The Spiders in Your House - And the Ones in Mine

An overview of the 13 species of spider I have found in my own house, all in the past six months, as well as a look at a few I've found outside the house, with an emphasis on identification. See if you've found any of these in your own house.

SPIDERS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Sarah Rose, available on Amazon! I earn a small commission when you purchase through these links, which helps me out:

FOR CANADA:

FOR UNITED STATES:

Support me on Patreon, and get additional research notes, additional photos, behind the scenes video, and more:

Special thanks to Dr. Catherine Scott and Dr. Sean McCann for their generous assistance.

All photos and video are my own unless otherwise credited (the rest are Sean McCann's).

References:
Rose, S. (2022). Spiders of North America. Princeton University Press

0:00 Introduction
3:25 Pholcus phalangioides - the Cellar Spider
6:11 Parasteatoda tepidariorum - the Common House Spider
7:45 Steatoda - The False Widows
9:40 Lepthyphantes turbatrix
10:53 Agelenopsis utahana - a Grass Spider
11:56 Tegenaria domestica - the Barn Funnel Weaver
12:58 Cheiracanthium mildei - the Yellow Sac Spider
14:32 Elaver excepta - a sac spider
16:08 Haplodrassus hiemalus - a gnaphosid
17:08 - Herpyllus ecclesiasticus - the Parson Spider
18:29 Philodromus cespitum - a running crab spider
20:14 Pachygnatha brevis - a thick-jawed orbweaver
21:18 Araneus diadematus - the Cross Orb Weaver
22:25 Argiope aurantia - the Yellow Garden Spider
23:19 Lycosidae - the Wolf Spiders
26:23 Linyphia triangularis - a hammock weaver
27:06 Salticus scenicus - the Zebra Jumper
28:45 Platycryptus undatus - the Tan Jumping Spider
29:27 Eratigena atrica - the Giant House Spider
31:55 Spiders of North America

[robbane]

As a life long arachnophobe I find your videos very comforting. The more I learn the less intimidating they are. The personification spidey dialog helps too.

[mexa_t]

I think it's a good idea to point out that while most of these spider's venoms are harmless, there is a possibility for an allergic reaction, specially with the bigger ones that can inject more venom. If you're bitten by a spider you're not certain won't cause an allergic reaction, it's best to be prepared and get it checked out of there's any unusual symptoms, basically, like a bee sting but less likely to actually cause a reaction.

[TSUNAMI-MAMI]

ANOTHER EPISODE!!! Something I, an arachnophobe, could never imagine saying before finding ur channel. You’re the best! You deserve ALL THE FLOWERS 💐 because you’ve truly made a fantastic channel, you’re engaging and educational!

[dingbatpaltry]

I appreciate the personality you give the spiders. For example the "I'd rather DANCE at you!" caption helps alleviate the initial aversion I feel watching a spider flailing around... makes it quite funny and relatable, lol.

[fetus]

I heard you say femur ... i was under the impression its typically a Bone... well color me surprised .. I knew the term Segments but i had no idea the parts had proper names if you will . So heres what I learned .
"Each leg is made up of 7 segments . Attached to the cephalothorax is the coxa, followed by the trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, and tarsus. The tarsus is tipped with 2 or 3 claws, depending on the spider family"
Cheers .

[moonyfruit]

I've been a horrible arachnophobe since I was a small kid. Learning about spiders has helped me SO MUCH, so thank you for videos like this. I've been loving the ones living outside our front and back doors, keeping bugs I really don't want to get inside from getting in. Good to know that one of our back door spider friends likely just relocated when it disappeared one day.

[Ganymedia]

Can I just say I was blown away by the research you did on the yellow sack spider. Going back and finding where the idea that they were venomous came from was above and beyond, and it made me feel a lot better about having them in my house. Thank you so much for the work that must have gone into researching that.

[stellarlist]

Like a surprising amount of people here, I am an arachnophobe, and and as 19yr old, 100kg, 6"2 male, it really shows how irrational of a fear them is, despite that, I'm terrified of there little guys. however, I love your content, it's educational, entertaining and engaging. You've gotten the pacing perfect as far as I'm concentration. Keep up the good work, and i cant wait to see more soon.

[liladuran]

The fact that a lot of people are scared of the giant house spider tells me a lot about spiders in North America. I'm currently living in southern Ontario but I grew up in El Salvador. The biggest spider I've seen in my house is a small brown tarantula almost the size of my 8 year old foot. There were orb weavers outdoors that made webs practically my size (I'm 155cm). I would sometimes walk into them and feel like an insect struggling with the spiderweb all over me! Really puts things into perspective 😂

[kheprishornuser]

Glad to see you're doing well on the platform! Just a guy and his camera is what YouTube was built on; good to see the algorithm doing well by people like you

[goldfishwishes]

I live in West Virginia and we have some giant wolf spiders here. Its mostly what i see inside my house and they can get door knob size here. Its true that they aren't aggressive most of the time but i have been chased down by one on a few occasions. Especially the ones with babies on their backs. I think they can sense when you are terrified of them and they just choose violence. We also have Bold Jumping Spiders all over out porch. Some of them have the most beautiful metallic green chelicerae. I love them so much

[NachozMan]

I mostly get cellar and jumping spiders in my house, I really love the little jumpers, I would literally set them free in my house to hunt if I knew they'd have enough food to not just die lol. I love spiders

[quotingstardust]

I am so in love with this series oh my god, it's literally curing my fear of spiders one video at a time

[captainbluegill]

just recently saw a Parson's spider for the first time and man that's the fastest crawling insect I have ever seen.

[shinigami]

I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse to find such a good channel early on as there aren't many videos to binge, but then again you get to see the birth of an amazing channel!

[philgrills]

You're an awesome example of a good YouTube essayist. So well thought out and researched, so much obvious love for what you're talking about, and you're completely endearing. Spider-fearers, beware! With you leading the charge, we shall all be escorting problematic spiders off the property instead of squishing them. Keep it up, sir!

[christinae]

Parson spider! Glad to see them mentioned because they're the most common spider in my apartment. They're the first spider I went out of my way to photograph and identify since I saw them so often.

Excellent vids so far!

[orcachick]

If/when you get around to doing the wolf spiders video, try to get some nighttime footage of you out walking on a warm summer night with a bright light like a head lamp. Those big eyes sparkle and reflect light, much like a dog's eyes, making them VERY easy to spot at night. Mom spiders carrying spiderlings are the coolest, because the spiderling eyes all light up too! Makes mom spider look like a sparkly disco ball.

[Philofasus]

Dude these videos are amazing I literally show them to everyone that's scared of spiders. I love what your doing. I love spiders so much.

[casperpineo]

Fellow valley spider enthusiast here- So happy to see your channel growing!