Here is my mother’s defence line against any spiders silly enough to try and advance into her bedroom. Apparently she found a video on the Guardian website demonstrating the repellent properties of a lemon, so immediately rifled through her fruit bowl for protection. In the winter, she uses conkers instead – a line of them strung along the windowsill like little soldiers.

Also in her spider arsenal is a bottle of spray from Lakeland called ‘Spider Stopper.’ But as it has a *terrifying* cartoon of a spider on the bottle, she’s covered it up with packing tape.

I have just asked Mum to email me the link for the Guardian video so I can enlighten other arachnophobes with it. She duly sent me the link (HERE you go), having written in the subject line: ‘Not even going to say the word.’  The word, obviously, being the ‘s’ word.