Spiders - Hausspinne

[DrYazz]

Was listening to a news item on the radio this morning about spiders, and it got me thinking.

I have been in Vienna for a year and a half now, living in 4 different Bezirks and have not encountered a single spider.

Any idea why this is?

The previous 10 years in England, they were a very common sight in the house, garage and garden. Quite often large(ish) spiders, and would quite easily make you jump.

[sunflower]

I have caught one landing on my laptop from the lamp just the other day. That's one in the 7 months I am here:) I would say scarcely, but they do exist:) I am living in an altbau wohnung. Maybe that's the trick..

[Sunshine]

I had a tiny light coloured one in my bathroom sink this week, and have had the odd daddy longlegs in my toilet.. but that's it. Do you live in a house with a garden dryazz? I am pretty sure they will turn up there, but not so much in a appartment in a city.

I remember when I lived in england, and we had a big garden, there were spiders everywhere, huge ones too.. <shudder>.

[Bramish]

I was talking about this the other day. Growing up in the North of England I'd always see spiders around the house.

When I first moved to London I noticed they were scarcer there but still around.

Here I've barely seen any indoors in 3 years - there are a lot of the big spindly ones in my girlfriends' parents' cellar and I've encountered a couple of really tiny ones in our flat in Vienna bu yeah, I find it odd.

Suits me though as I'm a wuss that's a bit scared of them, although I think they look brilliant and fascinate me.

[chefsmith]

although I think they look brilliant and fascinate me.

You sir, need your head examined.

They are one of a handful of things that scare the shit into me, they are evil little bastards who ambush you at will, move at the speed of light and the ( myth maybe ) common UK house spider has an extremely potent poison, which luckily it cant deliver due to tiny fangs, but i bet they try to anyway.

My female neighbour knocked once to the house in her nightie to say there was a spider in her bed, she was petrified, I closed the door in her face.

Its great not having them.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... fraid.html

[WienA]

We have spiders living in our flat, they leave webs around for me to clean...

[Bramish]

Haha, as I said, I'm scared of them too - but I love living things that look so alien in comparison to humans

[DrYazz]

Do you live in a house with a garden dryazz? I am pretty sure they will turn up there, but not so much in a appartment in a city.

I have lived in apartments on the 5th floor (Florisdorf), 5th floor (Favoriten) and now 1st floor (Vorgartenstraße). 17 months in all seasons, and not come across a single spider. Which I am not complaining about!

But all these apartments had green communal areas/ gardens, garages, sheds and bins on the ground floor, good breeding ground for spiders, no?

But I did spend a month in a large house with a garden, trees and pond in the 22nd. That was in December, but not knowing anything about the life cycle or habits of our 8-legged freak friends, I am not sure if that house would be riddled with the buggers at a different time of year.

[CapnNismo]

I've had maybe one spider in my apartment in the nearly four years I've been here. Not really ever had any pests at all, either.

[Chaos]

Ok, so this is FREAKY. Was reading this thread earlier and wrote a response on how indeed thankfully there aren't so many spiders in and around the houses here cause I have a huge fear of spiders (although agree with Bramish, they are also very intriguing)
Then I thought maybe I will jinx my spider free environment if I post this! So I didn't post it.
Sitting at my desk studying 30 minutes later, from the corner of my eye all of a sudden I see something moving and this disgusting thing is crawling all over my papers on my desk! It was not huge but disgusting nevertheless and just too many legs and it moved very erratically and yuk ughhhg bluuuuh!! Then I quickly caught it under a glass.
Seriously, I think we've jinxed it with this thread, we're all going to have spider invasions in our house now.

[Chaos]

The proof:

http://www.vienna-expats.net/gallery/in ... r-19178817

Disgusting!
I think we should delete this thread before we jinx it any further.