Southeast England types (and possibly nationwide): What's with these big fucking spiders?

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3601/photo091203291zc4.jpg

When I said the photo was bad, I didn't realise it was quite this bad, but hey, it's even scarier this way!

That isn't a small glass, and that isn't the biggest I've seen of these bastards either.

Also, for a sense of scale, it isn't clinging to the side of the glass. It's failing to climb it and never once managed to make hind legs leave the floor.

It had big fuckoff fangs too :(

In Australia, we have spiders that eat spiders that eat spiders like that.

Oh yeah, of course, but we don't! The worst we ever get is a daddy long legs or a tiny little thing that might be confused with a black ladybird at first glance. I'm not even scared of spiders (really) and these things are upsetting me quite a bit. Found the info I needed though:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2161325,00.html

http://www.theslant.co.uk/2006/09/12/bumper-spider-crop/

I don't care if this is a common September thing. I've never seen them before and they can fuck off.

I wonder if this is a climate change thing, and whether Southest England will soon be overrun with such spiders?

I witnessed this phenomenon on wai 2 pub ... I saw a HUGE fucker the other day and took a photo of it but I R gay and used FILM so I don 't got it developed yet. Likelihood of me forgetting this thread when film is developed = HIGH.

lol hi dere ILX.

meltang plz 2 email - i has important discussions.

k bai!

Up here in Scotland I've had a few of these huge spiders. Or maybe it's the same one coming back in.

They are so large that every hair on their big hairy legs is defined.

My fiances sister swore she heard one walking on her laminate flooring before she saw it. I'm doubtful - they're big, but they don't wear high heels.

End times.

How have you never seen spiders like that before??? Did you grow up in some strange spider-free parallel universe, because that just looks like a normal UK house spider to me. They can get pretty big, we had one 3 or 4 inches long in our flat a few weeks ago.

Maybe they all lived in the midlands until recently.

I've noticed more slugs than usual this year, but not spiders. I do have one living outside my living room window, I sometimes watch him preparing dinner.

We've got loads of red spiders in our back yard. Just little ones about 1-2cm long. They do look unusual. Some smartass will be along now to tell me they're really common :P

v glad to not have encountered one of these beasts yet.

i have noticed more birds fighting with each other lately. everywhere i go, little running flapping battles. that's about it.

We've got loads of red spiders in our back yard. Just little ones about 1-2cm long. They do look unusual. Some smartass will be along now to tell me they're really common :P

Do they look like this?

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk/spiders/garden%20orb.jpg

That's the garden orb spider which is indeed very common. The colour is highly variable though - normally they're more of a muted brown. It's the white cross on their back that's diagnostic of the species though.

Might be that, although I think they're a brighter red. We have the brown garden spiders as well, including a huge one in the doorway of our shed. My wife wants to clear the shed out (it's full of the landlord's crap) but my spider phobia has so far prevented me from attempting this (it's completely infested with the fuckers).

I think the bigger ones are the females. They eat the males after mating I think, so maybe it's as well not to mess with them.

global warming amirite

I hit one with a ruler and it just look at me like "what?"

i wrote an anxious spring poem about spiders:

jacaranda in bloom
huntsman come soon

& was accused of being negative when i tremulously recited it on a walk.

Tegenaria Domestica:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/241726008_e7d72e2d53.jpg

From my house - maybe 3 inches long.

Tegenaria Gigantea:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/77/230255036_8e2432e33d.jpg

(that's a picture of Vicky's, and yes, the spider is sitting on a roll of loo paper. In England)

Yep, that looks like the one from our lounge. Those have been around forever though, we used to get them in our house in Worcester when I was growing up.

That first one's lost a leg, poor chap.

Our tiny front garden is crammed with flowers to try and attract bees and butterflies. Every single gap has an orb web slung across it now though, and big fat spiders lurk behind every dahlia, so it's become more of a death trap for our insect chums than anything else (but not quite on this scale thankfully).

They're the ones, Mark! They've been more the size of the first one (thankfully) but look more like the second, with the big fang/feely things, though the fang/feely things weren't as hairy on the one last night. I've never killed spiders before, I've always let them be, but now I don't know what to do about them. Putting them out the window is no deterrent :(

Maybe they all lived in the midlands until recently.

When I was googling I did read something about the midlands being some spider-filled hell actually, especially this year, so enjoy! When I found the one at work everyone was like, "oh yeah, I've seen bigger, they're quite common", but another guy and I couldn't believe it. If I did grow up in a spider-free parallel UK, I wish I were still there.

I live in the North and I've had those buggers living in my house for as long as I can remember. The one I saw in my front room last night had a puppy in it's mouth, I think.

That is some fucked up shit in Mark C's post.

If I saw that I would never sleep again in that house, I'm moving to Finland.

also i'm buying a fucking air pistol.

I don't care if this is a common September thing. I've never seen them before and they can fuck off.

As a comedically-challenged U.S.-dweller, that right there captures the essence of British-style drollery for me

and whatever you can get from B&Q that most closely approximates a flamethrower.

x-files post

Haven't seen any spiders in my house in years but this thread is shitting me up. My room is so messy there might be a colony of ten thousand of them under my bed for all I know. Oh god why did I have that thought?

cbrooker sez apparently spiders have an aversion to conkers, so if you collect a load of conkers, and scatter them round your house, the eight-legged bastards stay away. Haven't seen one since, though that may be a coincidence.

Saw a big bastard one in my lavvy the other day - I don't mind them but still a little shock to the system to see one scuttling across the floor

i think the mice are keeping away the spiders

Our stairwell is full of dead and dying wasps. I'd rather have spiders, wasps look messy.

We've got loads of red spiders in our back yard. Just little ones about 1-2cm long. They do look unusual. Some smartass will be along now to tell me they're really common :P

When I was a kid, really small red spiders, about 3-4mm in size, were really common. We called them "blood spiders".

Those are spider mites, not talking about those :)

Our cats must have caught another big bastard spider because I was cleaning the floor on Sunday and found 3 severed spider legs. Fucking huge they were as well.

what's your cat called?

I'm now considering a cat hunting spider.

possibly with some sort of flamethrower attached to its head.

wait a min cat hunting spider....

okay spider hunting cat.

maybe a gecko or chameleon.

My cats are called Pogo and Trevor and they are in yr hosue eating all yr spidurs.

surely they should have ranks too

Field Marshall Pogo.

There were never any spiders in Chapel St. There was also Treacle the cat. These two facts may not be unrelated.

I'm not normally remotely bothered about spiders, but there was an absolutely huge bugger in my living room this morning. It could shift a bit, too.

Ha ha, that reminds me, I was at a pub quiz last night and one of the questions was, "The world's biggest spider is named after which biblical character?". The answer is Goliath but one team put "Jesus Christ, would you look at the size of that fucker!"

hell yes bring it on
https://www.itv.com/news/2024-08-20/spiders-the-size-of-rats-make-comeback-in-uk-after-nearing-extinction

You can raise a Shelob of your very own.

The large brown spider spins a web that can reach up to 30cm and it can grow to the size of a man's hand.

a) seems a small web for their size
b) ah but which man