Spider on the ceiling... what do you do?

[Kay in Cal]

My ds4 just came down from his room shouting "Spider on the ceiling!" In our house that's a dh chore... I appreciate what spiders do for the environment (and don't like them to be killed) but they scare me. Dh went up and caught the spider in a cup and relocated it outdoors. Got me wondering--how do you handle spiders in your house?

[WTMindy]

I'm not really freaked out too much by spiders, so I'd just leave it on the ceiling (unless it was a super-huge ugly one). Even on the wall, sometimes I leave it. I try to usher it out without killing it I can because I hate squishing bugs.

[Amy in Orlando]

My ds4 just came down from his room shouting "Spider on the ceiling!" In our house that's a dh chore... I appreciate what spiders do for the environment (and don't like them to be killed) but they scare me. Dh went up and caught the spider in a cup and relocated it outdoors. Got me wondering--how do you handle spiders in your house?

We do the same as you if we can. Spiders eat moquito's and we really, really hate the mosquito's. If we can send them back into the yard (or better yet, the neighbor's yard lol) we do.

[Parrothead]

I don't bother them. If dd sees it I have to kill it or relocate it.

[Philothea]

Spiders fall under the Insect/trash removal/ grilling/ lifting heavy stuff/ reaching top shelf/outdoor maintence/ jar opening Department.

The head of that department deals with them as he sees fit. Usually this involves brute force and a mess.

[Sue G in PA]

he will typically catch the spider and throw it outside. Funny story, though, about spiders. My kids used to be really into catching spiders in our house. We have a TON in our basement. Blech! One day, I hear this screaming coming from our basement. My dc are screaming, "Spider, spider!" which, to me, sounded like, "FIRE, FIRE!" from all the way upstairs. I FLIPPED out, ran downstairs with fire extinguisher in hand, in hysterics screaming, "WHERE? WHERE is the FIRE!". My dc just sat there and stared at me. Finally, ds spoke up: "Mom, we said spider...NOT fire...it's okay!". Can you tell my biggest fear? It's a house fire. So, I gently told the dc never to scream, "spider, spider" again. :)

[6packofun]

My dc are screaming, "Spider, spider!" which, to me, sounded like, "FIRE, FIRE!" from all the way upstairs. I FLIPPED out, ran downstairs with fire extinguisher in hand, in hysterics screaming, "WHERE? WHERE is the FIRE!". My dc just sat there and stared at me. Finally, ds spoke up: "Mom, we said spider...NOT fire...it's okay!". Can you tell my biggest fear? It's a house fire. So, I gently told the dc never to scream, "spider, spider" again. :)

Oh my goodness, that happened here today! LOL My dd was in the downstairs bathroom drying her hair and we hear her screaming for help and "Spider!!!" We've had a house fire and when we all heard "Fire" we jumped into action! I thought the hair dryer had sparked or something. Ridiculous. LOL!

[Stacia]

Catch it & put it outside.

I try to do this w/ almost any bug we find (except mosquitoes or roaches -- they're goners). I've even managed to catch a bee & put it back outside. I'm getting pretty adept.

[Laurie]

"I think the man should have to kill the bug."

But if he isn't home I have to do it because both dc are scared of bugs, except for ladybugs and butterflies.

[mom31257]

I do kill them and any other bug that's INSIDE the house. I'm more afraid of the trying to catch them and put them out. My rule is if they don't want to be killed then they shouldn't come in.(LOL) I don't kill them if they are all ready outside (except for the black widows we have found in our sprinkler system, YIKES!)

I am very afraid of bugs. It goes back to an incident when my older sister put what we call a "june bug" (a big, shiny green beetle) inside my underwear. Ah, the memory is still so strong! I have overcome my fears enough to take care of it for my children's sake when my husband isn't home.

Amy of GA
11yo dd
4yo ds

[Crissy]

Scream like a little girl.

Really.

Spiders scare me like nothing else on this earth. They belong outside. If they stay in their home, I let them be. If they come into mine, they are doomed. One of my boys or my husband will smoosh it, wipe up the mess with a kleenex and flush it down the toilet. I can't even stand the thought of a dead spider in the trash.

I have serious spider issues.

[Jan in MO]

We have a central vacuum (the kind where the canister is in the garage and there are receptacles throughout the house to which you hook up the hose). I hook up the hose and suck the spider off the ceiling. I don't care if he's alive or dead as long as he's in that canister in the garage.

[HSMom2One]

I leave them alone when they are outside, especially in the garden. When they come in my house, however, I am not hospitable. I either squish 'em or call dh to take care of the big ones.

Oh, did I mention that I'm really scared of spiders? They give me the heebie jeebies. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/scared001.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

Blessings,
Lucinda

[j.griff]

Ex-vegan speaking. :)

It really depends on the situation, and especially the type of spider. If it's a black widow, it's a DEAD spider in/around our home. We basically have an infestation of them at times, and I feel no sorrow for ridding the area of them. I have 3 small children, and I worry about their safety more than the surround eco-system (which is already FUBAR cause we live in a new military housing complex).

Other spiders, I just ignore unless the kids are freaking out. We dont' have many bugs inside, and I see no need to have the spiders here for bug control. I have no problem squishing them, when a kid is freaking out. They usually DON'T freak out though, and I've been known to relocate the benign varieties.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Smaller than a nickel: put a cup over it and relocate it.

Bigger than a nickel: get a shoe and whack the @%^@&$* out of it! (Unless it is bigger than a quarter - then I will even wake dh up out of a sound sleep to deal with it!

[Snickerdoodle]

Scream like a little girl.

Really.

Spiders scare me like nothing else on this earth. They belong outside. If they stay in their home, I let them be. If they come into mine, they are doomed. One of my boys or my husband will smoosh it, wipe up the mess with a kleenex and flush it down the toilet. I can't even stand the thought of a dead spider in the trash.

I have serious spider issues.

:iagree:

[Colleen]

That's my general response: "It won't eat much". I'm talking here about plain ol' harmless spiders, btw. I'd either ignore it or relocate it outside. But don't get the impression I'm not phased by insects of any sort. One thing I do *not* miss about New Orleans are the monstrous cockroaches. Bleh. Shudder.

[Lizzie in Ma]

:lol: I am NOT a spider fan. Got bitten once and it felt for hours like someone had poured a pot of boiling water on my arm. I am sitting in the walk-in clinic and I am watching the Dr. and the nurse flipping through a book muttering "brown recluse treatment, treatment for spider bites", and other such comforting things.
Ended up with pain meds and an antihistamine I think.

[Rebecca in VA]

That's what I used to do when we lived in Guam and had enormous roaches running around everywhere. I couldn't even bear to look at them. So I'd vacuum them up, using the long hose. I *think* they stayed in the vacuum once they were safely in there.

[CookieMonster]

They belong outside. If they stay in their home, I let them be. If they come into mine, they are doomed.

Amen. :closedeyes:

I will kill a spider on my own. I prefer dh to do it. ;)

[PariSarah]

Spiders that are dumb enough to come into my house don't really need to be contributing to the gene pool. :D I don't bother calling my dh, b/c he would scream like a girl.

I did make an exception once, though.

There was this garden spider that I was feeding. It was living in my rosemary bush, and every time I found a cabbage looper or tomato hornworm or some other destructive beastie, I would pluck it off my cabbage/tomato/rose bush/whatever and feed it to the spider.

Eventually, Shelob (she got REALLY big) made an egg sack. She stayed in my rosemary bush for a few days after that, but then she apparently decided that I would be a good foster mother after she pulled a Charlotte. She came into the house, egg sack and all.

I about had a heart attack.

So, I took a ruler and moved her and her egg sack onto the porch. My dear dh, who is normally the world's most useless Y chromosome when it comes to spiders, actually was worried about Shelob--if I put her on the porch, instead of in the rosemary bush, she might not survive! So, he actually took the ruler and moved her and her egg sack back to the rosemary bush.

She stayed there for a few more days, not moving very much--I don't know if it was the trauma or the gestational exhaustion--and then disappeared after that. I don't know what happened to her spider babies.

[Laura R (FL)]

Leave it....

If it looks really cool...catch it and study it!

[HootOwl]

Unless it's a huge, ugly thing, I just leave it alone and listen to my 16yo freak out.

[Donovans4]

If DH is home, he will catch it and put it outside. If he isn't home, and I am the only one to see it, I just leave it be. However, if one of the kids see it, then I will catch and release outside, but I really, really hope that they don't see it!!

LauraD in MN

[flutistmom]

The only good spider is a dead spider. And the same goes for those awful house centipedes that we have seen from time to time. No exceptions.

(I had a bad experience with a nest of red ants when I was 3, and have hated bugs my whole life.)

-Robin

[PrairieAir]

Unless it's a black widow or a brown recluse, I often leave it alone. Otherwise I would scoop it up and put it outside. Bugs that I really detest like flies and wasps (which we get a lot of) I often suck up with the vacuum cleaner hose. It really frustrates me when people squash bugs on walls and counters and then do not cleanup the tiny carcasses or wipe up the guts.

[Melissa B]

We leave them in the house to eat insects. We have quite a few spiders. We kill them if they are running along the floor or on the walls in the kitchen (somehow seems unsanitary.) We also run around and kill any we can find if a family member that dislikes spiders is coming to spend the night.:) The only ones I really dislike are black widows. The just look scary. I've never found one in the house, but we kill them any time we find them outside.

[mcconnellboys]

I generally ignore them on the ceiling. The only time I'd take action is if I thought it was one that's poisonous. You could hook up the vacuum hose and reach up with that and suck him in.....

[nutmeg]

--how do you handle spiders in your house? Our cat handles most of the spiders around here. :D

[cin]

:lol: I am NOT a spider fan. Got bitten once and it felt for hours like someone had poured a pot of boiling water on my arm. I am sitting in the walk-in clinic and I am watching the Dr. and the nurse flipping through a book muttering "brown recluse treatment, treatment for spider bites", and other such comforting things.
Ended up with pain meds and an antihistamine I think.


How encouraging. Honestly, I think I would have been more afraid of the Dr. and nurse :tongue_smilie:

[Plaid Dad]

I usually ignore them unless they're setting up shop (building a web). Then I brush them down with the broom and escort them outside.

[Danestress]

Spiders are not a big deal. Snakes, also, are welcome. Cockroaches send me into a primal state of fear that I can't really describe. It has often mystified me how different people react to these things. I don't understand the fear of snakes, and I don't understand not freaking out when one sees cockroach.

[CookieMonster]

It really frustrates me when people squash bugs on walls and counters and then do not cleanup the tiny carcasses or wipe up the guts.

:ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:

[JennyB]

"I don't bother it in it's house, it shouldn't come into my house" . Once my husband and I were in bed and there was a spider crawling across the ceiling. "Honey, there's a spider." :001_smile:
"O.K." and then he sat and watched the spider crawl closer. and closer. :001_huh:
"Kill The Spider."
"What?":bigear:
As the spider started to lower on its thread above my head I freaked out.

"KILL THAT SPIDER" :boxing_smiley:
Took a swipe and missed. YEP. He missed. I screamed and leaped off the bed and wouldn't get back into bed until I had proof that the spider was dead.

Yea I have issues. You should see how I deal with cockroaches. ;)

[Karin]

Usher out safely or squish--it varies. Sometimes we'll sing the song, "There's a spider on the floor, on the floor" that Raffi sang, although all my kids are too old for that, so if I lapse to that I get a few groans.

[JFS in IL]

Call a taller person to squish and remove it!!!! unless it is tiny, in which case it may stay.

[Old Dominion Heather]

how do you handle spiders in your house?

Leave them alone, wave at them, give them names...

I'm not really that bad. I don't like spiders much, but I hate the squish that they make. I have a phobia of "squish". I like them alive better than all gooey.

[MicheleinMN]

Little people run to find *a bug jar* aka empty, washed mayo or parmesan jar. Tall son goes to catch said spider for us. Spider dies a horrible death in jar because I refuse to catch and release. (I don't kill them outside, only if they make their way into MY home.)

Don't other people have stacks of jars around their home with various bugs trapped in them? :lol:

Michele

[ChocolatePrincess]

doesn't matter what kind, how big, how ugly or cute............if it is in my house, it is trespassing and "it is dead!"

:smash: