Spiders

There must be something weird happening with the weather. Yes, I have already complained about it, but I feel this is far more important. Spiders haven’t appeared yet! This is one of the best kept secrets about UK. At least, is something nobody told me when I decided to come here. Most of the inhabitants of the UK are spiders. Yes, there are loads of them. Living in houses, gardens, in your loft. Everywhere.

People here are perfectly used to them. They have even ways of dealing with the ones that appear crawling in the kitchen cupboard or wall. You must use an empty glass and a piece of  paper,  to trap and throw the poor animal gently out to the garden. “Do it gently” they say. I’m more used to just kill them, stomping my shoe on for better effect. I know that looks a bit violent towards the poor insect, but that’s my first reaction when I see a spider.

Children here see spiders as something completely normal. Spiders are everywhere for them. Nursery rhymes, toys, tale books, TV shows… My mother had once an issue when my daughter showed her an innocent spider toy that she loved.  She was having nightmares during all her stay. Maybe that’s the reason she have not visited us for a while. So, that’s one thing to keep in mind if you plan to come to the UK. Deal with your arachnophobia.

After a few months and some scary episodes, all became normal again. For instance, if I see a big spider in our bedroom, I just set up a glass trap, like they do here, and gently throw her out of the window. In the mornings when I grab my bike for work, chances are that a spider web ends in my face. The spider will come with me to the office, attached somewhere, and it will crawl over my shoulder at some point during the day. There is no need to make a fuss. Just get rid of it, gently.

In fact, these spiders are appreciated by gardening enthusiasts. They can talk to you for hours about the complex relationships between the spiders, the ladybirds, who eats who and how this improves the health of your plants, flowers and all the stuff that usually grows in gardens. Gardening is another big topic here in the UK, I will talk about it in a future post. So, how do you deal with spiders, glass or shoe?

The pictures above are some friends that lived in my garden. I miss them (my friends, not the spiders).