spiders in the bath

[Pam29]

If you find a spider in the bath and rinse it down the plughole does that kill the spider or will it crawl back up again when your not looking?

[Ethel]

It will be flushed away and drown.


Unless it is one of those extra pesy ones that use snorkels.

[Lonnie]

Ethel may well be right, but I read that they can cocoon themslves with a sort of air bubble,

[Thunderbird+]

I think the answer is maybe yes and maybe no.
They do sometimes drown in the torrent but often make a remarkable recovery and haul themselves out of the water and when quiet enough, he/she may come out of the overflow (which is conected to the waste pipe) and get trapped in the bath again. If one keeps reappearing, its a pretty safe bet thats whats going on.
If you can pluck up the courage, its best to release them outside, in my opinion. A humane way of doing this is to place a glass over the top of it, then slide a piece of card under nieth then take him on a trip to the yard, a piece of cake once you've done it a couple of times!
Another method is, scrunch up some toilet tisue and place it over the spider and gently squeeze your fingers together to hold him until you get outside.
NOTE, This applies to non venimus spiders in the UK.

[SaxyJag]

You'll probably kill it. They don't actually come up through the plughole, but out of the overflow, which they lurk behind until it's quiet.

If you really can't face handling them with card and glass, just drape a piece of toilet paper over the side of the bath so that it reaches the bottom. Then just go away and leave it for a couple of hours. Most sensible arachnids will have climbed out and gone by then,

[electricblue]

they will come back up BUT we now use very hot water,running for 10 mins,then the plug in the hole and sellatape over the overflow Grenades around the side of bath/sink should it DARE to try re-enter,if it sends in reinforcements via windows or doors,Mr dyson is ready and waiting to act if i call him!!Often i do!!

[andy-hughes]

The notion that spiders climb up drains / overflows is a myth. They are far too clean in their habits to go anywhere near a dirty germ-infested damp plug or drain hole.

All that's happened is, making their way around the house, the spider has crawled or dropped into the bath and is unable to climb out again, which is why you find them in baths and basins.

Flushing them down the plughole is virtually certain to drown them, so please follow the humane release sugggestions given.