Swarms of sex-hungry spiders are set to invade Scottish homes as summer ends.
The super-sized eight-legged creatures are on the prowl for a mate and will be seeking warm and dry spots in your home as the weather gets wetter.
The randy male house spiders can have a leg span of up to 10cm - which is the same size as a mouse.
Scots should expect to see these enormous creepy-crawlies roaming around their living rooms on the hunt for a female to romp with during mating season, which spans from August to September.
The house spiders have fangs and usually die after having sex - but not before the female lays eggs.
Leading ecologist Dr Chris Terrell-Nield of Nottingham Trent University says the incredible creatures can "do zero to 60 in one second" and instantly disappear if you look away for a second.
He admits the spiders can look "imposing" and can frighten people due to the way they move and are "rather alien and we do not have a connection with them."
But the lecturer urges people to remember the vital role these arachnids play - and that they are more afraid of us, than we are of them.
Dr Terrell-Nield told NottinghamshireLive : "The spider that is coming into houses at the moment is the house spider and it is one of Britain's biggest spiders.
"The males are up to 10cm across the leg span and can be the size of your hand - that is the top range but it can be two thirds of that size.
"The size is down to how much they have eaten.
"They are not dangerous but they can give you a nip.
"They have biting fangs.
"These things have been breeding and started their life span in the spring.
"This time of the year, August and September, the male spiders have the urge to mate and start wandering and looking for females.
"When they find them they mate and she lays eggs and the male usually dies."
Dr Terrell-Nield said people can expect to find three types of spiders at this time of year - the house spider, the daddy long leg spider and the cross spider.
He said the other common spider people will find in homes is the daddy long leg spider, which has 'enormous legs' and a pea-shaped body.
They are also not dangerous and like to create webs in the corners of people's homes.
The final one is the cross spider, which you will find in your garden and is also harmless.
They might be tricky to be spot but on a cool morning the dew forming on the web can be visible on bushes and plants.
Dr Terrell-Nield added: "Spiders do an incredible service for us because they eat vast quantities of flies.
"The reason people are frightened of them is because the way they move.
"They will be still and not do anything and then you look away and they have gone.
"They can do zero to 60 in one second and people lose track of where they have gone.
"They are rather alien and we do not have a connection with them.
"They look imposing.
"It is the same reaction when people see a mouse.
"But we are far more dangerous to them than they are to us.
"They come inside because it is warm and dry in houses so it is attractive to them."
He said this time of year he is always being sent pictures of spiders found out and about and is encouraging people to see if they can find the "missing sector spider."
This spider, usually found in woodland, has a slight section of their web missing.
It creates what is called 'a signal line' and waits on it until there is a vibration in the grass.
It then strikes pulling the insect into their web.
Dr Terrell-Nield said they are not uncommon
