Do you guys get a lot of big spiders in your homes?
November 30, 2025
I recently saw a post on ask an Australian, which got me thinking do American's get some pretty big creepy crawlies too?
26 comments
Not really, no. Some parts of the country have some good sized ones, but mostly not.
Not really. I did walk in on alligator in a garage once though.
Very rarely. I usually get tiny jumping spiders here or there. A few times a year we’ll get one of the gigantic flying cockroaches that sneak in and the kids scream like they’ve seen an alien.
Not big. I leave them. They eat other insects
No. Small ones sometimes.
No just tiny ones mostly. We get a lot of silverfish and crickets and super creepy centipede things though. Some of those are big.
Depends what you mean by “big.” I occasionally see spiders that are about the size of quarters (not sure how well that reference travels outside of America but can’t think of a better one off the top of my head), nothing much larger.
Wolf spiders are pretty big, don’t think they’re dangerous though. Brown recluse and black widows are small, but dangerous. Don’t really think there’s anything else around my area.
I’ve had issues with scorpions before but not spiders.
Only the ones I bring in myself.
Depends what you count as big I guess but as big as Australia’s, not really. Maybe like an inch or two. I usually leave them alone. It’s the fucking centipedes I hate.
Not big scary spiders- no. At least I’ve never seen the huge ones like in Australia.
Our house spiders tend not to be very large in the northern part of the US . In cabins and on farms, though, they can get chunky. My uncle used to have fat spiders in his farm milkhouse — not so much large overall, but with fat bodies, like large marbles . And, in rustic cabins, I’ve encountered wolf spiders crawling out of firewood… they have long legs as well as significant bodies. Nothing like tarantulas in the SW states though.
I’m in the Midwest. In the house, no.
From what I’ve heard what you have to be careful of is them living under wood or logs in piles of it and garages that have lots of things stacked in them. I haven’t had a spider incident myself.
The spiders here aren’t very large at all, some have poisonous bites. I don’t know if they’ll actually kill you or just be gnarly and cause a lot of pain for a while.
Winter keeps a lot of the spiders and reptiles and snakes and things like that away. In the tropical parts of the US (southern Florida, parts of California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam) they might have similar issues with critters as Australia. Arizona and Nevada have desert so maybe they have things like scorpions, but it also gets freezing cold in those places in winter.
We get the long legged ones that look kinda huge. Not sure if they’re the poisonous kind or the non poisonous ones.
We had wolf spiders in the basement laundry room when I was growing up. They were about palm-sized.
I haven’t seen them here at least.
Our big bugs are most often beetles and roaches. The spiders are usually smaller, but I did have a huge one recently.
America is very large and has nearly every different type of ecosystem you can think of. Some places deal with spiders and bugs in their homes a lot more than others. Australia in general has larger insects, but from my understanding, many aren’t too dangerous to humans.
But to answer your question, America does have some large creepy crawlies, but on average, not as large as Australia.
As an arachnophobic immigrant from the UK to the USA I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of equivalents to the British Giant House Spider. I’ve only seen one like that in the 15 years I’ve lived here. I think the custom of putting insect screens on windows keeps spiders out and keeps their prey out too.
Not really where I am. We just get giant flying palmetto bugs (roaches) that like to come in no matter how clean the house is.
Wolf spiders get pretty big here in Texas. Tarantulas do too but they stay outside. I worry most about Brown Recluse. Those are some nasty bites…
Once in a while. I used to freak out and kill them, but I don’t anymore. If there’s spider in your house, then you have more bugs than you probably realize. I let them chill since they’re probably helping
Edit: just realized you wrote “big” spiders. New England bugs aren’t as intimidating as other places
I’ve seen tarantulas around my house but not inside, and once I found a vinegaroon inside my house. Those species are both pretty big but also harmless.
Black widow spiders are super common here too, but they’re kind of small. You do have to be a bit careful with them, though, as they are venomous and their bites can be pretty nasty. I’ll let most spiders stay in my house if they want to, but the widows get relocated outside. 😂
Yeah, we get something called Dark Fishing Spiders fairly regularly.
No.
But remember that the spiders eat the cockroaches.
26 comments
Not really, no. Some parts of the country have some good sized ones, but mostly not.
Not really. I did walk in on alligator in a garage once though.
Very rarely. I usually get tiny jumping spiders here or there. A few times a year we’ll get one of the gigantic flying cockroaches that sneak in and the kids scream like they’ve seen an alien.
Not big. I leave them. They eat other insects
No. Small ones sometimes.
No just tiny ones mostly. We get a lot of silverfish and crickets and super creepy centipede things though. Some of those are big.
Depends what you mean by “big.” I occasionally see spiders that are about the size of quarters (not sure how well that reference travels outside of America but can’t think of a better one off the top of my head), nothing much larger.
Wolf spiders are pretty big, don’t think they’re dangerous though. Brown recluse and black widows are small, but dangerous. Don’t really think there’s anything else around my area.
I’ve had issues with scorpions before but not spiders.
Only the ones I bring in myself.
Depends what you count as big I guess but as big as Australia’s, not really. Maybe like an inch or two. I usually leave them alone. It’s the fucking centipedes I hate.
Not big scary spiders- no. At least I’ve never seen the huge ones like in Australia.
Our house spiders tend not to be very large in the northern part of the US . In cabins and on farms, though, they can get chunky. My uncle used to have fat spiders in his farm milkhouse — not so much large overall, but with fat bodies, like large marbles . And, in rustic cabins, I’ve encountered wolf spiders crawling out of firewood… they have long legs as well as significant bodies. Nothing like tarantulas in the SW states though.
I’m in the Midwest. In the house, no.
From what I’ve heard what you have to be careful of is them living under wood or logs in piles of it and garages that have lots of things stacked in them. I haven’t had a spider incident myself.
The spiders here aren’t very large at all, some have poisonous bites. I don’t know if they’ll actually kill you or just be gnarly and cause a lot of pain for a while.
Winter keeps a lot of the spiders and reptiles and snakes and things like that away. In the tropical parts of the US (southern Florida, parts of California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam) they might have similar issues with critters as Australia. Arizona and Nevada have desert so maybe they have things like scorpions, but it also gets freezing cold in those places in winter.
We get the long legged ones that look kinda huge. Not sure if they’re the poisonous kind or the non poisonous ones.
We had wolf spiders in the basement laundry room when I was growing up. They were about palm-sized.
I haven’t seen them here at least.
Our big bugs are most often beetles and roaches. The spiders are usually smaller, but I did have a huge one recently.
America is very large and has nearly every different type of ecosystem you can think of. Some places deal with spiders and bugs in their homes a lot more than others. Australia in general has larger insects, but from my understanding, many aren’t too dangerous to humans.
But to answer your question, America does have some large creepy crawlies, but on average, not as large as Australia.
As an arachnophobic immigrant from the UK to the USA I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of equivalents to the British Giant House Spider. I’ve only seen one like that in the 15 years I’ve lived here. I think the custom of putting insect screens on windows keeps spiders out and keeps their prey out too.
Not really where I am. We just get giant flying palmetto bugs (roaches) that like to come in no matter how clean the house is.
Wolf spiders get pretty big here in Texas. Tarantulas do too but they stay outside. I worry most about Brown Recluse. Those are some nasty bites…
Once in a while. I used to freak out and kill them, but I don’t anymore. If there’s spider in your house, then you have more bugs than you probably realize. I let them chill since they’re probably helping
Edit: just realized you wrote “big” spiders. New England bugs aren’t as intimidating as other places
I’ve seen tarantulas around my house but not inside, and once I found a vinegaroon inside my house. Those species are both pretty big but also harmless.
Black widow spiders are super common here too, but they’re kind of small. You do have to be a bit careful with them, though, as they are venomous and their bites can be pretty nasty. I’ll let most spiders stay in my house if they want to, but the widows get relocated outside. 😂
Yeah, we get something called Dark Fishing Spiders fairly regularly.
No.
But remember that the spiders eat the cockroaches.