diff --git a/docs/topics/extensions.rst b/docs/topics/extensions.rst
index 4a0016f831379643f1accfd8b53b1238feb3f329..95bedb67b83da4df8c1eeb79439b2ac6bde48b70 100644
--- a/docs/topics/extensions.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/extensions.rst
@@ -232,17 +232,6 @@ The telnet console must be enabled by the :setting:`TELNETCONSOLE_ENABLED`
 setting, and the server will listen in the port specified in
 :setting:`WEBCONSOLE_PORT`.
 
-Spider reloader extension
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-.. module:: scrapy.contrib.spider.reloader
-   :synopsis: Spider reloader extension
-
-.. class:: scrapy.contrib.spider.reloader.SpiderReloader
-
-Reload spider objects once they've finished scraping, to release the resources
-and references to other objects they may hold.
-
 .. _topics-extensions-ref-memusage:
 
 Memory usage extension
diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 9f832df4171203e11b9e04b1355a3e50b5a79996..0823b63fc655dd9bff7d54a9ae573333511bae1b 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -492,7 +492,6 @@ Default::
         'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.spiderctl.Spiderctl': 0,
         'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.enginestatus.EngineStatus': 0,
         'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.stats.StatsDump': 0,
-        'scrapy.contrib.spider.reloader.SpiderReloader': 0,
         'scrapy.contrib.memusage.MemoryUsage': 0,
         'scrapy.contrib.memdebug.MemoryDebugger': 0,
         'scrapy.contrib.closedomain.CloseDomain': 0,
diff --git a/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py b/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
index d14d4958f964f9630624ad4dd9b6f6bf78a13015..04fee1738e692136cf3ae42dcc879f8921648042 100644
--- a/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
@@ -81,7 +81,6 @@ EXTENSIONS_BASE = {
     'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.spiderctl.Spiderctl': 0,
     'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.enginestatus.EngineStatus': 0,
     'scrapy.contrib.webconsole.stats.StatsDump': 0,
-    'scrapy.contrib.spider.reloader.SpiderReloader': 0,
     'scrapy.contrib.memusage.MemoryUsage': 0,
     'scrapy.contrib.memdebug.MemoryDebugger': 0,
     'scrapy.contrib.closedomain.CloseDomain': 0,
diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/spider/reloader.py b/scrapy/contrib/spider/reloader.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 6b60b753428e3ef0fa9d5ad46b53b6dcde2bedc5..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/scrapy/contrib/spider/reloader.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-"""
-Reload spider modules once they are finished scraping
-
-This is to release any resources held on to by scraping spiders.
-"""
-import sys
-from scrapy.xlib.pydispatch import dispatcher
-from scrapy.core import signals
-from scrapy import log
-
-class SpiderReloader(object):
-
-    def __init__(self):
-        dispatcher.connect(self.domain_closed, signal=signals.domain_closed)
-
-    def domain_closed(self, domain, spider):
-        module = spider.__module__
-        log.msg("reloading module %s" % module, domain=domain)
-        reload(sys.modules[module])