My mother swears by them. When I say 'them' I am not referring to conkers I refer to spiders and when I say 'swears by' she does not sit beside them uttering expletives, at least I have never seen her exhibit such behaviour,

rather she puts them (conkers) in each corner of each room in her house.
I suppose that if you went round biffing spiders with a conker they would become terrified of them always assuming they survived the experience. To my knowledge spiders do not have very big brains I wonder how many generations it would take before it became learned behaviour.
I may experiment with the spiders and their nests that I have in the kitchen, arse and alas, I cannot start now as I am totally conkerless.
TBH I have never checked her house for spiders. I used to find maggots in my bed, after that experience spiders are cute cuddly things.
I think that you should turn your post into a question Nick and then post it on Yahoo Answers.
