Readers have been sharing these hair-raising snaps of the biggest eight-legged beasts in Wakefield following the news that spider season has started early this year as huge sex crazed arachnids invade our homes.
The season is beginning early thanks to the unseasonable heatwave driving them out of their garden hiding places and into homes.
House spiders will remain in their webs in sheds, garages and wood piles during the summer, until going on the hunt for a mate in autumn.
That means they’ll be moving into your house in the hope of getting some action.
Despite their fearsome looks, house spiders aren’t dangerous - and can be safely taken back to the garden with a glass and a bit of paper (but you might want to close your windows).
Spiders also play an important role in your home’s ecosystem - they eat flies, aphids, ants, moths and other pests that can clutter up your home.
In many ways, a spider is the best critter you can keep on hand (but they aren’t to everyone’s tastes).
How can you keep spiders out of your house?
- Close all doors and windows
- Seal gaps around windows and doors, make sure there are no gaps in skirting boards or in plaster joins. You can use a bit of filler from a DIY store to put into cracks or gaps
- Draw a chalk line around your bed or across doorways. Spiders taste with their feet - they don’t like crossing chalk.
- Lemon juice also works, but this may attract flies instead.
- Peppermint oil - spiders hate the taste and the smell. Spray this along windowsills and door frames.
- Conkers DON’T work. It’s a myth!
1. Huge!
This was shared by Phil Adamson-Tennant who said: "Saw this last week in my house...size of that, I should have been charging him rent!"
