Are Spiders getting bigger in the UK

We dont have any proper big spiders in the UK, not like you guys in the States and Austrailia. I once had a wolf spider in my room before and it scared the crap out of me, but never seen anything as big since. I dont think we have any poisonous spiders.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
I dont think we have any poisonous spiders.

I'm not sure exactly but I think you will find all of them are poisonous - it's just the prey they go after does not require pincher's strong enough to break human skin... In other countries of course there are spiders that can deliver venom through our skin.

I have heard that a house spider could kill a whole family if only it could deliver that deadness juice into our blood stream - but that's totally off the top of my head, maybe someone else can confirm or trash that one.

Maybe the spiders are eating all the Bee's?

But what ive noticed is how big the Moths are getting. Had one flying into the TV just last night, and it was huge, could have sworm that it was a Bat or something!

And most the spiders ive seen are about the size of a 2p coin.

reply to post by asala


Yes!

On Monday I was walking through some long grass in a field in the countryside and I disturbed one. Only saw it for a split second, but it was almost the size of my hand!!

reply to post by asala


Hi Asala... As a keen Gardener, who lives in the South East of England, i see spiders on a daily basis.

Most of them amongst the plants and in my garden shed.

I can assure you they are not getting any bigger

It is such a shame that people are scared of spiders... they really are our friends. For me, they help protect my veg against unwanted pests...

I think that (although i may be wrong) arachnophobia is a modern phobia... i honestly couldn’t imagine many people being scared of spiders 200 years ago...

We live in our sterile homes with wooden floors and glass coffee tables and scream if anything from nature dares to venture into our domain

My daughter was terrified of spiders (she gets it from her mum) so last year, when i asked her to help me out in the garden, she was very wary. When she sees a spider she would immediately jump up and shout "DAD... SPIDER"

I would just laugh... walk over and ask her to show me... i would make a point of letting it crawl on my hand with her watching from afar.

Gradually she just got used to it. Last week she helped me plant out some corn and, while we was working, she suddenly said "dad spider"

When i looked over at her she was grinning and holding her hand up with a big spider crawling over it.

Anyone who is scared of spiders i would advise to get out with nature... Start gardening, go for walks in parks or local forests, learn to enjoy the outdoors and gradually these creature will not seem so alien anymore.

Bees, dragon flys, spiders, wasps... there all cool creatures that help keep the planet ticking over.

Interesting fact...

In 2004 it was estimated that 1.2 million people were killed by cars

On average 2 people a year are killed by spiders.

Yet i see hundreds of people happily walking along the pavement with speeding cars only a few inches away... none of them scream "CAR!!!!"


[edit on 15-6-2010 by Muckster]

reply to post by woodwardjnr

I dont think we have any poisonous spiders.

They only one we have that i am cautious of is the False Widow... Its certainly not a deadly spider, but it can give a nasty bite...

www.nhm.ac.uk...


No one has ever died of a spider bite in the UK and the number of reported bites from spiders in general is minimal. The Natural History Museum's Insect Information Service (IIS) hears of about 10 cases of spider bites each year in the UK

I must point out that 10 bites a year is very very low.... you have a far greater chance of winning the lottery



[edit on 15-6-2010 by Muckster]

I watched Kingdom of the Spiders a few weeks ago... now I know what to do
When the spiders attack... but seriously I'm scared to death of spiders...
I know there is one, somewhere in my car. but I lost him, and I can't find him..

I remember a couple of years ago whilst staying with my folks. I was cleaning my room, pulled my bed out to hoover, i was quite close to the wall, and as i turned my head, a couple of inches away from my face was the biggest spider i've ever seen in 31 years in the UK!!

No word of a lie, it spanned the size of a CD. It wasn't Tarantula fat, The body was smallish for it's size, and the legs were long, thin and very hairy. Being terrified of spiders, i went downstairs as white as a sheet and got my dad to come and dispose of it. He just picked it up as if it was nothing and put it outside, nicknaming it a 'Euro Spider'.

I done some research on the web (heh!) and was suprised that it was a close relation to the common house spider. It's called a Teregenaria Gigantea. Which are apparently quite common. I have to admit for a few weeks after i didn't sleep so good lol

Skitz

reply to post by muzzleflash


Very asute reasoning...........I was gardening yesterday and made friends with a really big furry wolf spider. He had eight eyes.

Number one: I normally hate hate hate spiders. I am deadly afraid of them. While going along in the garden, down on my knees, weeding like a banshee I see this beautiful web over a big hole and standing next to it looking up at me was this really big, hairy spider, as big as a quarter, chubby guy. He looks up at me and I swear his/her expression was "Please don't destroy my web, I just got done with it and it took a lot of hard work".

So now I'm sharing my garden with some big furry spider. My neighbor came over to see it and said wolf spiders don't normally build webs (they have burrows and hunt) but it sure looks like a wolf spider.

The picture below is what my furry little friend looks like. No, I am not getting close enough to take it's picture, This is from the net.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fe87a4e328c0.jpg[/atsimg]


This thing looked like it was on steroids or something but it wasn't agressive, didn't back up and raise it's two front legs (Or I would have stomped him/her). It just looked up at me with a pleading look on it's face. As stated before, I never liked spiders, bugs, creepy crawly things but this big guy seems okay if he/she stays in it's little corner of my garden, we can remain friends from a distance.

It's a big sucker though.



[edit on 2-9-2010 by ofhumandescent]

Originally posted by asala
Im not sure if its just me lol But so far this year i have seen some very very big spiders,

Normally i would not see such big ones till later in the year, But its June and i have seen some massive ones so far!

Im pretty scared of them so im getting a little freaked out

And fear that the later summer ones will be even larger!!

Also its not just Spiders but Flies!,mosquito's! They all just seem rather large this year.

Now i could just be imagining things so i wanted to see what others have to say here in the UK.

You're putting the fear of God in me now!!!

My arachnophobia is so bad that I have tins of Raid in every room in my house. I'm a sort of arachnid rapid response force!

reply to post by skitzspiricy


A CD [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5776c6024515.jpg[/atsimg]

They would have had to do CPR on me.

Holy moly.

These things hop on boats and planes and travel all over, we get thousands of planes from England every week near me.

Your dad just put it outside.

Let's just hope this fellow stays in your garden.

[edit on 2-9-2010 by ofhumandescent]

reply to post by Now_Then


No, even though I am deadly afraid of spiders I am fasinated by them and have read up on them and most are not poisonous.

The big spider I now share my garden with is however but he/she seems to stay over in their little corner and is not agressive. According to what I've researched Wolf Spiders are poisonous but very non agressive and won't bite unless you bother them. And, I have no intention of bothering this one. The Wolf Spider's venom is suppose to be non lethal.

Yesterday I accidently came face to face with this creature (see my other post above) and could count it's eyes and looked into it's face. They have faces with expressions just like we do. This one had a non agressive, I'm not a bar brawler face so as long as he/she maintains their distance we will be okay.


[edit on 2-9-2010 by ofhumandescent]

reply to post by asala

Yep definately a neighbour over the road moved house recently and gave them a hand. A spider the size of a golf ball in circumference ran along the skirting board. I dropped my arse when I realised what it was. Another thing.....wasps? Where they all coming from?

I've not noticed anything especially large like tarantula size but they sure have got bigger, we've had a problem with ants for a while (I'm in the UK BTW) and have noticed them get more larger, resiliant to poison and more of the large winged type around.

I've also noticed and increase in scorpions, a lot of people say scorpions in the UK... really? Yes and there's a few too, they're black and it's not new, the first time I saw one was a few years ago on the top of Mount Snowdon (Wales, and the largest mountain in England and Wales) but I've seen three so far in my area of The Peak District (Derbyshire, Central UK) this year, the last one I would have tried to catch for a specimen but my wife squashed it with her shoe

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


holy
thats big man!
im sitting in my shed right now and there is one in here with me id say its 3 inches tip to tip
and that is big enough
it aint moving at the minute
wait.............no its still not moving
just hope it stays in the shed!!!

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

It's like kids nowadays. I swear they are bigger. I dont ever remember being as big as some of the teenagers I see now. It's the food!

and the Xbox, Internet, Playstaion, DS, No Gym at School, Burger Kings, KFC's...and ultimately the FEAR OF FRESH AIR AND PHYSICAL MOVEMENT.

Oh yeah and i blame the parents!!

There seems to be more large wolf spiders about. The strange thing is I do not remember seeing any when I was young and my grandfather who lived to his nineties and my parents did not remember seening any until about 25 years ago.

I can testify that spiders ARE DEFINITELY getting bigger. Over the past few weeks I have noticed a couple of dead spiders in my house, BIG spiders, but dead spiders. I was wondering what on earth could have been killing these GIANTS, and a couple of days ago I got my answer.

A spider so BIG that it makes the mummy spider out of 'Arachnophobia' look like an ant. I managed to chase it out of my room and block up the gaps under my door with jumpers, jeans and some files, I was safe...for now.

I haven't seen it again since but I know it is out there somewhere, lurking in the shadows, watching my every move. But I will prevail. 'Operation Charlotte's Web' is well under way, I shall post again if there are any sudden developments.

Over and out.

Nah they arnt getting any bigger and I have met a few hefties.

About ten years ago I had to rescue my MALE colleagues in the office from a huge spider.

We have several of the large ones residing with us and they are welcome too as they keep the fly population down. In fact, I have just seen one making its perillous journey from the lounge to the kitchen - perillous as our cat likes to catch and eat them (she also likes to play with frogs).

I think the rubbish weather doesn't help - I expect they are hiding from the wind and rain.

There was a news article not so long ago where a ship was denied and turned away due to a massive amount of spiders amongst the goods. Anyone else know of this? I think it was in the US. Hopefully someone here can do the deed of adding if found.