Conservationists Bring Back Nearly Extinct Giant Spiders In The UK

I'm not a huge fan of spiders and ones the size of rats would be giving me some intense nightmares.

Giant spiders that can grow to the size of rats and live off fish are making a comeback in the UK, according to the RSPB.

For centuries the fen raft spider lurked in the UK's wetlands but, after the industrial revolution led to many of its habitats being drained, the species almost went extinct in the 20th Century.

Now, after years of conversation work by the RSPB and Chester Zoo, the species is now back to thriving in the UK - which may not be welcomed by everyone.

After hitting a low of just three areas where they were known to exist in 2010 but there is now an estimated 10,000 breeding females across the UK.

The RSPB say the spider is set to have its best year on record in Norfolk and Suffolk, with almost half of the breeding females present there.

In 2010 a project was formed to breed and reintroduce the spiders to more suitable habitats.

In 2012 they were released at the RSPB-owned Cantley Marshes where they thrived and spread to the nearby surrounding areas.

They ranged as far as another RSPB-owned site called Strumpshaw Fen where they were first reported by a visitor who took a picture of one.

Tim Strudwick, the reserves manager for the RSPB in the mid-Yare valley in Norfolk said: "We just don’t know how far they are going to spread and that’s what’s exciting, seeing which bits of habitat they take over next."

Conservationists are thrilled; I wonder about the UK citizens?

[www.itv.com...]

a reply to: nugget1

WHY????

Makes for some Good Target practice with a 22.


a reply to: nugget1

As if people needed more reasons to hate environmentalists.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: nugget1

WHY????

Misery loves company?

originally posted by: bluesman023
Makes for some Good Target practice with a 22.


a reply to: nugget1

Would a Ruger.44 mag be considered overkill? Asking for a friend....

Eeeeeewwwwwww GROSS. Let it die !!! Kill it !!!

originally posted by: AlroyFarms
As if people needed more reasons to hate environmentalists.

no kidding! Idaho just loves those environmentalists after introducing the non-native Canadian wolf....especially the ranchers.

F&G gets to fly around in chartered heliocopters with their buddies and shoot them. Maybe the UK could do something like that?

If we lived in the UK the spiders would go extinct, the wife would make me go out and kill every one of them. I have nothing against spiders, I worked around them quite a bit and tried to treat them with respect and rarely killed them unless necessary. I have been bit by a harvester spider after tearing off it's legs one by one saying the old saying she loves me she loves me not three or four times...that was a mistake. My finger was very big and red and my dad told me I should leave things alone when I told him how it happened. I pissed off this harmless and actually beneficial insect in the strawberry shack when I started liking girls a little at eight years old. I learned from that not to put myself in danger for trying to please the girls.

Then I was teasing a tiny red spider in a web and my worker who was older than me by decades said I should not be teasing the spider, seconds later that little spider jumped on my hand and I had a big red finger again. I should immediately have realized that that spider knew he had warned me and responded to his comment and attacked me.

The third time I was sitting at a picnic table with an older friend who just got some firewood delivered from an area with infected brown recluse...well, that bite sent me to the doctors who immediately gave me a really strong antibiotic. But the guy who's house I was at got bit too, and he had a different doctor, he would up with a big depression in his leg that was permanent. His doctor gave him a mild antibiotic. He lived, his doctor was in the same office as my doctor, after a week or more, he went back and his doctor had talked about how my wound had healed with that antibiotic and he gave it to him. The big dent in his leg remained for the rest of his life, but it did start healing quickly instead of spreading....three pills cost over a hundred bucks...one a day for three days back in the late eighties...that was a lot of money back then but worth it.

There were multiple other possible bites, but I did not see them bite or kill them after they bit me...so there was no evidence those other ones were from spiders. I did have head lice one time when the granddaughter had them, but mine were all dead when I combed my hair out.. I did comb out a cute little spider who probably helped me get rid of them...I put him outside and thanked him.

So, back on topic, I try to live symbiotically with spiders and I do haul spiders outside when my wife wants to kill them. But sometimes I have to kill them and she insists I kill all big spiders....I fear the wife's wrath more than a spider.

My wife would have me out killing those spiders with a shotgun if they were around here. There are huge spiders around here, I do not tell her when I see them because I am against spraying poisons unless necessary, and the woods contain those big pine spiders and there are some huge female wolf spiders around our garages and outbuildings and once in a while they are around our deck. I try to tell the big wolf spiders to stay out of site if she is around...but those big ones are women and you can't tell a woman anything they do not want to hear.

a reply to: 5thHead

Eeeeeewwwwwww GROSS. Let it die !!! Kill it !!!

When a spider is as big as a rat it's hard to srgue with your sentiment!

a reply to: rickymouse

My husband does not like spiders, as in he will chase them all through the room until he can end their stay. Every fall they try to come in our house for the winter and the war games start.

I had a co-worker who was bit by what her doctor said was a brown recluse, but according to scientists there are now brown recluse spiders west of the rockies.
It was probably a hobo spider or black widow, which we have plenty of around here. It sure left a nasty absess and divot in her leg; took months to fully heal.

originally posted by: nugget1

originally posted by: AlroyFarms
As if people needed more reasons to hate environmentalists.

no kidding! Idaho just loves those environmentalists after introducing the non-native Canadian wolf....especially the ranchers.

F&G gets to fly around in chartered heliocopters with their buddies and shoot them. Maybe the UK could do something like that?

Could you see how many female voters would vote against Kamala if she campaigned to protect spiders like this in America? Maybe trump could get someone to create a fake speech by her saying she is going to import and protect those little guys...it would give him an instant win in the election.

Oh no F'ing way!!

I like this. Classic ATS thread.

I always wanted to use giant spiders as an excuse to get out of work.

Like a sick day.

Work: “Good morning. How can we help you?”

Me: “Hey it’s me. Can’t make it in today. Giant Spiders.”

Work: “What?”

Me: “ Yeah I can’t come in.”

Work: Did you say giant spiders?”

Me: “Yeah. Due to the herd of giant spiders roaming outside, I’m not gonna be able to make it. See ya tomorrow.”

*Click

In the SW USA there are these big black fluffy tarantulas, really cool. They let you pick them up, and are pretty docile. The females can live to 20 years. Haven’t seen many this year, I wonder what’s up.

In WA there’s these little jumping spiders, cutest little things! They will follow our finger and spin around to watch.

Not all spiders are bad.

Is that Baby Yoda riding on its back?

a reply to: nugget1

Nope !

We had those type of spiders in Florida...I would say something like once a week I would find one in my apt. Usually at night and when the house was dark...ya know just chilling watching a movie. Then you catch movement out of the peripheral...I bought a blow dart tube and found it to be the best way to get em. Safe inside and even if its not a kill it will pin them in place. Nothing worse than attempting a squash only to have them live fall then run and hide. They also have quite thick exoskeletons...once crushed one with a 9 iron aginst a base board while mom pinned it with a swiffer...it had already survived a hit from that swiffer and we had to chase it down...the crunch it made still makes me shudder!

a reply to: 38181

And when they get angry they flick hairs at you which irritate the skin. Yea when I lived in NM I had the fun of seeing the tarantula migration...occasionally coming across 100+ groups of them heading south in the winter and north in the summer. Fun times!