Huge spider in Tipperary - this normal?

RogerRabid

I saw this spider today beside my sliding door.

Is it safe?

I mean the spiders are definitely getting bigger every year!

I have a pen beside it for scale in one of the images.

iwillhtfu

That looks like a false widow. I'd be in the kill it camp they're an invasive species that kill off a lot of the more common garden spiders. They're also the only spider we have that can give a nasty enough bite.

RogerRabid

Oh my, I think you are right.
I just googled it and there was an article in the independent about it.

Yuck!

iwillhtfu

RogerRabid wrote: »

Oh my, I think you are right.
I just googled it and there was an article in the independent about it.

Yuck!

Strange to see them out like that during the day. They love clutter and you'll probably find more of them if you look around the garden. I usually find them up under the garden parasol and under the bbq cover.

RogerRabid

He has scurried into a corner now, alright. I guess they are pretty common.

Very unsettling though.

Thanks for info

Eddie B

I could never understand the whole thing about spiders getting bigger. It seems to come up here fsirly regularly. I presume it's a myth, or is there actually evidence to suggest it's an actual thing.

OpenYourEyes

Eddie B wrote: »

I could never understand the whole thing about spiders getting bigger. It seems to come up here fsirly regularly. I presume it's a myth, or is there actually evidence to suggest it's an actual thing.

There are obviously big spiders and small spiders, and I suppose over time you might expect that you might start finding bigger spiders in your house, but it's all well within normal variation as far as I'm aware. In the same way fish aren't getting bigger - there are big trout and small trout, and the longer you're catching fish the more likely you are to see a bigger one than you've ever seen before.


I hear it a lot about birds - this bird must be the juvenile because it's smaller (no it isn't, it's the same size as the adults), and these gulls/crows etc. are getting bigger and bigger (no they're not, they're the same size as they've been for thousands of years!).

NasserShammaz

iwillhtfu wrote: »

That looks like a false widow. I'd be in the kill it camp they're an invasive species that kill off a lot of the more common garden spiders. They're also the only spider we have that can give a nasty enough bite.

100% kill it they are decimating our native spiders a d breed twice a fast I think.

Ken Tucky

Had/have one in my shed. Seen it attacking a wasp. It put the creeps right up me. Tried to get it out but they are the fastest spiders i have ever had the misfortune to see.
Blasted it with WD40. Have not seen it since, i didn't like doing it but it had to go:(

dodderangler

Looks more like a lace web spider than a false.
Its abdomen is aloy more robust than a false