Gearing up for the invasion

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It’s here. They come with backpacks hidden on their silky legs. Some come with family in cocoons.

Some are fuzzy and some are not. They are big and little and all shades of color.

They are not fussy. All they want is someplace warm for the winter. Someplace where they can live the good life.

This is the time of the year that spiders sneak into our house. They try to blend in with the wallpaper or carpet. They slink along the walls with their long legs until they find the right place.

Often used for other insects too.

Often used for other insects too.

I am a big fan of re-homing but there is a limit to how many you can re-home. They are crossing the borders at record numbers yet I refuse to use Raid.

The favorite place, besides the bathrooms, is the kitty litter room in the basement.

Don’t let the word basement throw you. It has a linoleum floor which gets cleaned regularly and the walls are painted a delightful shade of sunny cream. There is always a light shining just like Motel 6.

Not only that, there is a sea of sand. It’s like the beach! A window that gets good light is in the corner and stuff is stored on shelves (all the better to hide my friends).

The downside? The basement is the preferred location for the poopy stuff. There is a litter box on the second floor that gets mostly number one. Rarely there may be an emergency number but not as a rule.

For some reason the cats prefer to poop in the basement.

What I can’t figure out is whether that is an attraction for the millions of spiders we get or a distraction. Obviously not enough to make them go elsewhere. Perhaps there are more “other” insects in that room that makes great dinner.

Personally, if I was an insect, I would be living the good life under the bed covers, snuggling up to my humans at night. Now that’s creepy!

 

 

60 thoughts on “Gearing up for the invasion”

  1. I have a spider phobia, but where possible I leave a note for my husband (loves spiders) to take Harry (i call all hairy huntsmans Harry) Out . If its just me and the spider and I can’t sweep the thing out the door, the raid does come out…but I do try because I believe nature deserves a chance. If they stay out of my house and car and live in the garden they are safe!

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  2. I’m not one to tell you what to do, but why not let them in and charge them rent? True, they don’t tend to carry money with them, but spider silk might be valuable in sufficient quantities. It’s up to you, of course, but I’m just saying…

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  4. Spiders like basements. That’s my theory. Basements and bathrooms. I don’t spray them, but I do step on them. I’ve had some pretty bad spider bites–not enough poison in the bite to kill me, but enough to make the spot itch and hurt for more than a week.

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  5. Well, I am definitely in the mood for Halloween now. Ghosts and monsters aren’t enough though. Now I have spiders, snakes and stink bugs on the brain. 🙂 The spiders have taken a hike around here, but the stink bugs are waiting in line. What is this world coming to?

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  6. We don’t get spiders in the house as often as we get stink bugs! Our spiders stay outside, building webs all over the deck, as if they’re the Halloween decorating committee. Creepy things, but as long as they stay out there, they get to live another day.

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  9. I hate spiders, though I’m not as bad as I was. Hubby has two spider catching kits…… a small glass and a coaster, and a pint mug and a place mat.
    However, Boaters swear by conkers! Yes, the little buggers get in our homes on the water.
    Get yourself a bowl of conkers and put them in several places throughout the house.
    It works, though I have absolutely no idea why! (maybe they don’t know how to play?)

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  10. We also have an insect relocation kit at our house but no sprays. We don’t really see an influx of spiders, though. It’s more about hornets and box elder bugs in the fall. Oh, and those Asian ladybugs. Stinky little things!

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  11. We don’t get big spiders in our house (at least that I know of) but the little ones I see are quickly and safely re-homed outside. I don’t understand why anyone would be afraid of these gentle creatures… or want to spray them (and themselves, by the way) with poisons. I do draw the line at ants and silverfish, though. Those visitors in our home get squished.

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    • Ants do get squished because they never come alone. I’ve only seen a few, very few silverfish and they get squished too. Mostly our cat Morgan eats those. All those tantalizing legs are too much for her. Not a fan of chemicals. Not good for pets, people or frogs.

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  12. You’re like my wife. I’m the first to grab the can of Raid or any other kind of spray to eradicate vermin such as ants, spiders, etc. When I buy them, I have to sneak them into the home so that she doesn’t see it. And if I deign to try and use it in her presence, she affirmatively doesn’t like it. Yet, she’s absolutely, positively frightened by spiders! I have to pick my private moments to spray and not let her know about it.

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  14. Spiders are fascinating to watch, but so creepy to have in the house. That’s because I know they like to climb into open human mouths at night. Think on that. And if I get up in the night to go to the bathroom I can always surprise a spider when I turn on the light. Ugh ugh and ugh. I think they come if you have too much vegetation right outside your house: ivy, lots of bushes right up next to the house, stuff like that. At least that is OUR problem. Re basement pooping hahaha. My cats are too lazy to go that far to poop. They use the laundry room because it’s right off the kitchen where they spend most of their days. They ignore the boxes farther away.

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  17. We too get them predominantly in the basement, along with large centipedes. We think that it is probably their choice location because it sees less traffic; less general air movement; cooler in the Winter, and not too many artificial light interruptions! If caught however, they are relocated outside in the garden! Like you, we don’t use spray killers. Not only does the thought of killing something by attacking its nervous system concern us but, inevitably we would be breathing in some of it as well. That is certainly not cool!

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  18. Every fall, as it gets darker during my morning walk, I hit spiderweb after spiderweb with my face. I pull silk out of my hair and eyelashes. I thought that was bad enough, until the dark morning when the web that hit my face had an orb-weaver bigger than a quarter still in it.

    I may have screamed a tiny, tiny bit.

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  20. I don’t notice extra spiders in the the fall. We have the outside of our house sprayed every three months by a pest control company because we do have some scary spiders and wood roaches and other kinds of roaches that like to make our house their home. We worry more about the skunks that like to dig under the house or into the rock walls outside. They stink even if they aren’t in tail up shooting at you position. We also have Asian beetles, ladybug imposters that stink too and they drive me to distraction. I mean a whole lot of ladybug imposters after the first real cold night usually in October. They leave their orange, stinky death squiggles all over the siding and windows. A few get inside and I lose it!

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    • I’ve seen those but not at my house. When I was working, I was at our training facility which was an old building converted. Part of it was built into the hill. In the fall we would get stink bugs really bad (I mean really bad) and there really wasn’t anything they could do except spray and sweep them up. The would come back the in the thousands. I was setting up the food bar and on the wall I saw a dozen or so that had come in from outside. We worked fast to get them out before anyone saw them. Nothing more disgusting than bugs by your food! We have ground cover that our frogs frequent so I don’t spray against the house. So far we’ve been lucky. Just the stink bugs but not in the thousands. Oh yes, and tons of non-fuzzy spiders. There is a chipmunk condo under the paver steps to our house.

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