How to remove a spider from your house without killing it

You need a glass or mug big enough to cover the spider with room to spare, and a piece of stiff card: a postcard, a takeaway menu, the lid of a cereal box. Keep both somewhere handy; the moment of need is never convenient.

Approach slowly and lower the glass over the spider in one smooth movement. Speed startles them into a sprint; a calm approach usually doesn't. With the spider covered, slide the card underneath a millimetre at a time. The spider will step onto the card or up into the glass. Either is fine.

Keep your nerve

Hold the card firmly against the rim, keep the glass roughly level, and walk to the door. The spider cannot get out. If it moves suddenly and you flinch, stop, breathe, carry on. You're holding a sealed container, not a live grenade.

Here's the part most people get wrong. The big house spiders you see in autumn are house spiders: they've evolved for indoor life, and turfing one onto a frosty lawn in November is not much kinder than the slipper. Release them into a shed, garage, log pile, or under a hedge: somewhere sheltered and dry.

In warm months, anywhere in the garden a few metres from the house is fine. Tip the glass gently on its side at ground level and let the spider leave in its own time.

Spiders come indoors for the same reasons anything does: shelter and food. Fewer insects means fewer spiders, so fit fly screens where you leave windows open, and keep outdoor lights off when you can (lights attract the insects that attract the spiders).

Regular hoovering of corners, under furniture, and behind curtains removes webs and egg sacs before they mature. A spider that keeps losing its web moves somewhere with better job security. And remember what a resident spider does all day: it eats flies, mosquitoes, and clothes moths, free of charge, forever. The tolerant household is the low-insect household.