UK cave spiders - the scariest wee beasties in my home!

[Libba]

I really regret opening this thread. I don't think I'll ever sleep again.

 

[KirstyF]

Ahh but they aren’t all scary. Who wouldn’t want to take this little guy home. 🥰

 

[Ghettofarmulous]

I have a fear of spiders but I would never kill them. They are fascinating like all creatures. I scoop them up in a glass and throw them outside. Last year I was shaking my bed out and a false widow fell to the ground. It sounded like a piece of hard candy. That terrified me.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Who wouldn’t want to take this little guy home.

<"Jumping Spiders"> are just the cutest animals.

cheers Darrel

 

[Simon Cole]

I'm having one of those late-nights/early-mornings again Managed to get a slug in my tea, then came downstairs and right by the side of my kitchen sink guess who had set up shop...

 

[Geoffrey Rea]

You could get a Chameleon @Simon Cole to mop up the ones in the house. You get a very cool pet/friend and a free food source out of the situation.

 

[zozo]

So far as I am aware, they are the only spider to live in social colonies

A long time ago I once had a few days of work at a water treatment plant we had to maintain and replace some old pumps in the pump house. And the outside wall (facade) +/- 160 ft² at the back (forest side) of this little house was from the ground up to the roof totally covered in thick sheets of spiderwebs. I had never seen such a large colony of spiders in my life. Since there never is much human activity on the terrain itself and closed to the public it looked undisturbed for decades and really looked like an Arachnafobia Filmset.

As far as I remember only have seen the Garden spider (Araneus diadematus) in there and thousands of them. I have no idea if they also live intentionally in colonies but it sure looked like that. And it didn't look like each spider had its own little wheel web it looked more like a 160ft² solid and connected and shared web construction.

I guess because of all the water basins around there were enough flying insects and enough to catch and eat and thus no reason to move.

Back then mobile phones with cameras weren't invented yet, all I have is memories of it and it was the first and last time that I've seen it.

 

[Simon Cole]

a 160ft² solid and connected and shared web construction

Amazing. I think they call those a spider swarm web, or something like that. I have only seen it once before and that was near Zaltbommel, near the canals there,.