If you're an arachnaphobe like me......

Total arachnaphobe, many, many years ago actually called hubbie home from work as there was a giant one in the kitchen. I took baby and retreated to living room, leaving supper in oven unattended.

Conkers are a great resource. Used to scatter these around my house near Epping Forest, and they really worked.

I can’t stand spiders, and I disturbed Aragog while I was pulling ivy off a wall in my garden earlier today, scared me half to death! If I find one in the house I put a glass over it, that’s as near as I can get, then it has to wait until somebody sensible can put it outside. I’ll try the peppermint oil and conkers too, anything is worth a try.

Be careful with conkers if you have a dog as they’re poisonous to them.

I was listening to someone on BBC Radio Kent this morning, offering advice on how to keep spiders out of the home. Apparently, the female spiders are already in, and it’s the male spiders who come in looking for a mate. Once they have ‘done the deed’ the male dies! He suggested keeping the curtains open, as they dislike light, spraying (as above) with peppermint or lemon oil, sprinkling around the windows with bicarbonate of soda, avoiding using cardboard boxes for storing in dark corners. There were other tips ………….

How sad. Spiders do a brilliant job of getting rid of all sorts of others bugs and are totally harmless.

Do you have any idea where this phobia comes from?

Oh I’m already completely neurotic, I wouldn’t be able to live on my own I’m sure.
I have got my husband home from work on several occasions, he is meant to go to a conference in Germany every September but has to explain he can’t go.
None of the gadgets work for me because I can’t get close enough.
I have those electronic gadgets everywhere, but I shall definitely buy some peppermint oil.

Thanks for the warning but a little bit too late!!! Came downstairs this morning and there was a monster of a spider in our kitchen sink. Think the neighbours heard the scream ?

No problems with spiders personally, hate flies in the house but not bothered by spiders.

Always told by mum it was bad luck to kill a spider, so just catch them and pop them outside.

Fleurpepper

How sad. Spiders do a brilliant job of getting rid of all sorts of others bugs and are totally harmless.

Do you have any idea where this phobia comes from?

Everybody has irrational fears Fleurpepper, it’s part of the human condition.

I’m petrified if they start running! The ones who live behind picture frames tend not to move much I can cope with. Those humongous big bodied long legged racers are too much for me. No daddy long legs in evidence as yet this year - I don’t mind them.

Early yet for a daddy long legs!

crane flies area particular fear of mine. My children still recall, with amusement, that whenever we came home during September and October, the 'ritual' we had to go through to come into the house. Front door open, everyone scuttle through as quickly as possible, no light permitted to be put on until we were all indoors and door closed and all curtains closed.

I have always maintained that my greatest parental achievement was that none of my children are scared of spiders.

I do not want them killed, but do not want them in my home.

There was a tarantula hiding under the tv unit last week which migrated to my bedroom. I spotted it lurking and managed to put it out. Funnily enough Oldbat there was a Daddy -long-legs at my bedroom window last night,trying to get in, and another at a bedroom window this morning. I did think it was a bit early for them. Franbern I'm not a big fan of them either.

Spiders in the UK can't hurt anyone, and they are a vital part of the ecosystem. Think positively about these amazing creatures.

CoolCoco

Spiders in the UK can't hurt anyone, and they are a vital part of the ecosystem. Think positively about these amazing creatures.

You can’t say that about phobias. It’s like telling someone with depression to cheer up.

Lucca

CoolCoco

Spiders in the UK can't hurt anyone, and they are a vital part of the ecosystem. Think positively about these amazing creatures.

You can’t say that about phobias. It’s like telling someone with depression to cheer up.

I'm not frightened of spiders but my GD is ,it doesn't matter what you say nothing affects her attitude. She has a phobia just like I knew someone who went hysterical when seagulls flew near and I don't like snakes. I have nearly stood on an adder and nearly fainted on it.

Patsy70

I was listening to someone on BBC Radio Kent this morning, offering advice on how to keep spiders out of the home. Apparently, the female spiders are already in, and it’s the male spiders who come in looking for a mate. Once they have ‘done the deed’ the male dies! He suggested keeping the curtains open, as they dislike light, spraying (as above) with peppermint or lemon oil, sprinkling around the windows with bicarbonate of soda, avoiding using cardboard boxes for storing in dark corners. There were other tips ………….

I knew about the male spiders looking for a mate and thought that by removing the female ones constantly throughout the summer, the big fat hairy males ones would not come in to mate. All was well, no big ones seen for a few years - until last week!!

I was going to the toilet at 2 am and saw one lurking on my bedroom floor! Luckily I’d put a small light on which I think froze it as I was able to grab an empty glass and piece of card to catch it before it scuttled away. I do have a spider catcher that vacuums them into a tube but I tripped up after I grabbed it and the battery fell out so I had to resort to a more dangerous method!

I’m now keeping an eye out every time I get up in the night! Over the years I have found dead spiders in bed with me after I must have squashed them in my sleep - at least three times! Nightmare!

It definitely seems earlier this year, I don’t normally see them until September/October.

Teacheranne
Much to my poor husbands irritation, every time I wake up during the night I put the light on and check all the bedding, of course his great fear is that I will see one, and he’ll spend the rest of the night looking for it.

I am so afraid of them, irrational I know, but it’s a truly terrible fear. I can’t even touch them in a picture and have to turn the page quickly. My horrible children when they were young would take great delight in putting a small piece of black paper on my shoulder and then shouting what’s that on your shoulder, you just turn your head enough to black and then go into total meltdown because you think it’s a spider..

I understand it is a phobia- but do any of you have any ideas why, where it comes from and how/when? Inherited from a parent?

My parents taught me to not be afraid of anything- and I am very grateful.

Have you ever thought about having treatment for this. I mean, many OHs would not have been able to come home from work or not go on essential meetings/conferences, etc, because of a partner's phobia.

I read my daughter Charlottes Web which she loved and because of it she would never hurt a spider. But she thinks that she was lying in bed one night and a spider fell on her which set off a lifelong fear of spiders. She once tried to get out of a moving car because she saw a spider in it.

Barmeoldbat
I’m the same, but my family don’t play tricks because they know I am truly terrified.
Sadly my children are pretty neurotic, my fault I know, but my mother wasn’t remotely bothered, she’d pick them up and put them out.

Fleurpepper

I understand it is a phobia- but do any of you have any ideas why, where it comes from and how/when? Inherited from a parent?

My parents taught me to not be afraid of anything- and I am very grateful.

Have you ever thought about having treatment for this. I mean, many OHs would not have been able to come home from work or not go on essential meetings/conferences, etc, because of a partner's phobia.

Not inherited from a parent in my case. It’s irrational, as phobias are, and I can’t pinpoint where it came from. I don’t like creepy legs that you don’t know where they are going and things I can feel walking on me. I don’t believe you when you say you don’t have fear of anything, that actually is much less normal than having a fear of something (whatever).

Fluerpepper
I can’t look at a picture, one popped up on my phone for some odd reason the other evening, and I threw my phone across the room screaming.
So any sort of aversion therapy would be completely out.