It's starting to get wet and wild outside as autumn replaces summer and that means it's time for big brown spiders in the bath. Here's one that Mrs C was delighted to find last night. Click for scarier, larger version!
A bit of research suggests this is an example of Tegenaria Duellica – i.e. Common House Spider in UK parlance. There seems to be a bit of confusion out there on the web (ho ho) as to the many close varieties of Tegenaria, but I think consensus is that Duellica and Gigantea are in fact the same thing, with Gigantea being the deprecated nomenclature.
This example is about 6cm across the legs, with perhaps a 16mm body. The long legs and slender body suggest it's a male, which makes sense as it's the males out roaming for a mate at this time of year, which is why we see so many of them all of a sudden.
You just saved me from my spiralling paranoia, I saw one exactly like this on the coffee bag and I thought it was some South American beast!
I think there is one on my ceiling in the florida room-though I’m not sure. It keeps creeping closer and closer to the sliding glass doors. I really want to get a closer look. If its not dangerous I dont want to kill it-I assume it eats cockroaches…how can I be sure?
bernieandjim – if you can send a picture, I’ll let you know what I think you’ve got! Assuming you’re in the UK, there are no spiders that properly dangerous as far as I’m aware, though a few can give you a bit of a nip if you annoy them.
Hi Sam
There are 2 spiders in the UK that bite and that’s the woodlouse spider and the raft spider largest of the British spiders and are semi aquatic. Both can give quite a nasty bite but quite harmless but woodlouse spiders bite can in some cases cause blood infections. 🙂