Do House Spiders Infest All Dwellings ?

[Nethybridge]

Regardless of house cleanliness, and we only spot them due to luck or eagle-eyed-ness on our part.
What do they live on ?

Sitting on the bog today and there on the floor was one cheeky bugger staring up at me.

[vixen1700]

Yep, and they get into your mouth and ears when you're asleep.

[Zetec-S]

vixen1700 said:

Yep, and they get into your mouth and ears when you're asleep.

Isn't that just an urban myth?

[vixen1700]

Zetec-S said:

vixen1700 said:

Yep, and they get into your mouth and ears when you're asleep.

Isn't that just an urban myth?

I wasn't being entirely serious.

[bigpriest]

Nethybridge said:

Regardless of house cleanliness, and we only spot them due to luck or eagle-eyed-ness on our part.
What do they live on ?

Sitting on the bog today and there on the floor was one cheeky bugger staring up at me.

They prefer to eat live insects, fruit flies, ants, other spiders but will also eat leftover food, meat, fruit, drinks etc. I have those tiny body, long legged spiders. They hunt woodlice and bring them back into the house to wrap up and save for later.

[Zetec-S]

vixen1700 said:

Zetec-S said:

vixen1700 said:

Yep, and they get into your mouth and ears when you're asleep.

Isn't that just an urban myth?

I wasn't being entirely serious.

Ah, my bad. Parrot for one please...

[Simpo Two]

bigpriest said:

They prefer to eat live insects, fruit flies, ants, other spiders but will also eat leftover food, meat, fruit, drinks etc

I wondered what they ate when all the flies had been caught and consumed...

The nastiest ones are Pholcus, which eat other spiders. They look stupid and ungainly, but are smart and incredibly fast when they need to be - sometimes so fast they seem to disappear.

[toasty]

Nuke them from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

[CypSIdders]

You'd hate living in my very old house, it's full of spiders.
There's no point in worrying about them, we're outnumbered and they kill the flies.

[Nurburgsingh]

Zetec-S said:

vixen1700 said:

Zetec-S said:

vixen1700 said:

Yep, and they get into your mouth and ears when you're asleep.

Isn't that just an urban myth?

I wasn't being entirely serious.

Ah, my bad. Parrot for one please...

I've been woken up by one crawling over my face before

[AB]

Nurburgsingh said:

I've been woken up by one crawling over my face before

We have/had loads in our house, last year was horrendous. The little fkers are so bold, I'm sure they are just squaring up to me.

This year I used SpiderX around all the doors and windows so we'd occasionally see dead ones that made it past the barrier and promptly keeled over.

I know people say you shouldn't kill them but it's a proper phobia and I'll put up seeing the stuff they would have otherwise eaten.

When we first moved in I didn't like walking round the house, I'd actually have neck ache from sneaking round keeping a look out.

I've calmed down a bit now as I occasionally see one rather than expecting to see one every time I moved from room to room.

[cliffords]

We have two Spaniels. The younger one can catch a spider in seconds.
She does then eat them and that's not too pleasant when she then sits next to you . She is the house spider patrol officer.

[NAAHD]

cliffords said:

We have two Spaniels. The younger one can catch a spider in seconds.
She does then eat them and that's not too pleasant when she then sits next to you . She is the house spider patrol officer.

Same here. Mine squishes them with his nose and has gotten into a habit of squishing invisible spiders as practice for when the real ones come along. My spaniel is the ultimate pest control. She will kill anything that crawls. She developed a flavour for bees and wasps last summer but does like the occasional ant or spider. Forget needing a terrier for vermin control, she’s an all in one death machine for that sort of thing.

[okgo]

Got loads of really dark glossy black ones that live in holes in my brick wall/airbricks - they linger half out of their holes at night, creepy.

Googled - tube web spiders?! They don’t look normal!

[RitchieLee]

"Professor Klaus Birkhofer and Dr Martin Nyffeler and have estimated that the globe’s spider population eats between 400 million and 800 million tons of prey every year. That means that spiders eat at least as much meat as all 7 billion humans on the planet combined."

[bangerhoarder]

My 70s house had some house spiders.

Then the cellar spiders moved in.

Now it has nothing but cellar spiders - they don’t bother me as they amble about and hide when approached. They’ll also eat each other given a chance, so it never gets that busy!

They are top of that food chain - seeing them catch a big house spider is impressive! In the morning, just a husk and some discarded legs remain 😅🤢

[DoubleSix]

okgo said:

Got loads of really dark glossy black ones that live in holes in my brick wall/airbricks - they linger half out of their holes at night, creepy.

Googled - tube web spiders?! They don’t look normal!

They are the f**king worst. Absolutely disgusting and aggressive with it.

I really, really, really don’t like them.

P.S. do you live in or near a port town? Apparently the European variant came in on boats.

[pocketspring]

Nurburgsingh said:

I've been woken up by one crawling over my face before

Me too. I swiped it off and must have been a biggun as not only did it wake me up but I also heard it hit the carpet as well.

[okgo]

DoubleSix said:

They are the f**king worst. Absolutely disgusting and aggressive with it.

I really, really, really don’t like them.

P.S. do you live in or near a port town? Apparently the European variant came in on boats.

South London, plenty of people here that probably came on a boat

[UTH]

AB said:

We have/had loads in our house, last year was horrendous. The little fkers are so bold, I'm sure they are just squaring up to me.

This year I used SpiderX around all the doors and windows so we'd occasionally see dead ones that made it past the barrier and promptly keeled over.

I know people say you shouldn't kill them but it's a proper phobia and I'll put up seeing the stuff they would have otherwise eaten.

When we first moved in I didn't like walking round the house, I'd actually have neck ache from sneaking round keeping a look out.

I've calmed down a bit now as I occasionally see one rather than expecting to see one every time I moved from room to room.

A link to this stuff please? I don't why I open these threads, I'm not sitting with my feet up looking around the house expecting to see loads of them.