I just found the biggest spider in my apartment

[alarimer]

the cat was going crazy so I knew he had found some kind of animal. Normally I like all kinds of animals and I don't freak out but I sort of did freak a little this time. The thing was huge, about as big around as a half-dollar coin. It was not a tarantula and it was not a black widow. I don't think it was a brown recluse (although I have had them inside before) because the abdomen was not fat; it was sort of slender. I think it was either a wolf spider of some kind or one of those orb-weavers you see in the garden. The cat did do a little damage to it but I let it outside. I wanted to get a picture but I couldn't figure out how.

[Darth_Kitten]

1. and I thought the occasional spider in my apartment was huge...

I usually trap them in a can or whatever and throw them outside.

[alarimer]

2. I should say that the size included all the legs

the body itself wasn't that big.

[radwriter0555]

3. Sounds like a wolf spider, kind of grey/brownish? really flat?

SCARY as hell, eh?

*shivers*

[alarimer]

34. I think so

I am not normally scared of spiders; I just don't want them in my house!

[ashling]

4. When you first move in to a new apartment,

find the biggest spider in the place and beat the crap out of it ... then the rest of them will leave you alone.
:crazy:

[XemaSab]

5. Wow... that's exactly what I learned about survival in prison

from the movie "Office Space."

[ashling]

6. Good movie

especially when the beat the crap out of that fax machine.

Actually, I was thinking of a western (comedy) w/ Glenn Ford. He plays a sheephearder who moves into cattle country. First thing he does is go into the saloon, announce that he is a sheepherder, then beats the crap out of the biggest, dumbest, ugliest sunofabitch in the place.

[Random_Australian]

7. ??? How big is a half-dollar coin?

It seems.... odd to call anything less than a palm sized even 'moderately large' for a spider... BUT it would be sooo inconventient to have coins that large.

So, how big is a half-dollar coin?

Edit:

Funnel-web. :) Most dangerous of all spiders.

And here is the snake equivalent:

[Kutjara]

11. Oz wins hands down on big, ugly, dangerous critters.

I had a spider crawl through the window of my car one morning when I was in Melbourne that you could have put a leash on and named 'Fido.' I still don't know how I got out of the car. My wife says I sort of levitated through the sunroof. My Aussie neighbors took one look at the behemoth and said, "Yeah, you get a few a them fellahs around here this time of year," before laconically wandering off about their business. I kind of herded the thing down the drive to a storm drain and left it to fate.

[Random_Australian]

24. That we do - but our spiders have nothing to our snakes.

:scared:

But yeah, people who are not from Australia tend to levitate almost half as fast as their hair does when they see some of the critters we have. :)

[hfojvt]

16. a half dollar is about 2 inches in diameter

:evilgrin:

[Random_Australian]

25. Huh! Who'd have thought! That is a little weird.

At least it means the spider was not that big though, which is good.

If I had a better concept of inches, I would swear that you are lying, though. :)

[hfojvt]

26. I put it in inches, so I could give an evil grin

but apparently my concept of inches is not good either. 2 inches is about 5 cm. However, even an Eisenhower dollar is only about 1.5 inches, and a half dollar a mere 1.25 inches, about the same size, as I figured, as the Dutch 2.5 dollar piece and the Romanian 5 lei piece that I found before I dug out a half dollar. Not a lie, just an inaccurate guesstimate.

[Random_Australian]

28. Sorry man, but I have heard of so few of those things that your post

read like this:

"but apparently my concept of inches is not good either. x fruttumps is about 5 cm. However, a green moon is about 1 fruttumps, and a half dollar a mere 3 fruttumps, about the same size, as I figured, as the Adis Ababa removal service 2.5 dollar piece and the romanian 5 lei piece that I found before I dug out a half dollar. Not a lie, just an inaccurate guesstimate."

[hfojvt]

30. you've never heard of the Dutch, or President Dwight D. Eisenhower

formerly General Eisenhower of WWII? :wow: And people think the American education system is bad. Harumph, and I was trying to translate inches for you. Good thing I was not talking about Buffalo nickels (I think they are made in New York or something)

[Random_Australian]

32. Dutch? They don't exist, like the Belgians.

(Ya, so I know who the people are, and this tells me little about the object in question)

But really, Belgium doesn't exist.

Look for yourself: http://zapatopi.net/belgium/

Edit: And take a look at this DU post!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5666466&mesg_id=5667225
:)

[alarimer]

35. It was the biggest I had seen inside

about two inches in diameter.

The only big spiders we get here in S. Texas are tarantulas and they are the size of someone's palm but they are not poisonous though they can bite.

Yes I don't think the one I had was dangerous. I honestly don't think I could live in Australia when so many different animals can kill you!

[Floogeldy]

8. Bullshit.

You expect us to believe that you saw a spider? In your apartment?

Mwahahahaha!!! What a load of crap.

There are no spiders in no apartments.

[alarimer]

36. Well then I must have been dreaming or something

I prefer spiders to flying Palmetto bugs though.

[badgerpup]

9. Got a deal with the spiders in my house...

You don't bite me, and I don't squish you...and when it comes to the cats, you're on your own.
Seems to work...

I've got several kinds in residence; daddy-long-legs, and something that looks similar but has a skinny body, and some really cool teeny little spiders that are kind of grey-furry-spotted.
They have REALLY BIG mandibles that are a beautiful shade of turquoise, and they move like they're digitized, and can jump like nobody's business.
There's garden spiders too, but they stay outside.

Don't have too much trouble with skeeters, flies, and gnats, ya know?

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. OMG! Was it a Clock Spider???

(aka Huntsman spider)






:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Shakespeare]

I would evacuate the house/apt and never go back in. Never.

That's the scariest fucking thing I've ever seen. Bomb the fucking place--I don't need my stuff that bad.

[Random_Australian]

27. HAHAHAHAHAHA! You're scared when it is on the WALL?

One night (Aussie summer, so bare legs and no sheets) I was woken up by a tapping on my leg. There were two of them ON MY LEG. Fighting.

Before I could react to the sight of two reared-up, enormous angry spiders on my unclothed legs, a thrid one jumped (about two feet) to join in the fight!

Fuck me, I freaked.

[Arugula Latte]

39. Oh my non-existent god.

:scared:

Okay, that's grounds for leaving Australia permanently. I don't care how beautiful and wonderful it is -- those spiders nullify everything else. Not to mention all the other stinging and poisonous critters (jellyfish, snakes, scorpions ... Yowza!

;)

[Heidi]

12. Thank you for giving the spider its freedom.

:thumbsup:

[Skittles]

13. yes

I scoop up spiders and put 'em outside, I won't let my cats toy with them

[Heidi]

14. Same here.

Ginger lately has taken a great interest in grasshoppers, and since we keep our house completely open here during the warm days, it can be quite a cat-and-grasshopper jump-o-rama sometimes. So, we just give all bugs a ride outside. :thumbsup:

[Skittles]

15. LOL, yeah, the grasshoppers and cats both move better than us

my favorite story though is a spider I chased around the kitchen and he ran under the fridge, then immedately emerged kicking in a big dust ball - I scooped it all up and had to pick the fuzz off of him before depositing him on the patio. :D

[Heidi]

17. You're good people, Skittles.

:hug: I've picked dust-bunnies off of my share of crickets, grasshoppers and baby frogs before releasing them back into the great outdoors.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

18. You're kinder than me.

My agreement with insects & spiders is...you stay outside and I'll leave you alone, unless you try to bite me. You come inside and I will scream, flail, throw shoes, generally act like a really nelly fag and finally bring a cat/lizard over to you, so they will eat you. I am the biggest wimp ever when it comes to bugs that I have not purchased as lizard food.

[Heidi]

19. I used to be like that

until I began living in a rural area. In order to not be a shrieking hysterical three seasons out of the year, I had to confront my fear of creepy, crawly things. They were here before I was. :shrug:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. I do live in a rural area...

I do fine being a shrieking hysterical three seasons out of the year. Actually, we get less bugs in my house than when we lived in an urban area when I was a kid. We always had roach problems then, because we generally had filthy, drug addict neighbors.

[Heidi]

21. Oh, yikes,

I apologize, haruka. I wasn't describing _you_ as a shrieking hysterial; I was describing _myself_. I was an absolute basket case about bugs of any sort, primarily because I was stung twice by scorpions when I was a kid. :pals: :hug:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. I became a shrieking hysterical after I woke up with a nasty

spider bite on my face.

:pals:

[Heidi]

23. Holy cow!

That happened to my mom once, but it was on her leg, and all black in the middle with these red streaky spots running down her leg. I grew up in northeastern Oklahoma: thick with spiders, snakes, scorpions, etc. :scared:

Another reason I decided to stop being afraid of the creepy-crawlies was because I got tired of always having to call on the nearest man to "rescue" me. :blush: I sort of decided I could kill a bug by myself, or catch and release it by myself, and I felt better with the catch-and-release option. (My hands still shake a little when I carry a Tupperware container of big, scary spider out to the garden. :scared: )

[hfojvt]

29. I had at least one male co-worker

who refused to pick up a table because he saw a tiny little spider on it. Big tough guy in the weightroom, but not with a spider. I just flicked it off the table to keep from bringing it inside. Maybe he was just trying to get out of work. Lord knows I moved about 3 times as many 60 pound tables as he did. Some people cannot seem to take their strength out of the weightroom.

[Guava Jelly]

31. did he look like this ?

[xchrom]

33. i always scream BEFORE i put the spider outside.

it's a ritual -- i scream -- check my outfit -- then put the critter outside -- and act cool.

[ScreamingMeemie]

38. You are the best!

:rofl: "check my outfit"...

I scream and then go get MrG to get rid of it. :hi:

[Hissyspit]

37. Remember the scene in "Annie Hall"?

When Diane Keaton's Annie calls Woody Allen's Alvy over to her apartment to kill a spider and he says he's an expert spider killer and goes into her bathroom and realizes how big the spider is...?

[peekaloo]

40. LOL...that's what came to my mind when I read the title.

"It's as big as a Buick". :rofl:

then he proceeds to tear up the bathroom with a tennis racket.

[Hissyspit]

42. Yeah, that's the line ! I couldn't remember it. I love that scene.

I just watched it again the other night.

[Avalux]

41. Thank you for not killing it.

If it was a wolf spider or a garden spider, they are our friends. :hi:

[alarimer]

43. I think he (she?) was eating bugs

Since pest contol only comes in two or three times a year, I have a lot more bugs. I should have left him inside. I never saw a web so it must be a wolf spider. They like to hunt at night.