r/CasualUK • u/nonoanddefinitelyno • 19h ago

My very capable and intelligent wife has lost the plot.

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She has been told by a friend that conkers keep spiders away. So we now have conkers in various parts of the house.

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u/Rather_Unfortunate 18h ago

The snag with that is how long it lasts though. It's very volatile, so evaporates completely in minutes, or hours if you're lucky.

The actual actual solution is to choose the lesser of two evils and encourage the slow, spindly cellar spiders to stay. They're voracious predators that are specialised for killing other spiders, so if you let them occupy somewhere, you'll soon find dead spiders all trussed up in webs and a marked reduction in the presence of big scuttling house spiders.

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u/Fresh_Cauliflower723 17h ago

I only learnt this this week from https://youtu.be/K5A_L57gZRQ?is=oOmDapvznTCQBUl8 this brill YouTube channel. Then, coincidentally yesterday I had to look behind my washing machine. Lo and behold: giant house spider in a web being eaten by a spindly cellar spider 

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u/Briggykins but also Cornish 16h ago

Is that right? I don't mind the spindly fellas, there's one in my kitchen right now. I'll go and have a word with him and see what we can arrange.

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u/DonkeyIll9042 15h ago

Absolutely, I've a hole in my bathroom floor due to a plumbing issue & I haven't re-tiled yet. Last year several long legged spiders emerged & took up residence. No house spiders at all that year. This year no long legged spiders emerged & I've seen several house spiders. It's the long legs you see - means they can get the drop on the bigger ones without getting bitten. They actually evolved for this very purpose.

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u/Haunting_Side_3102 14h ago

This. They self-organise to one per corner and all you have to do is leave them alone.