Giant spider stories

A Coast-To-Coast program last week featured British zoologist (and cryptozoologist) Karl Shuker.
He discussed the legends of giant spiders living in the Congo and in South America.

He also related two stories of sightings that supposedly took place in New Guinea during World War 2.
The first story involved an Australian soldier who took a few steps off a jungle path to relieve himself.
He noticed a huge web in the undergrowth, and soon realized he was face to face with a giant, black hairy spider. According to the witness, its body was the size of a small dog.

In the second story, an American soldier claimed to have seen a huge emerald-green spider.

Fast forward to the 12:50 mark to hear these two stories.

i saw the thread title and all i could think of is this you tube clip of a huge scary spider leaping at this person

a reply to: ColeYounger

Don't know about "dog sized' spiders, but my brother was golfing down under one day and knocked his ball in the rough (jungle). A minute later they were all standing around on the green when one of his buddies pointed to his neck. When my brother looked down he saw a hand sized spider resting there just below his collar.

He said that was the farthest he jumped ever.

Meet Aussie's bird killer

the spiders you see in the link above this reply is about as big as they can get now.
300 million yeaqrs agaio when earths air presser was 45 psi (now its 14.5 )
sand ox was higher they got close to the size of a small dog along with other bugs as big
long as a 6 foot man.search.yahoo.com...;_yl
images.search.yahoo.com...;_

originally posted by: Biigs
i saw the thread title and all i could think of is this you tube clip of a huge scary spider leaping at this person

The simple solution to the clip is you burn your house down......

a reply to: Biigs

haha im not scared of spiders but that gave me the shivers hahah..... It is funny how many men, including myself, have equipped the makeshift shield, helmet and weapon to remove nature from the home.

I have traveled quite a bit and have never come across a giant spider, nor have I ever heard of anything like that..just writing in the thread to keep an eye on it.

originally posted by: rockpaperhammock
a reply to: Biigs

haha im not scared of spiders but that gave me the shivers hahah..... It is funny how many men, including myself, have equipped the makeshift shield, helmet and weapon to remove nature from the home.

I have traveled quite a bit and have never come across a giant spider, nor have I ever heard of anything like that..just writing in the thread to keep an eye on it.

Whenever I need to kill a big spider I always put together a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.... Plan A is my initial attack plan, if that goes wrong I need to have a Plan B in place to confine the spider to a single room. From there if I still can't get the spider I move to Plan C, which is burning down the house. Unfortunately, I have a very long arson record and the cops don't believe my "spider" stories

a reply to: Biigs
I would've shot it with my pistol and I'm not even kidding.

originally posted by: Fylgje
a reply to: Biigs
I would've shot it with my pistol and I'm not even kidding.

i doubt that you are and i would have too, that guy was very brave to get so close to that thing.

it was the size of a dinner plate!!!

shoot it!! shoot it in its hairy face!!!

what the hell possess people to approach a spider that big?

hit it with a 6 foot stick and nail it.

spiders freak me out i wouldnt be getting that close to any of them.

a reply to: midnightstar
I agree..I keep Tarantula's and have for 20+ yrs. so I have some knowledge/experience and basically a spider works almost like a hydraulic system, in our current condition they just cannot get that large..couldn't lift themselves..also the oxygen content plays a role along with air pressure.
I would of caught that bad boy no problem

a reply to: Biigs

I will be blocking out what i saw in that video tonight with lots of alcohol in the hope i don't have nightmares lol

originally posted by: Biigs
what the hell possess people to approach a spider that big?

hit it with a 6 foot stick and nail it.

spiders freak me out i wouldnt be getting that close to any of them.

Or instead of killing a harmless living creature you could try a capture it and put it outside. Do you kill everything that scares you?

originally posted by: doorhandle

originally posted by: Biigs
what the hell possess people to approach a spider that big?

hit it with a 6 foot stick and nail it.

spiders freak me out i wouldnt be getting that close to any of them.

Or instead of killing a harmless living creature you could try a capture it and put it outside. Do you kill everything that scares you?

that man trys to capture it humanly and the thing launches itself at him.

sorry but a giant spider that jumps is a kill situation and i really dont think thats unfair at all, its a giant jumping spider, kill it, kill it with fire or bullets.

you try and take a huge spider out then see how happy you are about being nice.

giant killer spiders are a kill first and ask questions later.

do you want a giant spider to bite you? i friggen dont.

smash it to bits, shoot it, burn it with a damned flame thrower. dont be all "oh be nice to creatures" no one is out to harm one, if one is in your house you kill it.

30 years ago while working in a old house the carpenter pulled of a piece of skirting board next to where i was kneeling . next thing this spider in a mere 3 seconds moved 8-9 foot up the wall and along the ceiling it only had a body the size of my thumb nail but it was 10- 12 inches tip to tip

Screamed like a girl as i threw myself out the door

how can people defend this creature?

do you think it set out that day and said "im going to eat some stuff but humans are off limits" are you insane of course not that monster insect would bite anyone that got in its way.

you kill it, and FAST

originally posted by: midnightstar
the spiders you see in the link above this reply is about as big as they can get now.
300 million yeaqrs agaio when earths air presser was 45 psi (now its 14.5 )
sand ox was higher they got close to the size of a small dog along with other bugs as big
long as a 6 foot man.search.yahoo.com...;_yl
images.search.yahoo.com...;_

With coconut crabs getting as large as they do, I see no reason why spiders are limited to the currently known maximum size. The assumption that they area limited because of oxygen or air pressure is based on a very big assumption that they all have the same breathing physiology which is very under studied as it is.

Spiders freak me out. Big spiders freak me out. Jumping spiders freak me out the most!!!

We have some pretty big ones in Arizona - I have seen hand sized tarantulas in Strawberry, all over the rocks around the creek. We went there to swim in the creek and I saw them, but they weren't moving around and didn't come up on top of the rocks where we were, and other families were there, and I didn't want to scare the kids, so I kept quiet. Then, my son was in the water, and saw one of them because he looked up towards us, and he screamed like a girl! We never went back there.

I currently have a truce with a small yellow spider that is living under the bookshelf in our bedroom. He can stay there as long as he doesn't make any sudden moves or get near the bed. I had a similar truce with a different yellow spider in the kitchen, a couple of years ago, but he grew big and got more agressive, after a while, and did not stick to the terms.

When I lived in Colorado, there were these small hairy hunting spiders called wolf spiders that jump super fast, usually straight at you. Those were awful! Encountering one that jumps at you and is big, like that video, would send me screaming out the door. I could absolutely not handle that in my house.

a reply to: Halfswede
Its not about breathing exactly, higher o2 content leads to larger animals true..its more about hydraulics which really is about pressure, if there is not enough outside pressure to contain the inside pressure you will have a blowout. A spider while simular to a crab isnt a crab, they have no real shell like a crab to contain that pressue. Im not an expert on crabs but they definatly have more musculature for their mobility..big spiders work kind of hydraulicly to some degree. In an evolutionary way the size of animal has mostly come down as a matter of efficiency..alot of work to support a large body and for a spider to grow a crab like shell is not efficient. Nature is efficient.
Cheers.