Possible Hobo Spider???

[smokeme442200]

Ok i hope i posted that right i just could not get a clearer picture than that and i used 2 different cameras

i live in eugene oregon, this spider was hanging out around my foot he has to be at least 2 inches long i cant tell if hes a hobo spider i dont feel safe in my house anymore lol

any ideas??

[Mandy]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Hobo spiders do look very, very similar to these and are in the same genus, so you were really close! She's a "Giant House Spider" by the scientific name Tegenaria gigantea. As far as sheer leg span goes, this is just about the largest spider you'll find in the Pacific NW. They are incredibly tame and non-aggressive but can run really fast.

Just like the hobo spider, this species was introduced to the Pacific Northwest from Europe. (A side note: the hobo is probably just as harmless here as it is in Europe, and despite all the rumors and misinformation out there, there has actually never been a verified bite by one of them; all the scary "stories" and descriptions of bite symptoms are just assumptions made after some tests were done on rabbits... now everyone is afraid of the hobo without there being any proof that they can or ever have harmed a human, as happens with a lot of spiders. I don't blame anyone for being afraid, though! Some of the websites out there are brutal!)

Around here (Pacific NW), the hobos aren't very big until fall comes around when they are maturing. This time of year, they are still little guys with a leg span about as big as a dime or so. Tegenaria gigantea, on the other hand, can be found pretty much all year round as full-grown adults.

Hope this helps ease any fears! Let us know if you have any questions; I have spent a lot of time studying the genus Tegenaria in our neck of the woods, so I welcome any chance to rant about them.

[smokeme442200]

thanks for the good news! i have killed one of these before as i was studying he ran across my paper and was so large he had loud footsteps. I am attempting to learn how they are sneaking into my house and what i could do if anything, to keep less from getting in, i have a tree next to my room if i removed it would that help?

[shelliebear]

Get better sealing around your doors and windows is what I'd recommend first. You don't have to squish them; you can easily relocate one. Slide a piece of paper under the spider with a cup nearby, just in front of the spider. Put the paper in from behind it, as spiders don't move backwards. Then gently put the cup all the way down when the spider runs inside it. Take it outside and set it free far from your house and it'll be fine and probably won't come back. It's a large world for spiders; it's rare that they'd find the same house twice, I'd think.

[Ungoliant]

As Mandy noted, this species is not native to North America, so many people will recommend that you not release it. (Sometimes this is more of a principled stance, as many invasive species are so well established that the decision to release or destroy a single spider won't have an effect on their numbers.)

I am attempting to learn how they are sneaking into my house and what i could do if anything, to keep less from getting in, i have a tree next to my room if i removed it would that help?

You can't keep 100% of spiders out of your house, but you can reduce their numbers by sealing off potential access points (as shelliebear mentioned) and reducing their prey (insects).

According to Rod Crawford of the Burke Museum, most pesticides are not very effective against spiders.

If for some hard-to-imagine reason a situation really does arise where spiders must be eliminated from an area, pesticides are definitely not the way to go. An honest, properly trained exterminator will tell you this, but there are far too many who are trained only in how to market and apply pesticide treatments. Spiders do not react as strongly to "residual" insecticides as insects do; these chemicals will kill the spiders contacted directly by the spray, and that's about all. Spiders are highly mobile and quickly repopulate any area from which they have been eliminated. And spider egg sacs are relatively impervious to pesticides.

Sticky traps remove many more spiders than typical pesticide treatments, and have the added advantage of neither polluting the environment nor making your home toxic. But an even better technique is to physically exclude spiders from the space where you don't want them, by sealing gaps, cracks and openings of all kinds.

[Phil]

Install Steatoda grossa around your doors and windows lol. My cobwebs are full of dead Agelenids