SO what type of spider is this? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Wild! Your own little household Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom!

That's pretty freaky. But better the spider than the centipede.

 

[Gary->dee]

Ha you must be blessed then.

Years ago I was staying at my grandparents house in Lakeside which is in the east county part of San Diego. I had just taken a shower and put on my robe, walked into the bedroom, took it off, lay it down on the bed.

I didn't pay much attention, turned away, then turned back towards the bed where my robe was.

Let me put it to you like this: essentially there was a skinny black hand with extra fingers sitting there chilling on the back of my robe. I immediately left the room and called my brother to take care of it. Even he had to admit it was a huge honkin' spider and he normally doesn't admit these things. If I knew that thing was on my back when I put that robe on I probably would have had a stroke.

Anyway, after that when I watched Annie Hall and he joked about a spider being the size of a Buick I had a visual reference to go by.

 

[Chazz_S]

^ A second report of big ass spiders in San Diego


Let me rephrase: "One thing I LOVE about LA..."

 

[Kevin M]

I'd say it is indeed a wolf spider, just not as hairy...
...None of the other spiders in the link have legs as thick as the wolf aside from the jumping spider and these are easy to spot, they move in a creepily fast manner and the hair on them make them look out of focus to the eye...mmmm.

As far as Wolfy goes just think of him as you own personal Orkin Man...er..spider.

 

[Yousaf]

I love living in my 20th floor apartment...no spiders anymore, just the occasional ladybug that flies in when I have the window open. My last apartment (ground floor) was a different story. At first, there were quarter-sized spiders that I'd sometimes see several times a day, but my concentrated exterminating got rid of them for the most part. What came next was even worse, but not in an obvious way: tiny spiders.

These things were less than an eigth of an inch across, but what made them so bad was that they liked to drop down from the ceiling. So I'd be sitting on my computer, watching movies or just browsing some forums when I'd see this weird spot in front of me. Had I been looking at a light for too long? Were my eyes finally failing me after spending most of my waking hours in front of the computer for years? No, it was the itsy-bitsy spider, hanging eye level about two inches in front of my nose. Their filament was really thin and could barely be seen, and the fact that they appeared as nothing more than a spec was due to their proximity to my face and my tendency to not focus that close (for some odd reason). They would also pick random spots in the room to drop down, and were always unexpected and invisible until you're right on them. And the thought of them crawling in and out of my orifices while I slept...*shudders*. I was so glad to get out of that place.

 

[LanieParker]

God we have spiders everywhere. Mostly hanging in our trees (red and yellow ones, black and yellow ones and these weird greyish spiders). They are about the size of a half dollar and they make the most gynormous webs! I can't even begin to tell you how many I have walked into. They seem to build them right in all our pathways and around our decking in the backyard.

We mostly leave them be, but once in awhile I will get surprised by one and kill it. Our property has a lot of trees so they are all over the place these spiders. Like someone else mentioned in this thread earlier, I cannot for the life of me figure out how they get from one tree to another when they are so far apart. These webs are HUGE. I'll have to go out and take some pictures to share with you guys. It's quite incredible actually. I've destroyed a few webs that were too close to our house or that I walked into... but I hate to take them down since they are such a work of art.

 

[Gregg Shiu]

Clean... your... house.

I should note I'm not afraid of spiders at all. Outside the house we avoid each other, but inside my house, it's dead. Good for me that in this part of the US (Northern VA and Maryland) we don't really seem to have much other than daddy long legs for the most part. *shudder*

 

[Dave Poehlman]

A year or two ago I walked out on my deck and saw one of these (not my picture):



It was huge! Turns out it was a harmless Garden Spider. They sit in their web and they'll shake their web if you get near to look more menacing to predators... let me tell you, it worked! I wouldn't go near that thing.

 

[John Spencer]

At my house we refer to that species as the Arachnicus Flushedicus. Not to be confused with the Arachnicus Smushedicus, which is smaller and tends to leave a streak on the drywall.

Unfortunately I find myself more allergic than most to insect and spider bites, so I end up killing any creepy-crawlies that make their way into my house. Afer a week-long stay in the hospital, and invasive irrigation surgery, my attitude toward spiders became a little less nonchalant.

 

[LanieParker]

David ~ That picture of the yellow and black spider is exactly the type I have in my woods and around my house. They are HUGE! They are the ones that make these gigantic webs that go on forever.... scary and beautiful at the same time. I also have red an yellow ones (Rider spiders) that are a tad bit smaller, but they make just as big of webs.

I don't mind them outside, but like many of the other members here I do not like them in my house. Mostly I am dealing with mice and snakes anyway! lol.

 

[Bill Buklis]

As for the original spider, after looking at some various photos of different types of wolf spiders I noticed one thing in common. All had a straight line that ran from between the eyes to the top of the abdomen. Yours clearly has this line. So I'd say definitely a variety of wolf spider.

Here's a story about a tarantula. When I was about five years old I was visiting some family in St. Petersburg, Florida. We purchased this large crate of bananas. My one year old sister and I were sitting in the back seat of the car with the crate between us as we were driving back from the store.

After a little while out from the crate crawled this gigantic tarantula (definitely a tarantula - huge, hairy, ugly, etc.). It scared the bejeezus out of us. We quickly stopped the car and got it out. Fortunately no others were in there.

I have no idea if these spiders generally live in Florida or not. From statements above, it sounds like they usually live in the SW. Nor do I have any idea how it got there. Just extremely unexpected.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Weird, Bill. When I was a kid we were told that bananas was the only fruit that we could not eat the skins of because they were sprayed with an anti-spider poison before they were shipped up to the states.

I haven't kept up, but have they changed that?
Glenn