Spiders

[The Lurker]

Anyone good at identifying British spiders?

 

what’s this we’ve got in our conservatory?

 

looks like a false widow to me

[Nearholmer]

I’ve warned you about them before: they pretend their husbands are dead in order to claim on the insurance.

 

I’m sure those particular ones used to be called cupboard spiders before they got a slightly scary name.

[MikeTrice]

Google confirms Noble False Widow.

[didcot]

I HATE Spiders. Especially the one at Harry Potter World.

[iL Dottore]

I wonder why so many people have a visceral fear of spiders?
 

Snakes I can understand, suddenly coming face-to-face with a boa constrictor in the jungle is definitely a brown trouser moment. But most spiders tend to be reclusive and although all spiders are poisonous, it's only a small fraction that are deadly to humans.

 

Could it be it is because spiders tend to be reclusive and although only attack when they feel threatened it's because of their size and where they build their nests that humans tend to blunder in, making the spider feel threatened and so bites the human?

 

Under a certain size, I have no problems in encountering spiders (which is a bit odd, as many of the truly poisonous-to-humans spiders are quite small), larger spiders I tend to give a wide berth to.

 

Fortunately, where I live, we don't have poisonous-to-humans spiders and our  biggest spiders tend to be harmless garden spiders which, if encountered in the house, are trapped and released back into the garden.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

... where I live, we don't have poisonous-to-humans spiders ...

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder why so many people have a visceral fear of spiders?

Perhaps you've answered your question?

 

Most spiders here are not very threatening.  They eat tiny bugs I don't want in my house, but when I see them, I do prefer to catch them and let them go outside. However, when I see a black widow, I'm a little more anxious.

 

In an apartment I rented the exhaust vent for the bathroom was above the throne. While enthroned, a spider dropped down from the vent on it's thread directly into my vision and in close proximity. That was creepy.

 

[The Johnster]

(to be delivered in a West Country accent):-

 

M R spidies M R

M ant

S A R  C D B D iiiis  M R spidies M R

[J. S. Bach]

12 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Perhaps you've answered your question?

 

Most spiders here are not very threatening.  They eat tiny bugs I don't want in my house, but when I see them, I do prefer to catch them and let them go outside. However, when I see a black widow, I'm a little more anxious.

 

In an apartment I rented the exhaust vent for the bathroom was above the throne. While enthroned, a spider dropped down from the vent on it's thread directly into my vision and in close proximity. That was creepy.

 

Helped with the constipation?

[Rich_F]

13 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder why so many people have a visceral fear of spiders?

 

I get a load of the furry jumping spiders coming onto my windowsill in the summer. My window is usually open while WFH & I have a houseplant there. 

 

If you watch them & have a few spare minutes, you see can them surveying & watching the surroundings. If you put your finger down, they often jump on after a while 😁

 

Dare I say it...they're actually cute. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Weeny Works

[Kylestrome]

54 minutes ago, Weeny Works said:

Dare I say it...they're actually cute.

 

Cute?!

 

[Rich_F]

4 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

 

Cute?!

 

 

 

Yep! 🕷️

 

 

[kevinlms]

Ironic that a thread on spiders, was started by The Lurker!

[Wheatley]

On 26/06/2023 at 02:00, iL Dottore said:

I wonder why so many people have a visceral fear of spiders?

 

 

Black, scuttly and fast, and just evil looking. Nothing to do with being bitey or poisonous, I'm not scared of bees  wasps or snakes. 

 

I wasn't scared of them until my year 4 teacher pointed that out, thanks Miss B. Now I'm terrified of them but only the big scuttly fast ones. We have cave spiders in the house which I'm fine with (up to a point) because they just sit there minding their own business (and they eat house spiderlings :-) ) nor am I scared of garden spiders or the small ones up to about 3/4" across. 

 

So they get exterminated. Insectol in the blue can is the most effective exterminator but apparently it's now banned under some namby pamby safety regulation so I'm using Dethlac instead. I know it's not very green but neither is burning the house down every time one of the evil b*******s scuttles off somewhere where I can't find it to kill it. 

 

This thread has made me come out in goose pimples. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Wheatley

[froobyone]

I had my old layout stacked in spider cupboard. Needed to drag it out for some scale testing and with a mind to recommission it.

I was enjoying it for roughly seven minutes when a scuttler ran from behind the portacabin and into the tunnel.

So the layout got put back into spiderland sharpish (with motorcycles gloves on) and now I'm having to build a new layout!

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, froobyone said:

now I'm having to build a new layout!

 

I've heard some excuses in my time but that's the best.

[The Johnster]

Once upon another lifetime I had an LDV van, Sherpa type, which I had huge fun with doing roadying, light removals, oddjob deliveries, &c.  I had a job with it which was a flat move for a young lady who lived in Riverside, Cardiff, out to Pentrebane, a far western suburb where the council had given her a flat, easy job, only a few miles and all she had was some light furniture, some books, hi-fi, record collection, and her clothes, one trip, about two hours including loading and unloading.  Oh, and three glass tanks of beedybeedybidies, big furry ones, don't know what types.  'You ok with them?' she asked, 'sure, no problem, I'll stack 'em on the front seat and belt them in, they'll be fine'. 

 

Well, to the best of my knowledge at that point I didn't have any problem with them, in fact I rather thought I liked them!  She decided she was going to go up to the new flat on the bus to leave the front seat free for her little furry friends, and would meet me at the other end.  I'd reckoned without that movement, though, and the effect it would have on me in the corner of my eye, peripheral vision.  Happy to look at them full on, but driving along Cowbridge Road and up through Fairwater, eyes on the road and these beedybeedy things creepycrawling about in my peripheral, er, no, thanks.  I was quite glad when that little run was over, and it was only about ten minutes...

 

I moved a guy with a snake once as well, which was no problem at all, even when it draped itself around my neck in the van.  I knew it anyway, he used to bring it up the pub and it would demand attention by knocking your hand upwards with it's head, like a Labrador, lovely thing.  They like wrapping around you because of your body warmth.

[melmerby]

What a bunch of cissies.

Spiders in our house are allowed to get on with whatever Spiders do.

No killing and only those that end up in unwanted places get evicted.

There's a rather large one been scuttling around the hall for the last few weeks.

Even the other half isn't bothered by them.

[melmerby]

11 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

They like wrapping around you because of your body warmth.

• Or to crush the life out of you😊

[Wheatley]

7 minutes ago, melmerby said:

What a bunch of cissies.

Guilty. Now does anyone know anywhere on line that will post aerosols of blue Insectol ?

4 minutes ago, melmerby said:

• Or to crush the life out of you😊

One of the lads at work used to work in an exotic pet shop. He was chatting to a customer one day who mentioned that her snake (I forget which type but a big one) used to get into bed with her to keep warm. The only thing she didn't like was that it kept making cracking noises in the night. 

 

"It's not keeping warm, it's disarticulating its joints to see how wide it's going to have to stretch to get you in"  

 

[Michael Hodgson]

Herself collects conkers.  She thinks it frightens them off. 

I'm not convinced as I'm still expected to deal with them when she sees one.

[Craigw]

We have a lot of Huntsmen spiders around and some of them get very large. They are pretty laid back though and I am the one who is called in to relocate them at work and home.

 

Here is one from a few years back.

 

Funnel Webs are not so much fun, they do get very excited if they feel threatened. 

 

Craig W

[The Lurker]

You'll be pleased to know the original spider in question had caught a bumble bee that was bigger than it was. I didn't check this morning but I suspect it is now on the conservatory floor along with the husks of any other victims that have not yet been hoovered up. Judging by the bodies, the spiders in the conservatory are having a good year. I'd guess there is one in each corner...

[Reorte]

10 hours ago, melmerby said:

What a bunch of cissies.

Spiders in our house are allowed to get on with whatever Spiders do.

No killing and only those that end up in unwanted places get evicted.

There's a rather large one been scuttling around the hall for the last few weeks.

Even the other half isn't bothered by them.

I generally only move them if I think the cat's about to eat them. The biggest nuisance is when they're sat in some cobwebs that I want to clean, I usually leave them there.