Hi, i have recently noticed there have been alot more spiders round my house than normal but then saw in the newspaper about an increased popularity of them so thought nothing else of it and just kept getting someone to get rid of them for me. (i am totally arakniphobic

!!!)
Earlier this evening i found a HUGE spider in my kitchen near a crack in the bottom of the cubord, I got my sisters boyfriend to try get rid of it but when he tried to catch it it retreated into the gap in the curord. He then tried to intise it out by banging on the cubord when half a dozen tiny spiders (as he described them, i had gone and hidden in the lounge by this point

!!) came scuttleing out and dispersed in all diffrent dirrections.
Is it that there is a nest under my cubord or could it just be that there were a few spiders living under there?
And if it is a nest and the HUGE spider was a female, could she then be the reason to my finding so many spiders round the house recently by attracting them or somthing??
I am desprate to find out what it is and how to get rid of them (nicely... they're still living creatures after all...) and am not exactly knowledgable about any creepy crawlys atall...
If anyone has any advise for me i would be unimaginabley grateful!!