this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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362
What's your houses equivalent of a poop knife. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
298 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I don't mean what you use to chop down your feces, but an object that you realized only your family has and people would raise their eyebrows at. Best if said object has a sole purpose.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago (7 children)

The frog tongs reminded me of my spider box. Because I think spiders are good and reduce insect population I don't kill them. Instead I have a shoebox with a piece of paper in it. Get spider on paper, they usually crawl right onto it if you hold it near them. Then throw paper into shoebox and close the box. Shoebox should seal and not have holes, btw. Most shoeboxes do not seal. Then take the box outside and open. +1 spider population in your yard.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I was going to say that having some method of relocating spiders outside is pretty common (whether it's a shoebox, Tupperware container, etc), but maybe I just think that because I'm Australian and we often see spiders inside in Australia lol

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

At some point I realized that I don't have to kill every dumb creature that makes the mistake of existing inside my house as my parents taught me.
So I also have live catch traps for mice. Dont get many at all but they get dropped off a couple miles from my house.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like having house spiders, they are quiet and clean, and their webs are fairly discreet. My main interaction with them is helping them out of the bath before I have a shower. I offer a flannel, spider climbs aboard, I lift the flannel to the windowsill, spider exits. Another place I appreciate spiders is inside my beehives - they help keep wax moths at bay.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Hose centipedes are great too! My partner and I call them "Basement Friends" every other insect gets relocated outside, but the centipedes get to go to the basement.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't even care if they're in my home. We get harmless ones

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I didn't really mind them. When they crawl accross my desk I take that as a request to go outside. I don't think they're going to last very long inside my house bevause there are not many bugs to eat.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I have a purpose made device for that job. It's a clear plastic cone with a hollow handle at the point. Half the open end is closed off. Inside there is a semicircular 'door' with it's own handle that sits inside the hollow one.
You place it over the creature that's getting evicted, then rotate the inner handle so the door rotates over the opening, sealing it (taking care not to trap any legs).

Then go outside and reverse the process to release it.
Personally I don't mind spiders and would rather have them around than the pests they eat, but wifey is incredibly arachnophobic, so they have to go.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've been doing something akin, but then read most of household species cannot survive outside, so you're merely changing the site of death. :(

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Damn, they must have been so happy when we finally invented houses

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I cannot find a way to "tag" you, but if you're curious, I made a response to guyrocket with the information as to why it is how it is.

tl;dr The spiders who will die when thrown outside come from different regions where they can thrive, but where they became house spiders, they cannot thrive outside.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm not sure how tagging here works either. I guess that makes sense about the spiders. I usually just put them in a hallway.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Really? Do you have a citation for that?

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Of course. Sorry for not responding quicker, I was asleep and then cozy in the bed.

https://www.livescience.com/55270-can-indoor-spiders-survive-outside.html

If the spider is a native to the area, it will likely be able to survive outside, Crawford said. But if the spider is a transplant that's become a house spider โ€” even if its ancestors made the voyage to the "new" place decades to hundreds of years ago โ€” odds are, the spider will perish outside, Crawford said.

That's because most spiders are adapted to specific places and temperatures, Crawford said.

"The American house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) [is] probably native to northern South America," Crawford said. "It undoubtedly lives outdoors just fine if your backyard is in Brazil or Guyana." Even species that moved from one climate to a similar one seem to have trouble. Take the giant house spider (Eratigena atrica), a native of England. It traveled west when the British settled British Columbia, Canada, and the species later made its way south, to Seattle.

Now, E. atrica can be found in houses across parts of the northwestern U.S. (including this reporter's childhood home). But the species is hardly ever found outside, even though Seattle's climate is fairly similar to London's.

"You would think it could survive outside, but we never find it in natural habitats around here โ€” just [in] man-made habitats, such as buildings, brick piles, junk piles and retaining walls," Crawford said. "So, it does, in fact, survive to some extent outside of buildings, but always in a man-made shelter."

What to do

If you see a spider creep across your bedroom, don't squish it โ€” but don't throw it outside, either, Crawford said. Instead, move it to another part of your residence where you don't mind having spiders, such as the garage, he suggested.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that uncommon? I also have a small box next to my bed for trapping bugs so that I can release them outside. Bonus points if it's transparent and you get to see them up close.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I really don't know how common it is. I think you're one of the few people to tell me they also do it.

Clear is a great idea.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Fortunately for me, I live in an area where there are no dangerous spiders, but if you you live in India, Australia or some other place like that, you can usually safely assume that all the spiders are out there to get you. In my case though, you don't need to worry about them, so we get along really well.

One night, I switched the lights off and went to bed. After a while, I realized I forgot to do something important, so I switched the lights back on and got up. In the middle of the now lit room I saw a big spider (tiny by Australian standards), and it quickly scurried along under the kitchen cabinets. I hadn't seen this fellow before, because apparently that's where it hides during the day. If it eats some bugs in the house, it can continue to live here. I don't mind at all.