I love spiders. They are, without a doubt, the most elegant and amazing creatures. I collect, classify and photograph any and all spiders I can find. I have two spiders as pets. Not tarantulas, wild-caught jumping spiders. (Jumping spiders are my favorite!) I have a female Phidippus audax named Georgina, and a male named George. (The male isn't mature enough to mate yet, one more molt probably.) I love the hunt the most. There are so many different species that it becomes a challenge to find the next new one. (Well, new to me!) Sure, you can find a Pholcus phalangioides (common cellar spider) anywhere, but finding a Latrodectus variolus (northern black widow) is extremely rare. Here is a list of all the species I have photographed/documented: Pholcus phalangioides (Common Cellar Spider) Herpyllus ecclesiasticus (Eastern Parson Spider) Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper) Mimetus puritanus (Pirate Spider) Trachelas tranquillus (Broad-faced Sac Spider) Cheiracanthium mildei (Black-footed Yellow Sac Spider) Cheiracanthium inclusum (Black-footed Yellow Sac Spider [Slight Difference]) Hentzia palmarum (Common Hentz Jumper) Mecaphesa asperata (Northern Crab Spider) Naphrys pulex (Flea Jumper) Sitticus fasciger (Jumping Spider) Sitticus pubescens (Jumping Spider) Araneus guttulatus (Orb-weaver) Parasteatoda tepidariorum (American House Spider) Hibana gracilis (Ghost Spider) Platycryptus undatus (Grey Jumper) Argiope aurantia (Black and Yellow Garden Spider) Tetragnatha versicolor (Long-jawed Orb Weaver) Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orb Weaver) Castianeira longipalpa (Ant-mimic Spider) Amaurobius ferox (Hacklemesh Weaver) Larinioides cornutus (Furrow Orbweaver) Agelenopsis potteri (Grass Spider) Eris militaris (Bronze Jumper) I might have missed a few but you get the idea! This whole winter thing is bumming me out. ~ J. J.
That would be the female Argiope aurantia. She was pretty big. (Only got pictures of the male though.) Most of the spiders I find are small. Haven't snagged a wolf spider yet, but they can get pretty large. ~ J. J.
When I was visiting a friend in Hawaii I came across a cane spider in my room. That thing was almost the size of my hand. It was definitely a life changing experience. I'm never going back to Hawaii again.
I have a mild case of arachnophobia. Please keep spiders away from me, for my sake as well as theirs (if I see them, I kill them). My family has had a cottage on an eastern Ontario lake for as long as I've been alive, and we have dock spiders there up the wazoo. They're pretty damn big and intimidating. I remember freaking out when I was about eight or so, because my cousin was trying to catch one, and it was running from him down the side of a concrete pier we have there, and it kept running on the side of the pier when it got under the water level! Holy S***! I looked closely at it, and its body hair had trapped an air bubble around it, so it was still breathing under the waterline. That spooked me bad. How could I escape them if they could follow me underwater?
I can see why you have caught so many different kinds of spiders. The shores of the great lakes are wide open to all kinds of insects. Think of all the ships that come in from all over the world. I live about 5 miles from Lake Erie, but when I go to the lakeshore, its a whole new ball game. Big insects, monster mosquitoes, etc...
I'm not overly fond of spiders, but I'm not as phobic as I used to be. My wife was severely arachnophobic. Even the mention of the word "spider", or one appearing on television, would compel her to leave the room with the shakes/ There were several incident in which she woke in a panic, hallucinating a spider the size of a dinner plate on the wall above her. I bore the bruises in my back from her elbows, knees, and other bony protrusions. So I had to be the calming influence, had to get over my own mild phobia. I grew up in a wooded area of upstate New York, and there were many spiders, some of which were big and ugly. Wolf spiders, in particular, tended to leap aggressively. So I tended to eradicate them on sight, at least inside the home. But I do photograph them occasionally, and I have one close up shot in particular of a fat spider spinning a web up in Maine.
I have never seen a spider leap, and I hope I never do. I own a large woods behind my home and it is loaded with spiders, and what I think are wolf spiders. I bomb my garage and basement a couple of times a summer just to keep the numbers inside the house low.
Spiders are truley amazing. I didn't think much of them until I walked outside my porch one evening and BOOM! there was a HUGE unfinished web streatched from the top of the porch side to the bottom and covered the whole side to where I couldn't walk through without destroying it. In the center was this medium size spider... I literally sat there for at least two hours taking photographs and watch it weave it's web. Of course I didn't touch it and in the morning the web was gone, but I did find the spider cuddled up near the porch light and it made it's web again the next day. I was sad to see it leave after three days of fasination. As for catching them, I'de rather just leave them alone. When I first moved into my house we had a huge spider problem and there were spiders the size of my palm. It was crazy. When I was a kid I found one in my room and thought it was one of my plastic toys until it moved about and scared my mother half to death. My mind is always boggled on how they spin their webs. I have to say my favorite spider is the Daddy Long Legs.
Well, it's technically spring even though we still have freezing temps and some flakes. Spring is trying to get here. I've seen a few spiders here and there, but right now they just hatching or coming out of hibernation. I'm hoping to find a website to start a spider blog with pictures and videos. Bring on the warm weather!
I like 'em if they aren't moving too fast. A face-sized tarantula [new species] known as Poecilotheria rajeal has been discovered in Sri Lanka.
8" leg span? Psh, that thing has nothing on the Goliath birdeater. Anyone who likes spiders should visit the Pacific NW. This place is crawling with spiders, and they can get pretty big around here.
I'm curious. You keep spiders as pets, but how do you view the strays that wander into your home? I didn't mind having a spider or two in my home for pest control, but then I looked them up and found out they were poisonous. And then they also started laying egg sacks...
I welcome them with open arms! I always geek when I discover a spider in the house. I can usually tell what it is immediately. (My favorite 'in-house' find was a pirate spider in my upstairs bathroom. Pirate spiders eat the legs of other spiders.) If they have built a web, and it's in an out-of-the-way corner, I will leave it alone. If it is a ground-dweller or jumping spider, I will catch and release it outside. Okay, a few things. Spiders are venomous, not poisonous. (Poison is ingested, venom is injected.) Also, there aren't very many species of spider that have a 'medically significant' bite. If you are in the US, you really only need to worry about the Black Widow or Brown Recluse. The bite of the Hobo Spider has not been proven to be as medically significant as the rumors. Understand, that when I say 'medically significant', that only means that you may need to seek medical attention if you have a bad reaction or you're elderly or a baby. Here is a video of a spider-lover like myself with a Brown Recluse and a Black Widow on his hand for two minutes at the same time. Love it! They don't want to bite you and they cannot tell the difference between you and a rock. ~ J. J.
I'm at the moment healing from a Hobo spider that bit me last week--they are rather aggressive and will bite at anything. I am trying not call in the professionals in to deal once and for all with them, but the little bastards are not making it easy. This is the fourth bite in the last 5 months. They are quite painful and take about two weeks to heal. The weird thing about the bite is it manifests phantom pain. One time it hurt five inches above my arm: not that the pain seemed to extend five inches above my arm...it just hurt--like hell--out there in space. But most of the time it makes you hurt somewhere other than where it bit you. They are the fourth most venomous spider in the US.
So this may be a stupid suggestion but I'll give it a go anyway. Have you tried putting a baking soda paste on the bite quickly after it happens? I don't know how well this would work. I just know it works miracles with fire ant bites. We have tons of the blasted things and I've gotten bitten up and stung pretty badly more times than I care to remember and baking soda worked the best. You get a bit of baking soda and mix a bit of water. Just enough to make it a thick paste and leave it on until it dries. It really reduces the time it takes for it to heal and it helps with the pain/itching a lot! I have an odd relationship with spiders. They scare the crap out of me but there are some I find really beautiful and fascinating. The peacock spider is one I actually find to be beautiful and pretty adorable. I am a bit odd about insects because there are some I will screech if I see and others I will try to hold because I think they're awesome. Things like cockroaches, spiders, ants, millipedes, and centipedes terrify me. I will scream like a five year old girl if any of those climb on me. I love katydids, stick bugs, praying mantis, butterflies (who doesn't?), and most beetles. I am more likely to like something if I find it aesthetically pleasing. I am superficial when it comes to bugs. Bees don't really bother me as long as they leave me alone. I do like carpenter bees quite a bit they're kinda clumsy and I find that entertaining and cute. Wasps and hornets make me nervous but I don't freak out over them unless they get in my face. Oddly hissing cockroaches don't scare me. They used to but I held one at a county fair and got over it. It was funny because I was eight and didn't want the guy in the bug tent to think I was a chicken. It started hissing while I was holding it and I decided they were pretty cool after that.
You're from a lucky country, have you visited Australia? You'd have a ball in my house: This guy is the worst. Pretty much harmless, the size of your fist. They come inside because the big sissies don't like the rain. Vacuum cleaner is the weapon of choice. Suck them up on a low setting then leave the machine outside. They'll crawl away after the concussion wears off. The funnel web. Rare where I am from, but still about: Kill on sight. They crawl into your shoes if you leave them about for too long. Weapon of choice: thong (flip-flop). The white tail. Roamers, they often crawl into your bed covers. When they bite, which is regularly, they deliver a concoction of venom made from the spiders they themselves eat. Kill on sight. Weapon of choice: Thong (flip-flop) The house spider. Deliver a flesh eating poison that hurts like buggery. They just sit in their webs though. Weapon of choice: Outdoor Surface spray. Keep them outside and they are harmless, really. The Red Back. In spite of their place in australian culture, they are quite rare. Mostly live in old bricks and what not. Since I moved from the family farm I've only seen one, and that was while renovating a house. If you get bitten you need to go to a hospital. Weapon of choice: Daddy Long legs nests. I've watched and killed pretty much all of them at one time or another. Spiders are very interesting but they make my skin crawl. It's not the spiders themselves, if they were harmless they could run around as much as they want. Moths are where its at. Beautiful things.
I have seen plenty of them: they look just like the common grass spider but without the stripe down the back. Grass spiders are totally harmless; they just run all over your lawn jumping on flies all day. And I don't know what was wrong with that spider he had but I've watch them fighting with any other spider that comes within eye sight of them: you touch a stick to the ground next to them and they attack it. I think that guy had a grass spider. I've never seen them act aggressive in any way.
