby, actually calling my husband to come home from work as there was as a spider in our small kitchen, I took baby and me to another room and shut the door to kitchen firmly and made phone call.
Can remember as a teenager being in stage with large amdram company - in a comedy, when I sat down on the low settee on stage, and saw a giant spider heading towards my feet across the boards. I managed (calmly) to stand up, and walk away (bewildering other members of the cast on stage with me).
I recognise what a wonderful job they do environmentally, understand that none, in this country, can really hurt me -but just cannot stop myself feeling absolutely in terror when I see one indoors. Will watch happily and in fascination outdoors particularly when they are web-building.