Spiders-to help those trying to overcome their fears.

A little information prior to the photos.

Bites.

No UK spiders present any significant threat to people other than to those who may have an adverse reaction to the venom. This is no different to bees, wasps and many other biting insects. 

No UK spiders are aggressive. Some are defensive and can bite if they, for example, get trapped in clothing or 'grabbed' in the hand. No spider in the UK will deliberately 'come at you' to bite you.

Many bites (if they occur) go un-noticed, the worst are normally no more painful than a bee or wasp sting.

The most common problem with spider (and other) bites is infection from not cleaning the wound.

Spider bites are very rare and there is no way a doctor or other medical professional can know if a bite is a spider bite, and the vast majority of bites attributed to spiders are from other things (such as horse flies, Blandford flies etc. which have a far worse bite).

The spider that most people think of when talking about bites is the so called 'False Widow'. There is actually no such spider, this is a term coined by the press in their 'sensationalist' stories and present a misleading image of these very shy spiders.

Finally in this section, spiders are one of the most important creatures we are lucky enough to share our planet with. They are one of the most effective pest control agents we have.

Having said all of the above, I grew up with a profound fear of spiders. Photography, study and joining on-line groups have helped me to understand these amazing creatures and to come to terms with my fear. This year, my 65th year on the planet, I finally managed to handle a Giant House Spider, so it can be done. Good luck!

Hints on overcoming your fear.

1. Join a suitable Facebook group. I belong to one called 'British Spider Identification Group'. There are hundreds of people on here who are working to recognise, understand and appreciate spiders as they share experiences that help themselves, and others, start to get over their fears. 

2. Start slowly. If you really cannot leave a spider indoors, use the 'Glass and Card' method to carefully relocate it to the garden shed or similar. Maybe even stop to have a closer look while it is safely trapped in the glass.

3. If you have a resident spider that you think you can tolerate, give it a name and talk to it! It really does help! For example, the big Giant House Spider in the second picture below lives in our insect house, She is called 'Vanessa'. She looks mean, but she is a doll! My Grand-childen have named 2 Noble False Widows that live outside our front door and who only appear after dark 'Arachne' and 'Jordon'.

Picking spiders up. 

Spiders are sensitive animals (believe it or not) and can be easily hurt. It is better not to pick them (for their sake) but occasional careful handling can be a huge step forward to overcoming your fear (it does take time).

Don't 'grab' them. Lay your hand flat, and coax them to walk onto your hand (I know it is hard the first few times). You will be something warm, soft and pleasant. If you cannot be certain you will not shake them off in a panic, stay close to the ground. A fall can hurt of kill many spiders.

SO! lets see some pictures and get some information on particular spiders.

Here is me holding my first Giant House Spider (more details on this one in next section). I did this in the garden, sat on the lawn with bare arms so she could walk around my hand and lower arm. I have to say that I was surprised at how, non-scary the experience was. I could hardly feel her. As she walked up my arm, I just place my other hand in front and she walked onto it quite calmly and happily. She was really gentle with me.

Just out if interest, the funny 'extra legs' on her head are called 'pedipalps'. With many species, these can help to tell the gender. If they look like they have boxing gloves on the end, they are probably males.

GIANT HOUSE SPIDER (Eratigena Atrica).

Yes, a picture like this looks like it came straight from a nightmare to many, and these are the spiders that are, to many, the definition of spider horror. They can be large and very fast! However, they really are just Gentle Giants. It is their size and speed that makes us jump. When we see them in our home, they are NOT 'coming for us'. The ones you see are generally males who, at the right time of year, go looking for a mate. When they are running quickly, it is to get away from the two legged 'monster' that is shaking their world.

CELLAR SPIDER

These are the ones you often see near the ceiling in the corners of your rooms. Tiny little bodies and long skinny legs. Some people call them 'Daddy Long Legs' for obvious reasons.

These spiders are completely harmless to us. Even if they wanted to bite us, their tiny fangs couldn't even get close to piercing our thick skin.

A real surprise! If you have one of these in your room, you are far less likely to get larger spiders. 

Take another look at the picture of the Giant House Spider. Our Cellar Spider can catch, kill and eat it despite their weak appearance. HOW!!!!! It is fascination to watch. They can make a cage around a much larger spider with their legs while they then quickly wrap the prey in sticky silk. They will, of course, like all others spiders also help to keep the number of annoying buzzing pests down. 

OK, lets see 'Cute'. YES! CUTE!!!

Jumping Spiders

Most people, even those who are scared of spiders end up admitting these little one can only be described as 'Cute'.

They have fluffy faces and big baby doll eyes. Touch their backsides and they jump forward. They do not use webs to catch their food (even tinier flies etc.) but walk around on the hunt.

The much misunderstood 'FALSE WIDOW' Spider.

Of course, I have to cover the very misunderstood 'False Widows'. Members of the 'Steadota' family of spiders they are not the aggressive, dangerous beasts the press would love us to believe they are. They are shy, live most of their lives hidden away close to their webs and will do everything in their power to avoid us. As mentioned at the start, when they do bite, usually as a result of being grabbed at or squashed between us and clothing or something, for most people it is a very minor inconvenience. It is only rarely that a bite results in anything more and certainly a lot less common than bad reactions to bee or wasp stings.

Ask people you know if they have ever been stung by a bee or wasp or bitten by a spider. Almost everyone will say they have been stung at some time or other and only a tiny number (if any) will say they have been bitten by a spider. Even then, unless the bite was witnessed, most cases would not have been the result of a spider bite.

What does a false widow look like?

This is 'Steadota Nobilis' or 'Noble False Widow'. Nothing special is she? They hide away most of the time. You can find them if you move stuff in your shed or garage, or go out after dark with a torch and look in nooks and crannies in your walls as I do with my Grandchildren to look for Arachne and Jordon.

If disturbed, they will do all they can to hide away from you. It takes a while to get the confidence to handle them (although, apart from helping to overcome your fears, it is better for them to to be left in peace, but if handled as I said earlier, they should be fine).

ORB WEAVER SPIDERS (Or Garden Spiders)

These start appearing in our gardens towards the end of summer. They build those stunning and often huge circular webs that loo amazing when covered in dew or frost. Take a closer look, they will not attack you, although they may run and hide in a corer of their webs. Some of the colours and patterns are stunning! The one in this picture is a 'Cross Orb Weaver'. Identified by the white cross pattern on her back. There are many others in a range of colours and patterns.

Thats probably enough for now. But, here are some more pictures to help get you used to looking at spiders. Some are labelled, some are not.

These were ALL taken around my house and garden.

PLEASE feel free to drop comments or ask questions in the feedback section after the following photos.

Lace Weaver

An 'Interesting' Year

Well, I am starting this on the last day of 2020, hoping to finish in time for the end of the year, but who knows?

It has been an 'Interesting' year for all of us and one that will go into the history books for lots of reasons!

So far, we, and our family, have been among those fortunate enough to have avoided  Covid-19. We are lucky enough to be among those who understand how viruses work and have been careful and sensible throughout the pandemic. So, we decided to embrace the positives in an awful situation and turn it to our advantage as best we could.

Being retired has been a  blessing for us this year. Without work to worry about, we are luckier than many. Since retiring, we have filled every minute of our time and now we found ourselves with more minutes to fill!

However, this is not about the pandemic, or Brexit, but just about some of the things we have been up to during the year thanks to the pandemic. 

One of our first ventures when lockdown started was to start learning yoga. We now start every morning with a view of the sunrise across the rooftops, Enya music playing quietly in the background and working our way through 30 different poses. Works wonders at keeping our aging joints and muscles supple and gives us energy to start the day.

My camera has been very busy, but (unlike my wildlife posts) I don't want to make this an epic, just a selection of pictures tracing the year. Not even my best pictures but hope you like them.

Strange at first, but now so familiar.

Bournemouth and Weymouth bays have been popular spots for the storage of these behemoths! Sometimes just one, sometimes up to around 5. I dread to think what damage the pollution causes to our fragile sea beds. Probably in a minority I know, but I am not a fan. As an engineer by trade, I find them impressive from that point of view, but they are ugly and cause damage to some of the most fragile environments on the planet.

Nevertheless, they have formed an additional memory for 2020.

The Great Outdoors!

We have always been keen walkers and I could fill a whole blog entry, but as walking is something we always have and always will do and not unique to this year,, just a couple of the lovely skies we have walked under to show you.

Clear Skies

A lot of us noticed that the sky was clearer during the first lockdown as the haze caused by our activities got considerably reduced. This provided lots of great opportunities to get some good pictures.

Even with a fairly modest camera, a bit of care and patience can produce good shots of the moon.

Just a tip: The bottom left corner of the moon is always worth a closer look. Lots of lovely, clear craters.


Expanding kitchen skills.

I have always spent a  lot of time in the kitchen. Apart from Mince Pies at Christmas (which has become a sort of tradition), I have normally only prepared main meals from around the world.

The first lockdown presented me with more time to expand and I now find I enjoy baking as well. Here are a few of my modest efforts:

Bread

White loaves and rolls. Getting into bread making is something I have toyed with for years but never got around to. Lockdown gave me the incentive to have a go and avoid the shops. The first attempt was with our bread machine. It broke down on the first use, but that all worked out for the best! Sleeves rolled up, suitable recipes found and onto proper bread making! Better results, smells and tastes than the machine so no looking back!

We now regularly have the sight, smell and taste of fresh bread in the house.

Soda Bread

Soda bread is another thing that has been in the back oif my mind since we fell in love with it years ago on a trip to Ireland. Now I am so annoyed I did not try sooner. It is SO easy (honestly)!!! Looks and tastes great!

Home made soda bread with home made Greek salad - a lovey refreshing summer lunch!

Various Sweet Treats - all home made!

Belgian Buns - Really popular with the Grandchildren and one of my all time favourite cakes. Now made at home!

Homemade Scones - Another lovely summer afternoon treat!

Shortbread. Why haven't we made this before??? One of the easiest things in my new repertoire and tastes just like shop-bought!

And then there was Christmas!

The mince pies have been my job at Christmas for a good many years, but this year I added sausage rolls to my portfolio!

That's enough about food for now!

Our garden in lockdown.

Lockdown has given us a lot more 'Us' time this year and during the first lockdown, our days largely consisted of long walks in the morning and afternoons sunning in the garden, sometimes followed by a seafront run. 

We spent more hours sunbathing this summer than the total of all our years of marriage before. And we are talking about 44 years of marriage!!!

It has been an amazing year in our garden for wildlife. Every night we had our pair of foxes, up to 5 hedgehogs on film at the same time and a myriad of bird and insects as well as a family of breeding slow worms and our little frogs during the day!

,I have hundreds of photos from this time but here are a few at random, many taken from my garden chair!:

Everything about our garden is aimed at being wildlife friendly. Consequently, wild flowers play a big part.in the design. Many garden center flowers are created NOT to produce pollen or nectar so are not as good for bees and other insects as many people might think! They may appear to be attracted to the flowers, but they do not get what they need from them.

With  blossom on our cherry and apple tress and a full bed of wild flowers, we had an amazing year for bees and butterflies. Good to see so many bees after several years of decline.

This is one of our insect houses in front of the shed. Lots of holes, gaps, rotten wood and more to make a home to a large variety of bugs. This not only gives us a variety of bugs to enjoy but also provides food for our birds, reptiles and amphibians.

In front of our rockery we have several large slabs of tree bark. This provides a wonderful environment for slow worms and never fails to attract them on sunny days. This year we also had a brood of tiny babies (second photo).

Lots of birds this year. Sparrows in particular did very well and we regularly counted up to 30 in the garden at a time. Closely followed in number by starlings. Just two of our less regular visitors to show you below though. A little wren who visited regularly over a few weeks, and a pair of goldfinches who we only saw a few times.

And just a few more.....

And just to use up a little bit more of our newly found free time, we put in a second wildlife pond which started to attract various creatures within days!

Sometimes, the weather was not quite good enough to enjoy the garden so after too many years in the loft, out came my watercolour paints. Just a bit of a dabble, but great fun.

And finally, we decided to give our dining room a complete makeover. Stupidly, I forgot to take a 'Before' picture but here are some during and after shots. We painted the ceiling and all of the woodwork including renovating the wood where it was damaged. The whole room papered and a new fireplace built. Really happy with the result!

That is probably enough to cure you all of insomnia for now. Just finished in time to post at the end of 2020, so I would just like to finish by saying:

' HAPPY NEW YEAR'

To everyone. Lets all hope that 2021 sees an end to the madness of 2020 so we can commit it to history and look forward.

Bye for now.