Can anyone identify this spider ***TW PHOTO***

[bangbangcauliflower]

Can anyone ID this spider for me? It's just strolled across the carpet like it owns the place, and I've never seen one quite like it before...

Google is telling me it's a brown recluse spider, common in North America and also venomous and now I am shitting myself (caught it in a glass and threw it in the garden)... are there more??? Has it got mates?????? Babies?!

Eeeeeeeekkk. Oh and I am fucking terrified of spiders, it's taken a lot of bravado and general 'oh look a teeny tiny spider' (no-one else to deal with the fuckers here and dd is only five and don't want to pass on my terror to her) whilst internally screaming...

They simply aren’t. Unless you are allergic to the bite and suffer anaphylaxis. The gross wounds that get shared are a result of bacteria - that may be bacteria introduced by the bite but in the same way that any other bite can get infected. And they can rarely be tied back to a reliable spider identification.
Spiders are reluctant to bite, the bites are generally no worse than a bee sting as long as you clean the wound.
Im saying this as someone who keeps medically significant pet spiders. I wouldn’t keep them if they were high bite risk - spiders don’t want to bite you.

‘Lethal’ spiders are the like of the Sydney funnel web and since the introduction of anti venom, I don’t think anyone has died from a bite. In the UK we have nothing to fear. But people like to push exaggerated and false stories…every year you get articles about native spiders ‘invading’ your home and that just stirs up fear unnecessarily.

It's time to seal the house up, shut all the windows until end of October. Or it would be but I'm a dedicated open window person.

I have a big spider like the ops living on my yucca on the deck. Never seen them before.

That's a shoe on head spider. 👞🕷️

They're everywhere this year.

DH found one in the sink the other day that was bigger than the plug hole 😬

It’s honestly pathetic. Grown women squealing to “burn the house down!!!!!” over something which is absolutely not going to harm them

I'd be the first to admit I'm a complete coward with them and they bloody scare me, but I'd never kill one. It's not their fault I'm irrational, and they don't set out to be scary!
I try to have a small discussion with said spider about possibly removing themselves or paying rent, then leave the room for hours. Or DP will relocate them 😂

Trigger warnings for spider threads 🙄Sensitive content.

The world's gone mad.

Yes I know before you have a go at me, some people have a genuine phobia and all that.

If I hadn't put a TW on it, I would have been in trouble so can't win!

In my defence, I wanted to know if anyone knew what type of spider it was as have never seen one like it before, and also in my defence, I did try and release it into the wild... it's not my fault it decided to come back in!!! By which point my nerves were shredded.

Once again in my defence, I have tried really hard to be calm and adult about dealing with spiders, if anything else to model sensible behaviour for dd, and to not pass on my phobia to her, and for the most part have become detached in disposing of them in the garden, but I can't help my irrational fear of them!!!!

They literally didn’t did they?! 😅 hope you are ok and not ingested anything … sorry that was to the poster on hols in Wales who only had one reply to her own spider post!

Thing is, why can’t people discuss spiders if they want?! People are allowed to have phobias and worries FFS

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · Yesterday 21:37

I think the sticky out eye bits just mean it's a boy don't they? I forget what they're called. Spider willies, basically.

Pedipalps. If it is a male wandering about, he's just looking for a mate.

Op don't apologise, many of us hays this time of year and are scared.

It disgusting how aggressive people a re towards people who get genuinely scared and yes, false widows do give a venomous o bite.

Yes bacteria can cause infection but scientists have said false widow venom is made up of similar to black widow.

Not exaggerated or false. Some people have been hospitalised with a false widow bite. They can turn nasty. You don't have to allergic

Be*

@ShirleyPhallus you have no fears or phobias yourself I assume.

not really, but even if I was scared of planes (for example) i wouldn’t post BURN THE PLANE DOWN!!! on any thread about planes

its not a logical reaction to any fear or phobia but one which is meant to be funny

@ShirleyPhallus so if you know it's intended as a joke, why is it pathetic?

The darker line down the back makes me think it's a brown recluse. We had them all the time when I lived in the American midwest. They're called fiddlebacks because of that darker line down the back. They're shy but if provoked their bite is nasty. It causes necrosis of the skin and tissue, and almost always requires medical treatment.

Their favorite food is silverfish, so if you have a lot of silverfish in your house that might be attracting them. Silverfish eat the glue from cardboard boxes, so we stored everything in plastic bins to discourage them.

Yes the Brits I come across here are all terrified of our creepy-crawlies! Wimps! 😁

I have a close relative who has a Ph. D in some spider-related subject - she's an entymologist. She keeps poisonous spiders as pets. One of them lives in an aquarium above the fireplace in her lounge room and when it's cold (Melbourne gets cold in winter) and she has the fire going the spider comes out and warms all its tiny feet on the glass around its nest. So cute!

She even has names for them all.... 😁😁😁🕸️🕷️🕷️🕷️

@LifeExperience thanks for that, this was the bit that made me panic, the darker line and the strange eyes. But how would it have got here??

I mean, I know the most likely explanation is that it's not actually a brown recluse, but it did look very similar!

The eyes are different because they're adapted for a particular way of catching food. Just like the little stripey jumping spiders on a garden wall or rockery have eyes that give them superb depth perception.

It's still not a North American spider in the UK. It's just one that fills a similar evolutionary niche in terms of the way it hunts - without the same potency of venom.

Had another visitor this evening, this time crawling along the ceiling in dd's room...

Anyone fancy ID'ing this one??

Seriously, I need to move...

I know they are a bit blurry but had to take a pic and then zoom in as lighting crap in the bathroom...

Nigel and Richard.

Richard enjoys walks in places with high views and Nigel is looking for a long legged, refined lady who wants more than one dinner date before considering a serious relationship.

That’s a “I’d leave home” spider