Issue with shared front garden

Sapphire

The spiders you get inside homes are generally house spiders, which live in houses, not outdoors. The females can become very large, and are most visible in the autumn. The males are much smaller. I don't believe spiders appear in winter.

Any spiders and insects I see indoors (including wasps, bees and flies) have a glass placed over them, with a small bit of card underneath. They are then moved outdoors.

Spiders are actually very beneficial, since they get rid of insects that you don't particularly want around. The reason why I escort them outdoors is that I don't want them to appear suddenly (e.g. in bedding).

Spiders will also appear indoors whether you have plants outside or not. Removing plants will do nothing, except mar the look of a space outdoors.

zagubov

Sapphire wrote: »

The spiders you get inside homes are generally house spiders, which live in houses, not outdoors. The females can become very large, and are most visible in the autumn. The males are much smaller. I don't believe spiders appear in winter.
.........
Spiders will also appear indoors whether you have plants outside or not. Removing plants will do nothing, except mar the look of a space outdoors.

This, in a nutshell.
I'm afraid that at least one of the OP's neighbours is deluded or a liar.

I've the good fortune to have a job that makes me keep informed about matters biological. I'd have had some insanely long pedantic boring conversations about the neighbour by now, just as I'd have done if he'd claimed that me growing potatoes in my garden would attract earthquakes(I don't and they don't).:cool:

greenbee

I'm an arachnophobe - if the OP's neighbour's wife has got herself into this kind of state over the spiders in the house she's not going to be rational. Although I've never consider razing the garden to the ground! (I have removed a lot of climbers from the walls of the house, but that was more to do with mice than spiders...).

Some areas have more big spiders than others - where I used to live had lots of massive spiders and I found it incredibly stressful. However, filling holes, gaps and cracks helped. I also used ultrasonic repellers which appeared to work (a friend set them up while I was away, and was very sceptical but said she was surprised how many spiders she saw over the first few days that appeared to be packing up and leaving!). I have a spray that I use round the windows, and a handheld vacuum cleaner for emergencies .

Perhaps you could suggest that if the situation doesn't improve now the plants are gone, that they should look into some of these. Whether the repellers and spray work or not, they make me feel better!

Keeping the house uncluttered, tidy and clean also helps. There are fewer places for them to live and less food for them to eat.

elsien

Get some nice big pots to outside the front of your house which you can plant up however you fancy.
Instant colour to distract from some of the wreckage with the added bonus that they'd definitely be yours hence less open to attack by Mr Scissorhands.

arciere

greenbee wrote: »

I'm an arachnophobe - if the OP's neighbour's wife has got herself into this kind of state over the spiders in the house she's not going to be rational.

Ok, fair enough, but so far we've agreed to pretty much anything they wanted to do.
A few months ago they decided to cut a couple of trees in the front garden (we said ok), then they wanted to put some ant powder all around the perimeter of the house (including our back garden), and we said yes. Then they decided to cut further in the shared garden and we said yes, but agreed on what to leave. Then after a couple of hours they decided that the plant with the yellow flowers attracted flies (did you know that flies are attracted by yellow flowers? So now we are not allowed to have any yellow in the garden...) and 'removed' that plant despite having agreed to keep it moments earlier.

So, whatever we do or say, there's always going to be something else that we will need to agree on.

arciere

elsien wrote: »

Get some nice big pots to outside the front of your house which you can plant up however you fancy.
Instant colour to distract from some of the wreckage with the added bonus that they'd definitely be yours hence less open to attack by Mr Scissorhands.

It can't be 'bushy' because it attracts spiders, it can't be yellow because it attracts flies, it can't be flowery because they've got allergy (in that case worst property to buy, if you ask me, due to its location), and it obviously can't be anything that resembles a tree.

I am considering buying a large white screen and an outdoor projector, they might agree on that.

greenbee

arciere wrote: »

Ok, fair enough, but so far we've agreed to pretty much anything they wanted to do.
A few months ago they decided to cut a couple of trees in the front garden (we said ok), then they wanted to put some ant powder all around the perimeter of the house (including our back garden), and we said yes. Then they decided to cut further in the shared garden and we said yes, but agreed on what to leave. Then after a couple of hours they decided that the plant with the yellow flowers attracted flies (did you know that flies are attracted by yellow flowers? So now we are not allowed to have any yellow in the garden...) and 'removed' that plant despite having agreed to keep it moments earlier.

So, whatever we do or say, there's always going to be something else that we will need to agree on.

It's her problem - she should be getting help, not making it your problem. I've not idea why they expected ant powder to help. Or reducing the number of flies in the garden.

I'm not sure they'll believe you if you point out that garden spiders and house spiders aren't the same thing... but they're not. They may see the odd garden spider indoors, but mostly, as Sapphire pointed out, they're different. She needs to try other solutions - repellents, cleaning, filling holes/cracks, insect foggers (not sure whether those kill spiders, but I know my brother has tried them). Maybe you could get the neighbours to start mentioning that your area is notorious for the vast numbers of giant man-eating spiders... :cool:

The sensible thing for them to do is to move to an area with fewer spiders, and a house that is less likely to have them.

[Deleted User]

OP

Don't worry.

I'm going around to lurk in their bath and give them 'evil stares'.

Expect them to be packing up and moving by the end of the day.

Spider.

Perhaps take a photo of what's left and post on the gardening board for ideas on how to cheaply improve the mess that is left.

oystercatcher

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

OP

Don't worry.

I'm going around to lurk in their bath and give them 'evil stares'.

Expect them to be packing up and moving by the end of the day.

Spider.

.

Be careful or you will end up squished

Dark_Star

How about you jointly remove everything between the two of you & put down astro turf which they can pay for.

You can hoover astro turf (apparently) which should scare any spider out of it's wits

If they don't like that idea then something else is clearly bothering them if they do not want plants or fake grass.

What about their piece of the back garden? Is that still a potential spider fest?

If there is no car access to the front, what could they do with the shared garden if it was paved/bereft of plantlife?

Could you put a rotary washing line or two at the front? (Unsure if its fenced off etc).


Must be a way to make it look nice without being concreted over - how big is it?


A nice pond? They could have newts or frogs creeping indoors...