Thread about spiders (not for the arachnophobic!)

[farmerbarleymow]

I found this picture of a green spider - it looks lovely.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmazza/5035483803/lightbox/

I can't work out how to post the actual picture, as the owner of that photo has disabled downloading, so this seems to be blocking this.

 

[Epona]

There's a really big spider sitting in the kitchen. Given that it's pissing down outside, I'll give him till tonight to make himself scarce or give mr moose the screaming abdabs.

If it's really big, it's just a completely harmless tegenaria (house spider, and related species) - he'll have come through your house to either escape bad weather, or because there's a female somewhere the other side of your house and he wants to go meet her. Handling spiders can be more frightening for them than it is for us, best way to move a spider is to put a cup over him, slide a piece of card such as a postcard along the wall under the edge of the cup, then take it outside and leave it there for a while. If he's at one side of your house, try putting him out the opposite side, it's likely he just got lost trying to take a shortcut - their instinctive navigation does not make much allowance for houses being in the way of the route they want to take.

 

[Leafster]

If it's really big, it's just a completely harmless tegenaria (house spider, and related species) - he'll have come through your house to either escape bad weather, or because there's a female somewhere the other side of your house and he wants to go meet her. Handling spiders can be more frightening for them than it is for us, best way to move a spider is to put a cup over him, slide a piece of card such as a postcard along the wall under the edge of the cup, then take it outside and leave it there for a while. If he's at one side of your house, try putting him out the opposite side, it's likely he just got lost trying to take a shortcut - their instinctive navigation does not make much allowance for houses being in the way of the route they want to take.

Can I suggest using a glass rather than a cup. That way you can see what's happening when you slide the card under and there's less chance of damaging its legs. I had to remove the spider I posted up thread so found the largest glass in the house and even then I had to make sure I didn't trap any of its legs under the rim - it was that big!

 

[gentlegreen]

I found this picture of a green spider - it looks lovely.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmazza/5035483803/lightbox/

I can't work out how to post the actual picture, as the owner of that photo has disabled downloading, so this seems to be blocking this.

shift - printscreen - paste into "paint" - may need to resize etc...

That would be very naughty though.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

shift - printscreen - paste into "paint" - may need to resize etc...

That would be very naughty though.

I did consider that, but as they'd deliberately prevented people from downloading their pictures, I thought it would be slightly dishonest of me.

 

[moose]

If it's really big, it's just a completely harmless tegenaria (house spider, and related species) - he'll have come through your house to either escape bad weather, or because there's a female somewhere the other side of your house and he wants to go meet her. Handling spiders can be more frightening for them than it is for us, best way to move a spider is to put a cup over him, slide a piece of card such as a postcard along the wall under the edge of the cup, then take it outside and leave it there for a while. If he's at one side of your house, try putting him out the opposite side, it's likely he just got lost trying to take a shortcut - their instinctive navigation does not make much allowance for houses being in the way of the route they want to take.

I'm pretty happy to have them inside, tbh. Mr moose only freaks if he sees them, so I will hide his glasses. if I need to shift them, I normally encourage them to climb onto my hand.

 

[xes]

I do think it's a regional thing, hence why it can be confusing! I'm from Surrey and to me a daddy long legs is a crane fly and only ever a crane fly, it's not a term I'd use for an arachnid, yet to my OH daddy long legs has a much wider meaning and encompasses various different arthropods with long legs - so it's difficult to know exactly what people mean when they use the term - is it a fly, is it a spider, is it another type of arachnid, who knows?

speaking of Huntsman, or rather, a species of arachnid that looks a bit like a fatter one with shorter legs, and almost more primative looking...wtf is one of them?

 

[Mumbles274]

Reposting in case anyone missed it first time!

 

[gentlegreen]

Radio 4 06.35
07.35 for those who didn't change their clocks.
(Or 08.35 for those who actually fell for the annual thread.)

and on listen again.

Segestria Florentina

In the first Living World of the autumn run, Chris Sperring travels to Exeter to find a species hidden within the walls of Exeter's magnificent Cathedral. First found at the Cathedral as far back as 1890, the large tube-web spider or Segestria florentina, is the largest European spider from the Segestriidae family and one of the largest spiders found in the UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f879y

 

[gentlegreen]

And in case you missed my previous posts :-

Cave spiders :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qg0qf

Harvestmen :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nsz7b

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Yay! I've found a spider in my flat!

A nice daddy long legs lurking in the bathroom. I crept up to it and took these pictures. One as far as the phone camera zoom would go.

 

[gentlegreen]

Man dies among tarantulas
November 26, 2013

FIREMEN discovered the body of a man dead among his collection of poisonous spiders.

About 50 poisonous spiders including tarantulas were roaming free in the house in Bailly-en-Rivière (Seine-Maritime), near Dieppe.

Neighbours had called the fire service after not seeing the man, who lived alone, for several days.

An initial medical examination could not find any bites on the 66-year-old, but results of further tests are due today.

On seeing the spiders, the fireman withdrew from the house and left the job to specialists to collect them.

The spiders are currently being examined to see if they are protected species but there is no information on what danger the different species pose to humans.

http://www.connexionfrance.com/Man-dies-tarantulas-collection-Dieppe-view-article.html

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=M...ivière&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=nws

 

[ruffneck23]

that kinda kicks my bite out of the water..

 

[gentlegreen]

I wonder if he left them out in anticipation that his corpse would eventually feed them indirectly.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I wonder if he left them out in anticipation that his corpse would eventually feed them indirectly.

I suppose if they all injected their venom at once in a bite-frenzy, the liquidising enzymes would get to work and turn him into a bag of human juice and then the spiders could all drink him dry.

 

[Miss Caphat]

Wasn't my first thread/post on Urban about a spider?

A brown recluse that must have traveled home in my luggage from North Carolina where I had been visiting friends. I like spiders, I didn't know what it was, tried to make friends with it, it scuttled off behind my mirror. Looked it up online because it looked unusual, turns out it can have quite a nasty bite! Don't worry, it didn't get loose in Hackney (which is where I lived back then) - it crawled into the light fitting in the bathroom and died

holy shit! I'm terrified of brown recluses. They're just about the only dangerous spiders around here. I've seen people get some horrific bites from them. My stepfather's entire foot turned purplish black and swelled up to twice its normal size after getting bit by one that was in his shoe. You're lucky!

 

[krink]

it's that green spider from earlier

 

[krink]

I found this picture of a green spider - it looks lovely.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmazza/5035483803/lightbox/

I can't work out how to post the actual picture, as the owner of that photo has disabled downloading, so this seems to be blocking this.

if you have firefox there is a very easy way to download the picture;
go to the page http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmazza/5035483803/
right click on the page
view page info
click on media tab of window that opens.
scroll and look for your image in the list and the image will be in a preview box underneath
click on the save as button

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Thanks - I'll download it tonight.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Found this interesting little article about an arachnophobe's idea of hell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27246823

 

[iona]

Spiders are

My house is always full of massive spiders like this (biro for scale, this is just medium big) -

You can even hear their footsteps on the laminate floors when it's quiet late at night.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

<snip>
You can even hear their footsteps on the laminate floors when it's quiet late at night.

I take it your spiders typically look like this?

 

[Chilli.s]

Flossy by chilli simbone, on Flickr

My pet spider, its a Segestria florentina. Apparently they have a worse bite than a false widow.

My family have just made me get rid of my false widow as she had about 100 babies. Took months to find that spider, was very excited, called her Twanky, had to let them all go in the garden.

 

[gentlegreen]

She's supposed to be living in a wall !

"Living World" on Segestria florentina - the bright green fangs caused it to be named after a spinach pasta dish I think.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/nathistory/nathistory_20131027-0700b.mp3

 

[gentlegreen]

Today seems to be spiderling day - I put down my water bottle in the garden and suddenly it was crawling with them.

 

[gentlegreen]

 

[Cid]

What have you unleashed gentlegreen ? And why? WHY?!?!?!

 

[Epona]

Well my spider from last year died around mid October, as expected for the species.
I am hoping that maybe one of her offspring will take up residence in the same spot this year, but it may not happen.

 

[Epona]

I take it your spiders typically look like this?

If you've ever had a teg wandering around in your bath, their footfalls really can be quite loud on the right surface!

 

[pogo 10]

My colleague has 61 spiders [most of them tarantulas]. She keeps ordering them, shes not even allowed pets at home. She also has a 5ft snake which she said snarled at her the other day. And she has a cat and a gecko. Shes off her head, she likes amassing things including boyfriends.