"They matured a little earlier this year," said Dr Gee, who specialises in invertebrate biology. "They go from being essentially heavyweight boxers with a very strong, large body and essentially become Olympic runners," said Dr Gee. "This increased competition just leads to more and more spiders having this roaming mode of life and there's a bit of a turf war going on in our homes." Dr Gee says spiders usually found in the south are heading north into even more homes across the UK. Dr Gee also warned arachnophobes that the old adage of using conkers to keep spiders at bay is a myth.