Do Irish house spiders bite?

Curlykfriday

I always used to pick up spiders and put them carefully outside to go on their merry way - till I moved into my house a few years ago. Its near a lake and seeing as there are always lots of flies and midges around I initially was glad of the odd spider to get rid of them but how things change!

The spiders that are a constant nuisance in my house are bloody huge - seriously! Was lying in bed reading my book one night when one the size of the palm of my hand walked down the pillow centimetres from my head - I actually screamed so loud stunned him into shock after which he went to spider heaven the f***er!:D

Since then I've been operating kill on sight (and capture!) policy!!! :mad:

But I now think that a spider bit me in my bed the other night - seriously - felt something bite but couldn't find anything at that time. Bed was nonetheless hoovered and indeed sprayed with a mite / insect killing spray, bedclothes were boiled etc. But I've just come home about to get into my bed and another motherf***er the size of my palm just scooted out from under my duvet - could he be what bit me the other night or am I losing my mind?

the_syco

Irish spiders, no, but due to the weather, spiders from hotter climates may be able to live here for short periods.

Curlykfriday

the_syco wrote:

Irish spiders, no, but due to the weather, spiders from hotter climates may be able to live here for short periods.

Jaysus, I couldn't be unlucky enough to have foreign feckers as well as a houseful of Irish spiders!! Currently scouring net to see what options are out there to keep one's home spider-free. I've had enough of them, they're taking over - they're getting that big and cheeky they'll be asking me for dinner next thing.

I really do think it was a spider that bit me - must be going mental!

bushy...

Got bitten on the back of the hand by one last year and the spot around the bite just went numb then greyish. Wouldn't heal until I took away the dead parts.

Curlykfriday

bushy... wrote:

Got bitten on the back of the hand by one last year and the spot around the bite just went numb then greyish. Wouldn't heal until I took away the dead parts.

So it could have been a spider that bit me then :rolleyes: !

All I can say is that I am now on a mission to make my house a spider free zone - that fecker in me bed was a step too far!:eek:

MsFifers

Spider bites can be problematic - you should keep an eye on it. Have you noticed any strange changes lately? Eg -vision sharper, muscle development, odd discharges from wrists?

Fredrick

MsFifers wrote:

Spider bites can be problematic - you should keep an eye on it. Have you noticed any strange changes lately? Eg -vision sharper, muscle development, odd discharges from wrists?

Funny Post

Curlykfriday

MsFifers wrote:

Spider bites can be problematic - you should keep an eye on it. Have you noticed any strange changes lately? Eg -vision sharper, muscle development, odd discharges from wrists?

OH MY GOD - YES, YES, YES! And I was able to paint all the ceilings in my house without a ladder the other day too!!!:D

Curlykfriday

Seriously though, if anyone has any proven methods of getting rid of the pesky feckers let me know - it's gone beyond a joke now. I want a spider-free home

jameshayes

what about some smelly herbs... like mint keeps cats away(i think it's mint anyway) and lavendar keeps other things away... maybe there could be a herb out there for keeping spiders away??

lubie76

Curlykfriday wrote:

Seriously though, if anyone has any proven methods of getting rid of the pesky feckers let me know - it's gone beyond a joke now. I want a spider-free home

Do you have a cat? I have and if I see a spider I just show it to him and he won't rest til its eaten. I guess it's just his predator instinct.

getuptheyard

Spiders hate conkers, when its the right season put a load of them around your house that will keep most of them out.

Our man in Havana

The common large black house spider can bite & draw blood but they are harmless & have no venom etc.

SpicyNoodle

Woodlouse spiders are the only ones capable of bitting humans in Ireland. House spiders are fine because their jaws cannot open wide enough to bite humans. So far they have only been reported in the north of Ireland. They range in size from around 3/4 of an inch, or a little less than 2 cm.

Picture of a woodlouse spider-Dysdera crocata.

animan

cellar spiders can bite people too

SpicyNoodle

animan wrote:

cellar spiders can bite people too

What type of cellar spider, do you have any more info? are the native to Ireland?

animan

the ones people call daddy longlegs and have 2 parts to their bodies

biko

SpicyNoodle wrote:

What type of cellar spider, do you have any more info? are the native to Ireland?

Pholcidae can be found in Ireland and they can bite but the effects are negligible.

SpicyNoodle

animan wrote:

the ones people call daddy longlegs and have 2 parts to their bodies

Where are you getting the info from though. Any proof that they bite?

biko

Yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUc866nA0E

schaffer

The common house spider (Tegenaria domestica), the huge black spiders seen running across the floor, do bite, but not seriously.
You may have issues getting rid of them. The females normally stay hidden in secluded places, i.e. under beds and wardrobes for their whole lives. It's the males or baby spiders that you would normally see. These spiders can last upto a year without food.

SpicyNoodle

Ahh, thanks bike. I had no idea what cellar spider animan meant, so I take back my statement about woodlouse being the only ones capable of breaking the skin.

Curlykfriday

schaffer wrote:

The common house spider (Tegenaria domestica), the huge black spiders seen running across the floor, do bite, but not seriously.
You may have issues getting rid of them. The females normally stay hidden in secluded places, i.e. under beds and wardrobes for their whole lives. It's the males or baby spiders that you would normally see. These spiders can last upto a year without food.

Can't say the news that the feckers live for up to a year without food has cheered me up but confirms what I've already found they're bloody hard to get rid of!:(

thebee

Hey does anyone know if this spider is dangerous? I found it on the wall of my bedroom, my boyfriend captured it in a container and flushed it down the toilet. Then.... when he was having a shower the next day it came up out of the drain at him. I took a pic of it and emailed it on to pest control and the guy that got it was pretty freaked for someone who works with bugs all year round.Anyway he said he's never seen anything like it, and that he would send the pic of to be identified, until then i was advised to leave my house. YES people a spider evicted me!!!!!!

It was about the size of the palm of my hand and really hairy!!!!!!!:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: check out the attachment below to see it! Or if anyone has any idea what type of spider it is could they let me know please!!!!!!!!

golfgirl

God help you people. I have a pretty bad spider phobia, although a little device that I got on the internet has helped me alot. It's called a spider-catcher and basically is a rod with bristles at the end which catches up the spider and then you can release him outside ... minimum stress and spider lives on. Only problem is (and the last post about how the spider came back up the drain a case in point) is that spiders have those homing tendancies, like pigeons, so they may slip back in your vent again. However, for a quick fix I would recommend the spider-catcher for any agoraphobics (sp?) out there.

stcatherine

thebee wrote:

Hey does anyone know if this spider is dangerous?

Hi hun, don't worry it's just a common House spider (Tegenaria domestica) There are several 'look alike' species but this one is identified by the chevron markings on the top of its abdomen.

They are bloody scary and We got a lot of them in our house in England and I taught my Staffie to hunt them down and Kill em on sight :rolleyes: . All I have to do is say 'Spider' and she goes into hunting mode !!
Since moving back to Eire 6 weeks ago I haven't seen any spiders anything like the same size and I was hoping you didn't get em here, but obviously you do !!

The only tip I can give to ward them off is conkers !! believe it or not they are supposed to be a great detterent if you lay them out on your window sills !

Failing that ... want to borrow a trained Killer ?

wyk

Curlykfriday wrote:

OH MY GOD - YES, YES, YES! And I was able to paint all the ceilings in my house without a ladder the other day too!!!:D

I hope you were using paint...

In Texas, there's quite a few spiders that bite and can put you in the hospital. However, could be worse, EVERYTHING, including the pigeons and ponies, are poisonous in Australia. But not much in Ireland is poisonous aside from my ex-wife, so chances are you simply have a rash you picked up from a public toilet. I suggest antibiotics...

Here's a lil garden spider I found not too long ago...The mobile is about 4" tall, btw, with the spider about a foot away in the background so it's web wouldn't snag my phone. That's right, it's about a 5" spider IN A WEB. Why on earth someone decided we needed 5" spiders making webs and hanging out in Texas? Only thing I can reckon is possum and raccoon control.
:




If you look closely, you can see she has babies. Awwwww......

Wez

Spyral

lol she's prolly gonna digest herself as food for them soon..

I like spiders and bugs in general.. I wish I could be an entomologist.. :rolleyes:

anyways this is the uberest spider I've encountered short of tarantulas in pet shops and what not :

SpicyNoodle

Doesn't this look like a woodlouse spider, found it today in my house. Do they exist in the rep of Ireland, I am starting to question that one. Not big, macro makes it look huge lol...

anfearciuin

SpicyNoodle wrote: »

Woodlouse spiders are the only ones capable of bitting humans in Ireland. House spiders are fine because their jaws cannot open wide enough to bite humans. So far they have only been reported in the north of Ireland. They range in size from around 3/4 of an inch, or a little less than 2 cm.

Picture of a woodlouse spider-Dysdera crocata.

im living in dublin and i found one of those woodlouse in my back garden just today.i read an article recently about a maltese spider which is a domestic spider and was introduced here accidently,it bites and has venom which produce's
flu like symptoms in its victims

*Page*

Curlykfriday wrote: »

Jaysus, I couldn't be unlucky enough to have foreign feckers as well as a houseful of Irish spiders!! Currently scouring net to see what options are out there to keep one's home spider-free. I've had enough of them, they're taking over - they're getting that big and cheeky they'll be asking me for dinner next thing.

I really do think it was a spider that bit me - must be going mental!

get a cat, they love to eat spiders

*Page*

i just want to add that i'm terrified of spiders and i am sick to my tummy, with goose bumps all over and a slight versions of the cold sweats...#

so that you all for those loverly pictures!!!



bastards

sillymoo

The hover normally does the job for me if the cats dont catch them!

echosound

*uncontrollable shudder at sight of scary pics*
I hate spiders, and had the misfortune of living in a house where there were literally hundreds of huge fat hairy agressive spiders who'd actually make a run for you. I kid you not. Must've smelled the abject fear.

Raid spray seems to do the trick if you cannot a) squish them to death or b) are too squeamish to capture and release outside. Never saw the point of releasing outside as the blighters just found their way back in again anyway.
But the raid stuff is great, it seems to linger wherever you spray it too, so they don't come back again for weeks.

watty

I was bitten by a spider once. Like getting jabbed by a pin. No swelling or pain afterward. Maybe I shouldn't have picked it up. Co. Antrim.

fguihen

i am not the fondest of spiders, but i much rather them about than flies. anyway, whenever i find a spider, it ALWAYS gets covered with a glass, slide paper under and bring him out to the garden. found one in the house 2 days ago sitting in the middle of the floor about 3 inches long. not a daddy long legs one either, big thick legs on the bugger. he went outside just the same. never kill them, they are useful, although ugly.

Trinity

*Page* wrote: »

i just want to add that i'm terrified of spiders and i am sick to my tummy, with goose bumps all over and a slight versions of the cold sweats...#

so that you all for those loverly pictures!!!



bastards

Me too. But me being me, i just had to look. Silly me....

cvisser

hi guys, this is the spider i found in my house and since then i have found 4 of these, all simial size and all in the landing area, they are very very quick and big, i was physicaly sick when i saw the size of him her, all help please, Thanks, i have 2 young childeren, 12 months and 4 years, will the spiders harm them @ all. now these pictures are taken when i caught him in the pint Glass.....

Thanks.

ValerieR

Definitely no money spiders ...
I don't know much about them, but I'd say you are pretty safe there. A previous poster mentioned that there isn't many biting insects in Ireland ... not even mosquitoes bite here !!!!
Btw, the spider catcher is a great tool for catching spiders without killing them.
ValerieR

2Poc

cvisser wrote: »

hi guys, this is the spider i found in my house and since then i have found 4 of these, all simial size and all in the landing area, they are very very quick and big, i was physicaly sick when i saw the size of him her, all help please, Thanks, i have 2 young childeren, 12 months and 4 years, will the spiders harm them @ all. now these pictures are taken when i caught him in the pint Glass.....

Thanks.

These are normal house spiders.
This time of year the males come out of their hidey holes looking for females to mate.
They will bite but are not aggressive.

The reason they are getting bigger is that they are living longer in the milder winters. Generally they'd die off once it gets cold.

I had a real problem with these guys over the last couple of years, my wife is terrified of them & we were having these feckers scuttling across the floor almost every evening once it got to this time of year.

I hate killing spiders or anything else for that matter but after a second year of this problem I decided to just kill them rather than the usual catch & release.

(We had tried plug in contraptions in the house, 'spider stop' spray etc to no avail)

So I killed all the ones I saw & this year we don't have the same problem.

Like I said, I don't take killing anything lightly, but the final straw for me was when I saw one beside my baby daughters head & I just lost the head completely..

cvisser

Thanks Guys, i just could'nt get over the size of him, does anybody know what there called..

2Poc

They are Giant house spiders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_house_spider

As an aside I had a strange little spider run across my desk earlier in the week & when I went to catch him he reared up & put his two front legs up in the air at me. Freaky..

capedcrustacian

i got bitten by a spider a couple of years ago on my finger, it got all swollen and ever since, i don't touch the lil guys, i get someone else to remove them for me

Alibear

Very interesting thread... About a month ago I was sitting down watching TV when I saw a HUGE spider running across the room. It wasn't a house spider or any of the other spiders mentioned on here either I don't mind spiders, but it did scare me a bit!

I saw it every evening for about a week, and one day when I was walking into the sitting room (barefoot - but I was wearing socks) I felt something horrible tingling under my foot and I jumped and screamed when I realised that it was the bl**dy huge spider! It managed to run off even though it was missing some legs, but I never saw it afterwards so I presume it died somewhere shortly afterwards!

Busta Hyman

jameshayes wrote: »

what about some smelly herbs...

he wants to kill em not have a smoke and get stoned with em

arybvtcw0eolkf

Busta Hyman wrote: »

he wants to kill em not have a smoke and get stoned with em

You could be close to the truth!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

:pac:

tundra

Last night in bed I strongly suspect that I was also bitten by a spider on the back of my hand. Woke abruptly with a stinging sensation and a small weal resulted. After recent newspaper reports of a spider found in Ireland that was suspected of being an Australian immigrant with a bad attitude I wondered was this just a case of mass hysteria and after washing my hands went back to sleep. This morning I found on the bed cover near where my hand had been (Yuk!) what strongly appeared to be a detached spiders leg. Bedroom now forensically vacuumed!

Peewee_lane

Hey! I was bitten by a spider in a house I rented in Maynooth about 2 years ago.

I woke up and I turned to my partner and the first words out of my mouth were, "my hand hurts". I then raised my hand and it looked exactly like the pic below.

For about 3 weeks after that, every day it filled up with pus and one day I finally couldnt take the pain anymore and took a tweezers to it and after tearing my hand open I pulled something out and it went away.

I still have a scar on my knuckle.

Amalgam

RTE Radio 1 ran a piece on a very aggressive species of bed mite people are bringing back with them from holidays. Then it lives quite happily over here. Are you sure it was a spider?

Amazing feature, basically families in Dublin having to live away from the house while it was treated, they prefer bed frames with wood, or fabric covered frames with wood, which you would get with most discount and chain store furniture.

Just to say, about house spiders. The female will be bigger than the male and can live for several years.

I wonder if any studies are being done on invasive species?

DerKaiser

Cellar spiders can have quite long leg spans, do your spiders have very skinny bodies and long, bandy leg spans? Speculation states they are the most venomous spider in the world, but can't do humans any harm as the fangs cannot pierce our skin, the worst this spider can do is give you a surface tingle for a few seconds

Seloth

A good few eyars ago I kept getting spider bites..turned out there was a nest of them in my sheets!!!

Got rid of th thing straight away!,KOS for any of thm in my room usually:cool: