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!

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.

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.

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.

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!