Love them or hate them, there is something about spiders that invokes real fear in so many people that its thought our fear of them is an evolutionary development which increased survival rates.  From an Irish perspective though, fear of spiders is something thats very hard to understand.  The reason is that a spider is a great form of pest control, if there is a spider in the house, then he has to be feeding on something and personally I prefer the spider than its prey.  So although we don't consider the spider a pest, we do get a lot of queries about them.

Its the time of year when spiders come in from the outdoors and people do report an unusual amount of spiders in their homes.  A common theme is that large spiders are often found in the bath.  This is because unlike small spiders, large ones don't have the ability to climb smooth surfaces and whether they end up in the bath by accident or from an attraction to moisture, they just can't get out.

If you want to get rid of a spider, an easy technique is to get a glass jar, place it over the spider (can be tricky) and slide a piece of card (maybe a postcard) under the jar.  Then bring the jar to the bottom of your garden and let the spider free.  If you're a bit squeamish then maybe try a spider catcher which you can get in many hardware stores.

We can assist if you do get an infestation of spiders, particularly if its a species of non-native spiders which has come in from abroad on imported food or such like.  Also if you live near open fields you can sometimes get young spiderlings carried by the wind and creating an infestation.  They use a silk that acts like a sail.

No Irish spider is dangerous to humans, although they all bite and have venom, they can't bite us.  Your only possible danger is a spider from another country.

No images are used in this blog to protect the squeamish !!