Giant House Spiders….

[PickledMuffin]

I’ve seen a few in my house over the past couple of days… one actually eyeballed me in my hallway when i spotted it, didn’t run away when i approached it!

Why have they appeared, is it because it’s been cold out or is it spider mating season (which i thought was october) I don’t usually see them so often.

Oh I didn't know Huntsmen spiders ate funnel webs!

I am Not A Fan of spiders. (I prefer snakes tbh. but suspect that if common sense had any say in the matter it would be the other way around).

We have a large for the UK spider who lives next to our toilet. It took months before I would go in there and our lovely cleaner still refuses to. But actually it's grown on me and I worry about him when it gets really cold and was googling 'do spiders hibernate' as i had not seen him for a while. He's all present and correct today though.

Sorry! I love a spider thread and seeing pictures of international spiders 🙃

i love a spider photo too!

@MookieCat. what kind of spider is it? We had a cellar spider that lived in one of our bedrooms, he named it Barry! i was sad when it died.

Clue's in the thread title, tbh.

What did you expect to see in here really - bunnies and maybe a money spider photographed from 30 yards away?

I'm not sure what kind of spider @PickledMuffin . I attach a photo here. Please ignore the dusty behind the cistern! We don't clean there as we don't want to harm him!

I’ll let you off, I just wasn’t expecting it and it really did make me jump. I try to avoid photos of spiders (if you’ve ever read my reason behind my fear on another post on here about spiders you’d understand why) and really struggle to even touch my screen to scroll past! But I opened a thread about spiders, so it was a risk I took!

I hardly ever see big house spiders anymore which is a shame because they’re my favourite. We get too many cellar spiders and they eat the big ones! We’ve had a smallish (compared to a house spider) brown bodied spider with reddish legs for about a year, and today a load of tiny little ones with the same colouring have all appeared close together like they’ve all just hatched. They’re incredibly cute and helping my kids to overcome their fear that had started.

Apparently if you don’t see many spiders in your home it’s because you have a huge one that eats all the others.

That looks like a GHS, probably female. Hard to be sure from the underneath though,

I'm not 100%, but I think that may be a mouse spider, pretty sure it's not a GHS, probably male, but it may just be the palms are folded

We had a big black shiny spider on the bed yesterday evening. Dh picked up a fur throw to fold it up and the spider was just there on the bed. I had already decided to sleep in the other room as I have been struggling with sleep recently. I am currently awake - woke to a pain on the back of my hand….and I think something may have bitten me - could it be the black spider? Now I am definitely struggling to sleep!
By the way many years ago I lived in Greece and never once saw a spider - plenty of lizards though so maybe they ate them!

@MookieCatthat looks a lot like the back of my cistern 😂 wow! that’s a beauty!

@LetMeStayInBed that looks painful 😕 hope it clears up soon

I love spider pics too. 💚

Doesn't look as though it's a type or size large/strong/sharp enough to penetrate skin. Might be a false widow or cellar spider being frightened by you moving as they were going about their nightly exercises, though.

brown bodied spider with reddish legs

Woodlouse eating spider? They're one of the very few that could give a nip when older, as they need to be stronger to pierce through a woodlouse's carapace. But assuming nobody's actively spider bothering or painting their little fingers as juicy woodlice, still not a problem - and it means you'll have fewer woodlice in the house.

A way to spider bother without causing harm is for the kids to make toy ones - ball of paper or one of those fuzzy puff things, pipecleaner legs, googly eyes and put it on a long thread. Dangle it near a real spider and see how fast they retreat.

This looks like a rain spider.

What country are you in?

In SA these are very common. And they are harmless. They can get pretty huge though, so look a lot scarier than they seem.
If you see one, it really is going to rain. They are better than the local forecaster on TV 😀

I would absolutely have a rain spider take up residence over having mosquitos to annoy me.

You need some cellar spiders. I'm cultivating mine😄
There's one behind the TV and one in the shoe cupboard. The ones in the bathroom seem to have disappeared.

For those who really dislike spiders, you can use a citronella or just any citrus smelling oil, candle etc to keep them at bay.

@NeverDropYourMooncup it was me that has the brown bodied spider with red legs - you spurred me to look it up as I hadn’t bothered before but didn’t actually know what type it is. I think you’re right and it probably is a Woodlouse spider. It hasn’t bitten anyone! It’s probably been surviving on silverfish and now its little ones will do the same!

My mum had a massive massive spider in her house for a few years that got very bold. She would talk to it and she really enjoyed the company (my dad died several years ago).

One day it vanished and she never saw it again. She was sad for ages, she said it was nice having another life force (her words) in the house.

Good news is she saw another one a while back (she insists its not the same one) so she's happy again getting to know a new friend.