Oh heck, a false black widow spider under my bed *gulp!*

Oh no I would be looking all night for it too. Scary!!

Good luck and I hope you don't dream about spiders now honey x

I haven't posted a link to the pic in case there are some people scared of them- i'm not but it still sent shivers up my spine.:)

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Not scared of it? Who are you trying to kid!!:rolleyes::p

What i meant is that i'm not scared of spiders in general Treacle, just this one which can bite and is still at large...:eek:

I stayed up as long as i could, then gingerly went to bed with my duvet firmly around my ears and the light on.:o If it wasn't for the fact that it bites, i would have sent in reinforcements in the form of my daughter's hamster to flush it out from it's hiding place as that's where she used to make a bee line for when given free rein of the room (many a time was spent on my knees, trying to entice her back out- my daughter is now given the run around as her hamster has a whale of a time running free in her bedroom!). Mind you, i wonder which order they would come out: a spider hotly pursued by a hamster, or the other way round LOL 😀

warmest wishes- calla lily x

OOOH! I would scream the house down. so where is it now then? hiding?

Amethystfairy:eek:

As far as i know Amethystfairy, it's still underneath my bed, but i'm too much of a coward to pull all my drawers out to verify this LOL 😮

I'm hoping it graces me with its presence in the daytime as it'll be another restless night for me!

Warmest wishes- calla lily x

Calla had it been me, I would of had the bedroom ripped apart to find the little sucker. Luckily now though, my new bed has 12 inch gap under it and there is nothing to see but wood flooring......no where for the little devils to hide.

Send in that hamster girl for all our sakes.

Angel x

Laughing so hard, NOT because of what you know went under your bed.
But because it brings back a childhood memory.

I was aged 11, it was just me and mum.

One day, we were sitting in the lounge and we saw 'it' - a rather large black and yellow striped spider running across the floor.

I screamed and headed for the front door closely followed by mum, who promptly grabbed hold of the first person she saw and begged them to go inside and find the spider.
It was a guy who was rather bemused by the whole situation.....oh did he laugh!!

He obliged and had a good look around, but spider was well and truly gone.

We decided it had probably come off the banana's we bought the day before.

A few years on I believe it was an Argiope bruennichi.....never saw it again.

Yours has probably made a bid for freedom now.

Still no sign of the spider, I couldn't send the hamster cavalry in Amethystfairy, because the spider has a poisonous bite and she may have come out from underneath my bed in a cardboard box instead of a blaze of glory LOL 😀

I can just picture yours, and your mum's reaction to the spider Louisa,:011: and the man's too- comedy gold that!

Knowing my luck though, just when i thought it was safe to sleep, i'll roll over only to have a face off with the errant spider! 😮

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Yak! The false widow is also a dark, shiny brown and I believe the males are diddy little things by comparison. So far, I have found three in my kitchen over the last couple of years - they like the milder SW UK climate apparently.

What's worrying me is the big bugger in my bedroom which is lurking - that crusty I can hear it scuttling around, shudder 😮

Oh hell's bells devonmassage, 😮 that would set me on a permanent state of fear -hope the patter of spider's feet ceases in your bedroom very soon.:)

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Hey Calla,, do you think it might have moved to the bathroom 😀

I was trying not to think where the spider may have taken itself off to Fleur, as ignorance is indeed bliss LOL 😀

The toilet is very apt, as mine is pink too- the lid is going firmly down with a brick placed on top from this point onwards!

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Oh no.....I hope it doesn't have family and friends:eeeK:....If I was in your situation I'd be moving house:eek:
xXx

I was trying not to think of that too Amy LOL, if it has made itself cosy and a load of minature versions appear from beneath my bed, you won't be hearing from me again as i would have died from fright!:D

warmest wishes- calla lily x

LOL...I wonder if there's some sort of spider killer spray you can get....oh please don't anyone go all spiritual on me for that statement:eek:...we are talking scary spiders here xxx

The brave and/or curious can put 'false black widow spider' into Google Images and see LOTS of piccies ... arachnaphobics, don't try this at home 😉

calla lily, have you tried talking to it, kindly but firmly? Not a nasty biter, I'm sure, but when I spotted a massive spider in my [downstairs] bathroom a while ago, on a cold wet and windy night, I just told it out loud: OK, you can stay there, but no crawling upstairs in the middle of the night!

In the morning, there was no sign of it 😀

Holistic

While i wouldn't kill the spider, i do wish they would invent a spider sedative spray which would make them easy to trap and release- with a point and a squirt, i could of had peace of mind!

Your mention of googling has got me all shivering Holistic, i'm not going to refresh my memory what it looked like LOL 😀

I'll try 'aving a word' with it, which may include an expletive or two ( on second thoughts, i had better be polite given it's a delicate situation and i may live to regret causing offence to the spider!)

warmest wishes- calla lily x

This is all you need!

The brave and/or curious can put 'false black widow spider' into Google Images and see LOTS of piccies ... arachnaphobics, don't try this at home 😉

I did it and I didn't like it. :eeeK:

I read once that if you put conkers in the corners of your room, it keeps spiders out, as they don't like the smell of them. Must admit, this did work for a short time in my son's room. Unfortuantly I forgot about them and vacummed them all up. I thought my Dyson was gonna explode when they all shot into the cylinder.

Angel x

Truly NOT being funny now, calla lily, about chatting to the little beasties, but thought you and others might be interested in this link via the BBC's England news page:

titled: 'Exotic spiders crawl into the UK'

All to do with our increasingly warm climate, it seems, and imports of foreign food produce.

Holistic

This is all you need!

Now there's a nifty gadget that I need, i'd be armed and dangerous! 😀 Ta for the suggestion of conkers Angel,:) my children usually have them floating about in their rooms but I threw them out-LOL at your Dyson :011:,I'm forever vacuuming things i shouldn't.:o Yesterday, i plucked up courage to open one of my bedroom drawers ( very carefully i might add!) and no spider shot out so i'm pretending ( or should that be kidding myself!) it has found it's way out of the house.

Oh no Holistic, 😮 one eight legged fugitive is bad enough, but to know there may be more where that one came from :speechless-smiley-0- i don't know whether to :042:myself or pass out !

warmest wishes- calla lily

Reminds me of the time I was in Hong Kong in the army. I went to go into a small bedroom. It was evening and I turned on the light. It stayed dim, Thinking the bulb had gone I looked up at the shade. A spider completely covered the shade. The shade must have been about 14 inches across.
The spiders legs were gripping around the edges of the shade. That was many years ago, can't remember exactly, but I think I left rather quickly.

:hidesbehindsofa:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are prone to Cardinal Wolsey spiders here - which are like large (2 inch) versions of the normal house spider (no pictures on google - perhaps I'd better photograph the next one I see). I find the easiest way to get them is the longest extension on my vacuum cleaner - they get mangled in the fins of the machine! I then don't have to get too close!!

Reminds me of the time I was in Hong Kong in the army. I went to go into a small bedroom. It was evening and I turned on the light. It stayed dim, Thinking the bulb had gone I looked up at the shade. A spider completely covered the shade. The shade must have been about 14 inches across.
The spiders legs were gripping around the edges of the shade. That was many years ago, can't remember exactly, but I think I left rather quickly.

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Mushy back-flips all round!

I used to have a humane spider catcher...it had a seethrough plastic pyramind on the end of a 3' long pole which was fixed at the pyramid's apex. The bottom square of the pyramid was in fact a sliding panel, so when you had it wide open, the pyramid part could then be placed over th spider and turned so the sliding panel could drop down and shut - ideal for spids on a wall for example. Once had a house spider so big it's legs poked out of an old-type pint-pot...not quite the 14"-plus leg span, but then I'm a complete wuss when it comes to spiders and 2mm is too big!

No joy with finding the Merry Widow, yet?

From the BBC link I gave in an earlier post, it looks like you've been allowing them to escape, devonmassage:

For many decades it remained in a small area within Devon, but about 15 years ago it began to spread and it can now be spotted all along the South Coast.

While copying that, I accidentally also copied a pic of the spider, which I have deleted from this post for the sake of those of a nervous disposition 😉

Holistic

No joy with finding the Merry Widow, yet?

I'm really hoping and praying I imagined this last night, in order to keep what little nerves I have left- PLEASE NO, THE SPIDER WAS NOT IN MY BED RIGHT NEXT TO ME !!! :speechless-smiley-0:speechless-smiley-0:speechless-smiley-0:speechless-smiley-0

I was having trouble sleeping, and in my half dozed state opened my eyes to see (whether in my mind's eye or for real!) the merry widow. While I didn't scream the house down, i did however, vacate my bed faster than an Olympian athlete! I checked all my bedding and surrounding areas, but no sign of it. I didn't take any chances though, as the remainder of the night was spent with the light on!:o Every twitch and itch on my body didn't help either, and as for sleeping...!

I'm going to have to be brave and stick a broom handle underneath my bed to see if it's still lurking there-if you hear a scream, then a thud, you'll know what's happened LOL

warmest wishes- calla lily x

Well, I think you are very brave CL.;) I'd be outta there till it was found. 😮 My OH deals with the big spiders in our house - I only do the small ones.:D