Okay, I'll be the softie of the bunch - and Marilyn, this is not a criticism of your advice at all - there are some dangerous spiders out there, I've seen some people with long term health effects from the brown recluse bite.

I hate glue traps. I know we live in a world where death is inevitable, but for all of the deaths - necessary or not - I try to make them quick and as painless as possible. I can deal with the spiders, but have a bit of phobia with rats - had problems with a rat infestation in our garage in TN - very rural, but not enough predators. Glue traps were suggested, and after seeing the results, I couldn't use them again. It's basically starvation or dehydration.

So, if you can find another way ... guess I'd say I'm thankful for my cats making it less of an issue for me.

Not to pick with anyones point of view but I don't care if a spider starves to death in a glue trap. Don't feel anything for them at all. Now I don't like rats either but would not use a glue trap on them, I agree that it is a cruel way to go.

To me, a slow death is horrible. But I've also seen what happens to mice with rat poison.. basically they bleed to death all over the place. It's horrific, plus if a predator finds the carcass, they can die the same death because they're eating the poison too. If you have to kill something, do it fast. Mouse trap, shoe, whatever. That's why I try to take bugs away from the cats if they're not killing it fast enough. I hate seeing the cats deleg a poor spider and then bat it around while it's alive. I usually get a piece of papertowel & squish it and then give the kitty a pompom to torture.

I would never use the glue traps to catch mice, voles or rats, which is why I use the small traps that mice cannot get inside of. But for those big ugly spiders that used to scare me half to death when I lifted or moved something, sorry, that's just the way it is.

Yep, I totally agree with Margaret.

How does the glue trap "work" regarding spiders?

It sounds like it would be horrible to the spiders. Why glue in the trap, anyway?

Maybe I'll just let them live alive in the house.

Marilyn, the spiders walk in the glue, they get stuck and stay stuck, sadly they die, but such is life.

@mcash70 gave us a good recommendation for glue traps to rid our homes of spiders. The idea may not appeal to all of us, and some of us may not intend to use the glue traps, but it is a really good and useful suggestion.
These are available at WalMart, I just checked. They are affordable, easy to use, and disposal is neat and simple.

Thank you, Green.

As I said, **please** do not take my comments as a criticism (and I apologize - I said Marilyn, not Margaret!). I mean no meanness or nastiness whatsoever, and really believe that everyone here is as compassionate and ethical as they can be. I have read posts from you for quite a while and have no issues with you at all.

And I am certainly not some paragon of virtue in this arena. I just wanted to raise another point of view. I didn't think of it at all prior to using the glue traps on the rats and really felt awful afterwards. I only wish I had someone mention it to me before I used them.

Margaret, Rita - I hope you understand what I'm saying. I'm not trying to persuade you otherwise, or say that you are wrong for doing what you need to do. I hope you can hear that and not be hurt or offended - that is not my intent.

Perhaps we need some kind of emoticon - maybe the Pillsbury Dough girl (softies)? Tree hugger?

No problems with me. I totally understand what you are saying.

No offense taken Sheryl, you just voiced your opinion.

Back when I was breeding canaries, I had bad seed moth problems. Used these traps here exclusively:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HJ7AIY/

Work great on those little bitty moths. Yuck! They'd get into EVERYTHING that wasn't sealed in a jar.. nothing quite like opening a box of RiceARoni & having more than Rice & Pasta in it...

Extra protein; why complain.

greene said:Extra protein; why complain.

Oh, here's a great one for the most humane way to dispatch a spider.

http://garfield.com/comic/1995...

Oh, eeewww!

And I ain't talkin' sheep!

Skiekitty said:Oh, here's a great one for the most humane way to dispatch a spider.

http://garfield.com/comic/1995...

Toni, your right, that is quick and humane!

mcash70 said:No offense taken Sheryl, you just voiced your opinion.

I still don't know if I'll get spider traps. Whenever the Harvestmen (daddy long legs) get into the house in the Falls, I always try and get him/her outside alive. I don't want anything to happen to them. When I'm outside in the Falls and see them, I avoid stepping on them. "I feel a kinship with them".

Oh, I always wanted to do this...

Did you know that harvestmen are not real spiders; they have eight legs like spiders, and belong to the class Arachnida -
but they aren't spiders.

See, I learned that two months ago and this was my first chance to show off my new found knowledge. Woo-hoo. I am patting myself on the back. (I wouldn't kill them.)