...If I'm not mistaken they are called Tegenaire spiders in French (spelling?). They are totally harmless but can reach truly impressive sizes.
Googled it and sure enough, that's the suckers that hang out in my house. We have an agreement.
Spiders - We stay in our hiding places and eat all sorts of bugs and mossies. Occasionally you dust away our webs but we just rebuild.
Me - If I see you out of a hiding place I squish you.
Works pretty well, actually. They are far too fast to just cup in your hands and run out the door.
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...get a boyfriend who will dispatch the horrid beasties when they appear. Then marry him so you'll have free, on-demand pest-control for life...
That's why I married my wife. However, I am no longer arachnophobic, so I will remove them on behalf of my daughter who is phobic.
Beware of picking up any spider with your bare hands. Although no spider in Switzerland has venom capable of causing much harm, they can bite and it can be a bit sore. There's no point in putting a house spider outside - they'll only wander back in again.
Outdoor spiders like living outdoors and are unlikely to come inside.
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That's why I married my wife. However, I am no longer arachnophobic, so I will remove them on behalf of my daughter who is phobic.
Beware of picking up any spider with your bare hands. Although no spider in Switzerland has venom capable of causing much harm, they can bite and it can be a bit sore. There's no point in putting a house spider outside - they'll only wander back in again.
Outdoor spiders like living outdoors and are unlikely to come inside.
If you could ask the spider, it would probably tell you that it's better to be put outside than be squashed.
If you handle spiders gently, they don't bite ....... well I've never been bitten, and I've handled many. Failing that, the old glass and piece of card trick.
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Does anyone know, do spiders prefer wooden or concrete walls, or does it not matter to them? I have been very (pleasantly) surprised that we haven't seen very many bugs here since I am the one always called on to take care of any non-human visitor.
That's why I married my wife. However, I am no longer arachnophobic, so I will remove them on behalf of my daughter who is phobic.
Beware of picking up any spider with your bare hands. Although no spider in Switzerland has venom capable of causing much harm, they can bite and it can be a bit sore. There's no point in putting a house spider outside - they'll only wander back in again.
Outdoor spiders like living outdoors and are unlikely to come inside.
Spiders I did put outside NEVER wandered back in again ! Alright, I explained them my position and they apparently listened
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I agree. That's probably the biggest spider you'll find here, or in northern Europe in general.
It is, however, a bit early in the year for them to be so blatently in the open. Late summer and early autumn tends to be when you see these (the males) running around looking for a mate. For most of the year they hole themselves up and snack on passing insects.
Anyway they're mostly harmless (they can nip, but it's very rare) and keep the nasty bugs at bay. If you really can't stand them in your house then a large glass and a piece of paper is all you need to catch them and deposit them outside. Don't kill them as they are good things really, and not nasty in anyway other than people's misinformed perceptions about them.
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...allegedly.
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It's likely, if it was THAT big, that someone has lost their pet Bird Spider, please don't kill it, the ensuing mess will make you spew, which makes more mess.... it's a vicious cycle.
Both need sound.
(but safe for sensitive audiences)
(sorry about the ad at the start. I couldn't find a clip without it. Just skip it)
I am terrified by spiders BUUUUT I am a very curious person so I watched the first video and I yelled in the same time the little girl yelled. .
When I have a spider in the house...I call my husband...he doesn't kill the spider though, he says the spider eats the little creatures around the house.
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Probably. But if it could answer, I'd probably panic (even more) and squish it even faster.
If Spiders could speak, people would quickly go insane or die of freight. Imagine laying in bed then suddenly hearing a small and raspy voice echoing around the room...
"I must confess to you, I'm giving very serious thought... to eating your wife."
There is a brilliant website, www.whatsthatbug.com where you can search for all manner of critters. They even have advice on how to escort them out of the house....
Should warn you that some of the pictures are just a teensy bit scary though
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There is a brilliant website, www.whatsthatbug.com where you can search for all manner of critters. They even have advice on how to escort them out of the house....
Should warn you that some of the pictures are just a teensy bit scary though
Bhhh couldn't watch all of them!
I will be on a diet for few days..can't eat anymore...
Weirdly enough, the only other place these horrid things are found is the west coast of Canada (Vancouver - my home city!).
They're awful looking, but they're really harmless. That said I nearly peed myself when I saw one in the hallway last summer. And my husband who will squish arachnids with his hand if required was so put off by the enormity of the thing (>10cm in diameter, or 4") he went and sought The Sunday Edition of the paper to swat it with.
Left a terrible squish on the wall. We left it there a few days for the landlord to see, and as a warning to other creepy crawlies to stay inside the walls!!
Here's some general spider tips that help me sleep at night when I've had a similar experience:
pull your bed away from the wall so they can't crawl onto it
don't let your blankets touch the floor
put double-sided sticky tape on the legs of your bed to prevent them from crawling up (warning: you might accidentally 'catch' one this way!)
consider getting an energetic pet cat or a pet gecko!
put down glue traps (cruel to all creatures - not sure I can stomach this, but my neighbour can. The worst part is disposing of the traps with a giant spider in it, apparently!)
go on a sealing and caulking spree and hermetically seal your apartment!
go on vacation during August and September when all these suckers come out looking for some rumpy-pumpy!
get a boyfriend who will dispatch the horrid beasties when they appear. Then marry him so you'll have free, on-demand pest-control for life. (This is what I did - I can highly recommend it!).
wear slippers around the house (my friend stepped on one of these in the dark once. It went crunch and she's never been quite right since!), but maybe have a glance in them before you put in your feet..
As Poptart mentioned, there are several old posts on this topic. I don't recommend them if you don't like photos of giant, awful spiders.
The most scary one (IMO) was taken by an EF member of a giant spider on her cupboard doors.... it gives me nightmares.
Yes this is exactly the spider I had in my place.
And I think you're actually referring to MY cupboard doors, as I posted the pic on one of the other spiders posts a while back!
I had three pet tarantula's when I was young, so spiders are not something that faze me really.
I have noticed they have started to come out, they love my kitchen for some reason.
One of those tegenaria spiders was on the outside of the window last night, was a very impressive size, but I let it be. Unlike last year, I saw a big one like that and decided to capture it to observe it more closely.
It lived on my kitchen shelf in a transparent tub for a few weeks before I let it go. It built several layers of web and would sporadically chill at different levels of elevation, it was interesting to see it build a non conventional web too. Like it built shelves to sit on.
I would capture smaller spiders and bugs and feed it. Didn't like moths tho. Then one day I saw another biggy, different species though, and put it to watch the stand off. Incredibly boring though, they both left each other alone. The original captive was bigger so I thought he would win, or attempt to eat, but they just became pals and soon set off into the Tuja plants to live happily ever after.
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Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary, Blaise Pascal
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I would capture smaller spiders and bugs and feed it. Didn't like moths tho. Then one day I saw another biggy, different species though, and put it to watch the stand off. Incredibly boring though, they both left each other alone. The original captive was bigger so I thought he would win, or attempt to eat, but they just became pals and soon set off into the Tuja plants to live happily ever after.
freak.
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They are far too fast to just cup in your hands and run out the door.
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