Don't look! if you are scared of spiders

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A couple of those are house centipedes (the ones with all the legs)- they look ugly, but they're pretty common. They seem to crawl up our bathtub drain.

a little feast for you:

*starts fleeing*

*screams from far away: ENJOY!!*

*flees*

doh-I'm bright, lol, yeah, I went to the "save image as" prompt and it's labelled house centipede. I remember freaking out every time I walked into my bathroom because there were 3 or 4 of them every time nearly. It was only in the summer/spring, so it wasn't a constant thing, but still a little unnerving.

Very interesting about the brown recluse, I always figured the spiders I saw were like, just running to a new place and we happened to see them, and since I didn't know much about spiders (and am learning a lot more right now than I ever wanted to, lol) I just took our friends' words for it.

I do remember one of them was running fast across the carpet, and my friend was reading his Bible, laying on the floor. Whatever this thing was made it's presence known, nobody was walking around or anything so I don't think it was scared into his direction, but anyway, the thing was running across our carpet, really really really fast, then it stops, and turns, runs just as fast straight at him. It died instantly upon reaching him of course But it was interesting that nothing seemingly caused it-it looked like it was just going after him, lol.

Spiders are cool. My favourite is the portia jumping spider. Highly intelligent hunters. Capable of forward planning, which is more than what I’m capable of The spiders in my garden bungee-hunt, they shoot down on their silk very fast.

have ever heard of that........

Ok, I have found out what both of them are-1st is Woodlouse spider - Dysdera crocata and the 2nd one is a Nursery-web spider (Pisaura mirabilis)

1st
http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/o450 ... spider.php

2nd
http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/inver ... _info.html

I live in Texas, and I know what a brown recluse looks like in person. Those are definitely not brown recluses, especilly since they're in Ireland. I doubt they're anything remotely as dangerous as one. I doubt they're hobos either.

My take is they're simply wolf spiders which are common in the Isles, as well as most of the planet. Wolf spiders are a very varied group of spiders with species often having very distinction marking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider

While none of the pics in that wiki article will resemble exactly your spiders, bear in mind there's over 2000 species of them. Most wolf spiders can be recognized by their relatively flat bodies and the way their legs radiate from their thorax. Their legs are also distinct because unlike most other spider that trap or ambush their prey, wolf spider run after them. So their legs are neither too long or too spindly, and may look a little heftier than other spiders. They are pretty much harmless, but usally if there's one, there's more (or soon will be), so if they bother you, call an exterminator. I say that begrudgingly, since I see spiders as beneficial animals which should be left alone in most cases and not killed just because a human can't get over thir irrational fears.

By the way, those are neither woodlouse or nurseryweb spiders. They are too hairy to be a woodlouse and their legs not long enough nor are the marking correct to be a nuseryweb. However I give you credit for at least suggesting species that live in Ireland.

Here's additional pics of these species for comparison:

The woodlouse spider


The nuseryweb spider

OK, I went back a looked closely at the first photo, and indeed that may be a woodlouse. The photo's blurry and I mistook that for hair. Perhaps it's an immature one, or a male. Not sure. But its body is much smaller in proportion to its legs than in the photos I googled up. But its eyes and jaws as well as coloration appear to be that of a woodlouse.

I still think the second is a wolf spider though.

You are WRONG! the second one is definitely a Nursery Spider-

http://www.mzephotos.com/gallery/spider ... pider.html

As for the second it is possible

I still think the first one is Scotophaeus blackwalli, it has the mousy texture to the rear, and doesn't appear to have the palps of the woodlouse.

yep, looks like a nurseryweb spider to me too