Prepare yourselves ladies, it's autumn and we will be gearing up again for the march of the humungous, brown, male McHairys on the rantan. I think last autumn was the worst for me, I never had that many in my farmhouse down under! As fast as I evicted one another would appear.

That is simply beautiful! An amazing piece of work by a spider. So delicate, yet strong enough to hold the weight of the spider and anything trapped within it. If you have walked into a spider's web, it's pesky stuff to get off.

......... I wonder where the owner was wandering.

Lex, that spider looks almost big enough to take a saddle and rider..

Horse chestnuts are supposed to be repellant to spiders. Seems they don't like chestnut oil and are never found on chestnut trees||||?
I scattered around 15 conkers on my windowsills last year and also kept them in pot pourri dishes and candle holders (electric candles) it did seem to help. The Lakeland spider catchers are good, but the tube is too short for my liking. I'd prefer one 5 times that length, but then I'm seriously phobic about spiders and I'm sure I can sense them when they are in a room. There is a hoover built into the tube which is strong enough to suck up big ones too. It doesn't harm them and they can be released outdoors, or preferably sqaushed by someone brave enough to stamp on them. (stops them breeding)
Now I'm going to look into electronic repellers. Anyone know how they work?