Don't vacuum spiders

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Der Induktionator

Using a vacuum to suck up spiders is cruel, I believe they do far more good eating the other insects.

Isn't that cruel to all the other insects? Do you know what spiders do to them? There must be kinder ways to deal with them than getting a spider to do your dirty work, if that's something you're worried about...

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by SatansHobbit

Redbacks die! All others I let live.

So Funnel Webs are ok then SatansHobbit? I guess you don't get them in WA.

Red Backs are our version of Black Widows, Funnel Webs (according to some reports) are the world most dangerous spider.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Isn't that cruel to all the other insects? Do you know what spiders do to them? There must be kinder ways to deal with them than getting a spider to do your dirty work, if that's something you're worried about...

Er, was this meant to be humorous?

[Onyx_TKD]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

Er, was this meant to be humorous?

I think it was meant to point out the incongruity of saying spiders shouldn't be vacuumed up because it's cruel, but apparently being in favor of other bugs/insects/etc. being either vacuumed up or eaten by spiders.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Oh, maybe I missed some posts. I thought the point about not vacuuming spiders was that they would not be killed by it and would then escape with a mean attitude.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

Oh, maybe I missed some posts.

You missed the post Richard was responding to, and quoted, which said that vaccing spiders was cruel.

[Latiam]

I'm with the majority here. I don't vacuum up spiders because they are potentially useful.
Unless they are wolf spiders, which I hate and think are creepy, and one that I thought was a brown recluse, because it was dangerous, and any spider that seems intent on crawling around on the ceiling over my bed when I am trying to go to sleep.
The corners of the room and such they are welcome to. I don't take down webs until they are cobwebby.
However, if I saw a large egg sac, I don't know ifI'd be so sanguine about it. Spider, ok. Hundreds of little spiders, not so cool.
We let a BIG scary looking spider make a web right over where we walked into the house. But when an egg sac the size of a ping pong ball appeared, we took exception, and removed it. Don't remember what happened to the spider. Maybe she left.
ETA: I don't see that letting flies get caught by the spider is any crueler than flytape or my zappy racket. Maybe crueler than the flyswatter, if they don't see it coming.

[Psihala]

I usually don't have to take care of spiders/bugs/moths that get in here because the kittens are always on the alert for any scurrying thing that manages to get this far. It's part of their job, after all.

This evening they found a small beetle that found its way into the living room. It was obviously injured by the time I discovered what they were up to, but I took it outside anyway and let it go under some bushes.

Better that than to find it in the remains of their dinner later on.

~Psihala

[TrishDaDish]

I'm with Cervus. I've never heard the spider version of this before, just the tick version. (Ick. Ticks.)

[Brad from Georgia]

Okay, but if you don't vacuum spiders, how do you get them clean?

[Chloe]

Two words: car wash.

[Dasla]

Most spidars I ignore but Huntman I take outside (they are big). I have only had one case of red-backs that I know of and this was in my present block of units. It was only a little before the yearly insect pest control so I just let the guy know about it when he came.

[E. Q. Taft]

Originally Posted by Cervus

Also I nitpicked that spiders aren't bugs, they're arachnids.

They're not insects, certainly. But do you have to be an insect to be a bug? I always thought of "bug" as a more generic, non-scientific term that includes some things that aren't actually insects.

(Wikipedia says that technically, bugs are insects of the order Hermiptera -- the "true bugs" -- but informally, the term includes spiders, centipedes, ticks, etc. So I suppose you could argue either way.)

[Xia]

I usually don't kill bugs unless they are parasites, or are in the bathtub when I'm about to take a bath. If it's something that stings or is poisonous (or a firefly) I catch it carefully and relocate it outside. Flies or other flying insects that get in the house generally get caught by the cats. We don't really have any venomous spiders common to this area.

[TrishDaDish]

Yeah - if, say, you're sitting on the toilet, looking at an ad in a magazine while contemplating whatever the hell coulots are and how they're different from skorts and suddenly you notice a tick is stuck to your inner thigh, having his own breakfast... well, sure, you're gonna pluck that sucker off with some toilet paper and flush him down.

Not that that happened yesterday. Oh, noes.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by TrishDaDish

Yeah - if, say, you're sitting on the toilet, looking at an ad in a magazine while contemplating whatever the hell coulots are and how they're different from skorts . . .

In my world, culottes are short pants with wide legs. Skorts are less wide-legged and have a panel over the legs that makes them look like a skirt.

[A Cat Named Easter]

Spiders that I see don't bother me half as much as spiders that I see, look away/look back again, and then don't see. Those ones give me the worst heebee-geebees.

If they're hanging out in the cracks and crevasses and underbeds, they're fine. If I catch 'em out in the open they're fair game.

It serves as a warning to all the other spiders, dontchaknow.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by Lainie

In my world, culottes are short pants with wide legs. Skorts are less wide-legged and have a panel over the legs that makes them look like a skirt.

In my world, it's the other way around.

Seaboe

[TrishDaDish]

Coulots on House:

House: Okay... Well, let's work with that. Forget the drugs. Let's talk about textiles. What's your major product? Is it "h"? And by that I mean "hosiery."
Eddie: We do more with... culottes.
House: Is that with a "c" or a "k"?
Eddie: "C." Nobody wants "k" anymore.
House: Does your friend cut the fabric?
Eddie: No, he's a sales guy.
House: Well, he must cut a culotte here and there.
Eddie: No one touches the culottes.

~Later on in the scene snip~

House: [to Eddie]You sure your friend isn't secretly tr – [turns back to Wilson] What is a culotte, anyway?
Wilson: Pants that hang like a skirt. [House and Eddie stare at him.] Just...
[He puts his hand up to his face level and waves it, indicating that they should continue with whatever they were doing.]

And none of that has anythig to do with spiders. Or ticks. I think I'm veering this off somehow.

[Phantom]

This thread has given me an inspiration. We ended up with a few moths flying around, which I ignored, until they multiplied. We have parrots so they must be feasting on the stray crumbs. I was going nuts trying to think of a way to get rid of them. Turns out the vacuum is very handy. Sucks them right up! The vacuum uses a bag so I can't tell what happens afterward, but I'm hoping that they die in the process and can't escape.

I don't want to kill them in a cruel way, but there doesn't seem to be another way to get them out of the house, and it seems kinder than the other methods I've considered. I'm using a pheromone-laced glue traps as well for backup. I skipped a day or two of vacuuming and they started to multiply more, so I'll have to keep up a regimen.