Big spiders around recently.........poisonous ones flourishing in UK?

darkman2

Hi


Anyone else noticed how big some of the spiders around are for this early in the season? - obviously to do with the weather.

In the UK they say poisonous spiders are flourishing - (but no deadly ones yet;) )


http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1263904,00.html


Then there is this website which says exactly whats around and what bites.

(those of a nervous desposition might not want to click this link and have a flick through;) )

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/spiderbites/index.html

Apparently new species come in - in bananna boxes:rolleyes: Anyway I am no longer opening my windows for long periods for fear one of these bastards gets inside my house. I dont mind garden spiders but the others freak me out:(

......any strange sightings?

They must be eating all the bees

hallelujah

I saw a big one yesterday. Made me afraid.

JungleBunny

I thought I was imagining it, that the spiders were getting bigger.
Well I guess with all the travelling we do nowadays, it's only to be expected that species are being brought in to the country.

I came out of the bathroom the other evening and saw a huge one on the floor in the hall. I locked myself in the bathroom and had to wait for the bf to come home and get rid of it (only had to wait about 40 mins!!). He even said it was a doozy of a spider!

Yeah yeah I know that I should not be afraid of them and that they are probably more afraid of me bla bla bla, but I just cant look at a spider or be within arms length of one without having a major panic attack. I know it sounds ridiculous.

As for bluewolf's comment.... you are right... where are all the bees?
Much prefer them to spiders. YUK

Daknight

Nope! but if this ever got in a banana box to ireland and started reproducing i would never leave my house!

darkman2

Am I right in thinking I should not click on that image?? I will take your word for it - its scary....meh actually its not too bad. How big are they?

DarkJager

Next thing ya know, we'll have all the scumbags in Ireland dressed up in blue and red costumes and shooting webs at each other...

brianthebard

Camel spider isn't actually a spider...jesus christ is global warming to blame for everything these days?

Ciaran500

darkman2 wrote:

Am I right in thinking I should not click on that image?? I will take your word for it - its scary....meh actually its not too bad. How big are they?

Not really, its a picture of a spider.

darkman2

Ciaran500 wrote:

Not really, its a picture of a spider.

Bet you wouldnt be content to have one of those hiding in your bed though - would you? Unless your strange that way of course.......


BTW - yeah I dont want to hear about GW either as I dont believe it exists to the extent some believe.........

Ciaran500

Not unless it waxed first, don't want something that bristly in my bed.

DJ_Spider

First, don't let my nick scare you! As the character on UK kids TV says, 'I'm only scary coz I'm hairy!' I used to keep spiders, snakes, lizards & scorpions in the UK and ran a reptile rescue service along with a snake & spider club.

AFAIK most foreign spider cannot live very long in the UK unless they find a very warm place, and a plentiful supply of food. A spider will only attack as a last resort. Usually they will run away. Or stroke the hairs on thier abdomen to make you itch. (simular experience to getting fibre glass on you)

Even so they can jump fairly high and this is sometimes very fritening. I don't blame anyone for being scard of spiders. I had a mate of mine who was built like a s**t house and no-one messed with him. He came round to my house and said he would have my Goliath Spider on his arm (pic attached don't click if afraid!) he was fine with it as it froze when it was on his arm.....then it moved. He froze as well and said through gritted teeth, sweating, get it off me!

Now I know those of you who are scared of spider wont do this but if you ever watch a spider move closely you will see it almost pulsates. This is because spider are unique in the way they move. Muscles attached on the inside of the exoskeleton contract to move the legs inward, but spiders don't have any muscles to extend the legs back out again. Instead, they have to force bodily fluids (mainly blood) into the legs to push them outward. So it is like a hose, as they pump the fluid the legs extend.

HTH! Oh and don't worry about the spiders, as said before they will run away rather than attack, you are too big to eat so not worth expending energy on biting you. :eek:

darkman2

DJ_Spider wrote:

First, don't let my nick scare you! As the character on UK kids TV says, 'I'm only scary coz I'm hairy!' I used to keep spiders, snakes, lizards & scorpions in the UK and ran a reptile rescue service along with a snake & spider club.

AFAIK most foreign spider cannot live very long in the UK unless they find a very warm place, and a plentiful supply of food. A spider will only attack as a last resort. Usually they will run away. Or stroke the hairs on thier abdomen to make you itch. (simular experience to getting fibre glass on you)

Even so they can jump fairly high and this is sometimes very fritening. I don't blame anyone for being scard of spiders. I had a mate of mine who was built like a s**t house and no-one messed with him. He came round to my house and said he would have my Goliath Spider on his arm (pic attached don't click if afraid!) he was fine with it as it froze when it was on his arm.....then it moved. He froze as well and said through gritted teeth, sweating, get it off me!

Now I know those of you who are scared of spider wont do this but if you ever watch a spider move closely you will see it almost pulsates. This is because spider are unique in the way they move. Muscles attached on the inside of the exoskeleton contract to move the legs inward, but spiders don't have any muscles to extend the legs back out again. Instead, they have to force bodily fluids (mainly blood) into the legs to push them outward. So it is like a hose, as they pump the fluid the legs extend.

HTH! Oh and don't worry about the spiders, as said before they will run away rather than attack, you are too big to eat so not worth expending energy on biting you. :eek:

Very interesting. I assume your talking about deadly spiders. I agree I very much doubt they will be migrating in numbers towards us any time soon. Though the Winters have been mild recently and Id say some of the spiders that bite (but not do real damage) could possibly survive. Once they survive the Winter its pretty much plain sailing Id have thought:rolleyes:

I found the cross garden spider in my back garden when i was younger. It was the biggest spider i have ever seen in ireland. It actualy shot web at us . My mam stopped it with a shoval. I came across a Black widow in Texas. It was the same size as the spider in Dublin

The Bollox

DJ_Spider wrote:

First, don't let my nick scare you! As the character on UK kids TV says, 'I'm only scary coz I'm hairy!' I used to keep spiders, snakes, lizards & scorpions in the UK and ran a reptile rescue service along with a snake & spider club.

AFAIK most foreign spider cannot live very long in the UK unless they find a very warm place, and a plentiful supply of food. A spider will only attack as a last resort. Usually they will run away. Or stroke the hairs on thier abdomen to make you itch. (simular experience to getting fibre glass on you)

Even so they can jump fairly high and this is sometimes very fritening. I don't blame anyone for being scard of spiders. I had a mate of mine who was built like a s**t house and no-one messed with him. He came round to my house and said he would have my Goliath Spider on his arm (pic attached don't click if afraid!) he was fine with it as it froze when it was on his arm.....then it moved. He froze as well and said through gritted teeth, sweating, get it off me!

Now I know those of you who are scared of spider wont do this but if you ever watch a spider move closely you will see it almost pulsates. This is because spider are unique in the way they move. Muscles attached on the inside of the exoskeleton contract to move the legs inward, but spiders don't have any muscles to extend the legs back out again. Instead, they have to force bodily fluids (mainly blood) into the legs to push them outward. So it is like a hose, as they pump the fluid the legs extend.

HTH! Oh and don't worry about the spiders, as said before they will run away rather than attack, you are too big to eat so not worth expending energy on biting you. :eek:

**** that! imagine waking up one Saturday morning with a massive hangover only to see that b*stard on your wall!

Pherekydes

All spiders are poisonous! :eek:









But very few are deadly to humans.

Dun laoire

Daknight wrote:

Nope! but if this ever got in a banana box to ireland and started reproducing i would never leave my house!

Thats not a spider, it's a solpugid. C'mon man you should know that

Mossy Monk

DJ_Spider wrote:

(pic attached don't click if afraid!)

WTF. Have you zoomed in on that spider to make it look so big?

McSandwich

They may not be the prettiest, but native Irish spiders are harmless - unless the feel threatened by you, in which case they might bite, or you are a fly...

dame

I've lived in the West, the South, the East of Ireland (moved around a lot last few years) and I can swear to it that the spiders in the East are the biggest in the country. I've never seen spiders as big as the ones we get here in Dublin/Kildare in either Cork or Galway! Scared folks might want to check out the housing market in those counties...

WindSock

Wow holy crap. Is that an alive Goliath spider you have there or a pic on a piece o paper?

DJ_Spider

It is the shed skin of a Goliath Spider (Theraphosa blondi) it has a legspan of 10 inches weighing more than 6 ounces. It feeds on frogs, small snakes, beetles, lizards, and even bats. Occasionally, these spiders will take young birds from the nest giving them their name “bird eater”. The goliath sneaks up on its prey and pounces on it injecting it with poison from its venomous fangs. When threatened the goliath, like other tarantulas, has the ability to hiss loudly by rubbing the bristles on its legs together, (called stridulation) They also can propel a cloud of hairs off their body at their attacker. These hairs are barbed an cause severe discomfort and irritation.


But there is this interesting fact to maybe help people who are scared!
Even though the goliath has eight tiny eyes their eyesight is very poor and is capable of not much more than distinguishing light from dark. This causes the male goliath a bit of trouble when it comes time to mate. When the male approaches, the female can feel him coming due to their extremely sensitive hairs which cover their bodies. Since vibration is the way these spiders sense food coming the male has to be careful that the female does not attack. The sensitive hairs on the goliath’s body are also used for sensing air currents and humidity.

LOL ////8\\\\

WindSock

Thats very informative, thank you and clearly not copied and pasted you obviously know your stuff. Have you ever gotten hurt from your pet?

Heres my spidey pic----

## (when its squished)

Rabies

DJ_Spider wrote:

It is the shed skin of a Goliath Spider (Theraphosa blondi) it has a legspan of 10 inches weighing more than 6 ounces. It feeds on frogs, small snakes, beetles, lizards, people and even bats.

That is one big ass big spider.

/gets yellow pages ready

Gauge

I've been hearing that banana box theory all my life. I've also heard of things arriving in boxes of toys from places like China. Yuck.

Was in my bed once, just reading a book, when I felt something tickling my stomach. I looked down and there was a leg the size of my index finger. The biggest damn spider I ever saw, why did it have to be in my bed

Ruu_Old

Not in Ireland but I caught one in the microwave door yesterday (between the mesh or whatever screen it is made of and the plastic). /me turned microwave on full power. :eek: *shiver down spine*

Rabies

What did it taste like?
I prefer oven cooked spiders tbh

darkman2

DJ_Spider wrote:

It is the shed skin of a Goliath Spider (Theraphosa blondi) it has a legspan of 10 inches weighing more than 6 ounces. It feeds on frogs, small snakes, beetles, lizards, and even bats. Occasionally, these spiders will take young birds from the nest giving them their name “bird eater”. The goliath sneaks up on its prey and pounces on it injecting it with poison from its venomous fangs. When threatened the goliath, like other tarantulas, has the ability to hiss loudly by rubbing the bristles on its legs together, (called stridulation) They also can propel a cloud of hairs off their body at their attacker. These hairs are barbed an cause severe discomfort and irritation.


But there is this interesting fact to maybe help people who are scared!
Even though the goliath has eight tiny eyes their eyesight is very poor and is capable of not much more than distinguishing light from dark. This causes the male goliath a bit of trouble when it comes time to mate. When the male approaches, the female can feel him coming due to their extremely sensitive hairs which cover their bodies. Since vibration is the way these spiders sense food coming the male has to be careful that the female does not attack. The sensitive hairs on the goliath’s body are also used for sensing air currents and humidity.

LOL ////8\\\\

The Goliath is not actually the Bird Eating Spider - Is it?

The Hill Billy

Our house is riddled with these guys (Tegenaria Gigantea) from mid-September through to the end of November.

The fastest spider in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Kolodny

Hill Billy wrote:

Our house is riddled with these guys (Tegenaria Gigantea) from mid-September through to the end of November.

The fastest spider in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

I lived in a very old house up until a couple of years ago, which was Spider Central, and we had a huge infestation of spiders that looked exactly like that one year. I think they were hatching in the attic because there were loads of them upstairs - you'd get a towel out of the hot press and a huge spider woud just drop out of it. My heavily pregnant housemate nearly went into early labour after that happened to her!

I once found one on the wall of my bedroom (ground floor) and went to get a glass to capture it and put it out and by the time I returned there was another one right beside it - damn things seemed to be multiplying right in front of me! There was a distinct shortage of other bugs in the house at the time though so I suppose they were quite handy to have around.

WindSock

Hill Billy wrote:

Our house is riddled with these guys (Tegenaria Gigantea) from mid-September through to the end of November.

The fastest spider in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

She looks like she's built for stealth alright. I had seen similar ones in Thailand. Is your house in Ireland?

My current fave spider is the bird dung imitation spider

humanji

Well anyone who's scared of spiders should keep away from RTE at 7:30 tonight. Walking With Monsters is about pre-historic insects that were all insanely big! Last week they had 7-foot long sea scorpions. Freaky looking things. The trailer for tonights show had these huge spiders leaping about in it.

~Leanne~

Why dont people just buy those plugs that stop insects and mice? I have 3 and ive yet to see a spider in my house.
They give off a pulsating sounds that the human ear cant hear but it stops them nesting in your home.

humanji

DJ_Spider wrote:

HTH! Oh and don't worry about the spiders, as said before they will run away rather than attack, you are too big to eat so not worth expending energy on biting you. :eek:

oh, and I have to say, that's BS! According to the films "Eight Legged Freaks" and "Arachnaphobia", spiders will purposely try and kill us. And movies haven't lied to me before, so it must be true!

The Hill Billy

boreds wrote:

Is your house in Ireland?

North County Dublin.

Here's one Mrs Billy got last year.

DJ_Spider

darkman2 wrote:

The Goliath is not actually the Bird Eating Spider - Is it?

yes but they have never actually eaten a bird. I fed a adult mouse to one of my goliaths, took him about 2hrs! Also fed a guinnea pig to one of my burmese pythons, took him about 1hr! BTW they died of natural causes - the mouse & guinnea pig, NOT the spider & snake! :rolleyes:

brianthebard

humanji wrote:

Well anyone who's scared of spiders should keep away from RTE at 7:30 tonight. Walking With Monsters is about pre-historic insects that were all insanely big! Last week they had 7-foot long sea scorpions. Freaky looking things. The trailer for tonights show had these huge spiders leaping about in it.

Must check that out.

xzanti

Daknight wrote:

Nope! but if this ever got in a banana box to ireland and started reproducing i would never leave my house!

:eek: Is it on me??? I feel like its on me

*Shivvver*

marco_polo

I must say i'd rather encounter an easy to spot Goliath spider that a female black widow, only 2-3 centimeters :eek:

The_B_Man

http://file034b.bebo.com/10/large/2007/05/04/11/214357876a4280260698b202949387l.jpg

that yoke was in me toilet last night on the floor. thought it was a cockroach but i think it was jsut a beetle. i was playin wit him while i was havin a poo...he died shortly afterwards...

Faith

Hill Billy wrote:

North County Dublin.

Here's one Mrs Billy got last year.

Haha, I love the big "Smoking Kills" sign on the cig box next to the (dead?) spider.

humanji

Hell of a poo!

Gauge

Hill Billy wrote:

Our house is riddled with these guys (Tegenaria Gigantea) from mid-September through to the end of November.

The fastest spider in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.

That's the fecker that was in my bed! They're huge.

And they do seem to like towels- I was opening the towel cupboard and one fell out. It actually made a thump when it landed.

darkman2

The new viagra? lol.............

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6625397.stm

the_syco

Meh. Big spiders seem to get drawn to my PC But if they run towards my boot, they get squished.

Seriously.


I'd be sitting down, playing BF2, and this spider comes out of nowhere, and heads for my boot.

Squish them, and ask questions later, I say.

Lirange

darkman2 wrote:

The new viagra? lol.............

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6625397.stm

So that's how bookish and scrawny Tobey Maguire gets the chicks!