Bulettehuskeliste på nettet

My wife once worked at "Statens Skadedyrslaboratorium", the Danish pest control laboratory. A colleague of her, Henri Mourier, is an expert on animals that we find in our houses and wrote an excellent book about the subject. I have looked in this book to investigate further.

I'm pretty sure that what you have come across is what he calls just a "husedderkop", even though there is confusion about the latin name. He has a picture of it which I would say is exactly the same as the one named "Tegenaria atrica" at Wikipedia. His species, however, is domestica; but what he discusses is definitely much larger than Wikipedia's Tegenaria domestica.

I know these spiders myself. Yes, they are fast. Yes, they large - occasionally so large that it is a bit difficult to put a glass on top of them. My children and my wife don't like them so I get the honour of hunting them. I have never come across one, though, that is larger than some 6-7 cm (I haven't tried to stretch them, however).

Below you can see the excerpt (in Danish) from:
Husets dyreliv
Henri Mourier
G.E.C Gads Forlag, 1995
page 165

It suggests another way of capturing them - exploiting the fact that their vision is poor.

Husedderkop
Tegenaria domestica

En af vore største edderkoppearter er husedderkoppen. Selve kroppen kan blive godt 1 cm lang, og den kan spænde over 5-6 cm med sine lange ben.

Man kan finde husedderkoppernes støvfyldte spind overalt i huse og skure, hvor der er ro og noget fugtigt, men også udendørs, f.eks. under tagskæg og i stengærder.

Husedderkoppens spind er ikke som så mange andre edderkoppers et regelmæssigt kunstværk, men består af et tilsyneladende virvar af tråde. Det er gerne anbragt i et hjørne, så normalt er det trekantet, og inde i vinklen findes det såkaldte retræterør, hvor edderkoppen holder til. Trådene er ikke klæbrige, fangstteknikken er ganske simpelt den, at en flue eller et andet smådyr, som forvilder sig ind i spindet, tumler rundt mellem trådene, og edderkoppen, der bliver alarmeret af rystelserne, farer så ud og overmander offeret.

Parringstiden er i maj-juni, og noget senere lægges æggene i et særligt ægspind, der ofte er beklædt med sandkorn, og som er ophængt i selve nettet eller på et passende sted i nærheden.

Man kan finde voksne husedderkopper hele året. De eksemplarer, man ser løbe over stuegulvet, er tilfældige gæster, for det klima, vi i dag holder indendørs, vil oftest være for tørt til at de slår sig ned i selve stuerne.

Husedderkopper ser i øvrigt dårligt og de er nemme at fange bare ved at holde et syltetøjsglas foran dem og give dem et puf bagi - så farer de lige i fælden.

[Picture here. Companion caption:]
Husedderkoppen er et imponerende dyr. De kan blive så store, at nogle tror det må dreje sig om en tropisk fugleedderkop.
 

Veery interesting....

I'd suggest (unfortunately I can't read Danish, so anders' recommendation of how to trap that spider remains obscured to me):

either to shake your sheets before goint to bed at night, and to tilt your shoes before putting them on in the morning (that's what the cowboys in Arizona used to do in the old days in order to avoid getin bitten by a Tarantula accidently),

or to resort to that old, old (and very approved) prayer you probalby remember from your childrens' days:
"From goolies andf ghosties, and long-leggety beasties, and form the things, that go BUMP in the night, dear Lord, deliver us!"
 

I hope that the large house spiders don't reach sizes up to 40 cm, as written in your text! Otherwise you should not only look for a hunter, but perhaps get a shotgun! :-)
 

Please, please, please tell me, that 'they can get scarily huge (up to 40 cm)' is a typo, and you meant 4 cm!

Otherwise I concur - get a shotgun! Or a cannon...