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My secret weapon against spiders

This is an August essential; it’s now that the T. gigantea start coming out (although apparently they’ve now been named Eratigena atrica). I was bitten by one once during an aforementioned blanket incident, and I never bypass an opportunity to bang on about it.

There was one at my mother-in-law’s house once that I still shudder about. Will and I were up late in the living room watching telly. Ozzy (this was back before we had Freya) started sniffing along the floor and following something. We just thought he was having a funny moment. He stopped at a table against a wall and very slowly raised his head, as if watching something. His gaze gradually went higher over the next 5 minutes, and I kept looking back to him and wondering what he was thinking. Before long, he was staring up at the ceiling. It finally occurred to me to look at whatever he was seeing. And, dear God, it was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. It was big and black and thick and AWFUL. Gigantea are meant to have up to a 4-inch leg span but I absolutely swear to you this one must have been around 8 inches, it was SO big and gnarly. I don’t remember exactly how Will dealt with it but I was alarmed for some time.

And yes, I get that there are a lot of people out there defending spiders now, but that doesn’t do me any good as someone frightened by them. Ironically they didn’t scare me as a kid. My mother was always absolutely terrified of them, and I didn’t really mind until I got older and then suddenly, terror. I don’t know why, I can’t think of any specific incident that changed things.

So what’s my secret weapon? It’s not conkers or chestnuts or those weird plugins. It’s Indorex.

I started using Indorex after Freya’s Seresto got too wet and lost its effectiveness, and then we had a flea problem. It’s amazing stuff, it works on flea eggs, larvae and adults. Unfortunately nothing works on pupae, but they should be killed when they hatch if you’ve Indorexed in the last 6 – 12 months. It also kills dust mites, which I’m allergic to, so I’m very pleased about that.

Spider dead Indorex
One of the spiders we found (may have accidentally trodden on it afterwards and broken a leg off).

I discovered quite by accident after using it for the first time, that spiders were dying in the middle of our carpets. They were obviously making their way across, but dying before they got all the way. Since then I’ve discovered that you can do a quick burst directly onto a spider when confronted with one, and it will start to die. This is honestly a lifesaver for someone as easily panicked as me.

Spotting spiders in the open again can let you know it’s time to re-spray. I learned the hard way that I needed to re-spray the furniture, when a spider crawled out of a crease in the sofa arm. I had been on the sofa all morning!

Do be careful when spraying things though, because if there is a spider nestled in something, it will likely come rushing out.

But yes, in summary, I honestly love Indorex (you can buy it here) so much, it’s not only a miracle worker from a pet care perspective (only 5% of a flea infestation is actually on your pet!), but it makes it so much easier to cope with spiders.

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