Search Search. Menu Sections. S uggestions new giant house spider could be taking over. Eimear McGovern Twitter Email. Have you spotted what seems like an invasion of spiders in your home? You are not alone — people across Northern Ireland are coming across more and more spiders around their houses in recent weeks.
A nd if the spiders seem bigger than usual, it is possible a certain type of giant spider is becoming more prominent, according to an expert. Entomologist Dr Archie Murchie of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute said there is only anecdotal evidence to suggest spiders have increased in size in recent years. The combination of warm and wet weather often means there are more insects for spiders to eat. The well-fed spiders then go out looking for mates - which they hope to find inside people's houses!
The majority of arachnids spotted are actually male spiders looking for females to mate with. Female spiders normally stay indoors waiting for the males. So why are some spiders hanging around homes now? Well, it's pretty much for the same reasons! Male spiders are on the look out for females and the warmer weather also means there's more food for them to eat.
Warmer weather, for example, brings out iconic jumping spiders, which rove about on house walls and fences. Have you been spotted any big spiders in your home recently? Let us know in the comments! Bugs: Why are they are so important to our environment? Eating insects: Should we be eating more? Why are they so good? Insects: Check out these amazing super close-up bug photos!
These comments are now closed. What is Remembrance Day? How much is a lightsaber worth? Gerrard announced as new Villa manager - is it a good move? Home Menu. Have you spotted any big spiders recently? Getty Images. More like this. Your Comments Join the conversation. To use comments you will need to have JavaScript enabled. Oliviacandy 20 Jul. Walking past some monstrous Halloween decorations on the way to school, my eight-year-old wondered if any real spiders were that big.
I decided to look into the web to make sure. The Guinness World Record for the biggest spider by weight 50 g is the male goliath bird-eating spider Theraphosa blondi from the Amazon rain forest. This tarantula has a leg span of about 28 cm. They mostly eat invertebrates, though I have seen some gross videos of people feeding them mice. They do not usually attack people or even eat birds. I don't think I'd want one of these filling my dinner plate, but it is still not in the category of say, Aragog, Hagrid's pet Acromantula in Harry Potter, or Shelob, whom Sam battles in Lord of the Rings.
Why not? To explore this spidery speculation, I emailed some specialists. Spider systematist Wayne Maddison at the UBC Beaty Museum of Biodiversity noted that scaling constrains many aspects of biology because a bigger thing of the same shape has more volume compared to its area.
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