On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 22:10:15 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


We have lots of those little 'thready' ones but real house spiders are the
big jackboot variety, as far as I'm concerned.

I've got a fair collection in my workshop - and those thready ones
are, I think, called Cardinal spiders.
From what I've seen, they prey on the much larger and hairier house
spiders.

I have no idea how they do it, all I ever get to see is them feasting
on fresh corpses in the morning - my guess is they wait until the big
buggers are vulnerable after shedding their skin.

As to the original post, I fully sympathise - my wife suffers from a
severe dislike of spiders, but over the years she's managed to bring
herself to collect all but the big hairy ones in a jar and throw them
outdoors.
If you don't want to find them in the bath, leave a towel over the
edge so that they can escape after falling in. Other than that, you're
stuffed - unless you seal the house up and never so much as open a
window.

I believe that London Zoo runs an anti-arachnaphobia course - which
basically relies on the old saw that familiarity breeds contempt.
Maybe if you tried handling some small spiders on a regular basis?
Don't pick up the spindly ones though - they shed the gripped legs as
a defence mechanism.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk