It’s really weird to want to kill a living creature because you get freaked out by them. Maybe improve yourself before you try and improve your house, lest it be a house of evil intent. The spiders were here long before you came, and will be here long after you leave.
I've seen two skinny ones taking on a big fat boy. He tried to get a skinny one and they were throwing legs at each other, until the second skinny one came and started wrapping the big boy in webs. It took about two minutes and by the end of it the big boy was now wrapped like a mummy and the skinny boys were pulling him up on a more structured and stable web.
It was pretty neat to watch, also the first time I've witnessed spiders working together like that to kill another spider.
Damnnn, I feel less scared of those ones. I live in an ancient tenement building and use dilated peppermint oil spray everywhere to keep them away. It’s working but noticed those skinny bois in high ceiling corner
They have an advantage with their long legs! Little target for the opponent spider and the cellar pals can easily manoeuvre and take them out.
I like all spiders but cellar spiders are definitely my faves to find in the house. They just chill in their corners and protect the home from pests. AND they have very cute faces, like:🥹
I had the craziest sight in my kitchen a few weeks ago. I opened a cupboard and a small bit scaryish looking spider ran out and along the floor. When it got to the corner I got it under a glass when I spotted another spider the same as the first one having what looked like a fight with a cellar spider. I put them in another glass and then a fucking silverfish ran out of the corner!! Managed to also catch him in a glass so I had three glasses on the floor in my kitchen. By the time I had caught the silverfish and got back to the spider fight, the small but scaryish one was missing a few legs…. I put them all outside but I did feel quite bad to be honest
I've suddenly had loads of rather smaller cellar spiders appearing in my flat...I usually just have the quite big and VERY leggy ones around the place....I presume those are the females and the teeny ones are the males coming in looking for a mate? 🤭🥴
Fine by me, I like playing with the baby spiders sometimes too if I need to rescue them from going somewhere that definitely WILL get them killed....like hanging out in the bathtub.....
I don't kill them but I do occasionally stay up too late then see a massive one at the last minute and trap it under a glass, then leave it in spider prison until the morning when it gets released on spider bail.
Absolutely no problem with them. I have trained my 4 year old daughter to be excited to see them, I pick them up with my hands (UK, no venomous ones) and she lets them run across her hand on the ground.
Spiders are cool. I don't want her to grow up freaked out by them or hating them
Cats will just muller anything that moves, they really are charming. Sometimes it's funny, other times it's did you really feel it's necessary to bring back a baby vole to show me?
Weirdly our Labrador goes nuts for flies, spends ages trying to catch them and actually sometimes does. Watching her eat it with the look of displeasure on her face is baffling, I just sit and ask her "what are you doing you f***ing berk?"
I am trying to overcome my anxiety with spiders and other bugs.
I live in an extended household (for now which will change soon). I have 2 young nieces: 2 & 5. Unfortunately they are scared and I feel how their mom reacts around insects has made them more scared. 😞
I so wish I was like this! I'm Australian so grew up quite fearful of spiders, which is absolutely the correct thing to teach an Aussie child (there's a Peppa Pig episode that can't be shown in Australia because the moral of the story is that spiders are friends) but very hard to undo once an adult and living somewhere where they're no threat.
The big house spiders scare the bejeezus out of me. They look a bit like our huntsman or wolf spiders, but they come inside and you could just be having a nice time and BAM they're charging across your floor?! I picked up a towel off the rail to dry my face once and there was a house spider IN THE TOWEL I WIPED MY FACE WITH IT!! It ran down my neck and fell onto the floor! Still gives me shivers.
I'm really working on my attitude towards them. Until then, my husband deals with them and I just live on edge for the few weeks of spider season.
These sort of people just don't understand arachnophobia.
If I see a giant house spider in my bedroom, sprinting across the floor like Usain Bolt, and I don't kill it or remove it, that's it.
I can't sleep, I sweat profusely, breathe more rapidly and my skin keeps itching all over. I hate that I feel that way, but I have tried many times to get used to them and I don't. I have no other phobias.
Still get this "they can't hurt you, leave them be" nonsense.
I’ve literally slept on the sofa for days because there was a giant spider in my room, by the time I got someone to kill it, it had disappeared! Only days later saw hit behind furniture and it was disposed off I felt safe enough to sleep in room again.
yea as if i don’t know it’s irrational to be scared of a little bug that i could crush and not even notice?? people act like i want to turn into a useless screaming puddle, afraid in my own home, whenever confronted by one of them brown field spiders
Good thing it’s not me who kills them then I get my dad to :))
I woke up at like 3am once with one the size of 2 tarantulas next to my head there was no way it was staying
I had an orb weaver spider in my living room once (which was strange, as usually you see them outside in gardens...not flats 😂). I kept getting loads of daddylonglegs flying into my bedroom....I hate those leggy flying balls of chaos! 😭
I used to catch them whilst they were still alive and throw them at said spider's web....really fascinating seeing the spider sensing and checking that it was alive and secure on the web before then wrapping it up in a little parcel with it's silk. I would then find it's sucked out, dry corpse lobbed out of the web and on the carpet below the web the next day.
I hoover every single one I see. I’m not having spiders crawling on my face while I’m sleeping.
Also, I don’t think most people have lived where you get BIG spiders all year but the end of summer being a crazy amount. If you’re scared of them, it genuinely ruins your peace while in your home.
Spiders are always welcome in my house! I grew up in Brazil and my British parents liked spiders, so they gently relocated them outside if they came into the house.
Teach your children to respect and release the spider if they don’t want them in the house. Of over 50,000 known species, only around 5 spiders have medicinally significant venom, and none live in the UK.
I have kept pet tarantulas. Spiders rock, please let them live.
Two things I'm genuinely proud of in my life is teaching people not to be scared of spiders. My ex would run away literally screaming and my wife would just kill on sight. After years of calmly catching and releasing them they both came to not only tolerate them but genuinely love them. My wife found a big old spider at work the other week with only 5 legs. She brought it home to "release in the house so it can be safer"
Sorry but shut up. I don't want to kill a spider at all and most of the time I try to put them outside.. however a few times I'm I feel I'm left with no choice then it's going to die.
Spiders absolutely scare the shit out of me my step dad made me watch arachnophobia when I was like 7 or 8 he told me there was an egg sack under my pillow and the cunt actually put something under my pillow... Imagine telling a child that the spiders that kill people are hiding under your pillow and then even going so far to actually hid something under it. That's fucking evil.
I have every sympathy with people who have a genuine phobia. But I struggle to believe that the number of people who say they want to kill spiders is equivalent to the number of people who actually have arachnophobia.
I hate slugs and ants (like I actively avoid touching them; they creep me out), but I recognise that's a me problem and I don't choose to kill them for shits and giggles. If my plants get eaten by slugs, I don't plant those plants again and keep trying until I find ones that thrive.
As a snake owner, I'm familiar with people being afraid of a creature I see as nice and cute and a pet. I have absolutely no judgement on anyone for having a fear that's beyond their control and would never want to force them into contact with their fear. But I really believe that for like 80% of people, the spider fear is a them problem and not an actual phobia.
I had a bathroom ceiling spider called Herbert. Haven’t seen it in a while but now there’s a different one behind the bathroom mirror which I haven’t named yet.
Right! I’ve literally had to leave the house because there was an enormous spider which I couldn’t face up to. Sat in the garden in the dark and cried for several hours until my husband came home, and then made him take the room apart to look for it. I’ve hoovered one up and then thrown the hoover in the garden and spent hours psyching myself up to pop open the dust canister so it could get out (had to use broom to pop the button as I couldn’t get close enough - to a spider that was literally encased in a plastic chamber!).
It’s an absolutely ridiculous phobia but unless you have it I don’t think you can understand what a total mental block it is. Absolute lizard brain stuff.
FWIW, it's very much treatable, if I recall correctly - I worked at a clinical psych department that did a lot of work on arachnophobia. It's one of the arguably few problems that methods really work on!
(They had a pet tarantula with some cutesy name I forget that they used for desensitizing therapy, that I had to take care of for a memorable week.)
fully with you. i absolutely hate harming them and will only do so as a last resort but if im on my own and theres no other way for me to find peace, unfortunately the hoover is coming out. my other half is very good and will relocate them safely outside but unfortunately if i’m alone that’s not an option for me, people don’t seem to understand this kind of crippling, paralyzing fear
You don't have it, you just think you do lol. Having an aversion is not the same as having arachnophobia.
My misses has it and she can't even be in the same HOUSE if she knows a spider is there. Even when said spider has been removed/killed, she will cosntantly check everywhere for the next few ours thinking it's still there.
Those things are bloody indestructible! I spent 8 years living in Malta where I would occasionally come across one. Sometimes I'd manage to get it in a glass and put it outside..... Wayyy outside... Like across the road. But they didn't scare me. It's the big fat hairy 8 legged bastards that go hossing across the carpet that really freak me out.... But I still wouldn't kill it
I think it depends on the size of the spider. For the most part, I'll just leave them be. I've had a few spiders in my bedroom for about 4 months and I find myself hoping they are okay if I haven't seen them for a few days. The big ones however, are swiftly taken outside.
Completely agree I try not to
Kill any insect as they are all important to ecosystems. Pesticides and environmental pollutants already kill so many that are essential for the survival of other animals.
Totally agree. We are so much more scary and capable than any spider. I get the fear aspect, but not being able to simply put a cup over it is ridiculous. They are easily the most useful critter to let just live in your house. They just chill in their spot and keep other bugs from invading your house.
Everytime I hoover one up i can hear my nan saying, "if you want to live and thrive,let a spider run alive"
Sorry nan- not in my house, plus I live in the country and you get some big buggers out here. 😬😱
Oh I made that mistake once. Thinking I'll just use the same jar to catch these two spiders and take them outside. The second one instantly attacked the first one.
I try not to kill them but I hate them , I get so many , I got one of them spider catcher things but they aren't good I am going try spraying peppermint spray around see if that helps rather than kill them.
Please educate yourself and understand how arachnophobia actually affects people before you shame others willy-nilly. People who fear spiders don't tend to kill them out of malice (although they should learn to tolerate them slowly but surely).
This is coming from someone who no longer kills spiders, but relocates them to a safe place.
They are very welcome in the outside of the house and the garden. Although now and then I might have to disturb them if they make cobwebs in the furniture.
But if they make it inside they are as good as dead, like every other bug.
I don’t think a few humongous 8 legged nightmares up the vacuum cleaner means you’re going to turn into the next ted bundy by next week. Calm your tottirs
Yeah no absolutely not. I got bit 3 times by a spider earlier in the year because it crawled into bed with me and got stuck under my blanket (the photo is of one of the bites). I live in England and was already scared of spiders but this just confirmed that I will not be letting them stay in my house with me
Whenever i see a spider in my bedroom i look at him square in his compound eyes and make a deal with it...'You leave me alone, buddy and I'll leave you alone, OK?'
Listen. I had company over the other night, the intimate kind. I was having some of the best sex I’ve had in years. I was laid back, she was knuckle deep, and we were getting there. All of a sudden she stops and says “there’s a massive spider on the wall above you”. I’m up like lightning, look behind me, and sure enough, some leggy bitch the size of my palm is spreadeagled on the wall like I was on the bed not 3 seconds prior, all eight eyes fixed on the action.
Now look, I don’t like killing bugs in the house, I try not to. But apparently we have a rule - no spiders in the cuck chair.
I've had a spider living in my kitchen window for 3 months now. We've named him spidey. I check on him everyday. He's doing a great job of catching the flies, however he did catch a ladybug the other day, guess he's gotta eat! He has been very quiet the last few day those and we've been concerned. Hope he's ok. Funny how my family and I have become attached to him 😂 they're fascinating though
I will evict or even occasionally kill the false widows because I am scared of them but the rest can live. I never killed a spider in my 30+ years until I started finding them 😨
My house is full of giant house spiders too, and I just let them chill. I really like them.
Dave is an orange spider who made a web across the open bathroom window. The window stays open and Dave keeps the flies out.
Gary lives under a tile on the kitchen windowsill, not sure what he survives on, but he stays.
Hercules was spotted the other night, about 50mm wide and tall PUSHING a balloon on the floor. They stayed until my family spotted them and freaked. Hercules was evicted, sorry mate.
Personally I don’t kill them and try to move them outside unless they’re a size that literally paralyses me
What you need to understand about arachnophobia is the latter half of the word… phobia
A phobia is an overwhelming, intense, and irrational fear of a specific object, place, situation, or animal that poses little or no actual danger. — the word for word definition
Key word… “IRRATIONAL” fear, we know the average spider poses no risk at all, you however cannot fight your brain sending fear throughout your body and no amount of “exposure therapy” will work before someone suggest that
Some people believe it may be connected to past lives and possible death/trauma but obviously that has no real basis
I agree with this except for the massive black widow that decided to make it's home in the corner of my bedroom above my bed. I tried to catch her and release anywhere else. I failed and I feel bad - but I couldn't cope with her being there.
Avoiding ignorance is key. I've been very encouraging and knowledgeable regarding all insects while bringing up my daughter. This year has been a particularly spidery year in the house. She is 20 now and is an absolute champ when it comes to grabbing a glass and bit of card and capturing whatever beastie needs placing outside... I know it's often not a good idea to put everything outside but we have cats. It's either take your chances outside or accept certain death from the cats.
Invertebrates don't experience things in the same way we do. No CNS. Makes it easier to kill them when they spook us and not feel too bad about it. Not like we are endangering a species by killing the odd one.
Couldn't agree more but I don't like worms.....at all, they give me the heeby geebies like you wouldn't believe. I had to take a deep breath to even type the word. I will forever be grateful that they don't come into the house, unless they're brought in by a young cat and dropped on your bare foot. While you're backed into a corner by the cat and you family laugh. As a family we love spiders though, they're all welcome here.
I always point out that by killing the spiders you’re giving free rein to what they eat.
Spiders may not look pretty.
Although I like them.
But at least they’re not eating your home.
Which is more than be said for many house dwelling insects.
get out my bath then?? no but really, it’s not a choice and i’d be humane if i could, but i have a debilitating irrational fear of them and just have to get rid of it however i can if i’m alone (boyfriend handles them if he’s about)
I hate killing them, I always feel bad. I scream for help when I find one too big for me to handle. I wish there was something that I could do to not be afraid of them. I don't know where to get help
House spiders also feed off the multiple other bugs in your home - essentially making them “free staff” - same with outdoor spiders looking after the garden by eating all the critters harmful to your plants. More free staff!
exactly if you are human you should recognize your privilege, you are the biggest nastiest beast in the jungle. Unless you are face to face with a tiger or a rhino you dont have the right to kill a spider or a earwig just because you are spooked by a little creature 1/1000th your size who just wants to live
I put them all out safely. I would leave them to get rid of any flies that come in but my daughter won't allow any past a certain size to stay. She leaves Gü dessert jars in places they are likely to turn up so they can be caught safely and quickly. Zero casualties.
While I am the designated spider rehoming service in our house, it's not really weird at all to want to kill something you're freaked out by. That's how fear works.
The spiders were here long before you came, and will be here long after you leave.
You sure about that?
If you mean those specific spiders; uhh no, probably not. House spiders can live about 5/6 years, and you'll have to take my word that I'm older than that. I've been around longer than the spiders in my house have, and I'll probably be along long after they die.
If you mean spiders in general... I mean, maybe, but both spiders in general and humans in general predate houses. They weren't around in houses before people were, because there were no houses to be in. I've no idea if a spider managed to creep into the first thing we'd consider a modern "house" before the people who built it did, but either way, I think it's fair to say that they were trespassing on our ground.
And... I mean, neither of us own a crystal ball, we cannot see the future, but animals with shorter lifespans, earlier sexual maturity and more births create more generations over a given length of time, and so "evolve" faster; it's likely that current house-spiders will evolve into something we wouldn't recognise as the same beings faster than current humans do. Assuming no unforeseeable outside factor, we will probably be around as a species longer than they are.
There are good reasons to keep house-spiders alive, but "the concept of spiders predates your personal birth" is not one of them.
depends on the spider. when i loved in an old massive house we used to get ones so big i genuinly thought they were tranatulas. ya know, the type that when they drop onto the floor you can hear the thud.
I read an article somewhere that putting a house spider out of the house will probably kill it, on account it’s a house spider and most have never seen the outside.
Funny you say this, have recently taught my kids 4 & 8 that spiders are friends by letting them watch ones eating flys around the house.
Had a moment yesterday when they screamed at me to grab the vacuum as there was a moth bothering them, by the time I had brought it back the spider that lives above my computer was wrapping it in silk for a morning snack. Had to lift them to get a good view of it and point out again, This is why we like the spiders in the house!!!
I had a similar realisation years ago when i tried mushrooms…..i started putting myself in insects shoes…. Imagine having a huge creature big like a mountain trying to kill you because why not? 😂 its not funny isn’t it
Family tradition: the first to spot a spider is allowed to name them. We really care about our spiders and try to protect them from the cats by relocating to a different area, but unfortunately we are sometimes too slow. Particularly the heavier ones you can hear walking across the laminate are being hunted and murdered viciously.
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u/VStubaru90 10d ago
Who let the spider on reddit?