Reply With QuoteLooks like fun.
Why does your son live in a tool shed?
This is the largest I've encountered in the bath. 36mm raketa placed next to it for scale
I was woke by my son this morning at 6 rather panicked as there was, in his words, an f ing great spider on his wall
I’ve seen his f ing great spiders before which generally are no bigger than a 20p piece..... this however was slightly bigger!
Nothing prepared me for the size of this F ING great thing on his wall and for a period of time was pondering what to do.
So grabbing a pint glass and stiff envelope I just managed to squeeze this behemoth in to the glass- his legs were at one point slight larger than the glass.
We’re not talking big but spindly we’re talking, big fat and narly....it looked like a seasoned wall offender!
With him outside I decide to place him out in the road and thankfully he scurried off in the opposite direction.
I wish that was my only encounter today but sadly not. I was in the garage just contemplating it’s yearly sort out when this ba**ard shot out from the window and started to attack a reasonable size wasp.
In comparison to the one this morning I’d say he was not as big however as you can see with the sill for perspective he’s quite a big un. I’m hoping the visits last night is a one off as the wife hates them.
Can’t say as I’m looking forward to the spider season this year- they look bigger than last year.
Looks like fun.
Why does your son live in a tool shed?
This is the largest I've encountered in the bath. 36mm raketa placed next to it for scale
Last edited by hafle; 21st April 2019 at 17:52.
^ mint. Only on tzuk would we define the size of spiders by watches. God help us when they start dwarfing DSSDs.
J
Originally Posted by hafle
Or start complaining that 36mm is too diminutive to credibly wear these days.
That bad boy is a big false widow, don’t want to get bitten by that!!
I was woke by my son this morning at 6 rather panicked as there was, in his words, an f ing great spider on his wall
I’ve seen his f ing great spiders before which generally are no bigger than a 20p piece..... this however was slightly bigger!
Nothing prepared me for the size of this F ING great thing on his wall and for a period of time was pondering what to do.
So grabbing a pint glass and stiff envelope I just managed to squeeze this behemoth in to the glass- his legs were at one point slight larger than the glass.
We’re not talking big but spindly we’re talking, big fat and narly....it looked like a seasoned wall offender!
With him outside I decide to place him out in the road and thankfully he scurried off in the opposite direction.
I wish that was my only encounter today but sadly not. I was in the garage just contemplating it’s yearly sort out when this ba**ard shot out from the window and started to attack a reasonable size wasp.
In comparison to the one this morning I’d say he was not as big however as you can see with the sill for perspective he’s quite a big un. I’m hoping the visits last night is a one off as the wife hates them.
Can’t say as I’m looking forward to the spider season this year- they look bigger than last year.
Is it?
I thought it was a Tegenaria which is normally out there.
Yep, that's exactly what it is, looks like the domestica variety, aka, house spider, very common in western Europe.
Yeah not a false widow I don’t think. Have had a few of those around and the abdomen is much larger and often has a wet / glossy look to it.
But those big house spider types can be not only very large but surprisingly aggressive.. I often have one or two big ones lurking at the back of my lock-up garage and I will occasionally pluck a long strand of grass and poke it into the web as often one of these big buggers will shoot out and start attacking it.
To help compare, this is the false widow I found in my conservatory..
...and this in my kitchen which looks more like the Tegenaria
Those are both false widow. One first one is female and the other male.To help compare, this is the false widow I found in my conservatory..
...and this in my kitchen which looks more like the Tegenaria
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/comm...atoda-spp.html
Interesting reading about the false widow.
Eeeek!
Oh great - now they have made it to the main house!
A few years ago we rented a beautiful house in the middle of a scotts pine woods, soon after moving in we realised there were spiders absolutely everywhere in those woods and the houses in the area got infested pretty much (and this was a recently built house). We saw a lot of false widows and giant house spiders. My daughter got bitten on the eye whilst asleep and it got really bad swollen. We had to get over the fear of spiders fast, immersion therapy I think you’d call it!
What makes me think that FFF's first pic could be a male false widow as well... The jury is still out there, I presume?
You can deduce that from the style of the web. Tegenaria build sheet webs, like in the first photo. The widow family build "tangle" webs, that to our eyes look like an untidy mess.
In fact, the one in the 1st photo is probably a female Tegenaria, and the one in the 2nd post is a male Tegenaria.
Given your knowledge about this matter and the whole situation above, I think that no-one here will mind if you post a new thread called '101 - How To Recognise A False Widow' complete with pics for comparison etc. Most of us (at least a lot of us) are totally unaware about the difference. E.g. that the shape of the web tells you more. That's interesting and useful info!!
Menno
I found a huge Tegenaria behind a hose reel recently , some real monsters around at the moment, certainly looks like one of those . I've not seen a lot of false widows but they ones I have were much much smaller than the common house spider , there were/are pretty common in Bristol where I used to live.
I used to keep tarantulas so don't mind them at all
Anyone got any Tubeweb spiders around? They’re pretty cool beasts, good ‘fun’ tickling one out of its hole with a blade of grass. Extra points for using a short blade of grass haha
The Noble False Widows, or Steadtoda Nobilis are quite easily recognised by the skull type markings on the abdomen ( See below ) and are not to be confused with the Steatoda Grossa which is more common in the house, is the same shape but does not have the skull type markings and does not bite. My garden has the Nobilis all the time and and sometimes the house as well. My bonsai seem to attract them a lot, especially one large Chinese Elm which has a few holes that they like to lay up in .... Try to avoid their bites, they can turn out nasty !...
We have no place complaining about Spiders, some friends of mine recently moved to Australia, they've sent me pictures of things they find crawling up their walls, I'm never going to visit them.
They have Spiders there that catch and eat mice, yes MICE!!
"Try to avoid their bites, they can turn out nasty !..."
The ugly bastards better avoid my airsoft pistol
This little beauty has been sitting in the conservatory door frame for a few days
Jeez, he should get a haircut!
My wife hates spiders. She will not set a foot in the room where she spotted a spider. Despite that, she has lived & worked in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan for a few years. Countries with spiders the size of the one in that Aussie video. She even had an encounter with a blue Peacock spider. She says, that in hindsight, that the whole population of India must have heard here when she spotted the spider on the wall of her office...
Menno
Last edited by thieuster; 24th April 2019 at 06:28.
Amongst the many spiders in our shed is this Crab spider.
Also got a 'vibrating' spider which is amusing.
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We (my wife and I) were sitting on the deck in the garden and there was a small-ish spider climbing up the wall of the garage. At least 7 mtrs away from us. Of course, my wife spotted the spider... That's the moment I realised that I don't have the guts to tell her about this thread! False widows are not really an issue here in the Netherlands. Last (Dutch) item I found on the internet was written in 2013 and talks about the false widow in... the UK. Every now and then,in newer news items, there's news about a black widow. Mostly 'imported' via a US classic car that's unloaded here in the Netherlands etc.
Despite this relatively good news for us, I don't dare to tell her...
Menno
These are very common and known as Wolf spiders, they set up webs but also take a night walk looking for food if its scarce hence seeing them at night running across the floor, the ones I find in the house tend to be quite emaciated so its nice to let them go outside..This little beauty has been sitting in the conservatory door frame for a few days
Looks big
I once took a photo of a huge spider in a bathroom in India that produced a red eye reflex!
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Here ...Looks big
I once took a photo of a huge spider in a bathroom in India that produced a red eye reflex!
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Yep, some real monsters out there
Fas est ab hoste doceri
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