Forums

Posted: 19-01-2013 17:35 Post subject:

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Posted: 19-01-2013 23:04 Post subject:

I was reading about it and found out that we also have a native spider called the Hobo spider. Thankfully they live mostly outside because of competition from house spiders. They are aggressive partly due to poor eyesight. They are possibly the only U.K. spider who's bite can be 'medically significant'. It is described as being necrotic!

Posted: 20-01-2013 05:09 Post subject:

Posted: 20-01-2013 08:10 Post subject:

The bit about the spider rearing up and hissing doesn't sound like our native spiders to me (mind you when one appears I've never around long enough to find out!).

I found this on Wikipedia

Posted: 20-01-2013 14:27 Post subject:

I am pretty phobic about spiders; unfortunately so is the b/f, so to spare his horror I tend to be the one that catches them and chucks them out (with a pint glass).
While I have never (thank goodness) seen any monstrosities appear from nowhere, I have seen some truly enormous house spiders - the largest in an old place of work.

Not long ago I found a page called 'Spider Myths', and after reading it, didn't feel quite so bad about them, though reading this thread has set me back a bit.

It's here: http://www.burkemuseum.org/spidermyth/

It is pretty interesting, although the bloke's advice about not putting house spiders outside as they've evolved to live within doors, (and may not survive long) and just 'wave as they go by,' because they're 'harmless and beneficial'... I am not at that stage yet. Confused

E.T.A.
The article says that house spiders don't come into the house during the autumn. I always believed they did, and got very 'spider-conscious' in September, especially if it got cool or rainy, when I would close all the windows and doors. A few years back, the b/f's parents came to watch a film, and it was pouring with rain. The b/f's father mentioned that he was hot, so b/f obligingly opened the back door. I came downstairs, saw it open, and shut it. This went on for about two hours, with the door being opened and my shutting it to keep out the droves of spiders that would obviously make a beeline for the door and the promise of a nice dry house.
When I told b/f why I was closing the door, he said he hadn't known, but again I came down to find the door open, and a tarantula on the door-mat.

B/f has a large, realistic plastic tarantula which he'd positioned in that raised hissing position on the mat. If I'd had my glasses on, I would have known it wasn't real, and seriously logic should have dictated that it was not a wandering tarantula in the south of England. But I wasn't wearing my glasses, things were a bit blurry, I was nervous and annoyed.
I let out such a scream before running at it with a very heavy book.

I didn't really forgive the b/f, because he also had a smaller plastic house spider, (still very big) and when I turned the bed covers back later, he'd put it on the under sheet. Rolling Eyes

Posted: 20-01-2013 22:27 Post subject:

my reading of that is i think he really likes you

Posted: 21-01-2013 13:12 Post subject:

That's really disturbing SHAYBARSABE, I hope you cope OK. Perhaps I have some grounds for my phobia after all.

Posted: 21-01-2013 21:01 Post subject:

I've known really large house spiders to make a noise when threatened, a sort of hissy squeak.
A girl I worked with told me this story- her and her hubby were bothered one night by the sound of dripping water, worried about a leak they checked all the pipes but couldn't find anything. They eventually discovered a huge house spider walking along a wall - the noise was the sound of its feet as it walked!
I've heard this too, I lived in an ancient cottage and they always have the biggest spiders, me and my sister could hear a tapping noise, turned the light on to discover a huge spider on the wall. We were slightly relieved as we had thought at first it was a ghost.
Weirdest thing happened in the same room - I had a scary dream that a huge spider was hanging on a thread just above my face. I was so scared when I woke up I turned the bedside light on and there over my head was a spider hanging on a thread! I wouldn't have been able to see it as it was totally dark with no street lighting.
I'm sure some of the House spiders I have seen in cottages are larger than the maximum size listed for the species.

Posted: 21-01-2013 21:47 Post subject:

I think I'd prefer the ghost TBH.

Posted: 24-01-2013 23:50 Post subject:

I quite like spiders, and find them fascinating - although I hate the sensation of getting mixed up with a web. I actually keep seven tarantulas (and three whip spiders Smile

) as pets, and I find it interesting that you chose the word "teleporting", as that is exactly the word people in the hobby use to describe the way some of the faster species (i.e. most of them) can move so fast they really do appear to be doing just that!

As I say, I like spiders. But it can be a bit disconcerting to remove the lid from a container and find you suddenly have a spider the size of a respectable mouse perched on your arm, looking just as confused as you are about how it got there...!

Posted: 29-01-2013 20:53 Post subject:

Posted: 30-01-2013 15:58 Post subject:

Thanks for that - it might come in handy!!

Tarantulas moult regularly as they grow, and a good moult comes off in one piece. They're very fragile, but they really do look like the spider they came from. I got revenge on Mr Monops once (don't worry - he deserved it!) by moistening a particularly large and colourful moult (they're very brittle when they're dry) and positioning it in a lifelike pose in our bath, then waiting for Mr P to go for a pee...

I could tell the exact moment he spotted it from the crash and the shout of "Holy F**K!" Very Happy

Posted: 30-01-2013 20:20 Post subject:

Not a giant spider, but last weekend when the weather was at its coldest I noticed one arachnid had spun a web on one of my bookshelves. It must have done it pretty quickly, too. It was very sleepy when I fetched the regulation glass and postcard so I wondered where it found the energy, the heating hadn't been on for hours.

Also, later that day I found a housefly buzzing around the kitchen. Both of these in the dead of winter!

Posted: 23-08-2013 18:20 Post subject: Giant wasp explained

The previous post about the giant wasp was probably about a queen wasp that was looking for a place to hibernate. I had several do this in my lounge in Pinner, North West London. My lounge was warm, bright and near food sources in central Pinner. Months later, when the queens thought that Spring had arrived, i.e. when it was warm and bright in the lounge, they emerged and buzzed around me. It was pretty scary because they were fairly big by UK standards and I have been somewhat phobic toward buzzing insects. I either let them out through the windows or killed them with a newspaper.

Posted: 15-09-2013 21:08 Post subject:

I had another incident earlier!

The other night I went upstairs to bed and spotted a giant patterned spider on the corner of the ceiling. It was above the stairwell so the farthest it could be from the floor. I called Mr. Urvogel who couldn't reach it. In the end I squibbed some air freshener at it from a distance and it dropped like a stone onto the stairs. We caught it and let it go outside.

The next night I go to bed, and the spider's back! I say it was the same spider as it was the same size, the same species and in the exact same spot! I squib the air freshener again...and exactly like before it drops like a stone. I caught it and this time let it go at the bottom of the street.

Either this spider has a homing instinct or it's stuck in some kind of timeloop...