Why do spiders like to share our houses with us?

Errata

hcb42 wrote: »

i've seen bigger spiders in my house lately than I saw when living in Aus!

Very likely, but UK ones don't bite you on the backside and kill you stone dead.

Radsteral

huh, being foreigner i was wondering what cockers were? good bless google images
today we came from greenwich park with a bag full of chestnuts we picked up from the trees but as you get in the park there are many cocker trees;) will go back tomorrow and load up
last year was the first autumn in our house and plenty of spidders invading us.
i bought an electronic thingy that you plug on the socket-namely best on the market , but spiders didnt give a penny about it -- and think the device claimed to break their nervous system
4 months latter and in chrismas i ent to the shop and didnt move out without getting my 32 pounds back;)

Leif

Spiders are lovely. I found a real beauty on the wall today, not big, but colourful. And there is a really big one that sometimes pops up through holes under skirting boards. (I have no carpets as yet.) The little ones are lovely. There are some with long legs that hang in the corners of coving. Touch them, and they start spinning at high speed. Weird! It must be a defence mechanism. One UK species has a black and yellow striped body, very beautiful but rare.

British spiders are harmless, and the ones I see tend to hang around in one place waiting for a meal, which consists of a smaller insect. They will remove unwanted insects such as flies, and bugs, so they are doing you a service.

A few years ago I found a dead Hawker dragonfly (about 6" long) trapped in a web, with a large female spider guarding her prize. Think big!

Some foreign spiders are very nasty, but not ours.

loracan1

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Good question.

I quite like them but sometimes it sounds like my daughter is being murdered in her room!! She has even slept in another room before now because of one in her own,and with everyone else being asleep, unable to call for its 'removal'!.

I've found my youngest son asleep on the bathroom floor in his sleeping bag more than once.

Leif wrote: »

Spiders are lovely.



British spiders are harmless, and the ones I see tend to hang around in one place waiting for a meal, which consists of a smaller insect. They will remove unwanted insects such as flies, and bugs, so they are doing you a service.

That's how I feel too, we get the odd one running across the floor but I tell the kids they've got as much right to live here as we do - and I'd prefer them to creepy crawlies anyday.

jafsie

How do you think they get big?

It's because they eat a lot, house spiders are your friends they keep all other intruders at bay.

Of course this is not much of a comfort to you if you have a phobia against them:)

Sublime_2

I get huge ones in my house. Huge!

I've had to tackle my fear of them. Its cruel drowning them. Getting braver with each big hairy beastie. Some are actually quite beautiful.

They make excellent fly catchers, so I do leave the odd one undisturbed.

**Juice**

I used to dislike spiders but over the years this has developed into a proper screaming phobia and it doesn't help that the house we've recently bought seems to be Steroid Spider Central! I'm definately going to have to try the conker thing because it's all making me feel a bit deranged :rotfl::o

HannahIOW

I am quite scared of house spiders, I let the dog get them most of the time. Weirdly though I managed to hold a tarantula a few years ago!

[Deleted User]

Well personally I come into you nice houses searching for biscuits. Therefore, I would be most grateful if you would stock up on those nice chocolatey ones for when I next call round - thanks. Spider.

kmmr

Why am I reading this thread! Part of the reason I left Australia was to get away from the spiders. I have a never ending supply of scary stories from my childhood about the silly things.

And now they seem to be here! I couldn't use the garden last night as one has set up a huge web between my extension and the neighbours wall. OH was at work until midnight, so what could I do! I really could not go near it - stupid phobia!

Spiderweb at least is now gone (OH had his orders when he woke up), but he has probably left the spider alive somewhere...