Very large spider cruising around the office. Leave him/her in, or is s/he better off outside?

[Flaxbee]

Body is maybe an inch or so long, and with legs, the diameter of spidey is significantly larger than a silver dollar.

I have no problem allowing spidey to hang out inside. Not sure if there's much to eat, though.

What to do? Temps outside at night are in the 50s, but will be down in the 40s the next week, if that makes any difference. This is not a web-building spider, I don't think...

[Aristus]

1. Imagine the size of the insects that critter is eating.

Insects that are no longer around to irritate you.

Spiders are our friends!...

[leftyohiolib]

2. i concur spiders are ur friend (maybe not the little ones with the hour glass on it's belly)

but yes(just dont let one lay eggs in your cheek)

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Spidies eat Mosquitoes, therefore they are my friend.

[Kaleva]

4. I'd put it outside.

[Suich]

5. If you move it outside it will die.

For years,, whenever I found a big spider, I very carefully moved it outside. I found out recently that the change in temperature killed them. Now I just put my feet up and let them be!

[Flaxbee]

13. I'm happy to do that - just not sure what there is to eat here ...

I don't disturb any of the spiders and there seem to be a lot of the little, teeny-tiny baseboard-spiders around.

I'm just concerned there isn't enough to eat here. But then again, spider has obviously been thriving somewhere. We're on a ground floor, but the conference room is far away from any doors to the outside so I assume s/he's been living here successfully for a while.

Hmm.

I think I worry about these things too much. I wouldn't want to be any other way - indifferent to life in all its forms -- but jesus it makes my life difficult sometimes.

[Angry Dragon]

16. Spiders go where the bugs are so you have bugs

[Flaxbee]

19. we have lots of the teeny-tiny baseboard spiders because I am an indifferent housekeeper

Cobwebs are happy in my house. Lol.

[Sentath]

28. Ah, that may be what this one is hunting then.

Spiders are cannibals, the lot of them.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. probably a wolf spider - I have them in my crawlspace. alarming size...

outside sounds good!

[Flaxbee]

11. nope, I've gingerly removed those fellas from my mudroom before -- and had them

rear up at me when I put them down outside.

This looks just like a 'house' spider who has grown bigger than normal.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. any missing pets?

[littlemissmartypants]

7. I love bats

for the same reason. Natures bug zappers.

[Flaxbee]

24. yup. another very misunderstood creature. Bats are totally neato

Love the little fellas.

[Teamster Jeff]

8. Is it a major spider?

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[Flaxbee]

9. lol. Not a major spider

I'd forgotten that scene

[Curmudgeoness]

10. I always figure that the spider knows where it should be.

It will not live long outside at this point in the season. I do the live and let live as long as they are out of my way, and if not, I try moving them to a more remote spot in the house. And I don't know what they are eating, but I have a ton of spiders living in this house.....I must have a lot more creepy crawlies than I know.

[GoCubsGo]

14. That's how I feel about them, too.

I always leave them alone when they're in my house. Except for the black widow I found behind my plant stand. She got let outside.

[Flaxbee]

15. yeah, I'm leaning toward letting him/her be... I checked the night-time temps, and with the

hurricane coming our way I assume there will be a bunch of tasty bugs in the aftermath of all that water ... but ... you're right, s/he's probably where s/he wants to be.

However, about a week ago TWO large spiders slid out from behind the shower curtain into the tub just as I stepped into the shower.
They were both removed to the front porch. Where I've seen them before, interlopers that they were.

[Curmudgeoness]

17. Like I said, as long as they are not in my face...

they can stay. I don't particular like spiders, they really creep me out. I know, I know, irrational. But still.

[Art_from_Ark]

18. There is nothing irrational about being creeped out by spiders

Spiders can inflict painful bites, even non-poisonous ones. And the way they catch and devour their prey is also creepy-- usually getting it entangled in a sticky net, injecting it with a drug that keeps it alive but in a semi-comatose state, and then slowly sucking the life out of it.

[Curmudgeoness]

27. Ewwww!

OK, reminding me of all those interesting facts about spiders reaffirmed my opinion of their creepiness!

And yes, I have been bitten a number of times by spiders that are "harmless". They are still painful.

[Art_from_Ark]

30. Here's a song for you

Spiders that I find in my house usually meet the same fate as ol' Boris

[LP2K12]

20. Woke up...

to a large spider that I had rolled over onto under my shoulder the other night. Grabbed it and threw it across the room half asleep. When I turned on the light it was reared up on its legs. Ugh. I hate spiders.

[Flaxbee]

21. I like spiders. Think of how overrun the world would be with mosquitos, etc., without them.

I do not like them on my person, though.

[LP2K12]

23. I agree.

I didn't kill it. Took it outside and then made sure to patch any holes in the screens around the house and seal any cracks. No spiders since.

[Art_from_Ark]

26. I really don't think spiders catch too many mosquitos

Some fish, bats, birds, other insects and reptiles/amphibians are better mosquito catchers.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/lph1/index_files/Page322.html

It's actually pretty hard for a tiny mosquito to get caught in a spider's web, which is much more effective in catching larger bugs such as moths and flies.

[applegrove]

22. I had an apartment near a waterfront. I let the spiders go wild in my apartment. I had too many

of them so I bought a bug vacuume and caught and released them in the wild. I had an ecosystem going on in my apartment there for a while. Be warned. If they have an adequate source of food (I left my kitchen windows open in the summer) they will multiply. Bugvac I got was at hedonics.

[HopeHoops]

25. Leave it. Somehow they find things to eat. We get some pretty huge ones too.

[OriginalGeek]

29. Spider-Bro!

[flamingdem]

33. Aw, nice spidey

coochy coo!

[Flaxbee]

31. Spidey wasn't there (where I could see her, at least) today (Friday)

But there were two crickets I fed some rice cakes to.

One of the crickers (a niece called them 'crickers' when she was young and it's stuck) had only one back leg, so I felt s/he might want some food. I put very small bits down, as well as a wet paper towel (for water) and the one-back-legged cricker took some of the rice cake and scurried off.

I think I've lost my mind.

[kurtzapril4]

32. I am terrified of large spiders.

I got into a canoe once and a wolf spider came galloping towards me, and I bailed...into water moccasin infested water. Then, after I thrashed and screamed about in the water and muck, I went inside my friend's house to shower and there was another damn wolf spider on the inside of the shower curtain. I will never go back to that house, ever again. I get those big garden spiders in my yard all the time. I don't kill them, I just mark them off with landscaping flags so I don't ever have to look at them again. Small spiders that are in the house, I pick up and put outside.

I'd put your spider outside...circle of life and all that.

[Flaxbee]

34. Lol. Landscaping flags to mark spider territory

I left her alone. Didn't see her the next day... so she's doing her thing somewhere and hopefully found some dinner.

[zabet]

35. Google Hobo Spider....

If it is one of these....kill it. Almost as poisonous as a brown recluse but highly aggresive......can jump over a foot and will literally run at you if they feel you are invading 'their' territory.