I would go up on the third floor and open the door to the attic, which resembled Dracula's Castle, and I would swear that Freddy Kruger was coming around the corner towards me with his finger knives scraping the wall.
Within about three weeks we had that coon trapped, and when my young assistant came down the stairs with the cage my first thought was ... "She looks sweet, maybe I should keep her!".
However, she was promptly taken to a state park some 60 miles away and released.
Now I've just got to deal with the new coon in my shed, but we've declared truce until Springtime!
As far as those spiders go, I just released a couple of local highschool-aged boys with spray bottles of white vinegar and instructions to spray anything that looked "spidery" in the basement and the attic. Then I commissioned a pest company to spray for ants every three months (ants are apparently a preferred food for spiders). No more spiders!
bttt