Spider ID?

That one looks like it could give a nasty bite!

Yepā€¦ my wife still got a scar from a bite 20 years ago or soā€¦
We had cat who excelled at hunting them down, but we usually try to catch them and release them outdoors. They are actually very beneficialā€¦eat lots of insectsā€¦

Yes, not sure from which end though!

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With two cats in the basement, luckily we donā€™t see as many spiders as usual anymore!! :cat2: :cat2:

I donā€™t love 'em, but I will take a spider over a stinkbug ANY DAY omg I hate stinkbugsā€¦droning, dive-bombing, prehistoric-looking and why-canā€™t-I-just-kill-you little buggers. We had them all over my apartment in Charlottesville, I hated it haha

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I think camel crickets are the worst - they look like spiders with really long legs that jump unpredictably everywhere (and at you!). And they stink if you squash them. Ugh.

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Or send them to Chile, this cutie is hungry too

Just kidding, itā€™s pretty harmless. In fact some organizations import them to train people in spiders handing (like RSPCA).

I had one as a pet, we called her ā€œsieteā€ (seven) because she had just seven legs.

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Huh. We have things like wolf spiders, but the legs are more stripey. They have a tendency to build webs on the corners of outside doors, which is really not ideal (although itā€™s great for looking at them if itā€™s a glass door).

ewwwwwww :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Itā€™s the jumping and the flying and the moving really fast that gets me. If all insects could just move really slow, I wouldnā€™t mind them as much lol

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:sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

Iā€™d show you guys a picture of my frozen coral snake, but we probably donā€™t want to expand the kreepy kritter kategory. :grin:

I got bitten on the eyelid while sleeping once by a marginally poisonous spider (not a recluse or widow) and it caused half of my face to swell up for about two weeksā€¦steroid shots required to see out of that eye.

No bueno.

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Looks like a house spider, maybe a wolf spider, either way no issues. Recluses are only in very specific areas and have violin shapes on them to help you ID.

We have these in San Diego. They are crazy! They are easily the most aggressive spider Iā€™ve ever seen. Iā€™ve stepped near one and watched it attack my boot without hesitation.

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When we lived in Prescott we found one of those under my daughterā€™s baby swing. When I tried to remove it, it charged me. Horrible, horrible thing.

We also had black widows. I was a nervous wreck living there with a newborn.

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I have recently and reluctantly had to admit that on rare occasion, they can be kinda cute. Especially hairy jumping spiders. They are like itty-bitty puppies.

These guys are kinda cute too.

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That was so squeeeeeee! :smile:
(The eyes on the little spider snowmanā€¦)

I usually have black widows hanging around outside on the back patio here, since the widows usually nest near doorways they tend to snag up crickets before the crickets find their way into the house. So I actually leave the widows alone. If I see an egg sack though, that is getting taken care of ASAP. Nobody has time for that mess.

One time I had opened a computer tower to clean it out (we have a big dust problem in the desert, understandably) and I found two LIVE black widow females and one dead male (same shape, smaller size than a female and brown in color) hanging out next to each other in there. I didnt think Widows tolerated each other but I guess if they shared that other poor guy, they must have become good Gal-Pals. LOL.

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Scariest land creature i know is the Stinging Slug Caterpiller.

Japan has a LOT of scary bugs, but this one takes the cake. They sit on the underside of momiji (Japanese Maples) during summer when the leaves are green and of course I have a shaved head.

Being stung by this thing is the most excruciating pain i have ever experienced, it is like being hit on the head with a spiked sledgehammer. One moment you are walking along happily, the next you are lying on the floor in the fetal position.

Give me spiders and snakes any dayā€¦ even give me the swarms of mosquito we were blessed with (thanks jungle bamboo groves)ā€¦ i NEVER want to touch another of these as long as i live.

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We get some little ones like thatā€¦brush up against one of those things with a bare arm and the whole thing goes numb from tip to shoulder. :confounded:

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Living in Georgia, we get lots of wolf spiders of the North America-large size (2" across). They run around, so they get the boot out of the house. The house orb spiders look like widows, but normally stay small and are allowed to chill in the corner/window frame/etc since they Stay Where They Are. The brown widows (I know right? I did not know they were a thing until I moved here!) can get pretty large, but they are only outside, less aggressive than their sisters, and also mostly Stay Put. That said, Iā€™ll move them off/out of the patio area, and out of the patio chairs 3 or 4 times a year.

After worrying about trying to accurately identify a recluse, I learned that they have smooth legs that are all one color. So if the spider looks like a feminist (spiky unshaven legs, stripey ā€œstockingsā€) it is not a recluse. Although this always makes me think of how clean and one-color Barbie doll legs areā€¦which gives me a mental picture of a spider with 8 Barbie doll legs playing the violinā€¦ ;p

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First time i saw it was when an American Monk said almost exactly the same, i guess that is why he got stung much earlier than meā€¦ apparently (compared to the US one) the instant pain of these is like nothing else, but they do not have any lingering side effects like the American variants do. Never got stung in the US, and not willing to volunteer to do a comparative pain test.

Another to watch out for in Japan is the SusumeBatchi (Sparrow Wasp) so named because of their sizeā€¦ yupā€¦ jolly things.
Even more fun is that they build their nests underground so when one is walking along a path and hears a hollow sound from a footstep it is safest to just run. Even more-so because their venom is actually quite dangerous

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