Norwich: Why are so many spiders coming in to our homes?

And experts in the city have revealed the females they are looking for could have been sharing our beds for up to two years.  

Ian Bedford, 66, has been a bug man for as long as he can remember including raising his own caterpillars to ensure he could release them into the wild.  

He said: “It was the late '60s so you could say I was interested in conservation from a very early age.” 

Ian Bedford has been a bug man his whole life (Image: Ian Bedford)READ MORE: Woman's leaky house left in worse state following repairs

Ian’s passion continued throughout his life and he went on to get a job at the John Innes centre in Norwich for 42 years where he became the head of entomology.

Now in his retirement he runs a podcast called Bug Tales.  

Now he is sharing what amorous spiders get up to in city homes this time of year.  

He said: “There are 650 species of spider in Britain and only a handful of them go into our homes.  

“The most notorious of these is the giant house spider with the big hairy body and long hairy legs.  

“Few people know that these spiders actually develop in our homes over the span of two years – with some females even choosing to set up their home behind headboards.”  

Male house spiders risk their life in finding a mate (Image: Vanna Bartlett)READ MORE: City mum's challenge to reverse daughter's extremely rare neurological disease

Breeding time for these spiders is around September so the male spiders which have smaller bodies and longer legs step into homes in the search of a mate.  

“The males are the ones you’d have seen running quickly across the carpet, but they have to be careful as more often than not the females will look upon them as a nice meal.  

“If they are successful the male will then go off and die and the female will deposit eggs in a little sack – and the sack will be inside a messy web.” 
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From the egg sack some 50 baby spiders emerge, not all will survive, but those who do will disperse throughout the home and live there while they develop over the span of two years until they are ready to mate.  

Ian said: “But the house spider doesn’t always get the maturity.  

“The spider commonly known as the daddy long legs with a tiny body and very long legs is not as feared as the house spider.  

“However, they are very good at catching and eating at house spiders, so if you don’t like them, it might be worth letting the daddy long legs live in your home.” 

A daddy long legs is capable of capturing and eating a house spider (Image: Vanna Bartlett)READ MORE: Shop locks up olive oil after spate of shoplifting

But can spiders in our home be dangerous? Ian says mostly not.  

“Of the 650 spiders in Britain they all bite – but most do not have strong enough fangs to even pierce the human skin.  

“Of all the spiders only 12 can bite humans, and this will be similar to a wasp or bee sting, but shouldn’t cause too many problems.” 

And those who have been collecting conkers to keep spiders at bay will be disappointed.  

Ian was even able to debunk that conkers deter spiders (Image: Ian Bedford)

Ian said: “We conducted a study at John Innes where we placed flowerpots with and without conkers in a case, all of the spiders went into the pot with conkers.” 

Though there is some evidence that certain essential oils can deter spiders.  

He said: “I would say, if you come across a mass of spiders or a big spider, just stay away from it.

“Or safely put it outside – they play such an important part in biodiversity and we need to ensure we protect nature while we still can.”