I caught a giant house spider that was crawling across the floor. I think this is the biggest one yet. Sorry, no pictures; and I’ve already evicted him to the front yard.
That’s all. Time for bed.
Probably one of Aragog’s children. But don’t worry, I have dispatched a pair of Chinooks with a load of large rocks to your residence. Smashing will begin within the hour.
We found one in the house in Seattle. We put it in a quart jar and its legs touched the sides of the jar. That sucker was huge! The kids named him Ralph.
Note to self: Don’t visit Johnny L.A. or AuntiePam.
Husband did that too - makes me crazy. I do my best to try not to kill them if they are outside - but dammit, you come on my turf and you are asking for death. Sorry spideys, no room at this house for you.
Worst part was, eventually the spider got out of its aquarium and it was a poisonous one, with a bite that causes necropsy. Good job, hon, no you can’t keep the snake you found in the backyard.
You can come visit me - we have hardly any creepy-crawlies here. I can take a -30ºC winter, but the thought of giant house spiders…shudder.
Brown Recluse? Those things are nasty…
The worst part is they most often bite a person in their sleep, putting on clothes, etc. Hence their name, they stay away from people whenever possible and almost all contact is incidental. What’s more is the bite is mostly painless, making it hard to diagnose.
I shooed an almost hand-sized wolf spider out the front atrium of our condo once who was so huge that when he dropped from one carpeted stair step to the next as he scrambled out, there was an audible plop. I’ve never heard the impact of a spider’s mass before.
Shooing him out was tough because he stood his ground and didn’t run at first…he wasn’t especially afraid of me.
Oh good lord. While I’m admittedly not wild about winter, I’m not crazy about moving somewhere that doesn’t have freezing temperatures for a good solid two months or so. Oy.
I’m sure it’s lovely. I’m never moving to Seattle.
I should not have opened this thread. Thank God there are no pictures. Who’s going to peel me off the ceiling now?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Are you certain it was a Wolf spider? According to this (warning, pictures) link - most are small and do not inhabit our homes.
It says
*
Large, conspicuously hairy, active spiders found indoors are most often males of the European House Spider group (genus Tegenaria). Incidentally, North American wolf spiders are not dangerous to humans.*
Lots of other interesting facts and myths about spiders at that site.
We used to get a lot of wolf spiders in our old house. Our back yard butted up against a field, the house was built on a slab and I think the spiders were finding their way in between the bottom of the walls and the foundation.
One day I awoke to the sound of my stepdaughter screaming “OH MY GOD THAT’S THE BIGGEST SPIDER I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!” She had come downstairs getting ready for school and a palm-sized (legs and all) spider was sitting in the middle of the floor.
I learned early on not to squoosh them or I would wind up with a big brown spot on the carpet that would not come out. So I herded it towards the front door and shooed it out. I was a hero that day. 
Mine never get that big. 
This one was only about 6 cm, including its legs.
They’re not asking for death. They’re just confused. Mine are welcome to live under the house. But inside, they have to spend time in the Penalty Jar until I let them loose. Fortunately for Mr. Spider Creature last night, I caught him just before bed so he dpent very little time in the Penalty Jar before being taken out.
There’s another hunting spider I catch here. One I let loose this morning (I kept forgetting to let him out of the Penalty Jar – Oh, I have a couple) was dark brown, not hairy, and had that typical ‘spider shape’. That is, like a black widow, but not as bulbous. More of a pointed bean-shaped abdomen. Anyone know what it is?
No, I wasn’t using the term precisely, just to mean a long-legged, mottled gray, webless running-down-prey type spider, in this case in the heavyweight class, although not super-heavyweight. It certainly could have been a European house spider. Or an evil god.
Here’s something that will creep out arachnophobes.
We do have very large wolf spiders in Australia. They are very common in Victoria, where I live, making large burrows. They are harmless and really beautiful creatures. I put them out of the house, only because if they are wandering around then they are males looking for females, and they won’t find any in the house. The females don’t tend to move far from their burrows. I keep track of the burrows and go out and check them at night. In summer, the spiders sunbake during the day at the entrance to their burrows. Gorgeous!
Johnny - did you see today’s Seattle Times article about spider explosion?
In the article, the UW spider expert says that this time of year, all the adult male spiders are out and about ‘cruising for chicks’.
No, I hadn’t seen the article. But I knew about the GHS’s booty hunt.
Who posts here, BTW. 
I think he’s the one who told me what the GHS is, and what it’s doing a couple of years ago. Before that, I assumed (as he says in the article people do) that the spiders were coming from outside. I had no idea that putting a GHS outside was necessarily bad for the spider. I reckoned the big danger was being eaten by a bird.
Nevertheless, I’d rather not have them prowling inhabited areas. Sometimes I’ll let a spider have a web in a disused corner – especially if I see insect carcasses near it – but I don’t want them crawling around the house. So the GHSs get taken into the front yard. They can be pretty quick when they want to be, and have a good range. They have a chance to find their way under the house, where hunting will be much better than indoors, which has better chances of survival than being executed on GP. In any case, spiders had been living not-in-houses for a long time before there were houses.
As much as I prefer not to have spiders indoors, I’m always happy to see a GHS. If there are any hobo spiders here – even if they’re not as dangerous as people think – the GHSs will take care of them. They still get evicted, though. False black widows keep to themselves, and generally keep out of site. And I know they keep the woodlouse population down. I certainly have some under the couch I’m reclining on now, though I haven’t looked. There’s a red-brown spider in a sheet web with a funnel at the end in the bathroom. Ordinarily it would be evicted. But it’s interesting to look at, and sometimes I see a little flitty bug flying around. Sheety is doing me a service being there. Anyway, it’s very, very quick and there’s a gap in the floor moulding where he can get to. When the time comes to put him out, I’ll have to fold a sheet of paper to shove behind him and cut off his escape. I see sheet webs outside, so I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’m expecting houseguests in a few weeks, so I’ll remove him soon.
One weird thing is that I rarely see jumping spiders here. Before I moved here and I’d come up to visit friends in Bellingham I’d see them frequently. But 25 miles up the road, and they’ve pretty much disappeared. Too bad. The little suckers are cute. I get my fair share of orb weavers though. They’re harmless, but pests. If not for them, I’d probably put a clothesline out back; but I don’t want spiders and webbage on my clean clothes so I just use the dryer.
If you are afraid of spiders, check out this video. It’s very calming.
