apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This is one of the benefits of having a cat: built in spider-erradicator!

aww..i just smacked a spider who was hanging out on my pillow last night....and then i had to throw my pillowcase in the laundry. i wasn't going to run the risk of it running into my bedcovers. ugh.

I have the same problem with spiders. They love my bedroom and bathroom because most rooms are fairly dark all the time since the trees filled out and light is blocked. I see at least 3 a day, and of course, I grab a juice glass and a piece of paper, put the glass over the spider, quickly slide in the paper above the rim, and take it outside to rescue it.

I'm happy this post encourages people to not kill our arachnid friends. I actually think spiders are kind of cute. Not cuddly cute, but cute as in how clever they are for such tiny little things.

Holly

Heather,

I just checked out their website, so funny! You're right, that whole, "to perfect your technique" bit is pretty funny. :)

Holly

We try never to kill a spider and try to live with them. Over time we've grown to appreciate them. They are among the least icky of insects. I also have two worm bins so my squickometer is quite low.

Have never been able to kill a spider since Charlotte's Web.

That spider looks like it could wriggle it's way out and seek revenge.

I prefer the BugZooka (http://www.bugzooka.com/) because the insects get sucked into a little container and can't get out until I let them out.

This is a joke, right?

The last spider I caught in my place was 20cm (8 inches) across from one long hairy leg to the other (small body). I've never seen anything like it, and found a second slightly smaller one (the male) in the stairwell a couple of days later.

I had a tough time sucking them up into the vacuum cleaner. After the second one, I put a note up telling people, if they brought a couple of pets home, they'd gone to that great web in the sky.

There is no way you'd get a huntsman into a bugzooka; and as for a redback or funnelweb - kill first, study later.

I haven't willingly killed a spider since I was a kid and read about Robert the Bruce in England a long time ago, who had been defeated six times (in an attempt to do what? I don't remember) and was in hiding in the country. As he sat dejectedly in a poor hut, he watched a spider trying to build a web up in the corner of the room. Six times it swung on a thread to reach where it wanted to go, and six times it swung back, unsuccessful. According to the story, Robert said to the spider, "You, too, know what it is to fail!" But apparently the spider wasn't listening, because it gathered up its strength (or its thread) a seventh time and tried again--this time successfully. Robert took heart from this, picked up his sword and shield, and re-gathered his men for a seventh try. Which turned out to be successful. And to this day (according to the story), none of Robert the Bruce's descendants will kill a spider.

Of course, why that affected me I have no idea; I'm sure I'm not a descendant of this guy.

I confess, I kill them and all bugs. Though, I've been known to give amnesty to spiders on occasion because, after all, they eat other bugs.

I'm no looker myself, but I can't stand the ugly little critters. I get my wife (who I assume married me for something other than my courage) to put 'em outside for me, and she's learned that if she sees one behind me she should not alert me but quietly watch it until it goes away. Then she tells me. And then I itch.

I wonder if Spiderman eats other superheroes.

P(2), I felt the same way about pork for years! Heh. :)

I purchased on clearance at Restoration Hardware a "bug catcher"/vacuum wand that uses a 9V battery. It sucks spiders, fruit flies, and the like into the tube and you cap it. You can then set them free :)

I consider myself inclinig towards being buddist but I do and have to kill a spider(and bugs, warms, roaches,ugh) if they invade my "teritory". We're living in the wild life and this is the law of the nature! (Enought said)

In short, I have severe stage of arachnophobia(it's my mom's family legacy. Her family is from where huge spiders are roaming around and you'll find them resting inside of your shoes in the morning)so much so, one time my therapist even offered to treat me which I refused(I didn't want to spend my money to be tourtured by seeing them.).

Oh,yes, I do have two cats but usually I find invaders way before they do. Hope one day they remember what they are; the predators. Sigh.

Nway, I wonder if this divise is good enough to pick up micro size spiders?

First let me start by saying even a baby spider scares the crap out of me. I just so happen to live in maybe the most spider infested apartment complex in Chicago. I kill at least 10 a day, and yes I said kill as I have a two yr old and not even trying to risk a spider bite on him. I sleep with a can af RAID by my bed and won't return to a room for about an hour after I have spotted one. Let's just say that there is no good for a spider especially when you wake up and one's looking you in the face. KILL THE DARN THINGS!!!!!!!!!

An inside spider is a dead spider as far as I'm concerned. If I see 'em I kill 'em. Squish first, ask questions later.

I don't kill spiders in the morning. It's an old French tradition, or so a French teacher from high school (!) related to me. I don't remember. Even after noon, though, I'll set them free unless they're particularly scary-looking.

I could NEVER let a spider LIVE. If its in my house - it dies. That's the choice it makes when it comes into my house. I live in a VERY old house and the ones that I find here look like they could take your arm off. My husband, my hero, has gotten super good at killing them before he tells me they are there.

I try to set them free, unless they're of the jumping variety. Jumpers are killed. Immediately... or as soon as I climb down from chair and find something heavy to throw on them from a fair distance.

Now I'm itchy.

Another killer here. We have had two black widows indoors in the 5 years I've lived here, and any and all spiders that come inside (as well as bees, wasps and moths) are automatically relegated to "Death By Husband".

I am terrified of them all.

However, I did amuse my room mates in grad school - since I couldn't get close enough to the insects to kill them (and the black wasps managed to come in the building ALL THE TIME) and I was not about to let them roam free - I would throw plastic cups over them. My roommates would come home an see various plastic cups with sticky notes saying "wasp", 'Bee" or "spider" on the floor, and then use paper to take them outside.

House spiders cannot live outside, so putting them "outside where they belong" is just delayed killing. Just sack up and squish them already!

when's the last time you heard of a human who was really hurt by a spider? don't over -react when you seen a spidey: let them live!

Holland - are you really that naive or are you just being facetious?

Black widow spiders kill people. Brown recluse spiders kill mpeople and cause extensive tissue damage (necrosis) even when not fatal.

Most at risk are children and symptoms (besides painful necrosis which takes weeks to heal) can include :

Blood in urine
Jaundice
Kidney failure
Seizures
Coma

A favorite hiding place of a brown recluse is bedding. And you thought the bedbugs topic was icky...

When in doubt kill first and ask questions later.

Karma only works on animals of a certain adult size. Spiders are too small for karmic algebra to apply. The cutoff (conveniently of late) is just above cicada.

I am fond of my spiders right now because in their webs hang the corpses of carpenter ants. Does anybody know of a good way to eradicate carpenter ants? I'd love to hear from those Green editor finalists if they know of some delightfully low-toxic way to control the suckers.

Call an exterminator.

http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/getting_rid_of_carpenter_ants.htm

My buddy Chris, a Wisconsin native- just returned from a Canoe Trip, due north of Green Bay, where he got bit by a Brown Recluse - and nearly "bit it", himself.
The ER doc at N.W. Memorial Hosp. told him, if he had waited a day or two longer before coming in - he'd-a lost tissue in his arm- and had a variety of other ailments - for life.
Kill em all - ask questions later...
FYI- the CDC in Atlanta says the increase in Brown Recluse bites in Northern latitudes is due to Global Warming...now, isn't THAT PRECIOUS??

Thanks, Boomer. The guy who came from pest control knew nothing, I just realized. When I said, Why shouldn't I just buy the stuff from the hardware store, he shrugged.

Saha, call all the pest control places in the yellow pages, ask them right up front about carpenter ants and then pick the one that gives you the best answers. Before he/she comes to your house. Treat it like a job interview, with you being the hiring manager.

Google for "carpenter ant control" before you make the first call so you'll have good questions to ask. ;->

Warning - graphic pictures in this link. The pictures show damage caused by brown recluse bites. They're gross.

I guarantee you'll kill spiders after seeing these.

Don't look if you don't like really gross sick pictures.

http://images.google.com/images?q=brown recluse spider bite&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=5E8&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

Here's a shorter link :

http://tinyurl.com/2ce7cr

ACK DID NOT WANT TO SEE THOSE PICTURES! Yes - I am a killer of bugs, as well. BF, however, is not. He is supposedly going to take his baddhasatva (I really don't know how to spell it, sorry, I'm not the buddhist in the relationship.) vows at some point and WILL NOT EVEN KILL A ROACH. And they get big here in good ol' Balyama. My swiffer accomplishes two things - it cleans the floors with dampened rags, and smooshes bugs without rags. My first apartment (the same one where I couldn't drink the water, open the windows, wash my clothes...that one) was infested with roaches. I mean so badly they would fall from the ceiling. And there was nothign to do - I bombed, sprayed, EVERYTHING. The women below me were slobs - and the worst kind - so bad I'm not going to describe it. So, the bugs I could see, met the horrible swiffer fate.

actually i think the roaches here are called palmetto bugs. big ones.

Elizabeth, There's a great scene in the movie "Seven Years in Tibet" where construction of the Dali Lama's home theater (yes, even during WWII they were building home theater rooms ;->) came to a halt so that the foundation could be dug with the care of an archaeological site - so that each uncovered bug could be prayed over and relocated.

Great movie if you haven't seen it. Yo-Yo Ma on the soundtrack helps too. I need to get that CD, come to think of it.

i have seen it and i had completely forgotten about it! i wouldn't be surprised if he started praying over the buggies - he says an insanely long prayer every morning. he nearly cried (or may have done so privately, i will never know) when i sprayed and got rid of the ant infestation we had.

I'm with Deb from Oz on this one. You haven't seen spiders until you've been to Australia. Been here three years now and was terrified when I encountered my first huntsman. It was only about 3 inches across so it was considered a baby! Huntsmen are harmless but scary nonetheless. I can't bring myself to get near enough to capture them so unfortunately my boyfriend and I take the tag team corral and bug spray approach. Now the other Aussie spiders aren't as big but they sure are deadly, so we kill them before they can do any damage!