Oh my God. Not arachnophobic, but Spider!!!?

Question

I was on the bus yesterday, and a spider was on my friends arm. It was the size of , i'd say slightly bigger that a 50 pence piece, with long black legs, a body slightly larger than a 5 pence piece and it was crawling slowly.

We both screamed and half the bus evacuated upstairs.

Could anyone tell me what the h**l species it was?

It was black with no obvious markings, though it might have been brownish, maybe whitish, i don't know, i was too busy running.

Answer 1

If you think it looked like a black widow but it didn't have a red back then if this was in UK I've seen likewise and aparently it is called a 'ghost widow' being liken to the black widow we all know and love...

Answer 2

Learn to ID  it with the help of these sites and even if you do not find what you are looking for you will be able to ID any bug in the future -

http://bugguide.net/node/view/1954

http://www.arachnology.be/pages/Pictures...

http://www.spideridentification.org/

Spider and Insect Catch and Release Tool

http://www.smarthome.com/61181.html

You can remove a spider from inside your house by putting a jar over it. Then slip a piece of paper under the jar so that the opening is sealed, pick up the jar, and take the spider outside.

A broom is also a useful tool for moving a spider outside.

Preventing Spider Problems

There are many ways to make your home less appealing to spiders. If there are cracks in your foundation or around windows and doors, seal them up.

Check places where water pipes and electrical lines enter your house, and caulk any openings.

Keep woodpiles and debris away from your house.

In storage areas, put boxes up off the floor and away from walls.

Seal boxes with tape to keep spiders from living inside them. In general, cleaning up clutter will mean you have fewer spiders.

Pruning vegetation away from your house and keeping the area next to the foundation clear will also make your house less attractive to spiders.

Outdoor lighting sometimes attracts insects, which in turn attracts spiders. You can move outdoor lighting away from windows and doors if this is a problem around your home. - http://www.pesticide.org/spiders.html

Answer 3

Sounds like a wolf spider...YUCK!

Answer 4

Sounds to me like it's just a common house spider.

Answer 5

Even if I knew the sizes of 50p or 5p there is not enough information to even come close.  I'll let you look at some pictures if you want to try to find your spider.  They do not provide sizes here and specific species are different in UK than US.  But if you find one that looks like yours, you can look up the family to see ones that occur in UK.

http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&k...