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Comment by bob1029 | Hacker News Reader

I have a rule with the spiders where if they get too bold they get the vacuum. I don't mind them lurking in the corners but I don't want them crawling across my desk. I think most of them understand the arrangement by now. Only occasional enforcement is necessary.

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I tried this with a yellowjacket and a screamer of a Shop Vac that has a six-foot hose. I was sure it would have suffocated from the dust inside the vacuum bag clogging its spiracles.

Next morning, the wasp (now with tattered wings) was sitting in the corner of a window. I have no idea how it made it out.

It's probably a pretty natural path for the wasp assuming it survived the initial time you were running the vac. The shopvac is just a big container with at the top an exit path following the wall naturally out the tube. They don't even tend to have a flap like smaller hand vacs might have to keep dust from falling out during use.

Use glass and a paper sheet, much easier and less harsh on the "bugs".

I don't find that any easier, and generally don't care about insect welfare.

I feel guilty when I take down the webs. Wool dusters work as well as the vac.

Lately I have been trying to get macro photos of spiders hanging on their threads and so far failing because they see the camera and drop down a foot before I can set up the shot.

I'm sure putting it outside makes you feel better but it's a death sentence regardless for most house spiders to be put into the outdoors.

Why?

This was my exact arrangement with them when I used to live in a basement suite that was crawling with them.

glass and piece of card, come on!

Incidentally, this method cured me of arachnophobia. Having it trapped inside the glass, yet in my hand and up close to take a closer look, allowed me to gradually see them as not all that scary. It's like that therapy where you gradually get closer to the thing you're afraid of (desensitization?).

I like to think of them as little robots, however I still need to get my partner to move them.

I think it’s their speed which I don’t like!

THIS. You can then also show the spider to the kids for added interest before releasing it into the wild.

The point is to send a message to the other spiders.

I deal with trespassing flies this way. They spend some time in fly jail (butterfly net, twisted closed and propped against the door frame through which they entered) pour encourager les autres, then they go free outside at dusk.

Pheromones, interpretive dance, telepathy,—I don’t know exactly how the others get the message but I know that they do, and they stay on the correct side of the doorway.

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