Hi! It’s been raining a lot where I live and a lot of the insects have been appearing in my home. Here’s a pic of a spider I killed. What type of spider is it? I’d say it was about two inches big when its legs were spread out. (Sorry for the pet hair on the carpet)
Wolf spiders are cool - they don’t make webs and just eat things and crawl around. They carry babies on their back. Best thing to do is relocate outside
Wolf spiders are good spiders to have around. They are big fuckers that do look bad though. My wife absolutely flips shit when she sees them. Generally, they stay away from humans when in the house from my interactions with them. Their venom isn't harmful to humans either. Just some minor irritation.
😭 so like how do yall sleep when you know you let them go alive bc I don’t wanna kill them if they’re good anymore but I might have to rip off my skin or sleep in a freaking insect net for life now
According to my wife all spiders originate in a plane of hell and come here to lure humans to murder (or to murder huamns). Either way someone is gonna die. I totally understand OP's sleeping issue since where there is a baby...
I'll give you an incentive not to hurt them. Females carry their live babies on their back. If that doesn't make you back off from the sheer cuteness, if you smash the mom or do anything to scare them all the baby spiders scatter. So now you have dozens of baby giant spiders all over. And they think you're a bad man that hurt their mommy.
Now, the town of Merida in Mexico has a huge new park which is just lovely, but for some reason a part of it has this path where wolf spiders just swarm it. I remember having to look down as I walked because if you don't then you will hear/feel crunches as you step on them which I hated. A bunch would bounce off my sandals or crawl over them. Never got bit. Once upon a time I had massive arachnophobia but as you can guess it passed after living in tropical and subtropical places with giant but harmless spiders.
Another story - in my neighborhood there is this dog treat tray that a neighbor maintains. Very nice, and my dog loves it! One night I reach in and feel something weird. She always gets exactly two. Give her one and I reach in again and yeah, something feels super strange. I shine my phone light in and yep - not one but two of these large spiders inside. Didn't bite me even then.
You pick them up on a broom, and move them outside. That's probably where they want to be anyway. Usually, they like to live in the grass along the foundation of your house, where they make a nice little insect barrier. This one just took a wrong turn and ended up in a place where (hopefully) there aren't as many insects. I'm sure he would have greatly appreciated a ride back to the great outdoors.
I personally just ignore wolf spiders until they are large enough to hear them skittering across the wall, around 2 and half inch leg span. Then I carefully trap them with a big clear plastic or glass cup and slide a piece of thin cardboard between the wall or floor the cup. Then take them outside and let them go.
This works for other bugs you might rather release than kill like bees or wasps, grasshoppers, etc. and even small lizards.
Good spider but creepy. The only problem with wolf spiders are how fast they are. Those things run quick. And they also get big. So twice the creepy factor.
Reason they are good is because they don’t build webs, just they lurk and strike other pests. Most importantly they’re the only spiders that can hunt and kill black widows and other problematic spiders.
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u/Gudi_Nuff 1d ago
That's your friendly household wolf spider