Spiders?

[Clodfobble]

We get a lot of the teeny tiny itty bitty ones around here, and I'm usually too lazy to bother chasing after those. They sit in the corner by the front door and don't bother anyone.

But anything larger than two millimeters gets squished. Anything larger than a dime (including leg span) triggers at least a momentary fear reaction. I've never encountered one that made me completely lose my shit, except for the time I bravely swatted one about the size of a quarter... and a cloud of about a hundred baby spiders poofed out of the dead mommy. That one made me scream.

[Juniper]

Originally Posted by Scriveyn

If they're in a room's corner somwhere, I leave them to do their job. When they sit in some other place I need to access, I'll take them outside. Useful little buggers and many of them beautiful to look at.

Ditto this. I usually just pretend I don't see 'em.

Same with the centipedes. We get bunches of those little creepy leggy critters. I looked 'em up (never saw them before living in this particular house), found out they're pretty harmless, eat other bugs like spiders. So I leave 'em be.

[Aliantha]

I think I've talked about spiders before. They're all over the place here. We get ones inside all the time. Unless they're venomous like redbacks or something, they're free to do their thing. Along with spiders, we have a multitude of strange creepy crawlies, and the spiders keep them under control somewhat, especially the cockroaches. Between the cats and the spiders, we don't seem to have any, so that's good considering the amount of food crumbs the kids spill all over the place.

The ones I find the most fascinating (and which are responsible for catching cockies) are huntsmen spiders. They can grow quite large, but they're pretty harmless. They can bite, but I've never known one to. They'd make good pets as they're pretty docile.

[ZenGum]

As already noted, I am fairly fond of spiders, but I do keep some control over admission to my house. Polite small spiders that spin webs in quiet corners can stay, as can small Roving Wolf spiders which patrol the flyscreens on my windows.
However, Redbacks (a variety of black widow, and potentially lethal) and White-tails (implicated in arachnoid necrosis) are escorted outside and dumped in the garden.
I keep a piece of plastic off some packaging, and a flat sheet of carboard, to use to remove unwanted creepy crawlies in general.

Now, mosquitos ... hate the little suckers. Whining, blood-sucking, disease-spreading, itch-causing little buggers. You die squish now!

ETA: This might be different if I lived in Sydney, home territory of the Sydney Funnel-Web Spider. Those things are aggressive and deadly; before the development of the antivenom, a bite from one could kill an adult in a few hours....

They have ample venom glands that lie entirely within their chelicerae. Their fangs are large and powerful, capable of penetrating fingernails and soft shoes.

[bluecuracao]

I don't think I've ever killed a spider...the last time I saw any, there were hundreds of tiny ones in a gigantic, practically invisible web within inches of my elbow. I, um, moved away a little--just to give them their space, you know.

I watched my mother kill a black widow once, and even though I knew they were very poisonous, there was still something kind of tragic about it. I'd gladly squish a centipede or a cockroach, but a spider...a non-poisonous one, definitely not. A poisonous one, I can see myself hesitating, but I guess it would be better to deal with it.

[Elspode]

I let 'em be, unless they infringe on my personal space, in which case, it's every living thing for itself.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I waterboard 'em, to find out where the rest are, then call for an air strike.

[ZenGum]

yeah and how many civillian aphids and ladybugs die in your airstrike you military-industrial genocidal maniac????

[xoxoxoBruce]

Fuck 'em, they're all bugs, guilty by association.

[DanaC]

I am fine with them anywhere in my house except my bedroom. If I find them in my bedroom I escort them outside: they have a tendency to end up on the ceiling and I am freaked out by the idea of one falling on me in my sleep.

If I find them anywhere else in the house, I leave them be. I used to escort the bedroom spiders to somewhere else in the house, but then I realised the buggers were just making their way back quick sharp. The ones who've made their home elsewhere in my house are unlikely to spend so much time in my bedroom.

I don't like touching them so when I escort them I use a glass and a piece of card, or just scoop 'em up with a broom (gently) and deposit them outside.

[sweetwater]

::rocking my chair while picking at the crocheted blanket on my lap::
I remember my rash and ignorant younger days when I'd escort them outdoors or leave them be if they were only occupying corners I was not using. Then we moved here 2 yrs ago and I realized they were trying, by importing vast numbers of their kind into my house, to catch me in their zillions of webs and if I didn't take action soon it would be too late. It almost is. A nice big fat one dangled in front of the frige door today, and had a half dozen friends above it waiting to assist it in murdering me. It is squished and the rest outdoors now. The war will start again tomorrow morning.

[glatt]

In the US, there are poisonous spiders in all the lower 48 states. The black widow and yellow sack spider are throughout the US. The brown recluse and hobo spiders also have a wide range. All will mess you up if they bite you.

Link to a map of poisonous spider distribution in the US.

Sure, most spiders are safe, but can you identify a yellow sack spider? Squish them just in case.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That map is wrong. I personally know one person, in the Philly area, that was bitten by a recluse, read about another one in the paper, and heard about a third.

It's BrianR's fault, trucking the damn things all over the place.

[Pie]

Let 'em bite. I'm not that attached to my life.

[ZenGum]

But Pie, you might get reincarnated as a fly, and get eaten again.