I have a severe spider phobia, and when I moved to Germany I never imagined I would encounter spiders like this, just randomly walking around inside my home. It has made my day-to-day life really hard. I genuinely struggle to live peacefully knowing that one of these could walk right next to me without me noticing.
What makes it worse is how fast they move — every time I see one I feel like I’m about to have a heart attack.
I currently live in a smaller city with a small garden. We’re planning to move, and I’m desperately hoping to reduce the chances of dealing with this again. Do you think living in a bigger city or in a higher-floor apartment would help? Are there areas or housing types in Germany where spiders are less common indoors?
They first appeared in August, and the last one I saw was in November. I’ve heard there’s a mating season, but I’m terrified that I’ll move into a new place and then, once summer or fall comes, I’ll be dealing with the same thing all over again 😭😭😭
I know they’re harmless, and I really wish logic helped, but it doesn’t. I genuinely cannot live peacefully or happily knowing they might be in my home. Please be kind; this fear is very real for me and causes panic attacks.
Any advice, experiences, or reassurance would mean a lot.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1q41egw
Posted by GingerKimd
36 Comments
Second floor already negates spiders in livable spaces by probably 80%. Lived ground floor for 20 years, the recent 2 on a second level and I really haven’t seen any. Maybe a tiny tiny, half-a-pea sized spiderlings but nothing bigger than maybe a centimeter.
Definitely more common in single family homes than in apartment buildings (particularly in basements). The higher the floor the less bugs, in my experience.
The higher the floor and the less greenery there is around the house, the fewer spiders.
I used to live in a house covered in ivy. That was interesting. You shouldn’t choose a house like that.
Housing Marketing is tough- take what place you can get and then invest in screens on every window and door.
Holy shit I’ve never such spiders and have lived in different houses throughout my 12yrs here
Living on a higher floor could def help, especially with the big ass spiders. Generally you will encounter more spiders in more rural areas
Set your biggest vacuum cleaner to maximum power and switch it on. Use the long tube (remove the brush). Slowly approach the spider – it is frightened and will not move until it is too late. Click-click, it is already dead before it reaches the bag. No, it won’t come out again either.
Definitely move to a higher floor. Higher than nearby trees, if you can. Avoid having plants inside the house, too. That may be a little extreme, but it depends on how bad your phobia is. Mosquito nets won’t just keep out the mosquitoes.
In which region do you live in Germany? For me living in South West Germany, having big Nosferatu spiders in the house is a common sighting now for some years. They originally come from the Mediterranean.
[Distribution of Nosferatu spiders in Germany](https://www.mdr.de/wissen/umwelt-klima/nosferatu-ausbreitung-deutschland-gruende100.html)
Oh boy, I feel it.
it’s the same for me, so, what helped me, is kinda weird, but it helped.
I once read that trembling spiders are the natural enemies of these spiders in the picture (I think they are called große Hauswinkelspinne, they are extremely fast and the worst nightmare).
So stopped removing / beeing afraid of trembling spiders and grew an army of them. Each room now has about 3-5 trembling spiders and since like a year or so, I have not seen on of the bad spiders anywhere in the house.
Hope it helps lol.
Higher floors help. I encountor small spiders in basement and sometimes in my room (first floor, and thin spiders that dont trigger my phobia).
But ive had 2 encounters with larger spiders than your post, and they were both on ground floor/summer time. Nearly missed my ICE cause i had to battle one
I ate a spider once lol, didnt even feel the taste but still was an awful experience
If spiders cause you to have panic attacks i would seriously and unironically consider seeking professional help. Maybe some therapy can ease the fear.
I’m in third floor and have flynets on all windows: haven’t seen a spider inside for years
Higher floor + get a cat 🙂
Higher flat, very few plants and being a clean freak (if you have dirty areas that attract insects, insects attract spiders because they can feed there), as well as mosquito nets in every window should help a lot to prevent them coming in. Check any doors and make sure they have some insulation. You can also have some spray with peppermint/cinnamon essential oil and spray the possible entrance areas (windows and doors frames).
I think Australia is a good place for you
Higher floor will help. Used to live in ground floor, have them as well. Also some spiders with long thin legs crawled from ventilation.
Moved to 5th floor, problem solved completely.
In addition to what others have said (2nd floor upwards and mosquito net are a must):
Be conscious when you open the windows. Best time to air is when the weather is dry and sunny and late morning to early afternoon.
Never open the window during a rainy night. Spider are most active when their prey is active, which is during dawn and dusk and rainy/humid weather. This is when they crawl around.
bigger cities away from parks in an as new as possible building and then several floors up REDUCES the amount and the size. You will see fewer and usually smaller ones from time to time. Avoid Altbau and lower floors and especially the combination of Altbau and lower floors near a park.
What you want to do, regardless of floor you live in:
Moskito nets in your windows. There are cheap, standard sized clip-in solutions that help in keeping them out.
Herbs on your window stills. Peppermint, lavender and basil help keeping them away.
Optional: Indoor cats. Spiders are eight legged snacks for them.
I live on the second floor in Hamburg with mosquito Nets. Not even sure when I last saw a spider. Just avoid Hafencity
Get a cat, they kill them as soon as they find them. They try to play catch and kill the poor things
How about Cognitive behavioral therapy? Your phobia sounds severe.
Upper floor, if possible in a city.
I live on a ground floor and for my first year I had a ton of spiders but second year we added on screens and our amount of spiders dropped by 99%. We haven’t had a single huge spider only a few of the smaller cellar spiders
Get a cat 😺 🕷️
I used to live in a third floor flat in the city center (in Germany) and only had one spider in six years. The house I grew up in was covered in ivy and is a different story lol. Hence I couldn‘t help but notice the stark difference when I moved out…
Also, if you hate this species, I would avoid the UK. Somehow there are even worse there. Oddly enough I lived on higher floors there, in various flats, and I still dealt with them all the time during huge spider season!!! (Which is late august to september, roughly)
I never see these things anymore, I’ve seen maybe three or four in the 15 years I’ve lived in Germany, but these things are standard issue in the UK, I’m talking throwing a couple out per month, more once you get into september/October.
My wife wouldn’t believe me when I first met her how big spiders get in the UK, until she came face to face with one.
You should install fly screens / screen doors in every window. And – very important – they come through the roller shutter boxes at the point where the belt comes through the wall. You can only prevent this by sealing everything there. But then you won’t be able to use the roller shutters anymore.
I havent encountered those big spiders. However, I manage to stop spiders from making nets in every corner every week to nearly never again with peppermint and lavender oil. I dropped those oils on the door and window corners, also the ceiling corners. Insect nets on every window that you open also decrease the amount of any bug entering your apartment.
Give him the keys, and leave!
Most of the commenters are right. A higher floor will help you meet less spiders.
BUT (and it’s a big one!) if you have them in the house and already see the males running about to find a lady they are basically behind every big furniture piece.
You won’t really see the bigger females because they happily keep sitting where they are at and not move that much.
This means if you already see the males running around, not just a single one, you probably have a healthy big female somewhere producing lots of babys. You can try deep cleaning behind every furniture piece (especially under kitchen cabinets and such that generally don’t get cleaned to often) and evict the spiders you find.
I like spiders and watched a big female live behind a glass terrarium and she produced a few eggsacs a year and probably kept the population steady by herself.
Tldr: clean behind and under every cabinet and other furniture pieces because if you have males running around like that you probably have a lady somewhere keeping the population steady.
Have you thought about seeking treatment for the phobia? I was in a similar situation once, utterly disgusted and terrified by the thought of them crawling around, and panicked when I collided with a net and thought I could feel them on my face and hair. It got especially bad after I had found one between my bedsheet and mattress, due to the big, moving bulge in the sheet.
However, in recent years, I learned to live with them most of the time. If there is an especially big one, or one of them gets too close to my bed for my peace of mind, I will still call my wife and ask her to catch it and throw it out the window. But otherwise, I leave them be, taking care to just remove old, dusty nets when vacuuming, but not accidentally vacuuming the spiders.
I worked on my tolerance because I get bitten by *all* the damn mosquitoes (while my wife does not get a single bite as long as I am in the same room). The spiders are great allies against this threat. And after all, there are almost no dangerous spiders in Germany. Only a single native species common in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt with a bite that really hurts (but that one prefers to live outside), one species that rapidly spreads (due to climate change), and that might cause symptoms similar to the sting of a wasp, and one species that is very rare, very easy to recognise, and the only spider that might actually kill people in very rare cases. So the actual risk is very small, and the benefits of keeping a few spiders around might be worth it.
A cat will do wonders for you, no matter where you end up moving to
For some time I used to spray raid around all entrances (windows, doors etc). It actually helped.