Hobo Spiders vs Dog?!?!? HELP!

Argh! How scary!

I am borderline arachnophobic. I can handle some spiders, but if I get suprised by a spider I scream and run away. This morning I woke up, having a snuggle with the other half. He looks around and goes "Argh! Mel, I don't want you to look at the wall because it will scare you." Of course, I have a look and on our bedroom wall is one of the BIGGEST Hunstman spiders I have ever seen. These things are what my nightmares are made of. They are huge, hairy, fast, and unpredictable. They are not espcially dangerous, which is the only thing they have going for them. Although, I would far prefer a deadly Sydney Funnel Web over a Huntsman any day. Funnel Webs have fangs that can pierce your toenail, but at least they can't move very fast and they can only actually bite you by rising up first because their fangs are so long.

Aaaaanyway, this spider on the bedroom wall this morning was about the size of a large saucer with its legs spread out. The body was about the size of a ping pong ball, like Callie's banana spider. My reaction to these things is "It must die, now. We both cannot exist on the same planet at the same time. Nothing personal, but I can't live as long as I know that thing is living anywhere near me." Fortunately for the spider, my partner, while also scared of them, feels it's wrong to kill an animal just because it's a big ugly spider that gives you the heebie jeebies and it's in your BEDROOM. So I stood in the yard while he caught it and then I stood in the house while he let it go in the garden and if it sets a foot inside this house again, it will never see the light of another day.

The end. 

Every time I think I should move to a warmer climate I'm going to remember that the spiders here are not much bigger than a dime.

Tena

 Corvus, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that you live in Australia....

 Yeah, if you don't like spiders, never move to Australia! As far as I'm concerned it doesn't get worse than Huntsman spiders. They just have this way of running in the exact opposite direction than the one you were anticipating, and doing it a good deal faster than you imagined was possible. And they are known for jumping on people. I've seen it! You gingerly prod them with a stick and they do things like turning around and running up the stick. And if you have one running across the roof of your car, you do not know if that spider is going to randomly jump, and there's no telling as it runs past you if it's going to do it's jumping onto you. That's the worst of it. I could maybe cope with them if they didn't jump on you. I cannot handle that many long and hairy legs on me. For some reason spider legs totally freak me out.

ROFL what a great morning laugh I had reading this thread.  I only say this because I live far, far away from it.  I did climb into the shower last year only to find a huge black spider with this strange shaped white design on it's back in there with me.  I am not sure who was more afraid of who, but my family saw a woman in a towel, dripping wet, screaming run past them.

I am glad we have horrid frozen winters now!  Kills off a few of the nasty creeper crawlers.

corvus

 Yeah, if you don't like spiders, never move to Australia! ....They just have this way of running in the exact opposite direction than the one you were anticipating, and doing it a good deal faster than you imagined was possible. And they are known for jumping on people.

OMFG....I used to want to visit/move to Australia, I think now I'm going to revise that to, oh, I dunno...Canadian tundra in the dead of winter...

This entire thread has given me the creepy crawlies.  I used to freak out as a kid from the little dust mite sized house spiders we had in New England.  Now we have big furry wolf spiders which FREAK ME OUT, but that's not nearly as bad as *anything* that's been posted so far... Now I know part of the reason why I hid in the house when I lived in Florida....Banana spiders *shudder*  

corvus

it's wrong to kill an animal just because it's a big ugly spider that gives you the heebie jeebies and it's in your BEDROOM.

I am not a huge fan of spiders, but I rarely kill them.  However... this is normally a "sorry Spidder, you iz gunner DIE" moment.... Run TOWARDS me and get too close, and/or live in my bedroom... these are surefire ways of being introduced to my good friend Mr Slipper. <>  They give me the willies!

artinhappiness

Banana spiders *shudder*

I'm actually glad you guys mentioned these.  I saw this spider chillaxing on a holly bush outside my office the other day, it had a weird web, with this kinda criss cross pattern in the middle of it.  I hate spiders, too, but this one fascinated me, and I was wondering what it was.  Upon researching the spiders mentioned in this thread, I discovered the spider I saw is...a banana spider!  It wasn't big, though, maybe 2 inches or so legspan.  It was black and yellow.  Very cool looking...outdoors, lol.  Indoors would've been a different story!

About 7 years ago, I lived alone in an apartment in north Raleigh (NC).  The complex was on a lake, so there were quite a few interesting fauna around there.  One morning I was getting ready for work, and sitting on my bed putting on my makeup.  I noticed something large moving across the floor out of the corner of my eye.  It went into the bathroom.  I walked in there to see, and it was a wolf spider!!  Those things are big, hairy, and gross!!  It walked onto the dark blue bathmat and I couldn't see it anymore.  I shook the corner of the mat, it ran off, then proceeded to hop back and forth at me, just daring me to do something.  I completely freaked out, and leapt onto the toilet, shrieking.  Once I got my wits about me, I grabbed a big phone book and dropped it on top of the spider.  I left it there until I got home, all day dreading lifting that phone book.  I imagined that big sucker picking up the phone book off of itself like Superman lifting a car.

Side note - I was very lucky that the lid to the toilet was down before I hopped up there. 

 I think there are Banana Spiders, as in the big orb weavers that are pretty colours, but harmless, and there are Banana Spiders, aka Brazilian Wandering Spiders, which are big and brown and hairy and highly venomous and come in on bananas from South America.

I am pleased to say we have only had two large Huntsman spiders in our house since we moved in, which is a much better track record than the spider nightmare of my childhood, where we would get one of these big hairy monsters in the house every couple of months or so. What's worse, my parents refused to kill them and refused to get them out of the house. "They eat mosquitos; leave them be." I was callously told. They would come and rescue me if I found one in my bedroom or in the bathroom or toilet, but otherwise I was forced to slide down hallways eyeing the spider and willing it to remain utterly still as I sidled past as far from it as I could get.

I don't know if your wolf spiders over there are the same as ours. Ours can grow about the size of a baseball (all legs stretched out), and often carry all their babies on their backs. If you upset a wolf spider with babies, all the babies abandon ship and you have hundreds of tiny spiders running in all directions. We used to leave them be until we had a cat swallow one and get bitten in the back of the throat. She died. So pets are no longer allowed to play with spiders period and wolf spiders get killed or removed.

corvus

If you upset a wolf spider with babies, all the babies abandon ship and you have hundreds of tiny spiders running in all directions.

This is the thing nightmares are made from.  I litterally have every hair on standing on end and am ready to run just thinking about this.  ((SHUDDERS))

Callie, great story about the banana spider.... until, i looked up banana spiders.  OMG!  SCARY, EVIL looking creatures!!

Your stories are all very amusing... but, I shudder every time I think of them actually happening to someone, I start to shiver again. I'm trying to laugh, but it's hard!!

And huntsman spiders, we call them "cane spiders" in Hawaii, where I'm from, cause they live in the sugar cane fields.  They also lived in my tack rooms (every single one I've ever used!) and would occasionally come in the house.  They scare the bejesus out of me, not only are they huge, they watch you and I've heard of them jumping on people.  ((SHUDDERS) So scary!!!  I can't imagine trying to kill one, it would seem if you hit them with a slipper, they'd push it back at you and give you the finger.

I should explain, I wasn't always afraid of spiders, I didn't care for them, but didn't run in terror. But I got bitten by a brown recluse while hiking and had a gaping, seeping wound for months on end.  Since then... me and spiders, we don't hang out.

aerial1313

I left it there until I got home, all day dreading lifting that phone book.  I imagined that big sucker picking up the phone book off of itself like Superman lifting a car.

 I missed this line earlier.  Indeed.  Yes... see my statement about cane spiders above.  YES.... ((SHUDDER)) I believe they could!

We had a wolf spider infestation at my house summer 2008.  It was like Arachnaphobia (the movie).  Big fat hairy spiders leaping out at us!!  I don't like to kill things or use chemicals but I'm not kidding that a wolf spider jumping on me gives me a panic attack.  It took a LOT to kill them though, they did not go easily.  Now I only see one or two but leave them be, as long as they are not infesting all over my lawn chairs, agility equipment, tools...

corvus

I don't know if your wolf spiders over there are the same as ours. Ours can grow about the size of a baseball (all legs stretched out), and often carry all their babies on their backs. If you upset a wolf spider with babies, all the babies abandon ship and you have hundreds of tiny spiders running in all directions.

Yep, that sounds like the same ones we have here.  My junior year in high school science class we had to do a bug collection.  One class period our teacher took us to the woods behind the school to look for bugs.  She found a wolf spider carrying its babies.  She managed to coax it into a Ziploc bag, sealed it, and had us all gather round.  She shook the bag and the babies went scattering everywhere inside the bag.  Every one of us students jumped back about 10 feet!

Sera J, surface spray is the only reliable way to kill a Huntsman spider, and you know that inevitably when you spray it the spider will start running, then it will fall off whatever it's on and keep running and you will be frantically trying to keep out of its way and spray it some more from several metres away whilst your heart is pounding in terror and you are trying not to shriek. It's awful and I hate doing it, not just because it's a traumatic experience, but because being coated in poison is a really horrible way to go and nothing really deserves that. I don't consider hitting them a reliable course of action, because you have to get close to them and if you miss or don't hit them hard enough you're back to having them run around and madly trying to stay out of their way whilst trying to hit them again, only this time they are not in the process of dying from surface spray and can run all day, or until they find somewhere to hide, which is what normally happens. Then you have to live in fear until they re-emerge a few days later, usually somewhere unexpected like behind a calendar or next to a light switch in the dead of the night, or squished up besides the telephone, or underneath a handle where you will not see them until you put your hand on them. Shower curtains are a favourite. Nothing like being in the shower and suddenly realising there's an enormous spider on the curtain. I actually got into the habit of whipping the curtain across just to check before I hopped in.

I'm glad I live with someone who can at least handle catching the things and putting them out. You do get good at it over time. I just get good at picking relatively safe places to spray from and making sure I have an escape route planned. Spiders *shudder*.

 Ok.. I have officially died laughing!! I am majorly afraid of spiders. And I've got wolf spiders living in my house. *shudder*  Alex is the spider killer in the house but he likes the bloody things!!

But the spiders and I have an agreement.. They stay on the roof and outta my way and they can live. But if they come down on to the floor, it's free game and Maze gets to eat them

And no I have not looked up what a banana spider, huntsmen spiders look like and I do not want to know thank you very much.