To add to Paul Talbert's post about Tegenaria spiders, I recall Rod
Crawford telling me the best thing about the large species (T. gigantea)
was that it was an accomplished predator on the moderately venomous
middle-sized species (T. agrestis or domestica, I can't remember which
is which). So think about that, arachnophobes and -philes both.

Dennis Paulson