Among Friends

[Lucky Charm]

@ciao_bella , If you leave your front door outside lights on at night in the summer/fall, spiders will hang around. 

They're trying to catch moths, etc. in their webs that are attracted to the light.  

[sabatini]

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@Desertdi wrote:

NOW, I am terrified of scorpions (also an arachnid).    Got stung 3 times by one last week in my shower.     This was my first experience with the nasty little things...

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Hi, @Desertdi. I'm sorry you were stung, and 3 times! Yikes.

I've been stung too. When I was stung on my thumb, it was frozen in an extended position for days, & I looked like I wanted to hitch a ride!

Anyway, @Desertdi, you probably already know this, but, dabbing straight bleach onto the sting will take the pain away. I was so surprised by that.

I also used Clorox on a bee sting that I got one night in my kitchen when I stepped on a bee in the dark. Ow!

[Jk9]

I see spiders a lot where we live "in the country."  I rarely kill them except for black widows and of course the brown recluse.  We have a delivery box for packages at the farm gate and 2 weeks ago, I picked up three packages (1 box and 2 envelopes) out of the big box and while putting them in the car I noticed a bug run down the box.  Put the box down and looked closely at the "bug" and it was a black widow.  Beautiful shiny black creature with the red marking on her abdomen.  I "did her in" and checked the box for more spiders.  I see them fairly frequently and always check where I put my hands before I reach  in.  

Spiders don't really bother me and I usually don't kill them as I appreciate their elimination of lots of insects.  But, I take down loads of webs from the front porch and decks each week.  

[Scooby Doo]

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@Jk9 wrote:

I see spiders a lot where we live "in the country."  I rarely kill them except for black widows and of course the brown recluse.  We have a delivery box for packages at the farm gate and 2 weeks ago, I picked up three packages (1 box and 2 envelopes) out of the big box and while putting them in the car I noticed a bug run down the box.  Put the box down and looked closely at the "bug" and it was a black widow.  Beautiful shiny black creature with the red marking on her abdomen.  I "did her in" and checked the box for more spiders.  I see them fairly frequently and always check where I put my hands before I reach  in.  

Spiders don't really bother me and I usually don't kill them as I appreciate their elimination of lots of insects.  But, I take down loads of webs from the front porch and decks each week.  

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Startling isn't it.  That happened to me last week as well.  I took my mail out of the mailbox and was shuffling through the envelopes when one of those hairy black spiders with the white dot on its back crawled out.  I dropped the mail like a hot potato and left it in the driveway for a while.

[Scooby Doo]

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@Lucky Charm wrote:

@ciao_bella , If you leave your front door outside lights on at night in the summer/fall, spiders will hang around. 

They're trying to catch moths, etc. in their webs that are attracted to the light.  

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I have a motion detector light that shines on the driveway for safety purposes.  The feral cats set it off during the night.

[Scooby Doo]

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@geezerette wrote:

Daddy Long Legs are out in droves around here this time of year.  I'm constantly shooing them out of the house.  

I like to watch the Argiope spiders.  They spin the coolest webs, usually across the brick around my windows so I get a birdseye view when they snare their prey. 

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I do like to watch cat faced spiders that are harmless and usually stay in on place.  We had one nesting on the carport and watched it for a couple of months get real big.  Then one day it just disappeared.

[colliemom4]

We used to get them a lot though non- poisonous but I was constantly bitten. We have been diligent about continuing to spray and I never see them anymore.

[willomenia]

Folklore says capture the spider and put outside, ask it a question and in 3 days you'll get your answer. That's your reward for saving it's life

[ciao_bella]

@willomenia   My adult son always catches them with a glass and paper when in the house and then sets them free outside.  They do keep many other bugs away.  I don't go out of my way to kill them, but I don't catch and release them either.  

[ciao_bella]

Just a quick story that came to mind when this thread was posted.  I'm retired now for the last 5 years, but when I was teaching I had another (young, just out of college) teacher in the classroom with me.  

One day my car didn't start and I live only a short distance away from the school.  I texted him and asked if he could pick me up on his way into school.  He had a nice, fairly new car.  After I got in, a few minutes later I noticed something crawling out of the vent.  It was a spider.  He had a rolled up magazine and smacked it.  He then proceeded to tell me that in the summer he had left his car window/s open all night in the driveway. 

Apparently, spiders had nested in his car within the venting system and who knows where else.  He said that every morning since, when he would get in his car, he would have to clear away the spider webs  'inside' the car before he could get in to drive.  They were 'yellow sac spiders'.  I couldn't wait until I got out of that car!   I recently found out that it's not uncommon for spiders to nest in open cars and they're almost impossible to get rid of because they keep laying eggs.  He took the car to the dealership and even they couldn't rid the car of the nested spiders. 

Not sure whatever happened to the car, but after a few months, he transferred out to a school in a different district who offered him a permanent teaching job.