Spiders!

[YnysMon]

It's that time of the year when we (don't) welcome spiders in to our boats. How about this one? Apparently it's quite big and was once native to the Broads. 

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/thousands-of-rare-spiders-the-size-of-rats-released-across-the-uk-457321

[ExSurveyor]

Why would anyone think that was a good idea 😁

I think if we hadn't been onboard for the summer the boat would have looked like a scene from Miss Havisham's wedding feast.

[YnysMon]

28 minutes ago, ExSurveyor said:

Why would anyone think that was a good idea 😁

I think if we hadn't been onboard for the summer the boat would have looked like a scene from Miss Havisham's wedding feast.

Well, at least they are apparently ‘harmless’. 

[Gracie]

Harmless? Harmless? Have you read the link properly and seen the pictures? They can grow to the size of rats, meeting one of them would scare me to death. Harmless, I really don't think so thank you very much 

Now I am just off to clean under my bed, check corners and cupboards before I go to sleep, if I ever sleep again 

Grace x

[Smoggy]

If anyone likes spiders and feels left out I have quite a few going spare, can deliver as long as you take a job lot.

When scanning aroung that site it has an air of suffolk gazette about it, I wouldn't get too concerned........

 

[Lulu]

We have asked quite a few spiders to vacate the boat this week. It’s the ones that suddenly drop from above out of nowhere like mission impossible that freak me out .  

[kpnut]

Conkers - there was me being so sceptical about them and bingo, the spiders are kept at bay. Once I removed the conkers in June, I've been plagued by them. Could just be a co-incidence of course!

[Smoggy]

Conkers are great with spiders, thread a string though and when a spider appears splat the tw*t.

[addicted]

Because  they are such a common occurence, boating has to a great extent  improved my reaction  to the sight of a spider  I still loathe  them  with a passion. And their omnipresence this time of year is  still very unwelcome and I can't even imagine my reaction to seeing one of those described in the newspaper article.

 

 

Carole

[kpnut]

You should try the spider hypnotherapy course at London Zoo Carole. Its only a day and wasn't too expensive. My daughter went, she couldn't cope with even a tiny one and it was hamering her career in ecology. And now doesn't bat an eyelid. She said the course was really interesting and there was no pressure on anyone to handle any creepys unless they felt they wanted to.

[ChrisB]

Either the author of the article does not know a mouse from a rat. Or they have very small rats where he lives!

As Ricky Tomlinson used to say in The Royale Family:-

" Size of rats my ☆☆☆☆".

[ChrisB]

Or he has confused his mm with his cms.

[maynard]

While we're on the subject of spiders... always check your gloves before you put them on!

[Smoggy]

7 minutes ago, maynard said:

While we're on the subject of spiders... always check your gloves before you put them on!

False widow?

[maynard]

Just now, Smoggy said:

False widow?

 

Just now, Smoggy said:

False widow?

Yep... in my Hoveton shed! I spared you the other picture 

[kpnut]

I heard from a cycling friend today. She’d stopped under a tree and took her helmet off. Felt a tickle in her ear and swiped the fly away, or so she thought. 
After a few hours of buzzing in her ear, she went to A+E and they spotted something deep down in her ear. Put olive oil in and what came out was a black spider the size of her little finger nail. The buzzing of wings as she thought, was the spider scratching its legs in her ear drum. Her ear drum is now rather inflamed. Uggggh. 

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, maynard said:

 

Yep... in my Hoveton shed! I spared you the other picture 

There was one in your mankini too? 

[YnysMon]

I'm starting to regret starting off this thread!

Eek!

[maynard]

43 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

There was one in your mankini too? 

The swelling would have been welcome I must admit. 

[maynard]

27 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

I'm starting to regret starting off this thread!

Eek!

I think this one has got legs.....

[Smoggy]

23 minutes ago, maynard said:

I think this one has got legs.....

8 of em.

[ExSurveyor]

We had a false widow spider on the mooring electric post during the summer, grandson said I couldn't 'relocate' it. As soon as he went home the spider went somewhere else.

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, ExSurveyor said:

We had a false widow spider on the mooring electric post during the summer, grandson said I couldn't 'relocate' it. As soon as he went home the spider went somewhere else.

Splated I hope  they're not native.

[ExSurveyor]

2 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Splated I hope  they're not native.

Fed to the fishes and ducks whilst singing the circle of life 😇

[wooster]

5 hours ago, maynard said:

While we're on the subject of spiders... always check your gloves before you put them on!

Nasty! Bet the spider wasn't too chuffed either though! I haven't heard of this particular beast until now so I'm learning something here.

Jesting aside I cannot be unkind to spiders. If one is stuck in the house ( or boat ) I go to great lengths to release it carefully into the wild.