Spidersville

[Team Alfie]

My house is full of Daddy Long Legs. I can live with them because other spiders can't. To us they are slow and barely noticeable. To other spider species they are like the Third Reich - or Arnie in T2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iPDh3Sgva0

[greenberet79]

It that true? I did not know that.

It's flies I can't stand, horrible things. So it boils down to this - the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Ergo, the spiders stay!

Imagine if spiders could fly as well!

[Team Alfie]

There's some confusion over what they're called. I was brought up to call them daddy long legs, others call them cellar spiders.

Either way, this is what's in my house:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae

And this is why they get to stay:

Diet
Certain species of these seemingly benign spiders invade webs of other spiders and eat the host, the eggs or the prey. In some cases the spider vibrates the web of other spiders, mimicking the struggle of trapped prey to lure the host of the web closer. Pholcids are natural predators of the Tegenaria species, and are known to attack and eat redback spiders and huntsman spiders. It is this competition that helps keep Tegenaria populations in check, which may be advantageous to humans who live in regions with dense hobo spider populations.

There's no question that I've seen far fewer house spiders in my home since I've let these guys hang out in it.

[djcarlos]

Ah, now to me a daddy-long-legs is a crane fly.

Those spindly-legged tiny-bodied spiders are called Harvestmen.

They may be Warwickshire terms, that's where I was born and bred.

Y' know, Warwickshire? You go up there by that tree.....lovely awld tree is is...and you'll come to a road. You wanna go down that road, and you'll come to a tree. Lovely awld tree. WITH AN OWL!

[greenberet79]

Is there anything worse than a close up photo of an insect?

[The Angry Jock]

A picture of your parents going at it?

[crusto]

Been strangely quiet on the spiders front in my house so far this 'summer' that was until about 5 minutes ago when I encountered a huge brute of a spider in my kitchen. Case solved, this monster had obviously been eating all the others.

I had to kill him. I couldn't bare the thought of him running around my house, plus, technically speaking, he's a squatter. He made a hell of a mess on the floor too. Seriously, I was shaking in the lead up to the 'strike' as he was real close to the fridge and would have easily made it under there had I missed. Ive got that clammy, relief, adrenaline feeling now..

[TwoHeadedBoy]

How can anyone be scared of something as cute as this?



Also This:

[ismellicecream]

Been strangely quiet on the spiders front in my house so far this 'summer' that was until about 5 minutes ago when I encountered a huge brute of a spider in my kitchen. Case solved, this monster had obviously been eating all the others.

I had to kill him. I couldn't bare the thought of him running around my house, plus, technically speaking, he's a squatter. He made a hell of a mess on the floor too. Seriously, I was shaking in the lead up to the 'strike' as he was real close to the fridge and would have easily made it under there had I missed. Ive got that clammy, relief, adrenaline feeling now..

How'd you kill him? I fear the crunch and splat more than the actual spider, especially if its with a shoe and you feel the crunch resonate through your hand.

There was a massive already dead one in my hall this morning - I siezed the opportunity to have a close up look and they are horrible little monsters. I'm much better with spiders these days, I can even pick em up - except the biggest house spiders and the juicy garden spiders.

[crusto]

My wife high heeled shoe was close to hand, luckily, so he felt the full force of that.

Re the massive already dead one, are you sure that it wasn't just a shed skin?

[ismellicecream]

Re the massive already dead one, are you sure that it wasn't just a shed skin?

Stop it, you're scaring me

It could have been, but I had a really close inspection out of curiosity and it looked full. Doesnt the skin go all pale n stuff when that happens?

[djcarlos]

There have been some massive fuckers in my house in the past couple of weeks.

The ones that just suddenly gallop at you across the floor when you're watching telly.

I hate them, I scream like a girl and pull my knees up to my chest until the wife has removed the bugger.

I'm so badass.

[crusto]

There's been 2 more since my last post. The first one I encountered when I switched the light on in my living room after watching a film, big enough and certainly ugly enough. He got it.

Last night, however, is a different story. I have NEVER seen a house spider this big before, EVER. He was lightning quick and brave as anything too, coming straight for me from what seemed like out of nowhere. There was nothing at hand to do battle with so I did what any sane man would do and ran like the wind. I left all the lights and the tv on and got the fcuk out of dodge.

I have ordered the mother in law, the children, and the wife to be on highest alert, until this vicious little fucker is either apprehended and evicted or squashed like the spawn of filth that he is. The saga continues...

[noobish hat]

I have covered everything with anti-spider spray, and I am armed with an electrified anti-bug tennis racket. COME AT ME, BRO!

[DPrinny]

Had a big one crawl on the wall, it only had six legs. FREAK!

Also had a pacifist wasp (not a hover fly) in the kitchen the other day