ANSWERED: Spiders in US motel rooms, present day

[niki_chidon]

Okay, this might sound like an easy question to answer but... I can't google it. Apparently my arachnophobia extends to pictures of spiders. (Learning this was... not pleasant

Comments

[irish_horse]

In the Midwest, the most likely spider will be a Daddy Long Legs or a wolf spider.

[anthylorrel]

Where I come from a daddy longlegs refers to Opiliones which are arachnids, but aren't actually spiders. I've heard it can also refer to cellar spiders, which are actually spiders though so it could be a bit vague using that term.

Wolf spiders are scary as shit.

[irish_horse]

I had no idea that daddy longlegs weren't really spiders. You learn something new every day!

[anthylorrel]

No worries! A lot of people think they are spiders.

[qafkinnetic]

Yep, on the West coast it would most likely be a daddy long legs.

[niki_chidon]

Thanks, West coast is about the area where I originally imagined the scene.

[okaasan59]

I feel your pain.

There's one called a Common House Spider. They are brown or greyish with a bulbous butt and tend to build small webs in corners and such. And those little Jumping Spiders seem to be everywhere. Those are smallish, about 1/4 " to 1/2 " or so.

I think you'd find these anywhere in the U.S. Any spider larger than these might fall into the "worrisome" category. And as a fellow arachnophobe, these are just a couple of the spiders I would be able to encounter without freaking out.

[niki_chidon]

Thank you for the description! Saves me from looking at pictures:) Common House Spider sounds perfect for my purposes.

[benbenberi]

I don't know about motels, but I run into those little house spiders all the time, esp. in the spring. They stick to their own share of the airspace mostly & don't build webs where they get in the way. (There's a couple that seem to be fascinated by my bathtub - they rappel down into it, then get stuck at the bottom till I give them a boost back to the climbable wall.)

[marjun]

In the southeastern US, we have Southern House Spiders all over the place. They sort of look like Brown Recluse Spiders, so there might be a panic reaction from someone who just takes a quick look.

[niki_chidon]

That sounds perfect, my character knows about spiders, so she might remark on the similarity:) Thank you!

[maladaptive]

Here in South Florida the spiders I mostly commonly see inside are daddy long-legs and wee little jumping spiders.

I don't see them as much as jumping spiders but other common indoor spiders are the common and southern house spiders. And something you might be looking for: the huntsman (edit: warning for spider pics). That's the only one that ever got a scream outta me.

[niki_chidon]

The pics got a scream out of me even with the warning. I think I'll be going with either the common or southern house spider (their wikipedia pages are bearable...;)

Thank you!