Huge Spider Caught on Camera....

[FallingMeTook]

To go off topic a little bit, but I really like the other two sets of photos that are linked in the OP link, a leopard taking out a crocodile and a mouse that was supposed to be lunch killing a snake, crazy stuff and to get it on film...

[Daradon]

Oh yeah, I believe it. I was always a little creeped out of spiders until I lived in Australia for a time. There you just have to get used to them, they are everywhere and much bigger than here. Some are poisonious, pretty much all bite.

And I was in Melbourne and surrounding area, the southern (and coldest) part of Australia. Those pictures were taken in Queensland. Much more tropical, jungle like in some areas actually. Amazing creatures there, but big ass bugs too.

But I found out just how docile spiders really are. They are so amazingly gentle and peaceful. You can pick them up, move them, heck inspect them and play with them. It takes a lot to piss them off and even if you do they are far more likely to run away than try to attack.

And they obviously do a great service keeping the local bird, I mean bug population down...

[Flash]

I'm just going to add that to the list of things I never needed to see. I freaking HATE spiders.

[Rhetts_the_Best]

I should not of read this thread!

ffing hate spiders

[Dion]

[icarus]

An Orb Weaver, huh? I see these things all over the places, often found in gardens. Never that big though. You often see their silhouttes against a light at night and they freak you out. I always thought they were harmless but hmm I guess they eat birds.

Originally Posted by Russic

i believe i had a conversation with a cp'er who was currently living in Australia about how much he hates the spiders. Some are the size of dinner plates *gag*.

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Could be Icarus. Wonder if he's encountered in Sydney Funnel Web spiders!

Nope wasn't me. Or maybe it was and I don't remember.

You see Huntsmans around and they can be very big and very hairy. I hate those things. Especially when you walk into the bathroom and there's a spider the size of your hand in the shower. I'm not sure what's worse, the rare sighting of a Huntsman in my old house or the common sighting of a cockroach in my current house.

Dis, I have gone for hikes in the Blue Mountains where I have had to walk along a rock face that was white with all the funnel webs along it. This after spotting an Eastern Brown snake and a Red-Bellied Black snake that was about 5 feet long.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

I think it's more than that.

Spiders are actually very beneficial to humans yet we still hate them. Most of us anyway. In North America there are only two species that can kill you and even those two aren't prolific killers. Most people bitten survive.

Kind of late.. but I think the whole people eating spiders while they sleep is a myth.
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp

It apparently was started by a journalist that wanted to see how much people will believe what they hear on the internets.

[Jake]

According to my invert zoology teacher from 2nd year Western Black Widow bites are not much worse than a bee stings for most people :-/ Of course, just like bee stings, some people react more than others.

I don't know much about Brown Recluse's, but I'd imagine that, as adults, most of us are in the clear. I bet most of the rare deaths attributed to that spider are children.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Jake

According to my invert zoology teacher from 2nd year Western Black Widow bites are not much worse than a bee stings for most people :-/ Of course, just like bee stings, some people react more than others.

I don't know much about Brown Recluse's, but I'd imagine that, as adults, most of us are in the clear. I bet most of the rare deaths attributed to that spider are children.

Black Widow bites can cause systemic reactions that result in severe muscle pain, crippling pain. Obviously, not permanently.

Brown recluse bites are necrotic. They kill your flesh.

I'm guessing you are dead on about children but I would add old folks and people with compromised immune systems to that.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by icarus

.

You see Huntsmans around and they can be very big and very hairy. I hate those things. Especially when you walk into the bathroom and there's a spider the size of your hand in the shower. I'm not sure what's worse, the rare sighting of a Huntsman in my old house or the common sighting of a cockroach in my current house.

Dis, I have gone for hikes in the Blue Mountains where I have had to walk along a rock face that was white with all the funnel webs along it. This after spotting an Eastern Brown snake and a Red-Bellied Black snake that was about 5 feet long.

I'm guessing if you had a Huntsman or two in your current house you wouldn't have the roaches.

I'm also guessing your roaches are much bigger than any we might find here.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm never going to Australia.

DITTO

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Dion

Those things are actually not spiders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider

Still, if I saw one near me I'd scream like a little girl and hide behind my wife.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by llama64

Those things are actually not spiders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider

Still, if I saw one near me I'd scream like a little girl and hide behind my wife.

That picture makes them look huge but if you look at the hand to the right for proportion, they aren't all that big. Either way, they are disgusting looking.

[Daradon]

^^^ Yeah, the wikipedia link said they are at largest 12 centimeter in leg span. Considering their legs are pretty spindly it's not nearly as big or as menacing as they look on that photo. There's actually a good pic of one of the Iraq ones on the wiki page. It stretches about the length of a ping pong paddle, but looks a less scary then the picture above. That's about the size of some of the huntsman I saw in Australia, and same sort of dimensions too, a lot of the size just being in the leg span. Though I did see a lot of smaller, fatter, hairier hunstmen (kinda like mini tarantulas) that could really jump too, and a few scorpions.

It says that the camel spider is not really a spider like many other 'harvestmen'. I wonder if they mean the huntsmen that are found in Austraila. It's a rather large term used for many species of spider that doesn't spin webs, it actually hunts it's prey, like this camel spider.

EDIT: Guess not, the huntsmen is considered a true spider. Here's a wiki page with pics. The thumbnail pic showing one near a wall clock show you how big those guys can get. Like I said, when you get used to seeing some of these guys around (which can take a while, lol) you get a little less creeped out by spiders in general. Though I will admit, just looking at all the pictures again is making me feel a little itchy.

"Some larger types resemble tarantulas, and may be mistaken for them, as the Huntsman is related (which is why the term "Australian tarantula" has sometimes been used to describe them by the Natural History Museum in Sydney)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider

[BuzzardsWife]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm never going to Australia.

Ha Ha, my thoughts exactly!

[BuzzardsWife]

Originally Posted by llama64

Those things are actually not spiders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider

Still, if I saw one near me I'd scream like a little girl and hide behind my wife.

that is the UGLIEST thing I've ever seen. Ever been crabbing and a big nasty spider crab gets caught in the trap! IT AINT PRETTY

[Flash]

Originally Posted by llama64

Those things are actually not spiders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider

Still, if I saw one near me I'd scream like a little girl and hide behind my wife.

Whether it's technically a spider or not makes zero difference to me...it looks like a spider and that's all that matters.

And at least you'd have the sense to hide behind your wife...I'd freeze and not know what the hell to do.

[transplant99]

Brown recluse bites are necrotic. They kill your flesh

And I have the scars to prove it.

The reminders....

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...hlight=recluse

[icarus]

Originally Posted by Daradon

It says that the camel spider is not really a spider like many other 'harvestmen'. I wonder if they mean the huntsmen that are found in Austraila. It's a rather large term used for many species of spider that doesn't spin webs, it actually hunts it's prey, like this camel spider.

"Some larger types resemble tarantulas, and may be mistaken for them, as the Huntsman is related (which is why the term "Australian tarantula" has sometimes been used to describe them by the Natural History Museum in Sydney)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider

A harvestman is a daddy longlegs.

What a dodgy Wikipedia article... there is no Natural History Museum in Sydney. I assume they refer to the Australian Museum but that has much more than just natural history.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by FallingMeTook

To go off topic a little bit, but I really like the other two sets of photos that are linked in the OP link, a leopard taking out a crocodile and a mouse that was supposed to be lunch killing a snake, crazy stuff and to get it on film...

In biology class in high school, we had snakes and mice. There was one mouse who used to bite everyone that put their hand in the cage. My biology teacher decided that mouse was going to be the snakes meal on Friday. He put the mouse in Friday before he left for the weekend, when we got to class on Monday there was a very happy mouse and a dead snake with huge chunks of flesh missing from all over its body. It was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen. My teacher "euthanized" the mouse after that.