• MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    My house spiders are cool. They eat the flies etc and I fish them out of the way before I have a shower. The only disagreement we have is over their little lair in the kitchen. There’s a tiny hole in the skirting board in one corner, and cobwebs gather there. Now and then I brush away the webs and plaster over the hole. A week later the hole is back and the webs too.

  • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    As long as the spiders don’t break our agreement they can stay. They eat the bugs and pests, and they can live in the corners of my house. As soon as they come to the floor they’re dead.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Got bit on my left leg last week by a brown recluse I didn’t see. Garage is probably full of them

  • GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I have zero issues with spiders living in my home, they just have to stay out of my sight.

    If they evolve to be better at hiding, it’s a win win.

  • Arctic_monkey@leminal.space
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    5 hours ago

    The reclusiveness selection argument makes sense, but why intelligence? Brains are crazy metabolically expensive, and I can’t see why a smart reclusive spider would survive humans any better than a merely reclusive one.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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      1 hour ago

      Probably thought that you need to be smart to hide well, which is not at all how it works for most animals but IS how it works for humans.

    • Liz@midwest.social
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      4 hours ago

      It wouldn’t. They just added that in there for the scaries and they probably didn’t think it through much.

  • Luc@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    I think this every time I kill a mosquito or fruit fly but they don’t seem to be getting any faster, smarter, or quieter. Where’s Darwin when you need him to answer some questions?

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      4 hours ago

      There’s just so many that the relative few getting killed by swatting aren’t having an impact on their genetics.

      • Liz@midwest.social
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        4 hours ago

        Also we’ve been doing it for millennia. The evolutionary pressure is already there. These are just the ones with the random mutations that make them slow enough to slap.

        It’s like asking why gazzel aren’t fast enough to outrun a lion.

  • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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    8 hours ago

    In our house the rule is spiders can stay if they’re out the way (up high, etc). When they get too close for comfort for my wife’s tolerance limits, I pick them up and put them outside. Spiders are friends.

    • tetris11@feddit.uk
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      7 hours ago

      That almost rhymed, how about:

      In our house the spiders can stay
      If they’re out of the way.
      If they get too close,
      Then it’s time to vamo(o)se

  • Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca
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    7 hours ago

    I have the same thoughts about hitting squirrels with my car.

    Not that I do it on purpose or feel good about It, but I tell myself that at least the survivors will pass on their survivor traits to the next generation.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Deer kill more americans than any other animal. If anything they’re becoming more top heavy and more lethal to make drivers hesitate before hitting them. Eventually evolution will make them explode and send a cloud of shrapnel out when struck by a car.

  • HeyMrDeadMan@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Whenever I see a spider in the house, I don’t kill it. I do however, pick up my cat and say, “look dude, move out along before she figures out how to get to you. She will murder your ass.”

    The spider, always, leaves.