Unusually large spiders in Galway

EdwardSav

Hello.
Two people I know have told me something about an usual type of spider being found in Galway. One that was not supposed to be native to the area at all.
However this was as far as their information went and they couldnt even remember where they heard it. So I thought nothing of it.
Anyways, I live in the green on College Rd. and we have alot of spiders, more spiders than I've seen in any other house I've lived in. Most of them are just regular but Ive some across three now that are HUGE. Bigger than any house spiders I've ever seen. I've seen spiders this big a couple of times before.
One was in an old house literally in the middle of a forest, where the trees touch the house. The other was in the slimy tunnels underneath a fort. So I dont think they're that common. They also seem to be not that frightened of humans, they make no great effort to get away.
Infact one of them was found on my shoulder, at the time I was standing up in the middle of the room.
Sorry for the very long post was just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences?
Have I just been a bit unlucky and aided by friends trying to freak me out. Im no more scared of spiders than the average person but these things are massive.

Das Kitty

We had some big brown spiders about the house last month.

I suppose about 2.5 - 3 inches in diameter legs included?

You know they're big when you can hear them clip-clop across the floor.

Don't remember there being ones that big about when I was a kid.

Amalgam

Search is your friend. A big spidery thread..

Big Big Spiders.. Merged

ukgalwaymcguire

oh yeah you only ever get them in galway:rolleyes: and thats a monster size.. wow huge
maybe ya need your own st patrick to get rid of them, i mean he
did a terrific job with the snakes.. LMFAO

inisboffin

There was a section on the RTE news 2 or 3 weeks ago about the increase in spiders this year. It's connected to the weather we've had and some other factors (sorry to be vague, I caught half of it). As a result we have 'bigger faster stronger' (and more) spiders this year.

Earlier this year we found a couple of false black widows in the garden too. Unusual-ish but not horribly dangerous. Deffo more spiders in general this year, and noticed a fair few big ones.

In general it's a good thing, if that's any help!

pleasant Co.

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

oh yeah you only ever get them in galway:rolleyes: and thats a monster size.. wow huge
maybe ya need your own st patrick to get rid of them, i mean he
did a terrific job with the snakes.. LMFAO

witty witty witty! ROFLcopter :cool:


I dislike spiders quite a lot, there are many living around Dun Aengus...it's fun

Madame Razz

I think it has something to do with the dampness up here; nowhere near as many spiders back home.

Doesn't really bother me tbh; far less wasps around this year tho which pleased me greatly

Had a friend telling me about these huge spiders they were finding in his house a few months back, haven't noticed any myself, fairly big ones alright but legs were the majority of their size, nothing i hadn't see over the past few years.....

It's possible with the weather we're getting new specimens, after all, i've been noticing (pretty big) mosquito's the past two years, you can tell they're mosquito's by the massive bites they leave, can't understand how some people still think they're midges

topper75

Dunno about size but I think the numbers of spiders out the back of a house I was living in in Ballybrit was notable. Webs being spun all across the garden!

Weather will help their proliferation, but they must have an abnormally large food source as well. This is odd because there are not an inordinate amount of flies in Galway. I'm stumped.

I wouldn't be arachnophobic. I quite like them as they eat flies, and flies spread disease. Annoying though when you have a glut of any creature.

Fracture

Its weird the way i came across this topic, me and my gf were talking about this last week, after i seen quite a few big brown spiders.
You know they are big when they are hard to catch,
and you can see the hair on their legs.
I wonder if this global warming is helping foreign species of spiders etc flourish in this country,
the amount of species that can easily come into the country in the likes of cases of bananas etc can easily trigger a hugh growth in new species of different types of animals.

majiktripp

Irish Spiders aren't so bad, saw a White Tail spider in New Zealand , which are pretty common and it put the fear of Jesus into me... so we're lucky enough here.
Some detailed info

Robbo

Das Kitty wrote: »

We had some big brown spiders about the house last month.

I suppose about 2.5 - 3 inches in diameter legs included?

You know they're big when you can hear them clip-clop across the floor.

Don't remember there being ones that big about when I was a kid.

Did they have coconuts?

po0k

"I for one welcome our arachnid overlords, and as a trusted community moderator I can assist in rounding up more workers to toil in your sugar mines"

FouxDaFaFa

EdwardSav wrote: »

They also seem to be not that frightened of humans, they make no great effort to get away.
Infact one of them was found on my shoulder, at the time I was standing up in the middle of the room.

That's okay, I didn't need sleep anyway.:eek:

I'm just hoping that they're not that common.

Sparkles

Aaarrrgggh! Do not like the sound of this thread. I'm glad someone else noticed the mosquitos, don't remember seeing them hanging around Galway before....

Das Kitty

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

That's okay, I didn't need sleep anyway.:eek:

I'm just hoping that they're not that common.

Sorry feeling evil.

Was getting ready for a meal out about a month ago and I laid out my clothes on the spare room bed when I went in to the shower. Came back and was getting dressed. Picked up my top and put one arm into it, took it out again. Hmm, what was that I spotted? Gently open the top and there is is. MASSIVE. MOTHERFUPPING. SPIDER!

Now I'm not one who's normally afraid of arachnids, but for some reason since getting knocked up They're giving me the serious willies, I'm always dreaming that they're in the bed and having terrors about them. So basically I flung my top at the wall and screamed like a banshee. The fecker sped off into the wardrobe, he could still be in there.

*scratch scratch*

EdwardSav

I noticed the mosquitos too. Got some terrible bites during this summer and they hung around for much longer that I thought they would.