Here is my famous hairy friend... Believe me, nothing sexy about this one

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The conker thing seems to be just lucky if you've seen no spiders - a class of 9 and 10 year olds won a prize in a competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry for disproving the theory...

But he thought he saw his mate on the whateveritis next to him

I tolerate 1-2 daddy-long-legs per room, as long as they stay nicely in their corners and don't move.

But this one was running and waving its legs and god knows what... Brrr....

I though "conker" was a naughty thing... My grandma had the same tradition... Never really understood why an insect/aracnid would be scared of Indian chestnuts...

Those kids deserve my personal Medal of Courage for handling those spiders fearlessly!

Oh my goodness, I thought coming to Switzerland I would finally not have to worry about icky spiders

This thread has sent shivers down my spine. I do always remember last year going into a petshop in Switzerland happily looking around and then nearly fainting when I saw a big Tarantula for sale.

In New Zealand if you lived anywhere near trees besides spiders, the very famous Avondale Spider which were used for the movie "Arachnophonia", you needed to keep an eye out for Wetas (no not the people who work on movies for Peter Jackson ) coming into your house. Ewwww.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weta

So I am going to make sure this weekend I am going to find some conkers for my protection hehe.

Dear Bluecat, I would hate to give you the creeps as you've only recently arrived - so to balance my recent horror story, I have to say that over the years I've seen very few in the places I've lived. This year is just ... special. I'm also going out this evening to get bucket loads of conkers.

I think there needs to be an "EEEEEEKKK!!" button. Yikes. That or a button that says "Squish!"

I'll just leave this here....feel free to squish

http://i.imgur.com/Y7bap.jpg

Are you saying that this big spider lives in this country?
I was surprised to hear that about England but I thought here we are safe from them.
This is not really good news.
After that video I won't close my eyes this evening I guess. Thanks a lot...

...I hold this thread responsible for waking me up at 4:00am with a bad dream.

An army of spiders of various shapes, sizes and colors descended upon me, biting me incessantly, rendering me paralyzed. Only I could hear the screams as they sucked the juices out of my body.

Thaaaaaaaaanks!

It has apparently been a particularly good autumn for spiders.

Here are a selection:
NSFW (Not suitable for wimps)

Guardian Spider Photos

Go on! You know you want to look really

I found some spider repellant spray in Migros last weekend - I liberally sprayed my side windows where a few of the creepies have been setting up camp over the last month or so (I like to open those windows, but don't want them getting in, urgh).

It seemed to work as they all scuttled off extremely quickly. However, it also seems to work on humans, and I spent the next 2 hours sneezing virtually non stop. Karma's a b*tch.

Why do I always look when I know I shouldn't?!! I need a drink.

Last night just before I go to bed I saw something on the wall that apperared to be a spider, but I thought it can't be, it's too big for a house spider. And indeed I was right, it was a giant home spider

The body was around 2-3cm long and in total with the legs was around 8cm. I captured it in a glass and took some photos. It had fur on the legs, this thing was creeeeepy.

Photos aren't the best and don't really show how big this beast was.





I threw it from my window into the garden. Went back to bed......5 minutes later a very very small sound just behind my bed....It can't be again...I don't believe it.....Well, ANOTHER one BUT BIGGER!




This one went into the toilet. No humanity was left in me. Besides being creepy with their furry legs, they were so fast I could not believe my eyes!

I think they entered by the window from the trees around it.

I checked out some photos, I think the breed was hobo spider or Tegenaria duellica. Check what wikipedia says about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_house_spider

Yep .... looks like a spider, to me.

Don't worry about it - he will return to from whence he came. In the meantime he might catch and eat some of the mossies that seem to be still around, due to the milder weather.

No spiders but last year had an invasion of ladybirds. Lovely little creatures broke my shutters. So this year when they appeared I just kept the windows closed and now no ladybirds. Maybe you need to do the same thing with the spiders.