Charlie, any spider is a good mate in house or garden as far as I'm concerned. How pretty the webs look covered in dew or frost, or, better still, midges and horseflies! Watching the babbies 'flee the nest' on strands of gossamer is amazing!
Do we have one that eats vine weevils, specifically?!
And, Farmer, sorry, that was a bit harsh, but I KNOW I hid the expletive that began with F! And, to be fair, I do realise that it is often the speed at which they move that scares people. Both mt boys were inititally scared as tots, but now happily share thier room with a large common garden spider (Charlotte, of course!) and make space for her, moving their toys etc carefully in case they squash her! They both also rescue Bumblebees on their fingers when they get trapped in the conservatory, so most fears and phobias can be overcome, I feel, unless they are based on a painful experience.
And I disagree on the bit about people with the phobia being less likely to be bitten. Most people are bitten by spiders they did not see, that were in an unexpected place. One was in a sleeve of a coat I put on. My wrist hurt for days! And wasps are a prime example. Phobic people flap around, catch the wasp by accident without killing it, the wasp attacks in defence then attracts other wasps through pheromones and the situation worsens. I even like wasps until around Sept when they all go out on the P"£$ and get nasty, or unless they nest too near a busy area of my garden. They are good in garden too, mostly. In fact, all I really hate are slugs n snails, and (*&( F*&&^$£^ Midges!
Spiders are ACE amazing creatures, and I can't make myself suck up the egg sacks in my hoover. I even gently evicted a few from my greenhouse today before I siliconed some gaps, and was mightily upset when one ran back in and got stuck in it!
Hi everyone, nice to see so many comments on spiders! I admit to not being a fan of the giant house spider, but I prefer the conker method to the vacuum cleaner @oldchippy!
we have the false widow spider in our garage in Dolgarrog - our fault, we inadvertantly brought it with us when we moved here from Reading a couple of years ago (they're fairly common down south) & I was suprised that they overwintered succesfully! Dont mind them too much as I have a good idea where they might lurk but I am wary of them!! I became intimately aware of it one day when I was using the garden broom to clear old webs from the garage ceiling & one ran down the broom handle & into my sleeve - I was rather unsettled........................
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Charlie, any spider is a good mate in house or garden as far as I'm concerned. How pretty the webs look covered in dew or frost, or, better still, midges and horseflies! Watching the babbies 'flee the nest' on strands of gossamer is amazing!
Do we have one that eats vine weevils, specifically?!
And, Farmer, sorry, that was a bit harsh, but I KNOW I hid the expletive that began with F!
And, to be fair, I do realise that it is often the speed at which they move that scares people. Both mt boys were inititally scared as tots, but now happily share thier room with a large common garden spider (Charlotte, of course!) and make space for her, moving their toys etc carefully in case they squash her! They both also rescue Bumblebees on their fingers when they get trapped in the conservatory, so most fears and phobias can be overcome, I feel, unless they are based on a painful experience.
And I disagree on the bit about people with the phobia being less likely to be bitten. Most people are bitten by spiders they did not see, that were in an unexpected place. One was in a sleeve of a coat I put on. My wrist hurt for days! And wasps are a prime example. Phobic people flap around, catch the wasp by accident without killing it, the wasp attacks in defence then attracts other wasps through pheromones and the situation worsens. I even like wasps until around Sept when they all go out on the P"£$ and get nasty, or unless they nest too near a busy area of my garden. They are good in garden too, mostly. In fact, all I really hate are slugs n snails, and
(*&( F*&&^$£^ Midges!
Spiders are ACE amazing creatures, and I can't make myself suck up the egg sacks in my hoover. I even gently evicted a few from my greenhouse today before I siliconed some gaps, and was mightily upset when one ran back in and got stuck in it!
Hi everyone, nice to see so many comments on spiders! I admit to not being a fan of the giant house spider, but I prefer the conker method to the vacuum cleaner @oldchippy!
we have the false widow spider in our garage in Dolgarrog - our fault, we inadvertantly brought it with us when we moved here from Reading a couple of years ago (they're fairly common down south) & I was suprised that they overwintered succesfully! Dont mind them too much as I have a good idea where they might lurk but I am wary of them!! I became intimately aware of it one day when I was using the garden broom to clear old webs from the garage ceiling & one ran down the broom handle & into my sleeve - I was rather unsettled........................