<p>I am finally doing this out of desperation because I really do not know what else to do. </p>
<p>I am extremely arachnophobic and bug-phobic. It just turns out that my room is infested with spiders. I understand that to some of you out there, this is a rather trivial and amusing matter. But to someone who is genuinely terrified, it is crippling and extremely disabling. I cannot focus or concentrate on work, and most importantly, I NEVER feel safe in my own room. </p>
<p>I usually see an average of 3 spiders per day, and sometimes 5-6 per day. I have tried everything, I have cleaned, swept, sprayed, put dried orange peels everywhere (as I read on some website that the smell repels them but that didn't really work), I have set sticky traps everywhere, and I have called the pest control at my college but all they do is put more sticky traps and those apparently don't work. I don't eat in my room and I have cleaned to the best of my ability. I have even prayed. In fact, facing a spider infested room was one of my biggest anxieties about starting school again.</p>
<p>I really do not want to live my life in fear and it is affecting me academically. I also do not think there is an option of moving somewhere else. What should I do? Do you have any suggestions, advice? Sorry if I sounded like I was rambling but I've been crying for the past hour because I just saw 3 spiders in 3 different places at the same time. </p>
<p>I understand where you’re coming from. Hate it when people brush off fears that they find silly.
Can you find out where they’re coming from? Look in all the cracks and corners to see if there’s any nests or entry points. (Corners of closets and window sills, behind furniture, especially anywhere you see a lot of them.)
You might want to get a friend to help you. Seal up (duct tape or clear packing tape over any holes or cracks and remove any nests/egg sacs. If they’re coming from the hallway, maybe get one of those wind-blocking things people put on the bottom of their entry doors.
Also, make sure there aren’t any bugs the spiders might want to feed on in your room. The same practices listed above will help, also make sure all food is put away & sealed up & crumbs are swept & garbage is emptied frequently.</p>
<p>I used both roach + spider spray.
The thing is I don’t know where they are coming from. They usually are in the corners of the walls (where I put sticky traps) and around the windows. I don’t see any visible cracks around the windows though. But they’re not just found in those areas. Sometimes the jumping ones will come up to my desk, sometimes I find one when I open a book or a binder, and sometimes (like yesterday) a silver one drops down right in front of my face, then slowly crawls back up its string, drops down again, and crawls back up, and drops down again.
Just now, I opened the curtains to find one dangling on a string. </p>
<p>99% of the time they are big spiders (size of a nickel). </p>
<p>And I’ve been trying to face my fears. It’s just very emotionally-exhausting when you see at least 2 every single day and they are always a huge unpleasant shock.</p>
<p>The school exterminator came but all he did was put sticky traps which never worked. I told him that, but apparently that’s all he could do for now. </p>
<p>I’m doing everything I can think of. I swept cobwebs away yesterday and woke up this morning to find a new one.</p>
<p>My daughter’s corner room at SUNY had a nest of spiders just outside of her room in the hall window. Both she and I are arachnophobic. It’s a serious problem and we had tried to get help for it. I completely get where you are coming from and sympathize because I know how you’ve reached the tears level. I was freaking out here at home and I constantly called the housing office’s maintenance, but they said since I wasn’t the resident that my daughter had to call. </p>
<p>So DD took pictures and sent these to the Housing office, the maintenance crew and the Health office indicating that she has, in the past, had allergic reactions to spider bites within our So Cal region (and these were hundreds of spiders!, Yikes!). I guess the health office was concerned because I called them and asked them how they would respond to a severe allergic reaction.</p>
<p>They finally hired a professional company to remove the window, (they were living in the window frame), frame and screen. </p>
<p>Your phobia is real and you should get the housing staff and health staff involved. </p>