Talk:Giant house spider

Needs re-writing
"Since T. duellica can penetrate regular human skin on normal occasions, the effects of agatoxin are more likely to be felt by the victim."

What's this 'normal occasions' and 'more likely to be felt by the victim' ?? Surely whomever is responsible for this page (let's not pretend that Wikipedia can be edited by anybody anymore !) can re-write this paragraph so that it makes better sense ?

"Up until 1987, the Giant house spider held the record as the fastest spider in the world. The record has since been awarded to a species of African Sun Spiders, which aren't actually spiders at all." I trust I don't need to point out what's wrong with that sentence.

This sentence needs to be fixed. Since the African Sun Spider is not a spider it must be another kind of spider that took the record. Either that or the Giant House Spider still has the record. --Godlesswanderer 22:12, 11 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The answer is that Guinness isn't a very good authority, and writes what they wanna write. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.63.142 (talk) 17:59, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Pacific northwest
Do we know when/how the spider got from Europe to the Pacific Northwest? Why hasn't it spread to the rest of North America? Drutt 02:57, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Could be that the species enjoys more temperate oceanic climates. The US Pacific north coast has similar weather/temperatures as the EU Atlantic north coast (unlike the US Atlantic north coast which is much colder - no gulf stream -, or the US Pacific south coast which is much warmer).


 * I was raised in a very old house on the extreme western part of Brittany. The house is big (it's a bakery shop owned by my parents, but originally was a school with dorms) and is made of granite bricks loosely assembled together. Those darn giant house spiders are everywhere. Late summer/early fall seems to be their coming out time. I was visiting my parents just a few days ago, and I must have stumbled upon a dozen of these big and ugly creatures (including one in my bed). There seems to be no good solution against them (except sporadic squishing when they appear). They crawl in when the windows are left open (as is often the case in summer/fall days). I am arachnophobic, but the rest of my family isn't. I've always known them to play with these spiders just to mess with me and nobody was ever bitten. Idem with our dogs and cats. However, our pet turtles and exotic fish eat the spiders when they're presented with one.

One thing is for sure : although we are permanently under invasion by these giant house spiders, no other spider species seems to enjoy their company. Occasionally, you may see a genuine daddy-long-leg, but they're never around for long. It seems to me that in the community of spiders, the giant house ones are not welcoming neighbors ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.57.12.119 (talk) 08:39, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Lifespan

 * Anyone got an idea of how long they live for? --Quatermass (talk) 20:37, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

-i heard they live for a few years but i dont have a source — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.237.236 (talk) 10:21, 7 September 2011 (UTC)


 * They lives until they are foolish enough to run across your living room floor !! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.30.141.78 (talk) 06:26, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Largest Tegenaria?
Giant house spider claims that T. duellica is the largest member of the family. However, Tegenaria parietina gives larger dimensions all round. Either the values in one or both articles are wrong, or the "Largest member of family" title should go to T. parietina.
 * T. duellica: Female: 18.5mm; Male: 12-15mm; leg span: 25-75mm
 * T. parietina: Female: 20mm; Male: 17mm; leg span: up to 140mm

Iapetus (talk) 09:16, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Giant House Spider in Northern Ireland
I was sitting in my bedroom watching videos on youtube, as you do as a kid, but I seen something move at the corner of my eye. This giant spider was running across my floor plus it doesn't help me because I have Arachnophobia and as soon as I saw it I freaked out and didn't know what to do I sat on my bed and looked for a piece of paper to kill it but it took me a while to find some paper. I grabbed a thick piece of paper and dropped it on it. I used a pool que to move the paper out of the way. It still looked big as it lay there squished, I know I can't sleep after that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.97.134.65 (talk) 06:05, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

Is the name Eratigena a word-play?
From the article "genus named Eratigena (an anagram of Tegenaria)". I don't know Greek or Latin so this may be completely off, but seemed to me like the genus Eratigena is a play on words - perhaps meaning (or at least sounding like it might mean): 'corrected group' (or similar). Does any know if this is either correct, or intentional? If so, could it be added to the article? 81.132.180.113 (talk) 19:40, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Also exists in Iceland
This spider also exists in Iceland. But not over the whole country, the living area is limited to parts of Iceland. Map with that detail can be found here, http://www.ni.is/biota/animalia/arthropoda/chelicherata/arachnida/araneae/agelenidae/eratigena-atrica Jonfr (talk) 16:20, 11 October 2017 (UTC)


 * I've added Iceland to the distribution with this as a reference, as it seems a very reliable source. Peter coxhead (talk) 16:37, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Re-split of species
I've made some temporary changes to the lead to reflect the re-recognition of three separate species, but there will need to be separate articles on each. The problems is going to be to decide whether the description here applies to one species or is now wrong, as it applied to the amalgam. Peter coxhead (talk) 10:37, 1 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks for doing that. The species are basically identical in appearance as far as I know, but perhaps it'd be best to start from scratch for the description since there's no inline citations. The distribution map present on this one would need to be updated for the USA as well - per BugGuide, E. atrica is the species in the northeast US/eastern Canada, while E. duellica is the species in the Pacific Northwest. I definitely don't know how to cleanly update the maps, as I'm not particularly experienced with Wikipedia editing. I agree that a disambiguation page would be needed. Achung818 (talk) 18:07, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Longevity source
someone online (search Spiders In Your House on youtube) has pointed out that the citation for maximum lifespan on this article comes from a university pdf that doesnt cite names or much confirmatory data. Is this good enough to stay in the article or too close to an anecdote or primary source to use for this? 71.7.133.42 (talk) 15:03, 25 October 2023 (UTC)