Thankfully, I haven't seen too many spiders make it all the way to the ceiling. I totally know that feeling. *Gasp* is right! Maybe Akira is nailing them before they have the chance to make their way up to the ceiling above the bed.
I'm so glad I don't have a basement bedroom any more like when I was a kid. That was in an older house, so it had the dampness that critters liked. The cats we had then were indoor/outdoor cats. They were so much more interested in chasing mice and shrews that they didn't have any energy left to invest in chasing basement daddy long legs. So, it was me who had to do the spider wrangling. I had to leave some to catch the other bugs, but a lot of the spiders got nailed with the broom. I wasn't the least bit interested in touching those things. The feral cat who found us to give birth to her kittens was great at catching mice and shrews. She taught her son how to catch mice and shrews and he came to be as good as she was at it. They would leave the evidence behind. No doubt because we really did have tall field grass and plenty of prey that this was why the cute little feral cat moved near the house. She was a grey/blue calico.
Bob is funny! I can just picture a cat doing that. That's what I did when I was a kid when I had to catch live flies for an anole lizard that wouldn't eat meal worms, so I totally get the concept. That is just too funny! That's at least as funny as Akira purring while chasing the spider in the bathtub.
spirit, when I was a middle-school kid, we had Siamese cats. They ALL loved flies. I adored how free they kept the house of them; we had had other cats previously who couldn't be bothered, and the Siamese contingent were mad for them. (With five kids in the family, the doors were always being left open, and I didn't like flies in the house.) They particularly charmed me when crunching on a really big one.
The things one remembers with fondness. lol
I tell people that just for spider wrangling alone that having a cat is well worth it. Akira isn't as interested when those super ugly and scary looking alder beetles come in. One time I was trying to get one to go back outside and the darn thing flew and landed right on my chest. That one got a toilet funeral. And, I hate beetles about as much as most of us hate spiders. Alder beetles have a really peculiar way of walking. I'm thinking these things must be toxic and the cat's instincts told her to leave this kind alone. I didn't see any last year, but I'm not sure what was different last year in comparison to years past.
Mine are terrific w/flies! They all know when I yell out "get the bug!!" The boys come running (Spirit has arthritis in her shoulder and likes to just watch) and I show them the fly or moth and they're off. They usually catch it in a very timely manner w/exciting acrobatics for their human.
I wish we had a cat period for the time when one of those black bumblebees (carpenter beetles?) got in the house. I was alone and had to GET IT MYSELF! *shuddering*
Our kitten loves to bat at wasps. I keep expecting to find him with a stung foot or face, or lying on the floor in anaphylactic shock, but not yet. The wasps that get into our house in winter are on their last legs and don't seem as likely to sting.
Go, Akira!!!!!
Jade loves the spiders, but they are rarely on the ground and always seem to be up in the corner of the wall or, *gasp*, on the ceiling over the bed! She also enjoys all the crickets that make their way inside...
My four would just sit and stare, unless I shined the laser pointer on it...