Nighttime visitor

Jim_Hodge · 18-10-2024 07:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122735024#Comment_122735024

That's an old wife's tale. House spiders cannot and do not swim up a water pipe. They fall in to the bath and can't climb back out due to the sides of the baths being too slippery.

Space Dog · 18-10-2024 08:02PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122735024#Comment_122735024

House spiders are already in your house, you just see more of them when it's mating season and the males are looking for a female. Usually they stay hidden so you don't notice as many..

taxAHcruel · 19-10-2024 08:08AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122735024#Comment_122735024

Ah the annual panic and scare mongering. It's like Clock Work really and the click bait "news" sites love it.

Interesting how the article claims "Residents are being warned". Yet somehow it never mentions who issued any kind of warning. It was probably the news paper editor who ordered the article writer to warn people.

It also tries to describe a "harrowing" experience one mother had of "11 hours" in hospital. Note however it did not mention a single bad effect the child had in that 11 hours as the "venom wore off". What likely happened was she went to the emergency room in a panic and they allowed her and the child to sit there for 11 hours for observation just in case. How you word stuff can make it sound worse than it was. My toddler swallowed super glue once and we went to the hospital just in case and were told to hang around for a few hours incase the drying of the clue suddenly caused any windpipes to close up. "Father in harrowing 4 hours hospital visit after child swallowed super glue" I guess :)

The article closes with a link to a website about the spider. In the FAQ on that website it appears the best the website can do is note that "to date" (what, since records began??) there have been 16 people who went to hospital with such bites and only 1 seemed all that notable. Wasp stings likely have much worse statistics than that and probably peanuts too.

I post this video every year when the topic of the False Widow comes up. It can tell you pretty much all you'd want to know about them and identifying them and about their bite and so on:

youtube.com/watch?v=-RtXsXpvSSw

Also discusses what to do if you want to get rid of them and how people who want to kill them tend to misidentify them and end up killing a lot of the native species instead.

All in all the articles recommendation to go all over your house plugging up the gaps and holes - let alone absolute nonsense urban legends that they are coming up drain pipes at you - is guff and you can probably get on with your life. There is likely also a lot more spiders in any given house than you think there are (especially the people who think they have none). There is probably also a lot more insects you do not want in your house than you think like wood lice. Insects which your friendly helpful spiders are eating for you.

In fact the only advice really worth giving/taking on the matter is to maybe shake out your clothes before putting them on. But spiders or nay that's probably not a bad idea anyway and a fairly decent habit to get into. Get the dust and some of the creases out.

beachhead · 19-10-2024 08:24AM

Click bait post about something normal. But the mass murderers can vent

Sgt Hartman · 21-10-2024 05:10AM

This spider scene is brutal

https://youtu.be/SOMKnhN7ABs?si=S8lQqf8vazC0yAoa

Lewis_Benson · 22-10-2024 12:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058374649/nighttime-visitor

Normal house spider.

Esel · 22-10-2024 12:19AM

….

Avatar in the Post · 22-10-2024 02:14PM

good spider (native) or bad spider (invasive)?

It’s got long legs and bulbous back.

it’s actively making a web, but the sun is shining, hard to make out if traditional web, or more disjointed like false widows. It’s from a bush in my back garden. It seems to be building in a linear fashion..

If it’s native I’ll let it live, if not I’ll consider nuking the house.

Esel · 22-10-2024 09:52PM

Wolf spider, I think. Not as bad as it sounds if it is that!

From Wikipedia:

Though wolf spiders do bite humans, their bites are not dangerous. Wolf spider bites often result in mild redness, itching, ulcers, and if the bite wound is not cleaned it could lead to infection. However, wolf spiders usually only bite when they feel threatened or mishandled.