I might have burned the house down if that happened to me. I hate spiders, but try to leave them alone outside. But when they come in the house, they gotta go......

I'd need a long handled flame thrower cause I wan't going near that thing. It is about 3" to 3½"

It'a a Wolf Spider

I did a search on the image, and "wolf spider" came up.

Edited to add: Looks like nicole and I came up with the same answer.

The legs are striped. Like tortoiseshell. Solid color body.

Spiders do a lot of good, catching bugs. And if you are familiar with them, most of them just want to do their thing and are not interested in you. They are not going to hunt you down. A few such as the brown recluse can cause damage, so always check your gloves and shoes/boots before putting them on.

Go watch Charlotte's Web, it will de escalate you a bit.

Bug eater! Good girl! I have these every year. I name them Marigold, Charlotte, etc.

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Yellow-Garden-Spider

Mine are not the spider pictured, but just a comment on how useful they are.

As others have noted, it is a wolf spider. Coloring and markings can vary with habitat. They are very common, big and scary looking but pretty harmless. If cornered, they can bite but they avoid humans and would rather run and hide. Unless you have an allergic reaction, the bite will be like any other insect bite........a small red mark, maybe some slight soreness and possible itchiness. A more extreme reaction - swelling, a rash, extreme tenderness - could signal an allergy and should be checked out.

That spider, like most, is perfectly harmless. Please, PLEASE, don’t hurt it.

OK. OK. thank you everyone. I feel better. It was quite a shock! It's not like the " Daddy Long Legs" I see here in the pine forest. I shoo them away all the time, no big deal.

I dislike spiders. The larger they are, the more I dislike them.

Well, apparently it lives here now. ☹

I don't like spiders, but I don't like to kill them either so I catch and release. Just put a jar or glass over it, slide something stiff like card stock underneath and carry it outside to live out it's spider life. Of course, if you don't know where it is, you will to wait until it makes another appearance if you decide you want to put it outside.

In the event that you and your new housemate come face to fangs again, it would be a good idea to have a cup and a piece of paper within reach so that you can quickly relocate him to the outdoors. I recommend a clear (ish) disposable plastic cup and a postcard or index card (big enough to cover the opening of the cup, of course) for the job.

Elizabeth, what is your general location in the world?

I live in Michigan's northernmost county, Keweenaw

Was surprised you are in Michigan! I’m in the lower north east and have seen some big spiders, but none like that! Please do not drive it to the Big Mac and release, it may cross over! 😱

He's big enough to walk there on his own.

This is a big spider (Elizabeth you would never see this spider where you live unless someone was keeping it as a pet): The South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) is the world's largest spider, according to Guinness World Records. Its legs can reach up to one foot (30 centimeters) and it can weight up to 6 oz. (Just trying to make your spider teeny and easier to take by comparison). But if the image really upsets anyone I will delete it by request.

That is like a horror movie and I am the scared little girl running away. Shrieking.

Many of the large tarantulas (not the pictured spider above) are quite gentle and people keep them as pets.

My friend says they had wolf spider who lived in their kitchen cabinet when she was a child. They coexisted peacefully.

The top three things on my DH's to do list are change lightbulbs, take out the garbage and take out the spiders.

blfenton...that is a good list.

Mine is now:

Get rid of spiders, snow and fireplace ash.

I took a 2:00AM bike ride the other night. I saw a spider web getting closer and closer but it was too late to stop. I saw a blob in the center coming toward my face and assumed it was the spider. Probably a big garden spider?

The only venomous spiders I've seen were a few Brown Widows that were living under the eves when I moved in. I had never heard of Brown Widows. (The egg sac is the giveaway)

Do any of you have a dock on your property? If so, do you ever get 'dock' spiders? I live in Ontario, and my friend has a summer home on a beautiful lake here. The surroundings are so picturesque, but nothing freaks me out more, than sitting out on the dock, enjoying a book, when suddenly some creepy legs start coming up from underneath the dock, and within seconds, there are massive dock spiders scurrying around on the dock!

Yes. I have a dock. I never saw spiders there. But now I'll be thinking about it.

I have a healthy respect for spiders.

As long as they are outside.

Inside, not so much respect.

Yes, we have dock spiders and boat spiders! The ones on the boat like to come out and visit when on a peaceful cruise!!! Yikes!

I picked up a boot from the closet one time and there was a very big Wolf Spider snuggled in the treads of the sole. Did I say it was BIG?! I threw that boot outside and the boot stayed there a very long time.

I do not like spiders either, even tho I find them fascinating at the same time. The little black jumping spiders sometimes live on my kitchen window sill (on the inside). I just let them be, but admit to teasing them sometimes by waving my finger at them. They turn around and are ready to fight! I think they are watching me the whole time I'm doing dishes.

This pic is of a beautiful lichen huntsman spider, so pretty:

I would never harm a spider outside, but once they're in my house, they are fair game. My solution is always the canister vacuum. The pole is long enough to not have to get too close. I tell them I am sorry, but they should have stayed outside. We don't have any really poisonous ones around here that get into the house (unless maybe riding on firewood). When I research poisonous spiders in Western WA, it says we have some localized populations of black widows, but I've lived here my whole life and have never seen one (that I know of) nor known of anyone getting bitten.

Next time try the vacuum.

I do think you have a fishing spider, Dolomedes tenebrosus. That's why I asked of your location.....they are quite common in Michigan. I first became aquainted with them in the Adirondacks, where they were known as the dreaded dock spiders!

Dawn, I do exactly the same thing as you do. Glass over the spider, stiff piece of cardboard, take it outside. Big or little, it works.

That lichen huntsman spider looks like a cartoon.

I had one of his relatives in my pantry the other night. I get one from the same family in my house every spring. I don't know how that happens, but it's usually no big deal. I drop a quart plastic container over it, slide something underneath, and take it outside. (I just realized this method was discussed above.) This time the spider was on a vertical surface (see photo), and my method didn't work. He was fast! His whereabouts were unknown for a day, and then yesterday I spotted him in another location. He's happily enjoying the outdoors now. I'm sure your spider is every bit as eager to avoid you as you are to avoid him!

A warning to be prepared, I received a package from Amazon and there was a huge spider at the bottom of the box. Just two days ago it happened to my granddaughter. Opening a package, pulled out the packing, and got terrified.

Love our central vac!

I'm only afraid of the brown recluse around here. DH was bitten on his arm while trimming a bush. He paid no attention, but I saw the site swelling around the 'jaws' mark. I called our MD. He gave me the old never-mind/they-don't-exist-here, so I waited a day. THEN I called the Field Museum and was told the brown recluse IS in northern Illinois -- and that DH should start a course of antibiotics immediately. He did, and the poison didn't spread, but the an area the size of a half-dollar developed necrosis. Nice scar. MD said he'd learned something.

@ Lucille

Regarding that "South American Goliath" birdeater, which you referred to as the world's largest ...

... could we then describe it as a "bird feeder-on" do ya figger?

o j

Hi Elizabeth,

I am not crazy about surprise spider visits, but I appreciate the value of spiders. I actually allow the common cellar spider to hang out in my house during the summer because they catch these little tiny black insects that get to the screens.

I appreciate the value of spiders. I actually allow the common cellar spider to hang out in my house during the summer because they catch these little tiny black insects that get to the screens.

A fun spider to watch is the jumping spider, frequently observed on window screens where they pounce on small insects like flies and mosquitos.

Outside the front porch, under the overhang, there are these fat juicy web making fellas that trap evening flying insects. I don’t like opening the screen door and seeing one of these fall onto the foyer floor. I just trap him under a clear wide mouthed jar and slide a lg index card beneath it (as described up thread).

In October, all the spiders get put outside. Again trapped with jar or in an insect collecting tube (children’s nature section of a toy or science store. I let scary wasps outside in the same way. I do not relish wasps at all.

For nighttime flying bad guys like mosquitoes and a night wasp like critter or a fast moving European house spider, or house flies, I zap them with my battery powered fly swatter.

I spider on the outside of a window screen is good ;-), but if there are destructive grass beetles or something I don’t want, I just send them away to the lawn with a snap of an index finger. Maybe they like it, who knows.

Nice photo, by the way. So it is a wolf spider?

I've twice encountered cane spiders in Hawaii, once in a hotel room, once in a rented condo. You haven't lived if you haven't happened upon one (or have one happen upon you).

I dislike spiders and don't want them around. My wife dispatches them with a facial tissue or piece of toilet paper when one is detected. In her absence, or for larger ones, I'm okay with using the regular vacuum or a handheld rechargeable Dyson vacuum thingy with a nozzle on the long tube.

I have a Shark vacuum with no extension wand. It has a removable motor with a handle and a short nozzle. I am not getting that close. I do think I will give that spiral staircase/greenhouse area a very good cleaning so it isn't too attractive for web building. There are hanging plants and plants on shelves. It is quite high and mostly glass with lots of twists and turns. Not the most straightforward area to clean and I have seen a few webs there. I don't know of any way to repel spiders.

I don't mind spiders. The only ones I will immediately dispatch are black widows.

I've found a tarantula in my house a few times, they get caught and taken outside to be released.

The rest are allowed to stay in the house, as long as they stay in the corners or up high. When they come down to my area, they get evicted by way of the toilet.

Scorpions on the other hand? No way buddy. You die!

I vacuumed up a huge spider, using the central vac outlet in our kitchen. But 2 days later, when I lifted the flip plate up to connect the vacuum hose to our 2nd floor outlet, it ran right out onto my arm, almost giving me a heart attack! When I caught it, (using a jar and a cardboard) it had a little dust ball attached to it. So I'm thinking it climbed out of the vac canister in the garage, and wended its way through the vac piping all the way to my second floor. Now I never vacuum up spiders anymore, lol!

If I tolerate spider webs, they become cobwebs...so no.

"I live in Michigan's northernmost county, Keweenaw."

Ah yes, the Keweenaw peninsula, famous for its native copper mines of a century ago. These deposits were originally worked by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived. This is one of the very few places on earth where native copper is found. Native copper is the metal itself sometimes alloyed with a bit of silver. Most other occurrences of copper are compounds of copper such as copper-sulfate, etc.

Our rock hound club (from Wisconsin) has hunted for copper specimens in that area.

Hello neighbor.

Jemdandy: I didn't know you lived so close. Not many here have been this far north. It is a beautiful place not comparable to Detroit or other cities in the L.P. We kind of like keeping it's beauty a secret!

Spiders don't like strong scents...like peppermint oil.

I’d never kill a spider, but I admit to being arachnophobic (except for tarantulas). I nearly wrecked the car when I looked down and saw a small spider on my leg. Getitoff getitoff getitoff!!!!! Last summer my sister accidentally swallowed a spider when she walked into its web in the dark and gasped. She loves spiders (not as snacks) and thinks it’s funny now, but I’m still traumatized just thinking about it.

You will be happy to hear that the longstanding rumor that people swallow an average of 8 spiders a year while sleeping is false.