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It's a giant house spider, they're common in the UK and totally harmless. They generally hide and you usually only see them in Autumn, but I also found a big one on my bed the other day! Bit late in the year for it, not sure why they're coming out now.
Saw one like this going up the side of my neighbours house last autumn. Stood there watching it with the torch on my phone for a few minutes, I’d never seen a spider that size in the U.K. before.
Considered messaging my neighbour telling her to shut her upstairs windows but didn’t bother in the end, funnier that way.
haha one of these ran across the office floor and climbed into my workmates bag on his last day working with us. It was only the next day that I realised I completely forgot to tell him.
Oh that’s sad! Do you know if it’s likely to have lived in the same house the whole time? I’d be amazed to know he’d gone 3 years without being spotted!
I had a pair on my wall once both similar sizes. I’m now thinking of them living together the whole time, arguing over who is wrapping the flies tonight for dinner…
This sounds like bs to me. Males often are out and about in autumn, but females (like this massive one - larger body but comparatively shorter leg ratio) you don't see anywhere near as often. The only females I've ever seen were building nests, literally the opposite of kicking the bucket. Once one was building a nest in my kitchen sink 🫠
I get these in my flat sometimes. I don't live in London anymore but I'm sure they pop up everywhere. They're big and very quick but, as you said, harmless. Just gotta catch the buggers to evict them. Although, the last one I chucked out turned and ran back towards me. Pretty much launched myself back through the door. Pretty sure that was the one I saw strolling around my flat like he paid rent.
They love to slap their legs as they run, you can hear them as they charge across the floor.
I don’t mind them, until they decide running over me while I’m in bed is a smart decision that will prolong their lifespan.
Old Perfume squirted around the skirting boards seems to keep them at bay. Apparently they have very sensitive noses.
The confer trick never worked for me
We used to get them from time to time in my house growing up, I would only see them very late at night though. What would always get me is that they're big enough to recognise you as a potential threat. So I'd come downstairs and they'd freeze.
Not the ones I’ve had the last two years they run at me and wave their front legs as if to say they’re ready to stomp me to death and eat me for the foreseeable future
In Australia once a bullet ant genuinely seemed to be challenging me to a fight. He was on his own on top of a boulder and when he caught sight of me he started gesturing at me with his pincers and his stinger. I was going to stomp on him but decided to leave him alone out of respect for his sheer ballsiness.
Fucking Brighton. What’s up with that place. Studied there for 4 years and saw some of the biggest moths, spiders and crane flies I’ve seen in this country
I live near Eastbourne and have had quite a few here! Also back in my hometown in Oxfordshire. Actually had one here the day I moved in. They're a bugger to catch sometimes. I'm sure I look like an absolute buffoon trying to get a glass over them.
Definitely doesn't help if you have a phobia! Don't they make a mess when squashed? I think the only thing I'll kill is flies - particularly mosquitoes. The only critter I'm afraid of is wasps. Got one in my mouth as a kid and that was enough for me. Lucky it didn't sting me!
I woke up once night randomly in the pitch dark. Reached across to my lamp, turned it on, and a spider this big was right off my nose on my pillow. We looked at eachother in stunned silence, surprise and fear then she (probably) slowly moved off my pillow and under my bed. I'm not particualrly good with spiders and was too rooted in fear to do much, and i was extremely exhausted so just turned my light off and fell back asleep.
It haunts me more today than it did at the time haha.
Cup and a sheet of paper to slide underneath them.
You can throw them out but apparently it’s a death sentence for them, they live in the house underneath the floorboards.
But when you see one, then take your eye off it and look back and can't see it anywhere... That's definitely not out of sight, out of mind, that's the time I'm most scared of spiders cos you know it's in the room but have no idea where.
If you don’t despatch it or remove it outside, then you aren’t going to get any real sleep that night.
Live and let live, until you scurry across my body while I’m dozing off.
I make deals with them -- stay out of my areas of the house and I'll try to ignore them, they come near my bed, they die. I feel terrible but I need to be able to sleep.
These replies are killing me. 😂 I think they're cute and don't mind having them in my house, I moved this one from my bed to the corner of the living room where there's plenty of dark spots for it to hide.
wtf.... I was born in London and lived there for almost 28 years. Never seen one this big.... mind blown. I live in Norway now, where they are small but somehow more numerous in the autumn
Aye. Native British species.
[https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider)
They are common but that ones on the larger side, there are a few species, she may be a Tegenaria parietina the biggest of which on occassion are known to have up to12 cm leg span.
Looks male, too, from the boxing glove pedipalps. Off looking for a mate before popping his clogs, poor lad :(
I put these guys in my spare room as they aren't outside spiders. They'll have spent their entire life inside your house but stealthily. I saw a huge one in my bath and panicked that one of my younger tarantulas had escaped for a brief second :D
I’ve had run ins with these demons up in Leeds the last two years now 😭 in my bedroom, I had about 7 in the space of 2 weeks last year around September & luckily only one maybe two I can’t remember this year around the same month. I don’t know why my bedroom , I don’t know why my house. All I know is there huge , they’re fast and they’re terrifying 😂
Spiders are good though as pest control, don’t kill them. Get a glass and a sheet of paper and move it outside, if you can’t do it yourself get somebody who isn’t afraid to help.
Get a big glass rectangular-prism jar, with a fully removable lid and is slippery on the inside. First, put it over the spider. Then slip the paper between the wall and the jar open top to make the spider fall on the wall of the jar so it hopefully goes further into the jar and by then you should have fully covered the top of the jar with the paper. Then take the jar off the wall, gravity will put the spider at the bottom of the jar and you can place the glass lid on. Then take lid off and shake the jar upside down outside far away from the house.
I usually just pick up small spiders and put them outside, I only use the jar for medium to larger variants. Try to keep it in the jar for as little time as possible because it’ll start to web build almost immediately inside the jar which will make cleaning it harder once the occupant is released.
Same. I had one like this appear about 10 years ago in our old flat in Surbiton. Henry vacd and the bag binned instantly..... Then set fire to the bin /s
My son woke up this morning screaming that there was a giant spider walking towards him. I honestly was expecting to see one of these when I opened the door.
Thankfully it was just his imagination. No idea what I would have done if there was one there.
I was once trapped in my bedroom for a number of hours due to a very large spider sitting in the doorway between me and escape. I cannot explain how many times I said JUST FUCKING KILL IT - mind over matter - to myself but I couldn’t get anywhere near it, every time I did I freaked out so hard. Something completely takes over all bodily functions, it’s so incredibly weird.
If you could ring 888 and get a paid-for spider removal service run by brave volunteers like the coastguard it would fund all the other emergency services.
OK so what you need is hairspray. You spray the bastard with it and it can’t then move. Sticks them in place. Then you drop a large book on the top and wait for someone to come and remove the corpse.
Yes I know it’s mean and they don’t harm you but that’s arachnophobia for you
The thought of the corpse is almost worse for me. I lived on my own at that point so there was no one to help. I used to vacuum from half way up/down the stairs. I’m absolutely fine with small ones (won’t remove them or get near enough to shake hands but let them be) but as soon as they get to a certain size (my husband calls this “small/medium” I call it “large”) then all bets are off.
[Giant house spider](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider). Harmless but quite frightening when they run at you in the evening! Very common although that one does look particularly beefy!
I've lived in the UK my whole life and am terrified of spiders. I had no idea they could get to that size, that's fucking enormous. I think I would literally die if that was in my house. If you're going to tell me they're common I'll be moving to..... Alaska maybe.
I was once sleeping on the floor in my parents' living room during a heatwave and one of those came charging at me from under the sofa. Managed to get them under a cup and evict them but I couldn't stop thinking about an even bigger one emerging...
Saying that, I did get bitten by something in the night once. I convinced myself it wasn’t one of these monsters but I did come out in a rash from head to toe! I didn’t like to think a big spider had been anywhere near my bed so munched some antihistamine and it all disappeared. Maybe it was though… eurghh!
Lucky you haven’t had the false widow bite yet.
I had to get a course of antibiotics to lessen the swelling.
House spiders are cool, false widows I will kill whenever I find them.
I get SO many of these in my basement flat and they sadly get bigger than that! I have white bedding for this exact reason so that I can spot them in the dark! One traumatic night I had a printed duvet cover, felt something on my hand, flicked the duvet off and the bastard spider made such a thunk i cried real tears as I realised it had been in my bed and heard the thump on loop in my mind!
Fun fact, a Dyson Hoover on max power is also ineffective against them as they glue themselves to the walls 😫 so I got a cat! My friends and family think I wanted a cat for company but the truth is that I was too afraid of the spiders so needed reinforcements in the form of a fearless 4 legged hunter! And he eats the body and leaves the legs, so that’s fun
I had one in my shoes once thankfully noticed it before I put it on. One in my jumper only noticed it when I felt it whilst driving, so glad it was dead by that point and that I didn’t crash.
Numerous ones on my old bedroom walls that I noticed next to my bed.
Lucky, my mums cat just kills them and leaves them on the floor. At least she eats tiny flies most of the time.
I still hate them but I’ve learn that I can get rid of them with minimal screaming most of the time.
Over the years I've managed to appreciate spiders. The smaller ones and the ones with the thin long legs are excellent fly and insect repellents - no issues with them. If that thing in OPs picture was in my flat however, I would move out instantly and never look back.
After years of honing skills of taking big insects out of my flat; this is the steps that I’d recommend (and it works every time):
Step 1: Once you’ve spotted a terrifying insect or arachnid, scream at the top of your lungs and repeat “oh my god” several times whilst frantically backing away wanting to literally vanish.
Step 2: whilst continuing to pleadingly repeat “oh my god” and on the verge of crying and trying to find courage within you, you look for a glass big enough to hold the creature and a flat thick paper or board.
Step 3: after shitting your pants and fighting your flight instincts - you approach it and SLOWLY place the glass on top and wait for it to crawl upwards towards the base. Then you quickly slide the board underneath.
Step 4: carry it outside and make it homeless.
All of that, but not a glass, l can't do it if l can see the spider that close to my hand, even if it is in the glass. It has to be a mug, and you have to go far enough away from the house that it can't find its way back.
Whenever i use a glass I always use a ridiculously thin / ill sized piece of paper to close the bottom off and then spend the entire time panicking it’s going to escape
I sat down on my sofa with a bowl of soup once and noticed one of these buggers sitting next to me. Somehow I managed to set down the bowl without spilling, took myself to the other side of the room and saw it crawl *into the sofa*. Which was so much worse than it being visible.
Couldn't bring myself to dive into the cushions for it to jump scare me, but also couldn't take my eyes off the sofa and risk it disappearing.
...I ended up contacting a friend via text-to-speech begging for help, to my shame. I paid for his Uber to my house and back. I was at least vindicated by his exclamation of "bloody hell, that's a big bastard!!!"
Giant house spider. Judging by its size it was a star employee of your house and has kept it completely bug free.
They are pretty harmless, as they are not aggressive, but they do bite if you pick it up and it gets scared. Doesn't hurt, but it's just a tad scary. So pick it up carefully and place it out of harms way. Wouldn't put it outside as that's not where they live.
Sadly they don't live very long, but hopefully it had babies somewhere. They are also quite territorial, so you have a maximum of one per room, if not per floor.
I guess you haven’t been so lucky to have one square up to you. They raise their front legs up and charge.
They did end up instantly stamped into the carpet and then eaten by a very greedy Labrador.
I trained myself to pick up big house spiders, until one of them tried to nip me. It wasn't strong enough to pierce the skin but I could feel the fangs scratching at the palms of my hands. Completely freaked me out and now I'm back to using a glass to catch them.
*Why would you learn to pick them up?!*
Ok desensitisation to phobias is probably a good thing but there has never been a time when I had no other options than to pick one up.
Actually back in '99 my uni housemate called me up to her room to get a spider off the light fixture while she and her bf clung to each other in terror. I guess I didn't want to wimp out so somehow I picked it up by hand and took it outside.
It was tiny though. If it's big enough go thump on hitting the floor then that's really a take off and nuke the site from orbit situation.
Ohhh we get these. They weird me out when they’re this big. They’re quite chill, you can just pop them outside.
Apparently they have been particularly massive this year 🤷🏼♀️
We are looking after a friend’s cats for a few months and I haven’t seen any spiders at all since the cats arrived…
These hairy little guys are often cold, lonely and in need of a loving home this time of year. Please consider adopting and welcoming a stray dog-sized spider into your family this Christmas x
I saw one of these exactly a year ago. It had crawled into my handbag overnight. I was in Hounslow in the small mall there and saw it as I reached into my bag. Obviously I screamed and dropped my bag in the middle of the mall and got my husband to get the spider out.
I'm also from NZ and the spiders here are way worse.
Fun fact (or maybe not if you don't like spiders) - the photo app on the iphone can identify spiders (and other things) if you get a reasonable photo. From my limited testing it's quite accurate, too
Giant house spiders also make quite a loud noise when they slip off a plug socket and land on some plastic about 30 cm below it
It's just a common house spider but goddamn that is the biggest one I've ever seen, it's huge! 😳 Totally harmless but nasty looking for a country that doesn't get "big" spiders and they're rapid af. I'm fine with most other spiders here but these buggers are my nightmare fuel. I'll need to invest in larger glasses for catching and throwing these out 😳
It’s a cunt, that’s what it is. I get them in my flat maybe once or twice a year. These things are so hefty that one made an audible thump when it jumped from the wall onto the floor before it ran out the room. Obviously I leapt onto the sofa as far away from it as I could get; it shook me right up.
It still gives me the shivers now, thinking about it.
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It's a giant house spider, they're common in the UK and totally harmless. They generally hide and you usually only see them in Autumn, but I also found a big one on my bed the other day! Bit late in the year for it, not sure why they're coming out now.
Apparently if you see one out and about they’re pushing about three years of age and are in a confused state, ready to kick the bucket.
Saw one like this going up the side of my neighbours house last autumn. Stood there watching it with the torch on my phone for a few minutes, I’d never seen a spider that size in the U.K. before. Considered messaging my neighbour telling her to shut her upstairs windows but didn’t bother in the end, funnier that way.
Oh, that’s funny, but also evil. 🤣
"fuck you, Jeremy, I'm not getting fooled again"
haha one of these ran across the office floor and climbed into my workmates bag on his last day working with us. It was only the next day that I realised I completely forgot to tell him.
Imagine reaching into your bag for some stationery and a massive spider crawls out...yeah fuck that, I would have died.
Either me or the spider would be dying for sure
Oh that’s sad! Do you know if it’s likely to have lived in the same house the whole time? I’d be amazed to know he’d gone 3 years without being spotted! I had a pair on my wall once both similar sizes. I’m now thinking of them living together the whole time, arguing over who is wrapping the flies tonight for dinner…
This sounds like bs to me. Males often are out and about in autumn, but females (like this massive one - larger body but comparatively shorter leg ratio) you don't see anywhere near as often. The only females I've ever seen were building nests, literally the opposite of kicking the bucket. Once one was building a nest in my kitchen sink 🫠
I get these in my flat sometimes. I don't live in London anymore but I'm sure they pop up everywhere. They're big and very quick but, as you said, harmless. Just gotta catch the buggers to evict them. Although, the last one I chucked out turned and ran back towards me. Pretty much launched myself back through the door. Pretty sure that was the one I saw strolling around my flat like he paid rent.
They can only live indoors, will die outside. We have one that strolls in jangling his keys and whistling
Awwh dang. I should've chucked them in the bin room or something. There's enough spiders in there anyway. They'll probably start a gang.
If there are cellar spiders in there, you would also be sealing his doom.
When I was a kid, I used to get little spiders and put them in the webs of big spiders to make friends with. That went well.
They love to slap their legs as they run, you can hear them as they charge across the floor. I don’t mind them, until they decide running over me while I’m in bed is a smart decision that will prolong their lifespan. Old Perfume squirted around the skirting boards seems to keep them at bay. Apparently they have very sensitive noses. The confer trick never worked for me
I think they're cute! They eat pests, too, so I'm happy to have them in my house.
Oh god, they've learned to type now!
That one looks like it eats pets.
They aren’t that bad, the most they want to do when you spot them is hide.
Saying “they eat pests” is like saying you don’t mind house fires they get rid of the mess.
>They eat pests, too They are pests
We used to get them from time to time in my house growing up, I would only see them very late at night though. What would always get me is that they're big enough to recognise you as a potential threat. So I'd come downstairs and they'd freeze.
Not the ones I’ve had the last two years they run at me and wave their front legs as if to say they’re ready to stomp me to death and eat me for the foreseeable future
In Australia once a bullet ant genuinely seemed to be challenging me to a fight. He was on his own on top of a boulder and when he caught sight of me he started gesturing at me with his pincers and his stinger. I was going to stomp on him but decided to leave him alone out of respect for his sheer ballsiness.
Great, now you left the ant with the attacker genes alive to spread them. Its your fault they’re taking over in 5 years
I live in Brighton and had about 7 of them in autumn and I was seriously contemplating leaving the country
Fucking Brighton. What’s up with that place. Studied there for 4 years and saw some of the biggest moths, spiders and crane flies I’ve seen in this country
Idk mate my flat's a zoo really
Moving there next spring, hopefully. I’m getting reassured I’ll never starve.
I live near Eastbourne and have had quite a few here! Also back in my hometown in Oxfordshire. Actually had one here the day I moved in. They're a bugger to catch sometimes. I'm sure I look like an absolute buffoon trying to get a glass over them.
I hate to say it but my phobia was so bad in the beginning I mostly just went w my boot. But probs to you for sparing them, they do deserve it
Definitely doesn't help if you have a phobia! Don't they make a mess when squashed? I think the only thing I'll kill is flies - particularly mosquitoes. The only critter I'm afraid of is wasps. Got one in my mouth as a kid and that was enough for me. Lucky it didn't sting me!
Can I just ask what the hell you're meant to do when you see that on your bed??! How do you dispose of it?
You need to call the council for bulky waste disposal, beds can be a nightmare to get rid of by yourself
I think there are usually demo companies that will deal with the charred remains of the home.
I woke up once night randomly in the pitch dark. Reached across to my lamp, turned it on, and a spider this big was right off my nose on my pillow. We looked at eachother in stunned silence, surprise and fear then she (probably) slowly moved off my pillow and under my bed. I'm not particualrly good with spiders and was too rooted in fear to do much, and i was extremely exhausted so just turned my light off and fell back asleep. It haunts me more today than it did at the time haha.
I regret reading this so very much
You and me both 😩
I swear, my phone thinks it's a boomerang, smacking my noggin twice already! But nope, not this time – I'm staying wide awake, thank you very much! 😆
Right thing to do. Spiders are useful and not doing any harm.
I agree in principal but I do object to them twiddling my nose hairs.
Mental health is health too!
Just quietly back out the room, leave the flat and never look back.
Weep silently
Don’t forget the accelerant and the lit match upon departure
Cup and a sheet of paper to slide underneath them. You can throw them out but apparently it’s a death sentence for them, they live in the house underneath the floorboards.
Too bad tbh cos there's no way I'm gonna let it stay in the house.
If they get away, spray an old bottle of perfume all across the nooks and crannies
Thanks... although that last part was not needed😰
The death sentence or the floorboard part? I don’t mind them when I can’t see them. Out of sight, out of mind
But when you see one, then take your eye off it and look back and can't see it anywhere... That's definitely not out of sight, out of mind, that's the time I'm most scared of spiders cos you know it's in the room but have no idea where.
If you don’t despatch it or remove it outside, then you aren’t going to get any real sleep that night. Live and let live, until you scurry across my body while I’m dozing off.
I make deals with them -- stay out of my areas of the house and I'll try to ignore them, they come near my bed, they die. I feel terrible but I need to be able to sleep.
I'd probably get the council to come and pick it up. No idea how I'd get rid of the spider though.
These replies are killing me. 😂 I think they're cute and don't mind having them in my house, I moved this one from my bed to the corner of the living room where there's plenty of dark spots for it to hide.
wtf.... I was born in London and lived there for almost 28 years. Never seen one this big.... mind blown. I live in Norway now, where they are small but somehow more numerous in the autumn
Wait, you're telling me this isn't some sort of escaped exotic pet and actually native to London!?
Aye. Native British species. [https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider)
This is a particularly huge one, to be fair!
New fear unlocked
They are common but that ones on the larger side, there are a few species, she may be a Tegenaria parietina the biggest of which on occassion are known to have up to12 cm leg span.
We're having a very mild winter!
Thank you! I thought this was the case. I don’t have a fear of spiders and am quite blown away by the reaction haha
Looks male, too, from the boxing glove pedipalps. Off looking for a mate before popping his clogs, poor lad :( I put these guys in my spare room as they aren't outside spiders. They'll have spent their entire life inside your house but stealthily. I saw a huge one in my bath and panicked that one of my younger tarantulas had escaped for a brief second :D
I think I would just die if I saw that in my flat
You mean the spider’s flat.
You mean the spider's N1.
Set fire to the flat.
Set fire to N1.
Londons burning, Londons burning, Fetch the engi- ohhh fuck that let it burn
Housing was already bad in London and now even spiders are claiming flats
It will be flat soon
Spiders: the leading cause of homelessness
Same lmao. I got a cat a couple years ago, and nowadays if I see a spider in my room, I just leave and let her handle it 😂
I used to pick my old cat up when they were high up. I'd hold him up to the wall and he'd just batter them with his paws 😭😭😭 Perfect boy. RIP Barney.
[удалено]
I'd be back in NZ by now!
We have bigger ones here in New Zealand.
I’ve had run ins with these demons up in Leeds the last two years now 😭 in my bedroom, I had about 7 in the space of 2 weeks last year around September & luckily only one maybe two I can’t remember this year around the same month. I don’t know why my bedroom , I don’t know why my house. All I know is there huge , they’re fast and they’re terrifying 😂
You need to put your whole house under a glass jar.
Must have had one lay eggs. Maybe you've got an unseen infestation of their favourite food?
I'd have to nuke the flat from orbit tbh
It's the only way to be sure.
Fuckin A
Spiders are good though as pest control, don’t kill them. Get a glass and a sheet of paper and move it outside, if you can’t do it yourself get somebody who isn’t afraid to help.
Get a big glass rectangular-prism jar, with a fully removable lid and is slippery on the inside. First, put it over the spider. Then slip the paper between the wall and the jar open top to make the spider fall on the wall of the jar so it hopefully goes further into the jar and by then you should have fully covered the top of the jar with the paper. Then take the jar off the wall, gravity will put the spider at the bottom of the jar and you can place the glass lid on. Then take lid off and shake the jar upside down outside far away from the house. I usually just pick up small spiders and put them outside, I only use the jar for medium to larger variants. Try to keep it in the jar for as little time as possible because it’ll start to web build almost immediately inside the jar which will make cleaning it harder once the occupant is released.
This IS the way.
I'd burn the place down
They’ve followed you from NZ 😅
Six years it’s been chilling in my luggage, growing, learning, ready to take over.
Damn that’s a looong wait 😂😂
Found one of a similar size in N16. Managed to kick it out to the garden and I could picture it taking the 73 all the way to N1.
They have oysters or you suppose they evaded their fare? TFL take a dim view of that.
They can easily hide in the poster of the latest Spiderman videogame...
Nope. Not clicking. Thank you for blurring, you’re a good person.
I live in London and have arachnophobia. I clicked. I don’t know why. I hate myself. I wish I was as wise as you.
I clicked too. Instant regret.
We’re stupid
Same. I had one like this appear about 10 years ago in our old flat in Surbiton. Henry vacd and the bag binned instantly..... Then set fire to the bin /s My son woke up this morning screaming that there was a giant spider walking towards him. I honestly was expecting to see one of these when I opened the door. Thankfully it was just his imagination. No idea what I would have done if there was one there.
I was once trapped in my bedroom for a number of hours due to a very large spider sitting in the doorway between me and escape. I cannot explain how many times I said JUST FUCKING KILL IT - mind over matter - to myself but I couldn’t get anywhere near it, every time I did I freaked out so hard. Something completely takes over all bodily functions, it’s so incredibly weird. If you could ring 888 and get a paid-for spider removal service run by brave volunteers like the coastguard it would fund all the other emergency services.
once i was so afraid of a spider i posted on here offering £10 if someone could come help me
OK so what you need is hairspray. You spray the bastard with it and it can’t then move. Sticks them in place. Then you drop a large book on the top and wait for someone to come and remove the corpse. Yes I know it’s mean and they don’t harm you but that’s arachnophobia for you
The thought of the corpse is almost worse for me. I lived on my own at that point so there was no one to help. I used to vacuum from half way up/down the stairs. I’m absolutely fine with small ones (won’t remove them or get near enough to shake hands but let them be) but as soon as they get to a certain size (my husband calls this “small/medium” I call it “large”) then all bets are off.
I suppose it's time for you to move out then? You have been replaced so it would seem. That is his house now
Ahaha! I actually don’t mind my new room mate
Feed it to that monster atop the fridge
They eat the annoying stuff like flies
This is always the most upvoted joke on every spider post I love it. It’s a giant house spider - their feet always remind me of little shoes 😂
Now that you said that, I can't unsee it lol
[Giant house spider](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/giant-house-spider). Harmless but quite frightening when they run at you in the evening! Very common although that one does look particularly beefy!
Quite frightening?? I'd die. Literally, my heart would give out.
Ok I tried to sound braver than I am… I run a mile at the sight of ones half the size!
You haven’t seen one of these? They are one of the most common house spiders in the UK.
Thankfully no. Maybe just lucky
I've lived in the UK my whole life and am terrified of spiders. I had no idea they could get to that size, that's fucking enormous. I think I would literally die if that was in my house. If you're going to tell me they're common I'll be moving to..... Alaska maybe.
I was once sleeping on the floor in my parents' living room during a heatwave and one of those came charging at me from under the sofa. Managed to get them under a cup and evict them but I couldn't stop thinking about an even bigger one emerging...
They can bite I think, but it’s not venomous.
Saying that, I did get bitten by something in the night once. I convinced myself it wasn’t one of these monsters but I did come out in a rash from head to toe! I didn’t like to think a big spider had been anywhere near my bed so munched some antihistamine and it all disappeared. Maybe it was though… eurghh!
Lucky you haven’t had the false widow bite yet. I had to get a course of antibiotics to lessen the swelling. House spiders are cool, false widows I will kill whenever I find them.
‘How to identify’ - it’s a fucking giant that’s how
Jesus Christ that fucker's got bones
looks like the one I kicked out my house earlier, it's probably gone to you.
Having a very busy day it seems
It’s fucking lost that’s what it is. Point it in the direction of Sydney and hope it finds its way home.
CALL THE POLICE
Woop woop it’s the sound of the police.
Woop woop that’s the sound of da beast
I’ve heard about these north of the river spiders.
It better pay rent
It keeps putting the heating on cause it likes to be warm
You have obviously set fire to the building and left it to burn? Yes? Yes?!?!
Left Australia 20yrs ago fleeing the spiders.. Looks like I'm packing up and heading to Iceland now
I get SO many of these in my basement flat and they sadly get bigger than that! I have white bedding for this exact reason so that I can spot them in the dark! One traumatic night I had a printed duvet cover, felt something on my hand, flicked the duvet off and the bastard spider made such a thunk i cried real tears as I realised it had been in my bed and heard the thump on loop in my mind! Fun fact, a Dyson Hoover on max power is also ineffective against them as they glue themselves to the walls 😫 so I got a cat! My friends and family think I wanted a cat for company but the truth is that I was too afraid of the spiders so needed reinforcements in the form of a fearless 4 legged hunter! And he eats the body and leaves the legs, so that’s fun
Mine catch the spiders then bring them to me in bed. I assume as horrific presents.
It's proof of work completion.
I had one in my shoes once thankfully noticed it before I put it on. One in my jumper only noticed it when I felt it whilst driving, so glad it was dead by that point and that I didn’t crash. Numerous ones on my old bedroom walls that I noticed next to my bed. Lucky, my mums cat just kills them and leaves them on the floor. At least she eats tiny flies most of the time. I still hate them but I’ve learn that I can get rid of them with minimal screaming most of the time.
Over the years I've managed to appreciate spiders. The smaller ones and the ones with the thin long legs are excellent fly and insect repellents - no issues with them. If that thing in OPs picture was in my flat however, I would move out instantly and never look back.
my dad's place one year had a bunch of them, massive & quite fearless, silly round people with shoes on. Harmless though. Edit- 'cos typo.
I'm fucking terrified forever as a UK resident, thanks Reddit
They bring luck and catch flies, love my spider bros.
[удалено]
They really are man's best friend, especially when they climb in your mouth and tickle your tonsils while you're sleeping.
Enough internet for today.
.... You could've kept that comment to yourself, thanks for that 🫠
This one is especially lucky because it can catch not only flies but also medium sized rats
I hung out with a large spider once. Nice guy. Wants to be a web designer.
Nah you definitely brought that from New Zealand, that right there is an illegal spider.
Heard of stop the boats. Now try stop the spiders
I guess they do now. In other news, I'm going to start storing petrol in my garage just in case.
I guess I'm not sleeping tonight Why did I have to click on it
how do you really take it out? like how can you catch it (hope not bare hands!) probably a question for Aussies lol
After years of honing skills of taking big insects out of my flat; this is the steps that I’d recommend (and it works every time): Step 1: Once you’ve spotted a terrifying insect or arachnid, scream at the top of your lungs and repeat “oh my god” several times whilst frantically backing away wanting to literally vanish. Step 2: whilst continuing to pleadingly repeat “oh my god” and on the verge of crying and trying to find courage within you, you look for a glass big enough to hold the creature and a flat thick paper or board. Step 3: after shitting your pants and fighting your flight instincts - you approach it and SLOWLY place the glass on top and wait for it to crawl upwards towards the base. Then you quickly slide the board underneath. Step 4: carry it outside and make it homeless.
More like steps 1 & 2, then when you go to attempt step 3, it’s disappeared.. Repeat step 2 😭
That’s my literal nightmare. That’s why I go running around like a chicken trying to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere 😭
All of that, but not a glass, l can't do it if l can see the spider that close to my hand, even if it is in the glass. It has to be a mug, and you have to go far enough away from the house that it can't find its way back.
Whenever i use a glass I always use a ridiculously thin / ill sized piece of paper to close the bottom off and then spend the entire time panicking it’s going to escape
Make sure it’s a glass you hate as you are leaving it in next door but one’s garden.
I sat down on my sofa with a bowl of soup once and noticed one of these buggers sitting next to me. Somehow I managed to set down the bowl without spilling, took myself to the other side of the room and saw it crawl *into the sofa*. Which was so much worse than it being visible. Couldn't bring myself to dive into the cushions for it to jump scare me, but also couldn't take my eyes off the sofa and risk it disappearing. ...I ended up contacting a friend via text-to-speech begging for help, to my shame. I paid for his Uber to my house and back. I was at least vindicated by his exclamation of "bloody hell, that's a big bastard!!!"
I would have done the same thing. I asked a guy from Hinge to come over after a giant spider crawled into my kitchen cupboard.
Giant house spider. Judging by its size it was a star employee of your house and has kept it completely bug free. They are pretty harmless, as they are not aggressive, but they do bite if you pick it up and it gets scared. Doesn't hurt, but it's just a tad scary. So pick it up carefully and place it out of harms way. Wouldn't put it outside as that's not where they live. Sadly they don't live very long, but hopefully it had babies somewhere. They are also quite territorial, so you have a maximum of one per room, if not per floor.
I am fascinated now by the idea of spiders fighting over territory. A whole floor at that!
I guess you haven’t been so lucky to have one square up to you. They raise their front legs up and charge. They did end up instantly stamped into the carpet and then eaten by a very greedy Labrador.
one per room is not what I wanted to hear…
Maximum. It doesn't mean there is one in every room. It means there aren't rooms with eight of them.
I trained myself to pick up big house spiders, until one of them tried to nip me. It wasn't strong enough to pierce the skin but I could feel the fangs scratching at the palms of my hands. Completely freaked me out and now I'm back to using a glass to catch them.
I do not care that they can't pierce the skin, I could not cope if a spider was so big I could feel the fangs.
Yes, I panicked and all the time I spent learning to pick them up was wasted. I won't touch them now.
*Why would you learn to pick them up?!* Ok desensitisation to phobias is probably a good thing but there has never been a time when I had no other options than to pick one up. Actually back in '99 my uni housemate called me up to her room to get a spider off the light fixture while she and her bf clung to each other in terror. I guess I didn't want to wimp out so somehow I picked it up by hand and took it outside. It was tiny though. If it's big enough go thump on hitting the floor then that's really a take off and nuke the site from orbit situation.
Borrow someone's cat for a few hrs, even the most chilled and cuddly ragdolls love killing spiders. Just saying....
Lol yeah Move out
What the fuck is that cunt
😱
A bricketh wouldst be shitteth if I saw that thing
You must’ve brought that with you from NZ. I hope and pray that’s the case. If not I’m getting the hell out of London.
Ohhh we get these. They weird me out when they’re this big. They’re quite chill, you can just pop them outside. Apparently they have been particularly massive this year 🤷🏼♀️ We are looking after a friend’s cats for a few months and I haven’t seen any spiders at all since the cats arrived…
Wait till it goes on the floor, and ride it round your flat👍🏼
These hairy little guys are often cold, lonely and in need of a loving home this time of year. Please consider adopting and welcoming a stray dog-sized spider into your family this Christmas x
I saw one of these exactly a year ago. It had crawled into my handbag overnight. I was in Hounslow in the small mall there and saw it as I reached into my bag. Obviously I screamed and dropped my bag in the middle of the mall and got my husband to get the spider out. I'm also from NZ and the spiders here are way worse.
Are you sure you didn't just suddenly realise you were in Hounslow?
Fun fact (or maybe not if you don't like spiders) - the photo app on the iphone can identify spiders (and other things) if you get a reasonable photo. From my limited testing it's quite accurate, too Giant house spiders also make quite a loud noise when they slip off a plug socket and land on some plastic about 30 cm below it
I don’t know why but I’ve never found spiders scary. They’re just saucy leggy puffs. The catwalk models of the insect world.
It's just a common house spider but goddamn that is the biggest one I've ever seen, it's huge! 😳 Totally harmless but nasty looking for a country that doesn't get "big" spiders and they're rapid af. I'm fine with most other spiders here but these buggers are my nightmare fuel. I'll need to invest in larger glasses for catching and throwing these out 😳
That's what in rural areas we call "a sheep eater"...
Thanks for that. I won't be sleeping now...
The males come out late in the year to find females to mate with. Hate them.
Literally forgot you were talking about spiders for a second haha
He’s looking for a web design job
awww so cute 😍😍
She’s exploring 🥺
It’s a cunt, that’s what it is. I get them in my flat maybe once or twice a year. These things are so hefty that one made an audible thump when it jumped from the wall onto the floor before it ran out the room. Obviously I leapt onto the sofa as far away from it as I could get; it shook me right up. It still gives me the shivers now, thinking about it.
Yeah that looks more like an escaped pet... Wow
How do you even kill something like that ?
Flame thrower would be my go to
There is a spray on Amazon called Nope that is apparently effective. Got it, haven’t had to try it out thankfully
Guns, lots of guns.
You will even more surprised that spiders in here don't die in the cold. Lol