Big spiders

I'm staying with a family out in the countryside in Shiga. lots of woods and farmers and such. I see these guys-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_clavata just about everywhere. though i've never seen one "in" a house.. i've seen them near a house....otherwise they're out in the forests and streets. If you're used to American spiders like me, these things seem freaking huge. Some i've seen are about as big as your palm when stretched out all the way. But I found out the hard way that they are docile - A farmer noticed I was afraid of them and so he picked a huge one up with his bare hands and threw it at me. Anyway I hate spiders, but this place is the most beautiful place ever so something so trivial can't keep you from coming!

Well my husband and I just hunted down a spider about the size of my palm. It was on my daughters bedroom wall and was really fast. I have already had my house sprayed. My son has gotten bit at least three times where it has swollen up and gotten hard. My daughter once. I live in the Sagamihara area and keep my house clean. I see spiders all over in the trees, even on playground equipment. Serioiusly Japan spiders are horrible.

Hello,
My girlfriend is visiting her son in Yakushima. This Island has a large number of giant non-aggressive spiders. Giant compared to the spiders here in north east Washington. If you find one in your house try not to kill it as they are very beneficial. These spiders live on cockroaches, mosquitoes and other bothersome insects. To capture one, use a small box and a stiff piece of paper. Place the box over the spider then slide the paper between the floor or ceiling and transport outdoors. Again, these spiders are non-aggressive and very beneficial. T

I just returned from 2 weeks in Japan (Tokyo and Kyoto), and only saw one type of spider - a lot. In the gardens around the temples, etc., large orb spiders (someone called them Wasp Spiders) are all over in the trees and bushes. We spent half the trip in a house in West Tokyo (don't remember the name, but it was 45 minutes to Tokyo proper by train), and these spiders were in the gardens everywhere. Saw them all over Kyoto also. I never saw one in the old house nor did I see any other bugs in there. The hotels were bug free also.

Just ten seconds ago i was getting some air in the garden in yokohama and saw an enourmous spider the largest ive ever seen and ive lived in brazil, equador and mozambique
i still get goose bumps thinking about it eehhhhhhhhh
so then i decided to look in the internet about japanese aracnids and if they impose a potential threat but i am getting no awsers. the neighbours say their pretty common at this time of the year(summer), so pardon me if i intrude with a question but does anyone know anything about these beasts ehhhh just thingking about them...uhhhhhhhihhhh

This one?
(In Japanese)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B7%E3%83%8...
(In English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_huntsman_spider

They are called Asidaka-gumo in common name, scientific name Heteropoda venatoria. They live in southern part of Japan including Kanto region.
Please overlook them. They are not evil spider though they are not good-looking.
They exterminate cockroaches! They are good chaps.

I feel for those of you living in spider infested areas, if I had a huge spider outside more door, ild probably be a baby and get someone to remove, because well basically I wouldnt go inside until its gone

I hate huge spiders...

There's a giant spider at Roppongi Hills:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/masamitony/3099202267/

And an even larger one in Yokohama:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfZs_uA8m3Y

The people don't seem to be too worried. If spiders were a big problem, I don't think these exhibits would be allowed.

while living on a military base out side of tokyo there was a huge spider in our house the thing was the size of my hand i called houseing an the sucked it up w/ a shop vac i dont know the real name but all us wives just called them bananna spiders. It was the only one i saw in over a year and i dont know how it got in.

I just recently moved to the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, and I have one thing to say about the spider here: HUGE! I'm from america, so of course i'm not used to big spiders (I am from Arizona, so I do have some, but they're not very common) Here I see these huge yellow and black spiders everywhere. Granted, I live in Fukuoka, which is a more rural part of Japan, but when I go into town, I don't see them anywhere. I've never had any BIG spiders in my building, though i've seen a few smaller spiders (which look like ticks to me). They pretty much stay outside, and are in the trees. I'm tall compared to a Japanese person (but short as an american) and I sometimes have to duck to avoid their webs which are strewn across the walk way (in the rural areas). I say to avoid them, stick with busier, more developed areas. And even if you ARE in a rural area, just know that you're pretty safe in your building. And I have another thing to add. The reason most people who've lived in Japan for a while don't notice all the spiders here, is because they are so used to them. If they've grown up with them, they just forget that they're there. I pointed one of the bigger spiders out to my Japanese friend the other day, and she freaked out like she hadn't seen it before that (even though its web was only a few inches from her head) they honestly just don't see them. I'm trying to take that attitude as well, but I've not been here more then a month, there is no way I'd get used to them that quickly.

I've lived in Tokyo for about 8 years and have never seen large spiders as described. To say that such things are everywhere is cock and bull. Somebody is trying to pull someone's leg.

I live in the suburbs of Tokyo, and spiders up to about about 5-6cm across are very common here, the black and yellow ones someone described above- one has laid eggs under my laundry pole, which I am going to have to do something about soon. They make webs across the paths in the parks around here, and you really have to watch that you don't walk into them.

I used to live closer to the centre- about ten minutes out of Shinjuku, and never saw them. Now about 20 mins further out, they are all over the place, so it very much depends on where in Tokyo you are. If you live in Azabu Juban or similar you might think they didn't exist, but they most definitely do.

With all the crows in Tokyo, spiders don't have a chance of getting very big here. Some people don't like the crows but I do. They eat everything.

I'm hoping to study art in Japan when I'm older but I really don't get on well with spiders... I heard the sizes are similar to those in the UK? If occassionally bigger.. I don't mind encountering them once in a while but I wouldn't want to find one on my pillow. I live in England and the biggest spider I've ever seen could have fit in my palm, would you find spiders as big as that in Japan frequently?

I've read Japan doesn't have any native poisonous spiders(yay) but I literally do a barrel roll when I spot those nasty ones which look like they could chew on a bird.

It depends on the area where you are moving. In more remote places chances are higher to find one. I for myself lived in Tokyo for one year now and I didn't saw one spider in my whole apartment since then. Perhaps I am just lucky, even didn't saw any other insects (expect for mosquitos, perhaps I should get a spider ^^).

I saw some pretty big ones, when I went to Kobe in a forest, sitting in their nets between the trees. But normally you don't encounter such spiders in your apartment, even, if you live in more remote places.

Generally, I even think the situation here is better than it was in Germany for me. I had at least 3 spiders every day in my room and they were sometimes really nasty (with this black thick body). One day, one was even hiding in my bathing towel and so it ended up in my face.

So Tokyo is very spider free, if you ask me, in other areas there are some, but not much more, that you would encounter in any other country. A good tip is always to have this kind of mosquito net in front of your door or windows, this way there is no way for big spiders to enter your room.

Ashidaka gumo, scientific name Heteropoda venatoria, lives in Japan (excluding northern part).�@They have leg span of approximately five inches.

When I lived in my parent's old wooden home I sometimes saw them at corners of the house. But we never hated them because they exterminate cockroach. And they never hurt human.
I live in a flat made by concrete now. I've never seen them in my room. I miss them.

(in Japanese)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B7%E3%83%80%E3%82%AB%E3%8...
(in English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_huntsman_spider
(Images)
http://www.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&lr=&client=firefox-a&hs=E8B&rls=o...

As far as I know huntsmen and other big spiders are common throughout Japan and yes they can get inside...they can all get inside. The following are the avoidance techniques you should use to limit this:

1 Close the windows and sliding doors. Your sliding doors will have screens designed to keep out insects. These will NOT keep out big spiders, which can push through the black fringe at the edges of the screen door. If you want to keep spiders out you need to keep the door properly closed at all times.

2 Bleach your drains. You will probably find that you're bathroom is a wet-room, covered in tile with a big drain in the centre of the floor. Those are big holes aren't they? You'd be surprised what can fit up there. Pour bleach down it often and cover if with something heavy while you're not using the shower. I use a brick. You should also bleach all your other sink drains.

3 Secure the fan. If you have a gas cooker, there will be a wall fan above it. This tends to have large spaces between the blades and though it may have a cover on the outside, it's pliable so stuff can get through. This may sound crazy, but I stuck a large plastic basket on the wall over my fan. It has tiny holes, through which I fed the fan cord so that I can still turn it on and off. I've yet to find a huntsman sitting in there waiting for me and I don't know what I'd do if I did...turn on the fan? Regardless, it gives me piece of mind.

4 Keep your house/apartment really clean. If you get little bugs, you will get bigger bugs, and then the biggest bugs. Keep your rubbish outside if possible. Keep food smells to a minimum. Clean up spills etc asap. If you see little bugs, worry, eradicate them. If you see cockroaches, really worry...huntsmen eat these.

Ganbatte!

speaking of disgusting giant bugs, last night i had mcdonalds and left the bag out for about an hour or two after i finished eating.

i started hearing a scratching sound coming from the general vicinity of the bag. it reminded me of the sound of a mouse chewing on paper or something. i thought, oh great, mice in my apartment..

so i go check it out. i see this big black thing and think - ew, that's a disgusting little mouse. then it moves again. it was a HUGE cockroach, mouse sized, hanging on to the inside of the mcdonalds bag!!! ugggggh disgusting.

of course i grabbed my aerosol can of extra strength chemical warfare cockroach killer and sprayed enough of it onto the little demon to kill it a million times over. it took a few minutes to work and it ran around inside the bag like a madman before it succumbed.. i squished the bag under 100kg of dumbbells just to be sure haha.

disgusting.

/mildly traumatized .... spiders, giant cockroaches.... eehhhhh....

I know they're big, but you really shouldn't be worried about hunter spiders. If they come into a home at all they stay in out-of-the-way places and rarely come out. I'm scared of spiders too, but these ones kill cockroaches, which I would be more worried about (since spiders aren't dirty creatures). Other than that most domestic spiders are tiny, nothing to worry about. Though those hornets are a nightmare.