GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

12-05-2006, 03:26 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote:
Sue wrote:
"Cat(h)" wrote
Pholcuses are the skinny long-legged spiders which hang from the
corners of your ceiling. Tegeneria are what are sometimes called
house spiders, and they are big burly creatures with a large
grey/brown abdomen a bit like a tabby cat, somewhat hairy. The males
have little boxing gloves at the end of their pedipalps (either side
of the head), and the females are slightly bigger and don't have the
boxing gloves.
snip

holey cow batman; that is well remembered :-)

You wouldn't believe what I did... I remember being advised - by
another arachnophile of our acquaintance - to put one in a glass, and
then "tickle it around the ears" (sic) as this would make it turn over
and lie on its back. This would be by way of allowing me see its
naughty bits, and therefore identify it as a male or a female. I did
as I was told, but the spider just kept whizzing around the glass.
Maybe I was poking it in the eye instead of tickling its ears. It is
then that the arachnophile revealed the boxing glove thing. He could
have said that right away, seen as it doesn't even require a magnifying
glass to see, let alone arachnacrobatics. I still reckon he was having
me on. The other half had a good laugh.

The latter sounds like the one living in the dark recesses of our
garage, and it's very VERY big (the spider that is, not the garage).
When it appears I don't hang around to measure, but I'd swear it's as
big as.. as.. the hand of someone who has much bigger hands than me!

My Other Half won't hear of it being evicted and claims it earns its
keep eating bluebottles. If the truth be known he likes to keep it
hanging around so I won't poke around in there to try and tidy up any of
the mountains of "stuff that might come in useful" (but hardly
ever does). The ruse works, because although with Michael's trick of
yogurt pot and card I can deal with most spiders, this one seems *way*
too big and hairy to tangle with.

I used to collect spiders, despite them giving me the heebie jeebies.
Those big black hairy house spiders still intimidate me but these days
they seem to have been completely replaced by the Pholcus.

Not completely in the sticks. Though there used to be very many more
of them in my previous house. The house I bought three years ago is in
a more rural setting, and has far fewer of them. It sounds daft, but
it took a couple of years before I saw any, and I was chuffed as hell
when I found my first - it had fallen into the bath, and was carefully
lifted before being given the freedom of the house.

When I was
a kid, Pholcus were only found in the most southerly Irish counties and
bottom 1/3 of UK. Now they are everywhere. I do not mind them as they
are relatively slow and delicate looking.
The big ones in yer husbands shed scare me though. I remember jumping
when I had to look at one down a microscope (to examine its naught bits
to identify it). You get used to it but I still ifnd it hard to pick
one up without a glass.

I tend to pick them up out of the bath or sink by dropping a sheet of
loo paper on top of them, then delicately lifting them in it. Not that
they freak me out, simply I would not like to be bitten if they stress
out when grabbed - which I would not blame them for doing.

Cat(h) (sorry for this very off topic display of arachnofetishism)