Ok, cure me please: SPIDERS!

First topic message reminder :

Don't know of it's the curse of this place and that bloody thread About spiders, but over the last few days I've had massive spiders in my house.
They freak me out!!!!

Why are they coming in?
Why are they so freaking big?
What am I so scared of?
HOW CAN I STOP BEING SO FREAKED OUT????

There's no point telling me I'm bigger than them blah blah, there's no point (sassy) telling me they catch flies blah blah or even that they spin little cute webs and make orphans blankets.
I don't care.

I hate them and they freak me out.

Any one got any good cures for me? Please??   

Syl wrote:This thread is disgusting.
I have a lifelong fear (more of a phobia) and when one is in the house (I can sense them) I am a nervous wreck and cannot be in the same room till it's caught.  I sympathise with eddie (thread starter) and anyone else who has this fear.
August, September, October and November are the worst times.......and when they  come into your house they are actually looking for a  mate.

I have a phobia too it's not nice, particularly if people keep trying to provoke you

I read the first couple of posts and the last couple...that was enough to give anyone nightmares.

Syl wrote:I read the first couple of posts and the last couple...that was enough to give anyone nightmares.

My phobia is not of spiders fortunately!

feelthelove wrote:

Syl wrote:I read the first couple of posts and the last couple...that was enough to give anyone nightmares.

My phobia is not of spiders fortunately!

Well I wont ask what it is in case someone starts a thread about it.

Syl wrote:

feelthelove wrote:

My phobia is not of spiders fortunately!

Well I wont ask what it is in case someone starts a thread about it.

Hahaha!!

Syl wrote:This thread is disgusting.
I have a lifelong fear (more of a phobia) and when one is in the house (I can sense them) I am a nervous wreck and cannot be in the same room till it's caught.  I sympathise with eddie (thread starter) and anyone else who has this fear.
August, September, October and November are the worst times.......and when they  come into your house they are actually looking for a  mate.

September is spider time.

You should try to get over it as it's quite inconvenient to be frightened of spiders.

I caught a large one not long back and put it out in the garden - all by myself.

Raggamuffin wrote:

Syl wrote:This thread is disgusting.
I have a lifelong fear (more of a phobia) and when one is in the house (I can sense them) I am a nervous wreck and cannot be in the same room till it's caught.  I sympathise with eddie (thread starter) and anyone else who has this fear.
August, September, October and November are the worst times.......and when they  come into your house they are actually looking for a  mate.

September is spider time.

You should try to get over it as it's quite inconvenient to be frightened of spiders.

I caught a large one not long back and put it out in the garden - all by myself.

My cat, sadly no longer with us used to eat them

Raggamuffin wrote:

Syl wrote:This thread is disgusting.
I have a lifelong fear (more of a phobia) and when one is in the house (I can sense them) I am a nervous wreck and cannot be in the same room till it's caught.  I sympathise with eddie (thread starter) and anyone else who has this fear.
August, September, October and November are the worst times.......and when they  come into your house they are actually looking for a  mate.

September is spider time.

You should try to get over it as it's quite inconvenient to be frightened of spiders.

I caught a large one not long back and put it out in the garden - all by myself.

It is inconvenient and I have tried.
I even tried to put a pint pot over one once so my OH could move it when he came in. I was balanced on a chair leaning over...I was sweating so much the glass was slipping out of my hand, and eventually it got tired of waiting and ran off under the chair I was balancing on, which almost gave me a heart attack.

I am leaving this thread now...it's horrible.

Gotta get this costume for my dog for next Halloween:



It's going to look so cool when I'm out walking him in that -- especially from a distance

Syl wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

September is spider time.

You should try to get over it as it's quite inconvenient to be frightened of spiders.

I caught a large one not long back and put it out in the garden - all by myself.

It is inconvenient and I have tried.
I even tried to put a pint pot over one once so my OH could move it when he came in. I was balanced on a chair leaning over...I was sweating so much the glass was slipping out of my hand, and eventually it got tired of waiting and ran off under the chair I was balancing on, which almost gave me a heart attack.

I am leaving this thread now...it's horrible.

What would you do if a large spider ran all over you, or suddenly appeared in your car?

Ben_Reilly wrote:Gotta get this costume for my dog for next Halloween:



It's going to look so cool when I'm out walking him in that -- especially from a distance

The You Tube videos are fantastic Ben

Veya.

Those spiders are hideous.

thats the Sydney Spider chart

only the 'deadly bastards' and the 'flesh eating bastards' do you have to worry about

I worry about them all.

That would be cruel.

In any case, this one would fill you up lol

That's not a spider. That's an eight-legged cat!

LOL!

One species we have around here is the fishing spider. They're about yay big:



And the name is no misnomer:

I may have asked before, but does the UK have scorpions?

A bried resume of "exotics" living in britain"


A Question of Nature: How hidden is the UK's wild side?
By Ben Aviss & Anna-Louise Taylor Reporters, BBC Nature
Yellow-tailed scorpion glowing under ultraviolet light on brick wall in London Secret wild side: Scorpions in London are not the only strange animals living wild in the UK
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

   
London's little known wildlife is revealed by a new BBC programme. Does the UK have a secret wild side, and what little known creatures lurk hidden within our shores?

Scorpions, parakeets, terrapins, alligator snapping turtles, and tree frogs all live in the wild... in Britain.

As strange as it may sound, the UK has become home to a wide variety of animals and plants from around the world.

But it is not just exotic animals living secret wild lives... some of our native British wildlife can be found doing surprising things to ensure their survival.

The BBC Two programme Natural World: Unnatural History of London, shows pigeons using the Tube to get around the city, a seal that takes fish from fishmongers outside Billingsgate Fish Market, and foxes that will "sit" if given sausages.


And you have been in touch with BBC Nature, telling us that strange and wonderful things can be seen in Britain.

While some of the animals spotted have been released either deliberately or by accident, others have arrived by themselves like the great white egrets that recently bred for the first time in the UK.

Two of the UK's 24 bumblebee species have disappeared from our shores in the last century and another six are seriously threatened, yet one non-native species, the tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum), is quickly spreading.
Bees in boxes

It only arrived from Europe about a decade ago and appears to have naturally spread rather than having been released.

Unlike our mainly ground-nesting species, these bumblebees nest in trees, although they are also making use of the nestboxes intended for birds many people have put up.
Tree bumblebee using bird nestbox Nestbox 'real estate' is highly sought after

Sally Huggett tweeted: "We have tree bumble bees nesting in our bird box in East Sussex," and Ian Bailey from north-east Hampshire also tweeted saying that he believes he has "tree bumble bees in a nest box".

The fact that France is so close and the habitat so similar, the biggest question many experts have is why it took so long for tree bumblebees to arrive.

"This month I saw an otter swimming up the River Dee in Aberdeen city at 10 o'clock in the morning," tweeted Anne Williamson.

From Aberdeen to Andover, many of you got in touch with BBC Nature telling us you have recently seen urban otters.

A few decades ago, spotting an otter in an urban environment would have been a very rare occurrence due to polluted, sterile rivers and canals.

Otters are apex predators, mainly relying on catching fish so the fact they are now increasingly common means there are now fish back in our rivers.
Continue reading the main story
Britain's secret wildlife
Ring-necked parakeet in UK oak tree

   Terrapins' natural home is the swamps of the US. See how the 1990s craze for pet terrapins resulted in many being dumped into lakes when they grew too big..
   Thirty years ago otter sightings were extremely rare, you can now see otters in our busiest cities thanks to the cleaner waterways.
   In 2010 an extremely rare alligator snapping turtle was caught in a West Midlands reservoir.
   Watch the theories of how exotic-looking ring-necked parakeets escaped from an aviary and taken to the British climate and suburbia.
   The UK has populations of the kangaroo-like red-necked wallaby in Scotland and Isle of Man with other sightings all over the UK.
   Natural England has confirmed sightings of raccoons and Siberian chipmunks in the UK and many unconfirmed sightings of big cats.



The fish the otters feed on in turn rely on smaller fish and invertebrates; our river ecosystems are much healthier.

Otters are now found in "most watercourses in Scotland... Dundee or Edinburgh would appear to be the best places to come and see them," said Greg Tinker from the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

But what most people have been telling us about is a bird that may seem more at home in sunnier climes.

The sight and sounds of a raucous flock of ring-necked parakeets are well known to Londoners but sightings elsewhere around England are on the up.

Ring-necked parakeets originate from sub-saharan Africa and Asia but were a favoured pet of the Romans and have been found throughout Europe far longer than in the UK.

Their stronghold is south-east England so we investigated reported sightings sent to BBC Nature from Studland in Dorset and Castleford in Yorkshire.

"They are everywhere... there is even a pair in St Andrews which is surprising because it's so cold up there," said Hannah Peck, who is conducting her Imperial College London PhD study: Project Parakeet.

Ms Peck has been investigating ring-necked parakeets in south-east England for nearly three years and estimates the population just in south-east England is around 32,000 but could be up to 50,000.

"People can record sightings [of parakeets] at BirdTrack which is part of the BTO."

But they are not the only animals to have found the UK surprisingly hospitable.

It was estimated at last count that 13,000 yellow-tailed scorpions, originally hailing from north-west Africa and southern Europe now live in the south-east, with several populations of at least 1000 around London, and large numbers on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

Dr Toni Bunnell, a biologist at the University of Hull, says the scorpions have also been "down at Sheerness docks and on the north Devon coast for about 120 years".
Urban otter at Rooksbury Mill Lakes in Andover Otters: An increasingly common sight in urban areas around Britain

"They are thought to have come in on ships from Italy on stonework."

Craig Macadam, Scotland director with Buglife, says scorpions love masonry.

"They are associated with brick walls, which warm up in the sun down there in the south."

But a marching scorpion army is not about to advance across the country.

"Invasive species tend to spread along the south coast and then move north, but they've got a nice live colony and it's likely they are staying put," Dr Bunnell says.

Elsewhere, about 10 coatis, also known as Brazilian aardvarks, are living wild in Cumbria, 20 alligator snapping turtles, also from North America, are believed to be living wild in parts of Kent, London, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

One species of false black widow spiders, Steatoda nobilis crawled in to Devon about 100 years ago after arriving from the Canary and Madeiran Islands, and is slowly spreading.

Cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led to lots of terrapins being released

Craig Macadam says invasive species can be found creeping across the UK - many heading to Scotland as temperatures get warmer.

"Two or three new species of dragonfly have been found in the UK in the last year and a half," he says.

"They are quite active fliers and can move around and respond to subtle changes in the weather."

The dainty damselfly, a dragonfly relative, is one such creature, whose reappearance after last being seen in the 50s amazed scientists.

But other invertebrates also have made the UK their home - like a snail so far only found in stately homes.

Sea life not normally seen in British waters could also be becoming more common.

Great white sharks could be "occasional vagrant visitors", according to Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust.

He says it is a real surprise that Britain does not have an established great white shark population, because the conditions in British waters mirror those they like elsewhere.

Large sunfish are thought to travel to UK waters in the summer months to feast on jellyfish and have been spotted in recent times.

From the reports coming in to BBC Nature, some of the UK's secret wild side might not stay so secret in the future.

Native animals are developing new behaviours to survive and new species are setting up residence on our shores under their own steam.

And while many released alien species are not yet capable of establishing feral populations they, like the ring-necked parakeets, could become part of our landscape in the future.

So keep your eyes peeled next time you are out as you may catch a glimpse of wildlife you never knew was out there.



More Immigrants    

Ben we have nothing untoward compared to other places in the world.
Apart from refugees


That was a JOKE for the lesser-known comedic geniuses on here.

About 10 cm long St Andrews Cross spider taken from my window, as you can see she earns her keep with all the bugs she has caught

And this is just the View From the front of my house on Sunday we had some rain so there is some green now

Lord Foul wrote:
A bried resume of "exotics" living in britain"

A Question of Nature: How hidden is the UK's wild side?
By Ben Aviss & Anna-Louise Taylor Reporters, BBC Nature
Yellow-tailed scorpion glowing under ultraviolet light on brick wall in London Secret wild side: Scorpions in London are not the only strange animals living wild in the UK
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

   
London's little known wildlife is revealed by a new BBC programme. Does the UK have a secret wild side, and what little known creatures lurk hidden within our shores?

Scorpions, parakeets, terrapins, alligator snapping turtles, and tree frogs all live in the wild... in Britain.

As strange as it may sound, the UK has become home to a wide variety of animals and plants from around the world.

But it is not just exotic animals living secret wild lives... some of our native British wildlife can be found doing surprising things to ensure their survival.

The BBC Two programme Natural World: Unnatural History of London, shows pigeons using the Tube to get around the city, a seal that takes fish from fishmongers outside Billingsgate Fish Market, and foxes that will "sit" if given sausages.


And you have been in touch with BBC Nature, telling us that strange and wonderful things can be seen in Britain.

While some of the animals spotted have been released either deliberately or by accident, others have arrived by themselves like the great white egrets that recently bred for the first time in the UK.

Two of the UK's 24 bumblebee species have disappeared from our shores in the last century and another six are seriously threatened, yet one non-native species, the tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum), is quickly spreading.
Bees in boxes

It only arrived from Europe about a decade ago and appears to have naturally spread rather than having been released.

Unlike our mainly ground-nesting species, these bumblebees nest in trees, although they are also making use of the nestboxes intended for birds many people have put up.
Tree bumblebee using bird nestbox Nestbox 'real estate' is highly sought after

Sally Huggett tweeted: "We have tree bumble bees nesting in our bird box in East Sussex," and Ian Bailey from north-east Hampshire also tweeted saying that he believes he has "tree bumble bees in a nest box".

The fact that France is so close and the habitat so similar, the biggest question many experts have is why it took so long for tree bumblebees to arrive.

"This month I saw an otter swimming up the River Dee in Aberdeen city at 10 o'clock in the morning," tweeted Anne Williamson.

From Aberdeen to Andover, many of you got in touch with BBC Nature telling us you have recently seen urban otters.

A few decades ago, spotting an otter in an urban environment would have been a very rare occurrence due to polluted, sterile rivers and canals.

Otters are apex predators, mainly relying on catching fish so the fact they are now increasingly common means there are now fish back in our rivers.
Continue reading the main story
Britain's secret wildlife
Ring-necked parakeet in UK oak tree

   Terrapins' natural home is the swamps of the US. See how the 1990s craze for pet terrapins resulted in many being dumped into lakes when they grew too big..
   Thirty years ago otter sightings were extremely rare, you can now see otters in our busiest cities thanks to the cleaner waterways.
   In 2010 an extremely rare alligator snapping turtle was caught in a West Midlands reservoir.
   Watch the theories of how exotic-looking ring-necked parakeets escaped from an aviary and taken to the British climate and suburbia.
   The UK has populations of the kangaroo-like red-necked wallaby in Scotland and Isle of Man with other sightings all over the UK.
   Natural England has confirmed sightings of raccoons and Siberian chipmunks in the UK and many unconfirmed sightings of big cats.


The fish the otters feed on in turn rely on smaller fish and invertebrates; our river ecosystems are much healthier.

Otters are now found in "most watercourses in Scotland... Dundee or Edinburgh would appear to be the best places to come and see them," said Greg Tinker from the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

But what most people have been telling us about is a bird that may seem more at home in sunnier climes.

The sight and sounds of a raucous flock of ring-necked parakeets are well known to Londoners but sightings elsewhere around England are on the up.

Ring-necked parakeets originate from sub-saharan Africa and Asia but were a favoured pet of the Romans and have been found throughout Europe far longer than in the UK.

Their stronghold is south-east England so we investigated reported sightings sent to BBC Nature from Studland in Dorset and Castleford in Yorkshire.

"They are everywhere... there is even a pair in St Andrews which is surprising because it's so cold up there," said Hannah Peck, who is conducting her Imperial College London PhD study: Project Parakeet.

Ms Peck has been investigating ring-necked parakeets in south-east England for nearly three years and estimates the population just in south-east England is around 32,000 but could be up to 50,000.

"People can record sightings [of parakeets] at BirdTrack which is part of the BTO."

But they are not the only animals to have found the UK surprisingly hospitable.

It was estimated at last count that 13,000 yellow-tailed scorpions, originally hailing from north-west Africa and southern Europe now live in the south-east, with several populations of at least 1000 around London, and large numbers on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

Dr Toni Bunnell, a biologist at the University of Hull, says the scorpions have also been "down at Sheerness docks and on the north Devon coast for about 120 years".
Urban otter at Rooksbury Mill Lakes in Andover Otters: An increasingly common sight in urban areas around Britain

"They are thought to have come in on ships from Italy on stonework."

Craig Macadam, Scotland director with Buglife, says scorpions love masonry.

"They are associated with brick walls, which warm up in the sun down there in the south."

But a marching scorpion army is not about to advance across the country.

"Invasive species tend to spread along the south coast and then move north, but they've got a nice live colony and it's likely they are staying put," Dr Bunnell says.

Elsewhere, about 10 coatis, also known as Brazilian aardvarks, are living wild in Cumbria, 20 alligator snapping turtles, also from North America, are believed to be living wild in parts of Kent, London, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

One species of false black widow spiders, Steatoda nobilis crawled in to Devon about 100 years ago after arriving from the Canary and Madeiran Islands, and is slowly spreading.

Cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led to lots of terrapins being released

Craig Macadam says invasive species can be found creeping across the UK - many heading to Scotland as temperatures get warmer.

"Two or three new species of dragonfly have been found in the UK in the last year and a half," he says.

"They are quite active fliers and can move around and respond to subtle changes in the weather."

The dainty damselfly, a dragonfly relative, is one such creature, whose reappearance after last being seen in the 50s amazed scientists.

But other invertebrates also have made the UK their home - like a snail so far only found in stately homes.

Sea life not normally seen in British waters could also be becoming more common.

Great white sharks could be "occasional vagrant visitors", according to Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust.

He says it is a real surprise that Britain does not have an established great white shark population, because the conditions in British waters mirror those they like elsewhere.

Large sunfish are thought to travel to UK waters in the summer months to feast on jellyfish and have been spotted in recent times.

From the reports coming in to BBC Nature, some of the UK's secret wild side might not stay so secret in the future.

Native animals are developing new behaviours to survive and new species are setting up residence on our shores under their own steam.

And while many released alien species are not yet capable of establishing feral populations they, like the ring-necked parakeets, could become part of our landscape in the future.

So keep your eyes peeled next time you are out as you may catch a glimpse of wildlife you never knew was out there.


More Immigrants    

 

SOUNDS A LOT LIKE my back yard down here !

(Except possums rather than otters, and water dragons rather than terrapins..).

Gross

veya_victaous wrote:

MILLIONS - MILLIONS OF GOOD GRAND - DADDY LONG LEGS...

DADDY LONG-LEGS ARE SPIDERS...

THEREFORE, they are still 'venomous' --  it's in a spiders nature to be venomous, as that's how they kill their prey..

AND, I can see body parts from cockroaches, moths and lace wings in Daddy longlegs webs around here !      (So much for that video's claim that Daddy longlegs "don't spin webs..")

HOWEVER, they aren't considered dangerous/poisonous/toxic to humans because they aren't aggressive,  and smaller-mandibled spiders usually can't puncture human skin anyway.


THE most common urbam myth about Daddy long-legs isn't that they are or aren't venomous, but rather that they supposedly "have the strongest spider venom ever measured !", or similar old wives tales.  

ONLY a few months ago, I saw an entomologist from the Sydney Museum on the teev, stating that nobody knew how much venom the Daddy long-legs have or how potent it is -- basically because a paper chase into all legitimate spider research across the world over a couple of years, had found that nobody has ever measured the toxicity of that venom..

I WOULD certainly be listening to an internationally recognised spider researcher, ahead of an anonymous YouTube video, methinks.    Especially one concerning itself with a separate genus of arachnids in Mexico, of all places..

Wow. I seriously never know that about daddy long legs!

WYWolfie stated > THEREFORE, they are still 'venomous' --  it's in a spiders nature to be venomous, as that's how they kill their prey..

That's what 'I' get for not reading the subtitles and just watching the fascinating film; I've always known that they'll kill a another spider with 'something' sure wasn't their 'SCARY LOOKS'...but we've never smashed them ever.  Left them alone and they'll be a good bug zapper without the spray!  LOL

But in a cluster like that...didn't they resemble 'hair'...like a hair piece a man would use as a fake rug?

a "daddy long legs " in britain is NOT a spider

but the "crane fly" whos larvae are the pestilential "leatherjacket which chews on your grass roots, thus ruining your lawn

what you would call the daddy long legs spider over here is known as a "harvest man"

I WONDER if veya's got some info' and photo's on the spiders that we call Daddy longlegs here in Oz...

AS the ones around here are definitely spiders, and do spin webs..

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

I WONDER if veya's got some info' and photo's on the spiders that we call Daddy longlegs here in Oz...

AS the ones around here are definitely spiders, and do spin webs..

Our's are exactly like those in the video {daddy long legs - aka/harvestman} found in Mexico...they don't do web's --- maybe they be 'down-under cousins'   

I actully do know the issue
In Australia the animal we call daddy long legs is actually 'the Cellar spider'
it is a legit spider and it not super venomus but because it eats much bigger and more venomus spiders it appears to be, i think it;s venom is just super effective aginst other arachnids

they are not related to other countries daddy long legs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcus_phalangioides
Confusion often arises over its common name, because "daddy long-legs" is also applied to two other distantly related arthropods: firstly another arachnid from order Opiliones otherwise known as the harvestman, and an insect less ambiguously called the crane fly.

After two years of this, are you cured yet?

Ben Reilly wrote:After two years of this, are you cured yet?

No.

the treatment must be intensified....

No thanks. I'll carry on killing them and doing a nervous jig whilst I carry their bodies to the toilet.

neat drain cover

See! Look at the legs.
Anything with freakishly long legs is just not right.

eddie wrote:
No thanks. I'll carry on killing them and doing a nervous jig  whilst I carry their bodies to the toilet.

PEOPLE who continue to wantonly kill innocent little spidies (a.k.a. God's living and walking fly and mosquito eaters..) undoubtedly have deep seated psychological issues...

People who think that those who kill spiders, have psychological problems, talk absolute wank.

eddie wrote:
People who think that those who kill spiders, have psychological problems, talk absolute wank.

SAYS the crazy woman who kills innocent critters that never did her any harm...

ALL because she believes they have too many, and too long, legs..        

IRRATIONAL fears are the sign of an irrational mind.