Spider so big, I shot it

Stevens said:
We have plenty of Banana Spiders here in So. Louisiana they are big and if you walk into one of their webs they seem to be made of fishing monofilament.
Here's a couple of my favorite spider shots, the first is a Banana Spider on his web up next to my shed. The other I don't know the variety but he's chowing down on a good sized dragonfly on my screen porch. I believe he caught the dragonfly without a web.
Steve W
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Second critter is a Carolina Wolf Spider and it is eating either an Eastern or a Great Pondhawk.
 
bgrafsr said:
Now this is a spider, well actually two. They are "Camel Spiders". Troops in Afghanistan encounter them.:eek:

large-camel-spider.jpg
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Famous clever perspective photo. We have the smaller cousins here in the SW. Order Solifugae - Windscorpions - BugGuide.Net They are about the most bad tempered critter I have ever met. They are ugly, designed by committee and very angry about it.
 
therevjay said:
Dead spiders are GOOD spiders!
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To put it as a saying in many old Westerns replacing the word: Indian with Spider: "The Only Good Spider, Is a Dead Spider." However, I dont subscribe to that philosophy. I allow a few fly spiders to live in my home and they seem to do a good job so--I leave them alone.
 
I'm still kicking myself for stomping on a spider out of reaction. I had just walked out the kitchen door at the lake cabin up in Southern B.C., there was a small hallway where the door to the basement was then the backdoor. I closed the door behind me and turned around and saw movement on the floor, there was the biggest jumping type spider I had ever seen, had to be the size of a nickle easy, muscular and squat, with orange and black striped fuzz all over him. I didn't even think and stomped on him with my bare foot, just a gut reaction thing. Even smashed he was a good sized critter, I checked him out and he did have eight legs and good sized palps and fangs. I asked my neighbor if he had ever seen one since he was a lifelong resident of the area, he said he had heard of a spider that looked like that and they were called "cow killers"....I've looked through every book and never seen anything that looked like that one. I've been bitten by spiders twice that required treatment, cellulitis is the biggest threat, other than that I just leave them alone as long as they are not in the house. You gotta remember to shake your clothes out if they have been hanging around the outside for very long, thats how I got one of my bites...they figured it was either a hobo or brown recluse.
 
Kinman said:
You gotta remember to shake your clothes out if they have been hanging around the outside for very long, thats how I got one of my bites...they figured it was either a hobo or brown recluse.
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Shake out your boots, too. A friend of mine didn't, and there was a brown recluse in one. It was touch and go whether he would lose the foot, and he was in the hospital for quite a while. :eek:
 
Kinman said:
I asked my neighbor if he had ever seen one since he was a lifelong resident of the area, he said he had heard of a spider that looked like that and they were called "cow killers"....I've looked through every book and never seen anything that looked like that one.
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Cow Killers are not spiders, they are a flightless wasp with a sting that hurts so bad you would think it could kill a cow. Another species is called the Velvet Ant. Leave them well alone.
 
Shot this bad boy in the studio (day job is a commercial photographer). Called an Usambara Baboon Spider from East Africa. Listed as the most aggressive spider in the world. Actually bit the handler during the shoot. Very toxic venom. Fortunately the handler was a big guy and only had a stay in the hospital for his trouble. A small adult or child would likely die. For size reference it stands about 5 inches across.
 

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jframe said:
Saw a spider nestled up to the carport today that HAD to be at least two inches in diameter, with a body about as big as a dime or nickel. Swept him out, then pulled the Mafia treatment on him with the two inch Model 34 loaded with shotshells. I treat them like I treat snakes; they can have the yard, when they hit the concrete they might as well have been breaking in the house. Have no idea what kind it was, but I've never seen a spider that big in North Alabama in the 42 years I've grown up and lived here.
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Was it hard to field dress???

Did you beer batter it or just fry it in butter? Maybe a skewer over an open flame...........

MMMMMMMMMMMM fresh spider mmmmmmm
 
dhg said:
Shot this bad boy in the studio (day job is a commercial photographer). Called an Usambara Baboon Spider from East Africa. Listed as the most aggressive spider in the world. Actually bit the handler during the shoot. Very toxic venom. Fortunately the handler was a big guy and only had a stay in the hospital for his trouble. A small adult or child would likely die. For size reference it stands about 5 inches across.
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Looks eerily like my fifth grade teacher. :eek:
 
Camel or Sun Spiders are real common around here.
And as LVSteve said, they are mean vindictive buggers.
You know how most insects will try to get away when confronted?
Not these guys, they'll come at you with every intent to get up your pant leg or worse.
And if you've ever seen them up close, they have Two sets of vertical "beaks" that work independent of each other.
I've put them in jars with Scorpions twice as big, not even a contest.
 
Oh, I should mention.....

We've lived in this house for 30 years and the entire time there has been a family of house spiders under the window frame above the kitchen sink. We consider them pets and only bother them to clean under their web every once in a while. Of course they spin it right back.
 
Any Spider inside the house is dead lol. Outside tho I only kill widows. I actually get these big barn spiders every year that build webs all around my front porch and they catch a ton of bugs so I leave them alone. Funny enough, one always seems to build one by my grill so I call that one my grillin' buddy lol. He's out whenever I'm cooking up steaks.

Last year me and my wife had a late night widow killing party after finding one outside. Turned out there were about 7-8 nests around the outside of the house. They are amazingly resilient to Brakleen too haha.

Always seems after hunting for spiders that anything that touches your skin for the next couple hours also induces a mini panic attack lol

You also have to look for the hourglass on the widow. On a real widow it is on their abdomen. There is a different spider that looks just like them, but the hourglass is on their back. Those are harmless.

Sent from my Galaxy S4
 
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Living in the Phoenix valley with my house on a wash has taught me to appreciate:

King snakes
Wolf spiders
Tarantulas, God bless those creatures....love them.
 
Not a fan of spiders here either. I don't react well when I get bit so most of the time they end up dead if they're inside.

About a week or so ago I was outside and saw a cool looking spider that I figured I'd grab some photos of to try and identify it and upon coming inside I found more by the door. Got the camera, grabbed some shots (unfortunately I've really gotten into Macro photography so they get photo shoots and may live if a harmless type, at least outside) and came in to see what we had. War was quickly declared! Good thing I got the shot when I did because for now all visible ones are gone. :cool:

bwidow_PR13_2129.jpg
 
I don't mind spiders, snakes, crows, vultures, or any other animal people kill because they look ugly or don't understand them.
 
I understand what is poisonous enough to kill a human or animal or at the very least make them very sick. Unfortunately for them I have weight and guns on my side lol.

So on the contrary, I kill them because I do understand :p

Non poisonous I don't bother with, and often will sit and watch them. I've spent many a time in the woods with a daddy longlegs walking from hand to hand and up my arm. They are just neat haha

Sent from my Galaxy S4
 
How did the rat tunnel soldier get 12 rounds out of his 1911?
 
Lil' LadySmith said:
Not a fan of spiders here either. I don't react well when I get bit so most of the time they end up dead if they're inside.

About a week or so ago I was outside and saw a cool looking spider that I figured I'd grab some photos of to try and identify it and upon coming inside I found more by the door. Got the camera, grabbed some shots (unfortunately I've really gotten into Macro photography so they get photo shoots and may live if a harmless type, at least outside) and came in to see what we had. War was quickly declared! Good thing I got the shot when I did because for now all visible ones are gone. :cool:

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What is it?
 
shouldazagged said:
Great photo. I love good macro photography.
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Thanks Shoulda! I've really gotten hooked on the macro stuff. Shooting the spiders gets interesting for me, that's for sure!

35Rem said:
What is it?
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sasu said:
Seems to be a Brown Widow.
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We think it's an immature black widow (apparently they're brown like this!) but *could* be a brown widow. (From what I read, they can be hard to tell apart until fully mature.) We have quite a few black widows around and this one was with a bunch of others of varying coloration including a full size female black widow leading us to believe an egg sack hatched.

Now considering I'm allergic to spider bites (poof up badly) as far as the doctors can tell, a widow is the *last* thing I want to be bit by so bye-bye widows!
 
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