Giant spiders expected to invade homes this autumn, expert predicts

 
Creepy crawly: A spider is pictured in London earlier this month
Jochan Embley17 September 2014

Mild weather is causing house-invading spiders to grow abnormally large, experts have warned.

Unseasonably high temperatures, as well as greater access to food, means spiders are growing to a greater size than usual.

It comes as a new app, Spider In Da House, was launched by the Society of Biology to help homeowners identify the different arachnids they find inside their houses.

Spiders are particularly active at this time of year and are on the lookout for a mate, which often leads to them coming inside homes.

Professor Adam Hart, from the University of Gloucestershire, said: “This year has been seemingly a good one for the invertebrates which spiders feed on, and it’s quite mild out there.

“By eating flies and other insects, spiders are not only providing use with a pest control service, but are important in ecosystems.

“They often feed on the most common species, preventing a few species from becoming dominant.”

The identification app comes with photos and information on the 12 most common spiders found inside homes.

It also helps users to differentiate between male and female spiders, of which the latter are often bigger.

Prof Hart added: “We want to encourage people to respect and learn more about their little house guests.”

The Spider In Da House app is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in