Spiders the size of rats are breeding and colonising the UK .. Title:

a reply to: Kratos40

Damn us Aussies do like to talk some s#.

Truth is, our wildlife has got nothing on what you'll find in the Americas. A few hardcore deadly snakes, but 99% of Aussies have never actually witnessed them.

Just stay away from the waters edge when up north and you'll be just fine.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Sublimecraft

I have dug up a few funnel webs over the years and they are vicious buggers,i had a male on the end of my shovel,it was chomping down on the steel and i could feel quite a strong vibration coming up through the handle and the fang strikes sounded like metal on metal......

This south American spider has a bizarre side effect which may end up making a lot of woman happy

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On topic,if these spiders have been hidden away in the U.K makes me wonder what kinda monster spiders are lurking out there in the jungles.......

You sir did not make my day... At all

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

A few hardcore deadly snakes, but 99% of Aussies have never actually witnessed them.

Ha ha , i have seen snakes that scared me and that is a big ask . I have trod on 2 browns and luckily for me they were as scared as i was . Amazing what you can make your body do when you get an atomic bombs worth of adrenalin .

a reply to: SlowNail

I Grew up in England and had not heard of them,i was led to believe there were only small spiders and they didn't bite lol,ah the good old days of being young and gullible...tell you what i got one hell of a shock when i moved to Australia,i would have been around 13 years old and my old man comes running to get me come look at this spider he pulled out of the pool,he goes to pick it up again and it moved,naturally he freaked out and it was later that day we read about funnel webs and their ability to survive a couple of days underwater.....

That wandering spider approx how big was it just curiously ? Pretty cool to see one albeit from a distance.....

Spiders are creepy,it has taken me years to get used to the huntsmans they really like it inside the little buggers,i co-exist with them now as i know they get rid of the nasty spiders,just when my GF is over i have to catch em and send em on their way as she just goes into panick mode

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Big. With leg span, it looked about the size of an adult hand. Must've had a bumpy ride. Seemed slow and lethargic. Watching it saunter out was really creepy.

We have a few that bite, but I don't seem to come across spiders much anymore. I'm surrounded by a lot of concrete now. I'm not scared of spiders the same way I am of venomous fliers, but I don't want them near me either. Admittedly, my first instinct is to kill it, just so I know it's gone.

I cannot help thinking that the journalist has never seen a rat.

That said, this is positive story of conservation, so should be applauded.

Spiders are awesome and beautiful but i am scared of them, even the smaller ones we have in Finland, there is non of the bigger ones, perhaps because here is only 3months of summer and long cold winters.

I can handle small spiders they make webs in the corners only bite me once every few weeks while sleeping. Imagining waking up to a creepy crawly feeling and seeing that huge spider on my leg or chest? I'd go berserk and kill every last creature in my realm. Not okay.

originally posted by: paraphi
I cannot help thinking that the journalist has never seen a rat.

That said, this is positive story of conservation, so should be applauded.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. We had a rat in college named Jocko. His tail alone was as long as the length of palm.

There were a lot of athletes in my husband's dorm, and my husband worked the front desk night shift. Sometimes, they would get bored and start throwing their weight around. My husband would have me bring Jocko down. In a sense it was cruel because I know well why a lot of those big guys were afraid of rats, but on the flip side, they stopped being a pain in my husband's side just because they could.

Better spiders than ISIS breeders.

a reply to: 727Sky

Reminds me of a comic book story i read in '2000AD', about a plague of large, mutant poisonous spiders...'The Black Plague'.

Freaked me out a bit at the time (1979)...let's hope reality doesn't emulate fiction in this particular case!

(shudder)

i'm cool with spiders - even large ones. if one pesters me in the house i pick it up gently and release it outside (not in winter). generally i just let them be. ps. cool gif Sublimecraft

a reply to: 727Sky

They look a lot like what we call wolf spiders here, and those can get as big as your palm, too. They can, unofficially, get a lot bigger, apparently! When we were in Florida, my oldest was living in this place in a swampy area, and the house was infested with wolf spiders. Most were pretty big, and some were really BIG. She hates spiders, and is allergic, so this was a real ordeal. She reported to me that there was a HUGE one there, but I always thought she was exaggerating. Visiting one evening, we saw one crawl up from under an end table that was as big as a BIG tarantula, as big as my whole hand, fingers and all. Yet it was no a tarantula; it was a wolf spider, albeit a big one! I commented, "So that's your big one! Wow, you weren't kidding!!", to which she remarked, "No, that's not the big one."

I was skeptical, of course, and said so, yet she insisted there was one a lot bigger. Just then, we heard a rustling behind a stack of boxes that refused to unpack, because, she said, of the spider. Up the wall it came, and I was stunned, horrified, baffled, and amazed! This sucker was GINORMOUS!!! I am talking huge, as in 10-12 inched diameter. No, I am not kidding. Wish I was!! They aren't supposed to get anywhere near that big!! Even a tarantula isn't supposed to get that big. At this point, I wanted a gun. Didn't have one, so picked up a 2x4, and threw it at he spider. It hit, dead on, with the end right on the spider. That's when it got really scary. The nasty thing was not harmed, AT ALL, and it reared up and chittered at us. The posture was definitely threatening, so be carefully made our way to the door. Wasn't easy, since the wall it was on was between us ad the door, but no way was I staying!!

Normal ones are one thing, and I can deal with them outside, where they belong. One that size, indoors? No thanks!!

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

You remind me of a story.

YEARS ago we were remodeling a house we bought in Florida. It was in the Clermont area...
My parents helped out us and with my daughter at the time and had parked their camper beside the house.
One night as I was hanging clothes in the closet in the master, I saw something big out of the corner of my eye. Now, I like spiders, the old man is terrified.
I wasn't sure what I had seen in the back of the closet so I shouted for the old man to come.
He did and we saw it and he screamed like a little girl and it was a wolf spider...as it ran across the top of the hangers on the shoulders of the clothes it was MOVING THEM!
It was scary for even me!
He grabbed a pistol and drew down...I said "Oh my god ______you can't!"
My parents camper was on the other side of the wall...
I don't think he slept for a night or two AND we never found the spider...

Another story, same house, there was an OLD smoke detector up high in the wall. We had installed new ones so never really had paid much attention to this one and we were sure it was disconnected as we could see the wires hanging out of it...
Well, one day, he climbed up to remove it.
The wires weren't wires after all.
It was a dead spider and those "wires" were it's legs hanging out of the old detector!

He was a wreck living in Florida!
Things just don't die there!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Sounds like a big one, to move the clothes!!! Yet the science pages all claim they don't get anywhere near that big. Go figure!! How big were the ones you saw there?

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: 727Sky

They look a lot like what we call wolf spiders here, and those can get as big as your palm, too. They can, unofficially, get a lot bigger, apparently! When we were in Florida, my oldest was living in this place in a swampy area, and the house was infested with wolf spiders. Most were pretty big, and some were really BIG. She hates spiders, and is allergic, so this was a real ordeal. She reported to me that there was a HUGE one there, but I always thought she was exaggerating. Visiting one evening, we saw one crawl up from under an end table that was as big as a BIG tarantula, as big as my whole hand, fingers and all. Yet it was no a tarantula; it was a wolf spider, albeit a big one! I commented, "So that's your big one! Wow, you weren't kidding!!", to which she remarked, "No, that's not the big one."

I was skeptical, of course, and said so, yet she insisted there was one a lot bigger. Just then, we heard a rustling behind a stack of boxes that refused to unpack, because, she said, of the spider. Up the wall it came, and I was stunned, horrified, baffled, and amazed! This sucker was GINORMOUS!!! I am talking huge, as in 10-12 inched diameter. No, I am not kidding. Wish I was!! They aren't supposed to get anywhere near that big!! Even a tarantula isn't supposed to get that big. At this point, I wanted a gun. Didn't have one, so picked up a 2x4, and threw it at he spider. It hit, dead on, with the end right on the spider. That's when it got really scary. The nasty thing was not harmed, AT ALL, and it reared up and chittered at us. The posture was definitely threatening, so be carefully made our way to the door. Wasn't easy, since the wall it was on was between us ad the door, but no way was I staying!!

Normal ones are one thing, and I can deal with them outside, where they belong. One that size, indoors? No thanks!!

That's huge,but in some parts of the world they have the bird eating spider which is 12 inch diameter on average,makes you wonder how big those ones can really get.It seems like maybe there might be something to the huge spider sightings in the Congo.(2 feet to 6 feet in diameter according to some of the sightings)I bet a spider that big could stay hidden for a very long time in a place like the Congo,it could stay in caves resting during the day and hunt only at night,either way I would like to find out if it exists,if it does it probably doesn't make any webs,but if it does those webs could make good fishing nets for the locals.(yes some spider webs are that strong)Now if I was looking for it and I would if the opportunity arose,I would want to have at least three other people with me and they should be armed with elephant/big game rifles just in case.(preferably .700 nitro express,.600 nitro express,.577 Tyrannosaur,or .416 Weatherby)

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

It HAD to be the size of his hand!

I've asked him again how big he thinks it was and he says it had to be the size of a saucer. 7 inches around or so....

I know it is hard to believe.
If you have ever seen a banana spider...? Wikipedia Golden Silk Orb Weaver
They are really quite lovely, actually...their name is derived from "fond of spinning"....their webs are "golden" in the sun...when it is rainy or windy outside, they actual;y take the time to redesign their webs so that they will survive the weather....

They would (in FL) build their webs between trees. They would get the size of your hand also...
Walking through the woods/swamps you would duck and dodge to avoid disturbing them and their webs...

quite startling to walk up on one...quite fun/fascinating if you like them!


This cape was made from the silk of an orb weaver!

a reply to: VashTheStampede

The Congolese Giant Spider!

Maybe a sighting in the U.S.

I don't think it has been proven/unproven but....

Crypto news

There have been a few sightings although no one has proven to my knowledge...yet...

JBA FOFI