I had a stand-off with a spider a few months back that lasted AT LEAST half an hour. I've posted about it here before. I've been in my condo now for over a year, on the fourth floor, and I've only ever seen two spiders.
I came home one day from somewhere, not sure what time it was, and there was a little black, fast moving spider on my ceiling. So I started to panic because I didn't know what to do. I went and got a hockey stick, but was still too afraid to hit it down, because I feared it would catch a wind draft and fly right into my face. So I passively tried hitting it with my hockey stick, never really doing a good job of hitting it. After trying this for a bit, I just went and sat on my couch to watch him, waiting for him to get into a better spot. Finally he moved close to a wall, and I smoked him with the stick and he fell. The I sucked him up with a vacuum cleaner. There are still hockey tape marks from this war on the spot where he fell to the ground.
And the first spider I found was in my bathroom, there is still a large imprint of a shoe on the wall where I smoked that little .
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Last edited by metallicat; 09-25-2009 at 08:58 PM.
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"Wolf" Spider is actually a catch-all term that denotes a huge variety of spiders which are similar only in that they generally 'hunt' as opposed to building webs and waiting for dinner.
I'm not sure if this is 'technically' a wolf-spider, I heard a number of different ways to describe them when I lived in vic, everything from "small tarantula", which may be true as they have a body-structure that is very tarantula like, to the afformentioned 'hobo spider' but pretty much everyone just calls them "Wolf Spiders".
Generally they are darker, my guess it that this particular one just molted and its exoskeleton is still soft - which would explain why it wasn't running anywhere, it was waiting for its body to harden!
Oh, and it's totally not a Hacklemesh Weaver, though that is an interesting looking spider.
Wolf spiders are specific family (Lycosidae) of about 200 species in North America, it's not just a "catch-all" term. They do NOT hunt in packs. Almost all spiders are solitary, except for a few species of communal web-weavers in the tropics. Wolf spiders range in colors from very light to very dark, but many of them are grayish and hairy, and that's probably where the name comes from. Most do not spin webs (as driveway said), and are ambush predators. Most spider families can be identified by eye pattern, but the original photo doesn't show the face quite clearly enough to make a ruling.
I still stand by my ID of a Hacklemesh, probably a Callobius, common in the PNW, especially in woodpiles and juniper bushes.
Sorry to be pedantic about this, but misinformation tends distort opinions about what are really very useful and harmless creatures. Live and let live, observe and learn.
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Wolf spiders are specific family (Lycosidae) of about 200 species in North America, it's not just a "catch-all" term. They do NOT hunt in packs. Almost all spiders are solitary, except for a few species of communal web-weavers in the tropics. Wolf spiders range in colors from very light to very dark, but many of them are grayish and hairy, and that's probably where the name comes from. Most do not spin webs (as driveway said), and are ambush predators. Most spider families can be identified by eye pattern, but the original photo doesn't show the face quite clearly enough to make a ruling.
I still stand by my ID of a Hacklemesh, probably a Callobius, common in the PNW, especially in woodpiles and juniper bushes.
Sorry to be pedantic about this, but misinformation tends distort opinions about what are really very useful and harmless creatures. Live and let live, observe and learn.
They do so hunt in packs, much like Velociraptors. You could call them Raptor Spiders, too, if you'd like, really. The only real difference is that they have their toe talon on their mouths, and they have two instead of one. They use them to rip your bowels open all the same.
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I found this creepy bugger under my cat's bed. Anybody know what it is? The was pretty well blood red all over, especially the legs. He met his end in the belly of my vacuum cleaner.
This looks like your spider. A hackledmesh weaver spider. Found in Canada
I am dead serious when I saw I am the biggest baby here when it comes to spiders, there was a small (0,5 cm - 1.0 cm) spider on my shower curtain the other day, and I got out, stared at it from a distance, waited for my moment, and hit it into the running water and killed it by drowning it. Everytime I go to practice drums, I look under all my drums to make sure there are no spiders underneath waiting to kill me. If someone asks me to step on a spider, it would take me about half an hour, as I have to figure out it's moves and then slowly lower my foot on it.
Seriously, I HATE spiders.
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My husband used to be scared of spiders and used to call me to catch them to put them outside. I started to say,'Don't worry, Mummy is on her way to save her brave little soldier' and I think he got the message as to what a total wuss he was being and he now catches them and puts them outside himself.
I think Stump above has it right, it looks exactly like a Hacklemesh Weaver.
And your story is nasty! Man... That's rough. I think only a few suffer from necrosis like that, though. But, man... I assume you went to the doctor, right?
I think I went to the doctor the next day. I do remember them giving me a shot (or at least trying to), and I was deathly scared of needles, so I pissed on the doctor. Even at age 4, I knew that was an "lol" moment.
And stump, I think you have a positive ID on that (and blaster86 has the right idea).
Sorry to be pedantic about this, but you must destroy all spiders. It is kill, or be killed! If a spider got the chance he would kill you and everyone you care about. Spiders killed my Pappa, and had their way with mmy sister and made me watch! They are no better than those 9/11 terrorists, actually they are probably connected to them.
Fixed.
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Ok Im scared to DEATH of spiders. I have anxiety attacks when I see any spider that is bigger than those wee little ones you see in showers sometimes.
My brother just saw one at my house. he noticed it because my cat was sitting in that one corner, staring at the baseboard. She usually likes to hang out in one of our rooms, not in the hallway..and since she was sitting there for hours, he looked at what she was staring at and realized it was a medium sized spider. It was black and velvety looking and had a white mark on his back. I grabbed the first thing I saw (a spray bottle of household cleaner and tried to kill the spider by spraying it). I sprayed half the bottle at it, thought I drowned it, but no, he started moving again. I got scared and ran away and had my brother kill it. Then he's like "Well I killed it, you can pick up its squished remains". I was too scared to do that too haha and hid in the other room while he got rid of it.
yeah Im a wuss but Im soooooooo scared of them, my heart was racing and I freaked when he didnt die and I was spraying him. I thought he was going to get me.
Then for some reason, my husband started singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and I got so scared I cried.
Haha Im such a wuss...and this wasnt when I was 5. This was about 15 minutes ago.
Ok Im scared to DEATH of spiders. I have anxiety attacks when I see any spider that is bigger than those wee little ones you see in showers sometimes.
My brother just saw one at my house. he noticed it because my cat was sitting in that one corner, staring at the baseboard. She usually likes to hang out in one of our rooms, not in the hallway..and since she was sitting there for hours, he looked at what she was staring at and realized it was a medium sized spider. It was black and velvety looking and had a white mark on his back. I grabbed the first thing I saw (a spray bottle of household cleaner and tried to kill the spider by spraying it). I sprayed half the bottle at it, thought I drowned it, but no, he started moving again. I got scared and ran away and had my brother kill it. Then he's like "Well I killed it, you can pick up its squished remains". I was too scared to do that too haha and hid in the other room while he got rid of it.
yeah Im a wuss but Im soooooooo scared of them, my heart was racing and I freaked when he didnt die and I was spraying him. I thought he was going to get me.
Then for some reason, my husband started singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and I got so scared I cried.
Haha Im such a wuss...and this wasnt when I was 5. This was about 15 minutes ago.
Years of cheering for the Oilers has turned you into a gibboring, nervous wreck, I see.
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