The male House Spider has two club-shaped palps which are used during courtship and mating
Nature on our doorsteps: Spiders on the move in autumn
Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into the natural heritage around us and the beautiful biodiversity of the plants and creatures.
In autumn, spiders are sometimes much more noticeable around the house.
It is not just the cooler autumn weather, however, that brings these spiders indoors.
The most impressive of the spider visitors is the brown Giant House Spider.
This is one of our largest arachnids, with the females of this species reaching a full body size of about 2cm.
Her long legs, however, can add another 4cm to their overall size, making them appear very large indeed.
These long legs allow the spider to move very quickly across the floor, startling us with its size and speed.
Like with many other types of spiders, the male spider is a little smaller than the female.
Giant House Spiders are one of our largest spiders
The Giant House Spider’s original natural habitat was outdoors in caves or woodlands, where it lived in dark places under stones and rocks.
It has since adapted to live in houses, preferring undisturbed corners behind furniture or under floorboards.
They take up residence in our homes because our houses offer plenty of prey for them.
They will eat flies, woodlice, earwigs, silverfish, and even other smaller spiders that also live in our houses.
Female House Spiders mostly stay close to their untidy web during the day.
As these spiders are hunters, the web does not need to be sticky to trap prey.
Instead, she waits in the web’s funnel-shaped entrance until her prey approaches, and she will quickly rush out to catch it.
Males mostly live outdoors during summertime, but when mating time arrives in autumn they begin to look for females.
It is at this time that we are most likely to see them around the house in the daytime as they wander around the house searching for a mate.
Females can live for up to four years. Males live for only a year or two, so they are very intent in finding a mate before they die.
Despite their size, Giant House Spiders are not harmful to us, and their presence helps control the numbers of other creatures that live alongside us in the house.
