This Is Britain's Largest Venomous Spider

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]This spider is the largest spider in Britain. And they do bite. Whether you like it or not, spiders are all around you. From your garden flower beds to the nooks and crannies in your house.

[00:00:13]They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. And I'm looking for the one people fear the most. So, just in that corner over there, there was a giant house spider. And we're going to see if we can try and get her down. So, we have a giant house spider right there in the web. There's one there, and there's one there. But that one might be These might be skins.

[00:00:41]So, I'm just going to try and get her down now. Make sure we get this lid on.

[00:00:47]Now, she's in there securely. I'll just bring outside the shed.

[00:00:53]Come and sit down here with her. So, I've got a pine glass here so we can try and get a better look at the spider rather than this scratchy box. So, I'm going to somehow get the spider in this pine glass without it squirming away.

[00:01:07]Um, there we go.

[00:01:17]Now, there's over 650 species of spider found in the UK, and this is the largest. It's the giant house spider.

[00:01:25]Most commonly seen in people's houses and even sheds like this one here. We just got out the shed. Out of the 650 spiders are found in the UK, there's 12 known to bite humans. And this is one of them.

[00:01:39]Now, even though I'm pretty confident this won't bite me, and I can probably preview that right now, I'm still a bit nervous. It still gives me a bit of the heebie-jebies trying to get this huge spider onto my hand, but it should be fine. What I'm expecting, what I'm hoping for is it'll just lay on my hand and we get a good shot of it, but I reckon she'll just sprint off my hand and try and escape. So maybe if I'm just a bit gentle with her, she'll eventually Yeah. and trap it.

[00:02:19]Now, this is the common giant house spider.

[00:02:24]One of the largest spiders here in Britain. Oh, stander than the table.

[00:02:29]Even though these are the largest spiders here in Britain, this one really is not really that big.

[00:02:38]They do grow much bigger than this.

[00:02:41]Now this is a female and the females typically live in dark sheltered corners of sheds, garages, under logs, bricks, generally away from people and outside of houses. But that cannot be said for the males because in autumn they come inside houses accidentally I have to say on the search for a mate.

[00:03:03]And these guys are one of the fastest in Brits we have here in Britain as well.

[00:03:07]They can run up to half a meter per second. Interesting fact also is when you see spiders sprinting, they'll often stop. And you're probably thinking they're trying to find the way or which way to go next. But that's not true.

[00:03:21]Just like us humans, after we've done a long sprint, we have to catch our breath back. And that's what they're simply doing. And a common myth with these spiders as well is that they come out through plug holes from the bath or the sink. But that's not true. Because the males are on the prowl and hunt for a female, they'll often get thirsty and there's often residues of water left in the bathtub or the sink or even on the floor. And because they're thirsty, they find the water and they drink it and they often find themselves in the bathtub or a sink and they can't get themselves out again. Now, pretty much all species of spider here in Britain are venomous, including this one. And there are 12 known species of spider in Britain known to bite. And this is also one of them. But they're very very reluctant to bite, if ever bite at all.

[00:04:10]And if it did bite me, it'd only be a sharp scratch. And the venom is literally nothing. Literally non-lethal whatsoever.

[00:04:19]If you want to see more spiders just like this one, including the most venomous spider in the UK, don't forget to subscribe to this channel.

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[00:04:32]And I think it's time we put this back where we got her from.