House Spiders

[flip-flop]

On Saturday I had to catch a spider from my bedroom ceiling because it was sending Mrs flop mental, and when I grabbed it I'm sure it bit me - granted it was a huge hairy brute, but am I imagining this? Can house spiders bite? There's no marks on my hand!

[kate1976]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that any spider can bite, my friend down south was bitten last year by one of those little jumping black/ white spiders so I know they do!!

Just found this for you!

"Spider Bites
All spiders bite and nearly all inject venom into their prey, but the fangs of the vaste majority of species are too small to penetrate human skin and very few will bite man, even when severely provoked. Of the 35,000 or so species throughout the world, about 500 are known to cause painful bites in humans, but only about a dozen of these spiders are highly venomous. The species which are particularly dangerous to man are largely confined to warmer parts of the world, although their common names will be familiar to most people. For example, the venomous bites of the black widows or red-back spiders (Latrodectus) and the Australian funnel-web spiders (Atrax) are well known, since both can be fatal in some circumstances. Likewise, the Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria) has a dangerous reputation as a very aggressive species with an extremely painful bite. Few, if any, of the spiders found in temperate regions are particularly venomous or likely to bite. Among the native spiders of Britain and northern Europe, for example, there are only one or two species that require some caution if handled. The water spider (Argyroneta) can give a fairly painful bite, but usually this is much less severe than the bites and stings of many common insects. Somewhat unpleasant bite wounds can also be inflicted by the larger species of Cheiracanthium and Steatoda. The latter species is often found in and around house and other buildings."

[smudge]

Aaarrrggg - I'm terrified of spiders, but sometimes manage to catch the little blighters in a glass - with card on top of course. I then set them free at the end of our drive!

My husband loves spiders (the bigger the better) & lets them crawl all over him! The Grandchildren find it very fascinating!

You might find this site interesting.....

[smudge]

Reassuring - scroll down to find quote on that website:

'Spider Bites - all spiders bite and nearly all inject venom into their prey, but fangs of the vast majority of species, are too small to penetrate human skin and very few will bite man, even when severely provoked'.

So it might have just been a harmless little nip flip-flop!

[smudge]

We were obviously looking at the same website kate! Thought I'd seen it somewhere before!!!!

[kate1976]

We were indeed looking at the same site smudge, I forgot to include the link in my post!

[smudge]

Well out of all the sites.....great minds think alike Kate!

[Lonnie]

Spiders, the best friend you'll ever have in a house, name them, nuture them, pet them, and they'll repay`you threefold.

[daisymay]

Can Lonnie expand on why they are such great friends?

[Lonnie]

Certainly daisymay, actually, that was a bit tongue in cheek, but if I see a spider in the house, I leave it alone, because they catch flies and other creatures, plus they don't spread disease like flies, although I do understand why some people don't like them. Shame really.

[SteveD]

You need one of these:

http://www.loadsmorestuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1030

[sammd]

The bristles on that spider catcher look like they'd go right through the spider! I think i'll stick to the glass method and then flushing them down the toilet. Although i think i'd buy one of those if i lived in Australia to keep as far away as possible from the venimous ones!