If they get out of bounds, I've got to smush them inside - like crawling around too low, coming toward me, or if they are those jumping kind, or black &/or hairy. Web weavers that don't roam around, daddy longlegs, and soil dwellers are quite welcome, especially in/on plants. If they're going to be killed by cleaning, I take them back outside. Outside, I would only kill a poisonous spider.

I used to have pretty severe arachnophobia, nightmares about spiders, and always smushed everyone I saw anywhere, but now I rarely smush any, and only scream if there's one on my body. Spiders outside don't freak me out anymore at all. If we could communicate, I'd ask them to please stop making webs where I walk, but I know they're working hard to catch mosquitoes and other nasties!

There are actually some very pretty web weaving spiders in our yard, metallic green. I'll try to remember to grab a pic of one soon.

Houses without basements seem to have exponentially fewer spiders. That must be it, there can't be less spiders in AL than OH (where I always had basements.)

ANY spider I find inside goes on some plant some where. If winter, an inside plant and if summer, an outside plant. We have no poisonous spiders here, so they are all pretty harmless.

tj

purpleinopp, I know what you mean! I am not afraid of spiders. But you shouldve seen me when one lowered itself down beside me in the car, onto the seat...and sprinted towards me. I jumped clear out of my seat into my boyfriend's lap.

I dont recall the last time I screamed like that. Possibly never.

Spiders found and caught go into the lizard enclosure where the anoles will make quick work of them.

Here's my male...

We have several dangerous spiders at times
I like to think what I can't see can't hurt me.
I no longer scream and run...ok when I see wasps.
Black widows make me gasp and get a stick.
Otherwise I leave them alone
Karen

This post was edited by Enterotoxigenic00 on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 23:30

Aw how cute! I love anoles

I love your anole. They live in our area and one spring some hatched in the sun room from a pot of flowers I had brought in from outside. I just let them live in there until it got warm enough to go outside.I keep a big plastic flower pot with a few tropical plants from the pond out there with pots of flowers so they had water and bugs. They would sun their little cute selves on the windows.

Lauraeli.
I had one as a kid too! My first reptile type pet in fact. I've always kept them when I could manage it. They way some people are about cats and dogs,I'm that way about these guys...just adore 'em. :)

frankielynn,
hatchlings are the best,aren't they?
I so know what you mean about them coming in with the plants. I had a couple turn up after the move up north. Discovered them near the houseplants and it became clear that they'd hatched after the move but definitely came up with me...as they sure aren't native up here.

I miss living in the south where they run wild.

I remember once back in the day,..I had a series of wires and hooks all in my kitchen window that were loaded down with hanging baskets,jars with cuttings,and all manner of strange additions for visual effect...one being these little yam shaped pinch pots I'd made in a ceramics class that had spiders living in them. The trick was to get the right spider first of all,..a grass spider( Agelenopsis)is what you want. Next I'd put the spider in a jar with a pinch pot. The spider will enter the pot for a shelter and then build it's funnel type web with the funnel part inside the pot and the "net" part of the web extending outward into the rest of the jar. Once it has established it's web,I'd just take the pinch pot out of the jar spider and all and hang it in the window among the plants and stuff. Within a day the spider would rebuild it's net without even bothering to consider moving out of it's new home. They never left the window. Might as well have been housepets. lol

I leave all spiders that I find indoors where they are, because they do a good job eating up gnats and other irritating bugs! I had one living in my aglaonema for years. I think it died of old age eventually. It was almost like a pet spider in a way.

I only put really big spiders outdoors because they starve if they get trapped inside.

There are no "poisonous" spiders. Venomous, yes. Poisonous, no.

Danger posed by spiders is highly overblown. Very few can pose any danger to humans. The brown recluse being one of those. The presence of other spiders -- both the cobweb spiders (like the common house spider) and other types of funnel web spiders actually helps to keep brown recluse populations in check (by eating them).

Jumpers or orb weavers I typically put outside simply because that is were the majority of their prey can be found. (They feed heavily on flying insects.) Cobweb weavers are free to overwinter indoors but once warm weather hits, most get relocated outside.

I actually have several as "pets" -- 2 false black widows, and one southern black widow.

Do you steal her eggs when she lays them?

The black widow? No. She has yet to get a husband, so no eggs.

As you likely already know,all it takes is one coupling,and she's set for life(by keeping his sample alive to use when she sees fit to). A male could have crossed her path at some point without being noticed. Just a concern. Keep an eye on her just in case,okay? :)

I read recently that spiders found inside a house belong there and will probably die outdoors. But that's a false generalization. I live out in the country, and find all manner of spiders in the house. I put jumping spiders, orb weavers, and assorted others outside. I leave some others alone. And in winter I often deposit spiders on houseplants.

I catch any and all spiders that I find inside, and release them back outdoors. Since all my plants are outdoors now, any spiders that build webs on them, I just leave alone. Sometimes, I'll feed them a bug here and there, any insect caught trespassing inside. Just to watch it capture it and roll it up. Pretty cool.

I have some family members that used to be scared of them and would always kill them. That was until I shown them how they weren't really any threat to us and are only really after insects. Now they see them for what they really are, and no longer fear them. I guess the old saying is true: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Several years ago, I came across a black widow that built a web right next to an outside door that we never really used. I left her alone, since her web was outside and she wasn't bothering anyone by being there. It was just sort of surreal actually seeing one in real life.

I'm glad to see there are so many here who are not bothered by spiders. I have a soft spot for jumping spiders, and I cringe every time i hear yet another story of a 'big black furry spider' being stomped to death under somebody's shoe. I used to keep them in a critter keeper and watch them hunt the flies that had made their way into the house. Id get them nice and fat and then set them free outside at the end of the summer. So much more interesting than tarantulas, I bet.

Many spiders seem cold and mechanical in nature but jumpers are just little characters. I love the way they will turn their whole head to look at something,be it a spot they are about to jump to,or a prey item. That behavior makes them much more predictable than say a wolf spider which will sit motionless and then without warning just pounce on something in an instant. I remember putting the end of a chop stick in front of a wolf I had in a terrarium and although my hand was on the safe end of the stick,it still rattles the nerves to see it attack the other end. Unlike a jumper,a wolf in no way telegraphs it's next action. Although I love all spiders,jumpers have got to be my favorites. I willingly put my hand in front of one to entice it to hop on board for a free ride out back(I don't have the heart to feed a jumper to my anoles),but I'd have to be out of my mind to pull a stunt like that with a wolf. Pretty easy guess what would happen next if I did,huh? *shivers*

â¢Posted by asleep_in_the_garden
As you likely already know,all it takes is one coupling,and she's set for life(by keeping his sample alive to use when she sees fit to). A male could have crossed her path at some point without being noticed. Just a concern. Keep an eye on her just in case,okay? :)

No reason for concern, though I do thank you for it. I know for a fact she has never mated -- I've had her since she was a sling so I know there have been no "men" in her life.

â¢Posted by ToMMyBoY69
Several years ago, I came across a black widow that built a web right next to an outside door that we never really used. I left her alone, since her web was outside and she wasn't bothering anyone by being there. It was just sort of surreal actually seeing one in real life.

Black widows are actually quite common throughout North America, Tommy. Most of us simply never see them as they usually keep to dark, low traffic areas (with regards to larger organisms, at least). Despite their reputation, deaths due to widows are extremely rare. You're far, far more likely to die in a car accident. Misinformation on the internet tends to be rather rampant on the topic and news agencies are often no better. (Not really surprising. After all, where do you think they get their info?) Many cases of "spider bites" are completely unsubstantiated -- that something bite or stung an individual yes, but no proof that it was a spider or a widow in particular. (Not that it couldn't happen, but without proof it is little more than a guess.) But as a bit of factual info to give an idea of how paranoid one should or shouldn't be, according to an article by the US Poison Control Center covering the years 2001-2005,
âÂÂThere were 2 deaths reported, both attributed to brown recluse bitesâ¦âÂÂ

As with the keeping of any animal, know the animal -- what is capable of (and that includes dogs, horses, etc) -- and plan your husbandry accordingly.

I honestly would have no qualms about allowing my widow to breed. HOWEVER, I do not and would not allow her offspring to live "free range" in my apartment. I use containers for habitats that would not allow them the opportunity to escape.

Jumpers are a hoot! I find them rather comical and quite endearing.

ugh, no. KIIIILL THEM!

I know they're beneficial insects/arachids (mostly); but I can't stand them. I just paid someone $100 to clean out my garage -- full of black widows and other spiders.

I once smashed a tarantula which appeared in my bathtub with an 8 lb. barbell.

Just -- no.

Sheesh! What an uncalled for addition to a very interesting thread, violet.

I'm with you folks who have a fondness for jumping spiders and find them amusing. I had one that lived somewhere on my desk and would come hopping out from under the keyboard when I was on the computer. Talk about fearless!

I have "saved" squeamish friends from spiders before. I'd rather go out of my way to help than hear stories of how a shoe,newspaper,baseball bat was used in my absence.

The usual panic is that it's a black widow,and my 1st question is usually "did you find it on the wall?" to which I usually get an emphatic "YES"...this is where I tell them that it's most likely a jumper and that it wouldn't even bite them if it jumped on them. Sure many jumpers are black but to mix them up with widows is just a matter of not knowing what each looks like(something that can be fixed with minimal image searching)...of course it is expecting too much from an arachnophobe that they would want to actually look at the thing that they have an irrational fear of.

I kinda figured you knew what you were doing,Paul...often when I read your posts I get the feeling that we are on the same page. :)

Yeah Paul, I know widows are pretty common. It was just my first time actually seeing one in person. :)

As a kid, one house that my family lived in used to have scorpions living either underneath or nearby. My sis and I used to catch them in mason jars and poke them with a stick, just to see them try and sting it with their tails, HaHa. I'm surprised that we never got stung by one.

At my house, finding a variety spiders is as easy as going outside at night, there are literally spiders everywhere even living in my strawberry plants! They are mostly black widows but sometimes I also find big hairy wolf spiders too. Thankfully, the widows have never been spotted in the house before, but the wolf spiders somehow find their way in every now and then. And if they do.......they are DEAD!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry but I just can not stand the thought of a creepy hairy spider running around my house at night!

A couple of years ago, there was one living in my bed for 2 nights! The first night, I felt something crawl across my face really fast, so I sat up and saw a small dark shape running for the edge of the bed. I tried looking for it but couldn't find it. The next night, right before I got into bed, I found it under the covers. I was generous with that one( I don't know why) and released it outside.
I don't mind them when they stay outside but as soon as they are caught trespassing it's usually bye bye for them.
I'm so glad there are no brown recluses where I live, at least I don't think so and I don't want to find out.

Scorpions on the other hand, we have plenty of, And boy do their stings hurt!

â¢Posted by ToMMyBoY69
Yeah Paul, I know widows are pretty common.

You are among the few, Tommy. Most folks I run into have no idea how common they are. And with that being the case, the lack of serious "incidents" is testimony to how unwarranted a panic reaction is.

â¢Posted by asleep_in_the_garden
I kinda figured you knew what you were doing,Paul...often when I read your posts I get the feeling that we are on the same page. :)

Still, never hurts to make sure the person does know. There are all sorts of folks out there keeping various animals -- whether arthropods, fish, reptiles, birds or mammals -- who really don't know what they are doing. Those are the ones who give pet owners/hobbyists a bad rep ... especially when someone gets hurt.

Spiders have always been an interest of mine. So learning about them and how to keep them was a natural extension of my interest.

In addition to spiders, I also keep a few tarantulas and a couple reptiles.

{{gwi:90816}}

â¢Posted by Violet.West
I know they're beneficial insects/arachids (mostly); but I can't stand them. I just paid someone $100 to clean out my garage -- full of black widows and other spiders.

And unfortunately, in doing so, you not only have greatly increased the likelihood of unwanted insects entering and living in your domicile but also likely exposed yourself and your household to any number of toxic chemicals with whatever poison "cocktail" the exterminators used. (Assuming the "cleaner" wasn't just using a broom, and soap and water.)

Posted by Violet.West
I once smashed a tarantula which appeared in my bathtub with an 8 lb. barbell.

How incredibly foolish. You could have badly damaged the bathtub ... assuming it wasn't one of the old metal types

You should look into therapy to get past your phobia. Seriously. No sarcasm. You'd probably would be much more at ease/less stressed out.

I assume you live in the arid south west? Wild tarantulas don't exist in most of North America.

Gee, I thought it was a joke: a tarantula "appeared in my bathtub with an 8 lb. barbell". That would have been a big one.

Aw :-( shouldve left the tarantula alone. How would you like to be bothered while you are working out?

@Laura: Strong tarantula, indeed!

Paul, your tarantula is gorgeous, by the way. Is it a Greenbottle Blue?

Thanks, Laura! And yes, it is indeed a Chromatopelma cyanopubens -- aka Green Bottle Blue, aka Blue Bottle Green.

Somehow tarantulas never tickled my fancy enough to invest in one,but I've always admired others' prized pets...thanks for the pic Paul,nice beastie!

Had a purseweb spider(close cousins I presume given the indentation in the center of the cephalothorax),briefly before turning it over to the university's local arachnologist. Not sure they were regarded as all that common there. He seemed impressed anyway.

Violet,
I don't hold it against you for killing a spider,whereas yeah sure..it was an unfortunate loss of a uniquely beautiful creature(imo),you were only scared,yaknow? :)

Hey...anybody know a spider that had the same morphology as a black widow,same tensile strength of web(important clue there I think),but different coloration?
I suspect I have an immature female cobwebbing the far corner of the room here...they do that,right...start out non-black?

Inside, they die. My cat Murphy likes to try to kill bugs, and once, I was pretty worried he'd been bitten, by a brown recluse (they are found here). My house is underground, so we get pretty yucky pests. Great tornado structure, but horrible for getting mildew and bugs.

Wow Robin!
You lucky duck!
Pests or not,I've always had a c
fascination with living underground. Let my imagination wander in the way of pipe dreaming like money were no object train of thought.

The fantasy is pretty elaborate. lol

Glad Murphy is okay. Damage to a cat from a bite could be really bad I imagine...bad enough what they do to people so unfortunate. Scarred for life. Recluses have only six,compared to the normal eight eyes most spiders have. I find that neat.

The only type of spider that scares me, is the yellow sac spider. Creepy little guys :-( I once fed one to my house centipede, which I was keeping in a jar at the time. Once. It was a disappointingly unfair fight. House centipedes are even creepier. Is there anything creepier than a house centipede? I had hoped by keeping one, I would conquer my fear. But, alas, it never got any less creepy. I still think they are very neat creatures, and I can look at them (with a combination of awe and horror) when they are sitting still. But when they run...well...when they run (O_O)... I am soft-hearted though. Id always jump in to save them, if they were drowning.

THIS is a yellow sac spider. Look familiar? They make little web cocoons for themselves where the wall meets the ceiling :-(

Aseep, yes to immature black widows starting out with different coloration. In some parts of the country, we have different species! Check out the Brown Widow, which have become more common here in the south. They're a nice looking spider.

You have the Northern Widow, right?

Not entirely sure,though with a name like that then likely yes.

The brown cropped up in numbers after hurricane katrina. One even spun a cob right under the stair thingie on my fema camper(to call it a trailer would be a misnomer lol).

Their eggsacks look similar to sand spurs which are everywhere along the beaches(I barefooted it to the beach often enough to know). Pretty clever adaptation really.

â¢Posted by asleep_in_the_garden Rochopolis
Somehow tarantulas never tickled my fancy enough to invest in one,but I've always admired others' prized pets...

Aw, how could you say "no" to little 'uns like this?:

{{gwi:90817}}

â¢Posted by asleep_in_the_garden
Hey...anybody know a spider that had the same morphology as a black widow,same tensile strength of web(important clue there I think),but different coloration?
I suspect I have an immature female cobwebbing the far corner of the room here...they do that,right...start out non-black?

As Rhizo mentioned, in their immature stages, many widow species do have a little different coloration, though even as juveniles, most have the beginnings of the red hourglass on their abdomen. Then too, as Rhizo said, not all widow species do "basic black" despite how stylish it is for formal occasions. One of the most beautiful of the widows is only native to a small area of Florida -- Latrodectus bishop, aka the Red Widow. Attached a link at the end of this post to images of same.

Then there are the false widows which, as the name suggests, are often mistaken for the real McCoy. This is one of mine:

{{gwi:90818}}

â¢Posted by Lauraeli 5
The only type of spider that scares me, is the yellow sac spider.

Those have never bothered me. If I find them over the winter, I let them be or jar. If I find them indoors once the temps have warmed up, they get relocated outside.

As for "anything creepier than a house centipede" that all depends on who you ask. LOL I know a lot folks who would nominate cockroaches for that "honor".

Here is a link that might be useful: red widow images

Oh come on now, what is creepier here, the cockroach, or the centipede eating it?

Laurael,
never encountered them when I lived down south but here in roch,I've seen them quite a bit. In fact I've woken up to find on on my pillow inches from my face. I'll take 'piders to 'pedes any day. "Pedes just freak me out. lol

Funny thing is that when I was a child I'd had a dream that I had pulled back my bedcovers to find my sheets teaming with isopods(rolypolys). I woke up,jumped out of bed,yanked back the covers...nothing. Then I looked under my pillow and a wolf spider the size of a quarter scampered between the bed and the wall. Do believe I crawled in mom's bed after that, lol

Awww Paul,..
why'd ya have to go and show me that pic? Now I'm smitten. What beautiful color! No way to tell gender yet,right? I'm guessing that the palps in the male don't swell up until mature.

Roaches don't mess me up so much at all,but I do remember a guy I knew once had to go to the emergency room to get one extracted from his ear canal...YEP...crawled in while he was sleeping. Horrible,no?
What a way to wake up!

I woke up with a lady bug in my ear once. I listened for a moment, then turned to my cat. I said, there is a bug in my ear.

She had her little tortie paws all tucked under her. She regarded me thoughtfully. Her gaze seemed conversational.

But, she didn't say a word.

When our son was 17 yrs. old I knocked on his bedroom door and entered before he could answer. When I opened the door I saw a most horrific site.
Son was on his back in bed on his abdomen was a huge tarantula! So calm, the hairy critter was enjoying a leisure stroll up to son's chest. That door was slammed so fast!
Son is now 32 yrs. old and has recently lost his friend.
There was a lesson learned...wait for an answer before walking in on child!
Karen

â¢Posted by Lauraeli 5
Oh come on now, what is creepier here, the cockroach, or the centipede eating it?

THAT is an incredibly AWESOME photo!!!

Personally, I find centipedes very cool.

â¢Posted by asleep_in_the_garden
Awww Paul,..
why'd ya have to go and show me that pic? Now I'm smitten. What beautiful color! No way to tell gender yet,right? I'm guessing that the palps in the male don't swell up until mature.

That was a baby Avicularia versicolor. Upon maturity, he had a green-blue cephalothorax and a deep purple to reddish abdomen and legs. (Color depended somewhat on the lighting and the angle the light shone on him.) After he hooked out and was obviously male, I gave him to a friend who breeds Ts since males only live up to one year after achieving sexual maturity.

Posted by asleep_in_the_garden
Roaches don't mess me up so much at all,but I do remember a guy I knew once had to go to the emergency room to get one extracted from his ear canal

Very rare occurrence. Imagine the roach wasn't any happier either getting stuck in a "tunnel" with no exit ahead of it.

From what I'd been told the guy woke up screaming bloody murder...forgive me if I don't have so much sympathy for the roach. lol

He was screaming? What a wuss. It's not like it can crawl into your brain from there lol.

LOL In his defense,the poor guy WAS asleep,and it so happened to be deep enough in there that the emergency room was a must. Irrigated it out. Gnarly!

I think spiders are very beautiful and interesting creatures and play a very important role in keeping the insect population in check...I especially love Whip Spiders, a Amblypygids, and would love to own one some day, every now and then I check the prices online and research care in owning one, but just haven't gotten around to getting one yet, but someday....I've only owned giant millipedes in the past.

BUT...I hate two kinds of spiders...one is the yellow sack spider like shown in a post above cause they leave nasty bites and are everywhere in my area and they love being indoors, I always have to clean up their little web sleeping bags about every few weeks in my home...

And worse of all, I hate Hobo spiders!!! They're the other side of the state's recluse spiders.... actually, I'm always arguing with people cause they think Hobo spiders are the recluse spiders, and I always tell them that there isn't any Recluses in this half of the states (and most still don't believe me, which drives me crazy for some reason lol)....what they see are hobo spiders, and cause they both are big and ugly and leave the same type of nasty bites, they seem the same. You mostly hear about the Recluse spider way more then anything about the Hobo spider. But I've done a lot of research on the hobo since I've had my share of run-ins with them, and they are very aggressive, but I guess that's why they are nick named 'the aggressive house spider'....and I wont hesitate to dispose of them!! I've had them jump at me, run towards me, one actually got up on it's back legs like it wanted to fight me lol, I'm actually quite scared of them!!

I wouldn't call that fear irrational at all.

Those things are dangerous. Like sydney funnel web spiders,they will actually come after you...and to those of us who are used to spiders not behaving in such a way(most run away),it's more than a little unsettling.

I'm pretty glad they don't live here.

took me long enough to get back over here! asleep living underground is cool for some things, but not so much for others. It's really moist. Really! Should own a dehumidifer, but I get sick of the sound when it runs 100% of the time. Moisture is not so good for my asthma. I did actually get pneumonia for the first time this winter. I've been flooded a bit every now and again (I think I fixed that though with better outside drainage). And the light? Not enough. I even have a large front window that faces out, looking at green grass, and two rooms with sky lights in them. But... it stays cool in summer and it's ultrasafe in tornado country.

I've got asthma too,so I know what you mean...moisture leads to mold...and that's hard to remedy. Even if you bleach everything to death it's only a matter of time before it's back.

In my crazy pipe dream,there would be skylights everywhere. :)

I imagine the insulatory properties that hold in the cold during the summer would also hold the heat in in wintertime. What's you experience in this regard?

Stumbled on a video clip.

Made me jump!

Here is a link that might be useful: Not for the faint hearted!