House spiders,welcome guests or not?

[BobG]

i sprayed everything in the bedroom after that.

Very few insect sprays have any effect on spiders.

I think he meant he would have peed his pants if he hadn't been sleeping in the nude.

I leave spiders alone.

I had a short war with a yellow jacket that was hassling me in my office at work. It was pestering me last week, but landed in a spot where I couldn't really smack him with anything. I did have a paper clamp and toyed with it, considering what my chances were of catching him in the clamp.

I think he read the expression on my face (yellow jackets are very good poker players precisely they pick up tells so well). He flew off towards the window and waited for my attention to be distracted towards my work - then he flew in and landed on my chin, tickling me just like in the "Messin' with Sasquatch" commercials. When I went to wipe my chin,he stung me!

I was working out of the office on Thurs & Fri, but he was back on Monday, taunting me, but staying just out of my reach. When I'd grab something to smack him with, he'd disappear down the crack between my desk and the wall. Very, very frustrating!

Today, I found him dead on the floor in front of my chair. I'm glad he's dead, but I also feel robbed, somehow. I deserved revenge for being stung and I'm disappointed I wasn't the one able to bring about his death.

So I mashed him just out of principle!

 

[NobodySpecial]

Today, I found him dead on the floor in front of my chair. I'm glad he's dead, but I also feel robbed, somehow. I deserved revenge for being stung and I'm disappointed I wasn't the one able to bring about his death.

So I mashed him just out of principle!

"One judges a man by the quality of his enemies."

 

[nucleargirl]

sorry for digressing, but the other day this HUGE bumble bee flew straight into my room - it was so huge! like almost 10cm long! and fuzzy... it was so cute, but I was SO scared... it kept flying into the window and there was a breeze blowing in and it kept getting blown aside - it didnt seem very good at flying - got blown off course by the the slightest breeze and landed in my shoe! It didnt move, just shivered a bit, then I gathered all my courage and put it outside :)

 

[JaredJames]

I have. And I've recently heard that that story is likely apocryphal.

I certainly agree, something of an urban legend if anything. Although it must have come from somewhere...

On a separate note, thanks for the new word.

 

[turbo]

sorry for digressing, but the other day this HUGE bumble bee flew straight into my room - it was so huge! like almost 10cm long! and fuzzy... it was so cute, but I was SO scared... it kept flying into the window and there was a breeze blowing in and it kept getting blown aside - it didnt seem very good at flying - got blown off course by the the slightest breeze and landed in my shoe! It didnt move, just shivered a bit, then I gathered all my courage and put it outside :)

Are you sure that it was a bee and not a clear-winged sphinx moth?

 

[nucleargirl]

Are you sure that it was a bee and not a clear-winged sphinx moth?

hm... don't know what a sphinx moth looks like but it was black and maybe had yellow/orange on it (cant remember in state of fear) but it was mostly black. and fuzzy. definitely furry looking. honestly, I was so scared all I saw was big black flying thing and heard buzzing and my own pulse.
ah I see what you're talking about! I love those things! they're so amazing! nah, never seen them in the UK tho, so don't think its was one. I'm not scared of moths :) I can hold them and everything!

 

[Proton Soup]

do a google image search for "bumble bee moth". there are some that look like hummingbirds, too.

 

[nucleargirl]

do a google image search for "bumble bee moth". there are some that look like hummingbirds, too.

true, they do look like bumble bees. But I'm sure my one was a bee cos I remember it had a flat head, like a bees, not pointed like the moth. it was kind of squat shaped.

 

[Proton Soup]

true, they do look like bumble bees. But I'm sure my one was a bee cos I remember it had a flat head, like a bees, not pointed like the moth. it was kind of squat shaped.

then it was certainly not 10cm

 

[nucleargirl]

then it was certainly not 10cm

okay maybe there was fear exaggeration... more likely 5-7cm not quite 10.

 

[Moonbear]

I have very clear boundaries and size limitations for spider cohabitation. They are more than welcome to hang out in the basement or garage, over doorways into the house, and around windowsills. They can also have full run of the attic, as I never go there and don't even check if they're paying rent up there.

If they start roaming the house "hunting" instead of leaving webby little traps for insects coming in the doors, they are fair game for being smooshed (the ones that try hunting are in no short supply in my yard, and seem to overwinter just fine in the mulched areas of the yard, so I'm not going to decimate the population by bumping off the ones that don't think twice about home invasion).

If they are found in the bathtub or shower enclosure, or too close to the toilet, they are going to get a bath and flushed down the nearest drain. Peeping Tom spiders are ill-mannered and unwelcome.

If they get within two to three feet of floor level instead of staying up near the ceiling, well, my cat REALLY likes spiders and it's their own fault for invading her territory.

Lately, my problem is not enough spiders and too many other bugs getting into the house. I think the cat has been keeping the spider population in check, but that allows everything else to get in. I only seem to have these tiny, anorexic looking spiders that don't seem to eat much.

The insect of the week seems to be stink bugs. I don't know what's up with those this year, but they're everywhere. And, I could use some more spiders to munch on the pantry moth caterpillars that have overtaken the cat's bedroom (trying to be environmentally friendly and using wheat-based cat litter instead of clay has backfired...the cat litter came in with an infestation of Indian Meal Moths...ugh...I'd MUCH rather have spiders now. I'm getting tired of vacuuming the ceilings. I'd even allow those ugly wolf spiders that hunt for prey to roam the house if they would slurp down some caterpillars and pupae for me.)

 

[Evo]

Moonbear, PLEASE post more! Your delightful posts are sorely missed!

Kurdt and I were lamenting your absense just this morning!

Oh, and go read my blog post, I'm getting sucked into that book and want your opinion.

 

[Danger]

I'm still of mixed minds about this; I was the world's foremost arachnophobe for all of my early life. Well, a general bugaphobe; the more legs it has, the less I like it. (Which came in really handy, considering the number of centipedes and millipedes occupying my house back east...) Conversely, it was drilled into me, from my earliest childhood memories, that as a descendent of Robert the Bruce I'm forbidden by family policy to harm a spider. (A spider was Robert's inspiration to escape from his English jailors and retake the throne of Scotland, so they're considered sacred to the Bruce clan.)
Anyone with a true phobia, however, will definitely agree that family tradition has no chance whatsoever against the cause of fear. I initially became afraid of bugs due to inadvertently sitting down to rest for several minutes on a red-ant hill during a family picnic when I was about 4 years old. I still wasn't worried about spiders.
That came in when I moved to southern Ontario. Frequently, I would wake up with wounds along my arms that looked as if I'd been run through a sewing machine. After a few weeks, I asked a locally-raised friend about it and he told me that it was spider bites. That was the instigation of full-scale warfare.
When I was 15, my spider phobia had become so severe that I couldn't whap one with a flyswatter because I was sure that it could run up the handle and bite me before it died. At that point, I owned a Llama XV .22LR semi-auto pistol with a 2 3/4" barrel. To avoid personal contact with spiders, I kept a 5mm starter blank in the chamber. That combination gave a visible muzzle flash of about 10 cm. So, I'd see a spider trucking across the floor toward me, and shoot it. The flash would instantly curl the bug into a little ball and blast it into the opposite wall. I'm pretty sure that the church board (the house was an integral part of my dad's church) puzzled for years over why there were dozens of 10 cm scorch marks all over the living-room carpet.
Now that I'm on the ADD meds, I'm not all that bothered by them any more. I don't like "thick" ones or "fat" ones, but I don't object to others hanging about. I don't want them touching me, but cohabitation is now acceptable.