Spiders, oh my!

Well, I posted this story off topic and I thought I would repost here:

When we first moved to Australia (land of the giant spider) we were working on a property in the middle of nowhere. We really didn't own anything at the time and had one of those plastic, outdoor tables and chair sets in our dinning room. Classy hey?
We were eating supper and hubby looks across the table at me and then up above my head. His eyes got really big and he kinda froze........ I said "its a spider isn't it?" and he just nodded. I looked over my shoulder and saw the biggest spider I had ever seen (must have been the same size as my open hand and I am not a small woman either) on the wall above my head. I leapt forward taking all the chairs, the table and our evening meal with me.
Hubby was very cranky and said it is just a spider. He got on a chair with a little Tupperware container in had to catch it to put it outside. Well I will tell you, I have never seen a spider move so fast. Scared the dickens out of hubby who fell off his chair, my turn to laugh, peaking from the other room of course!!
That was my first experience with the Huntsman spiders they have down there. I found out after that experience that they are nonpoisonous and do not spin a web, but hunt down their insect prey. I learned to live with them, but was never comfortable.
There are others that are called Funnel Webs and I am just so happy I never lived in an area that had them. They were big and deadly. They would actually 'rear' on their back legs and push their fangs out at you before they gave chase. I think I would faint if I saw one of those. Real nightmare stuff for me!
I have to say I was much more comfortable with the deadly snakes that we saw all the time, than the big a** spiders that live down there!!


There was some questions asked about these guys so I thought I would post what I know here.
I don't believe huntsman are related to the wolf spiders here (I think that was the question??). They have wolf spiders down there and they are the ones that have the flesh eating bites.

Here are some huntsman pictures. The ones around our place got quite large. There are many different varieties. I liked the ones with stripey legs.
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They were quite amazing as they could flatten themselves right up against the wall, but when they moved they would lift themselves with their legs and scoot along very fast! I actually learned to live with them. I would get hubby to put them outside, but they did keep the insects in the house down and I liked that.

Here is a funnel web. Makes my sking crawl just looking at it!
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I think they get up to about 2-2 1/2 inches.....ugg!

Here is a video about them. Not for the faint hearted.
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Well, off to have more spider nightmares tonight.

The huntsman are pretty cool looking actually.

But those funnel web spiders, YIKES. As if venom dripping fangs and a vicious nature/bite wasn't enough to instill fear, they have to be fairly big too. That guy in the video is crazy. lol Out you come, good girl...

There really isn't a typed word or sound or emoticon or string of nonsensical wordslettersgutteralsoundsofterror that can really describe how that video makes me feel.

THANK YOU Coopslave, you have left a LASTING impression this evening. lol

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Spiders are one of the few things that bother me. I've gotten much better over the years, what with having to work in the barn. But those pictures still tighten up my spine.

Normal little itty bitty spiders like around here, I can take. But those spiders - YIKES - let me outta here!!!!

HigginsRat - you are tooooo funny

Coopslave- Are you sick, now I must go from bredroom check to whole house, I am totally freaked out and my husaband sents his thanks as well as the should I find one of those its see bitsy things in my house the screams will start.

We have some mighty big sipders here but holey smokes no way in Hell I will ever live there and while we had thought of visiting friends there in the near future, that trip is now on hold(My husband thanks you again for wrecking 1 year of convincing) All in fun though

My biggest fear is the Daddy Long legs for some reason and we do have black widows here but rarley seen. So people do not post any pictures of Daddy Long Legs please. I should know not to look at this thread, so I will be saying Don't Look Don't Look you fool.

Heather

Daddy Long Legs are not spiders. They don't bother me. Neither do jumping spiders.

Fowler- you are right but when I am in scared mode they all look the same to me legs, legs, legs.

Heather

I don't like Daddy Longlegs either. They creep me out. At one time in my life I lived in the BC interior. I recall one of the first mornings I woke up in my new home. It was a beautiful cool morning. I stepped outside my door to take in the fresh air, turned around and felt my blood go cold. My door and the two tiny windows on either side of it were covered in Daddy Longlegs. I had to pass through the spider covered door to get back into the house.
I thought I was going to DIE!
So I held my breath and let out a scream before running like a crazy person back inside, pulling the door shut behind.

The Daddy LongLeg is a member of the arachnid family. True, not a spider, but still it's creppy.

Beautiful spiders!

I love the little jumping ones we have here. We had one that was a bit of a pet on our back deck. Wherever we sat it would use the railing as a highway to get to us, the crawl down, acoss the floor, then begin the climb up the lawn chairs we were sitting on. We usually removed him before he had the chance to make body contact, but I think he was just saying hello!

Sue

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Oh my GAWD Tara you had me snorting my coffee this morning! Nothing wrong with your imagination!

Your reference to the "P" word got me thinking about a spider that I have hanging around every summer here (or maybe it's her daughter, granddaughter, etc). How long do spiders live, anyway?

Anyway, she spins her web in the heat of the back door light so that she is warm all the time. I only see her at night, I guess she's off hunting, filling her larder for when the babies come, because over the course of the time I see her, she goes from a normal-looking beige with brown spider with a body relative to her legs, to a HUGE body that when I first saw it, I thought looked like a big piece of popcorn stuck in the web! After that first time I started watching for her in the early summer, and sure enough, like clockwork, *poof*!

I wish I had a picture.

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OMG, Tara, you have totally outed me! You MUST come to the second annual Chicken Picnic I plan to have here next spring! We would love to have you for dinner!

Interesting movie! Last night I watched one called Hotel (2002) in which one of the plot lines involved the owners kidnapping guests to turn into meat for the hotel. Interesting juxtaposition with your movie.

Hmmm.

Sue

Oh man, now I'm thinking about one of my favourite movies ever - Delicatessen. It's very weird, but there are some absolutely brilliant moments and plotlines. If you have a chance, watch it.

Sorry if seemingly off topic, but once you see it, you'll know it's not really.

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Hee hee!
Spring Chicknic is after I am out of school, so summer, really. This year I am thinking July 7ish. I guess I had better call it the summer Chicknic!

Sue

Oh spiders, love/hate relationship. I have always been a bug person, and spiders top the list, should have been an entomologist, but that is long past ever to come to fruition. I have a great worry about spiders, especially the brown recluse, but for the most part I love them. The orb spiders are the ones that have always taken my breath away. You know the ones with the huge bums, that you can actually hear thump if they fall to the ground, spin the most beautiful webs. I also love the tunnel spiders, watched them many hours in my lifetime. This was an interesting post you have made Coopslave, loved to read and hear the experiences, spiders, cool things. I don't like those little black and grey jumpy ones though, they have always freaked me out. Great post, have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.