What species is this spider?
February 11, 2013 4:50 AM Subscribe
Found this guy while cleaning out my shop, and, for the Pacific NW, it was a fairly impressive beast. I'd say, across the legs, it was roughly the size of a 50 cent piece. Here's a photo.
My wife thinks it might be a hobo spider, but neither of us are experts, and it would be fun to know what it is. The coloring is a bit off in the photo, in person it had no red tint at all, just brown and black. This is a fairly common spider to see around here, though usually a bit smaller than this.
The container it's in has a diameter of roughly 6", I think.
(I let it go; though "they" say when you find a large (for its type) spider that it's pretty much on its last legs, nearing the end of its life...is this true, or nonsense?)
My wife thinks it might be a hobo spider, but neither of us are experts, and it would be fun to know what it is. The coloring is a bit off in the photo, in person it had no red tint at all, just brown and black. This is a fairly common spider to see around here, though usually a bit smaller than this.
The container it's in has a diameter of roughly 6", I think.
(I let it go; though "they" say when you find a large (for its type) spider that it's pretty much on its last legs, nearing the end of its life...is this true, or nonsense?)
Generally it's safe to handle them, although they can give you a moderately painful bite if you're rough with them. They're pretty useful for controlling woodlice, earwigs and other small pests. I'd say we probably see about one a day in our house (in the UK) through the autumn and winter months.
posted by pipeski at 4:58 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by pipeski at 4:58 AM on February 11, 2013
Also, there's a nice picture and some more info at the Guardian.
posted by pipeski at 4:59 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by pipeski at 4:59 AM on February 11, 2013
I would assume it's a hobo spider and act accordingly. Hobo spiders and giant house spiders look almost identical (compare your pic with this and this), IMHO, better safe than sorry.
posted by missmagenta at 5:28 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by missmagenta at 5:28 AM on February 11, 2013
If you really want to be sure about whether this is a house spider or a hobo, here's a guide. You'll need a decent magnifying glass though.
posted by pipeski at 5:40 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by pipeski at 5:40 AM on February 11, 2013
Having read pipeski's guide, what I meant by 'act accordingly' was don't handle it with your bare hands, I didn't mean, get all stressed and nuke the house with pesticides ;)
posted by missmagenta at 5:50 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by missmagenta at 5:50 AM on February 11, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
From the article: 'The Giant house spider is indigenous to north western Europe. However, it was unwittingly introduced to the Pacific Northwest of North America circa 1900 due to human activity and strongly increased in numbers for the last decade.'
posted by pipeski at 4:53 AM on February 11, 2013