Giant spiders

Just a question out of curiosity. Never encountered one before, heck they may no exist. But I think they do.

I've seen documentries about them, with people hunting them in the Amazon. For some bizarre reason, they were looking in burrows in which a rat could fit in, when they were looking for spiders roughly, 2-3ft oh the floor and 5-6ft wide.

So was just wondering if anyone has seen/encountered one before. Would be much better if people had pictures.

I apolagize for not making this into an article with loads of info.

They might be mistaking the Red King Crab, aka Paralithodes camtschaticus, for giant spiders. It can happen.

The largest known spider is the Giant huntsman spider in terms of leg span, and the Goliath birdeater is the largest known by mass.

Originally posted by Krono
Just a question out of curiosity. Never encountered one before, heck they may no exist. But I think they do.

I've seen documentries about them, with people hunting them in the Amazon. For some bizarre reason, they were looking in burrows in which a rat could fit in, when they were looking for spiders roughly, 2-3ft oh the floor and 5-6ft wide.

So was just wondering if anyone has seen/encountered one before. Would be much better if people had pictures.

I apolagize for not making this into an article with loads of info.

Hi Krono - I've never seen any personally, but Mysterious Universe's Plus episode 307 covered some accounts of african and other giant spiders from Frontiers of Zoology linking through Helium and other sites. I'm not aware of any south american giant reports offhand.

If they're really out there, I don't mind if I never get to see one myself, honestly. Bugs and spiders NEED to stay small, IMHO...or we need to get a lot bigger.

Thank you for your replies. I think scientist have already de-bunked this. They state that spider can't become giants (when I mean giants I don't mean 100ft tall!) due to the low oxygen levels in the air. They said if they were big, they wouldn't be able to breath in enough oxygen to survive.

So I thought to myself...how do giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, humans, well large animals breath? how are we able to breath if the oxygen levels are low?

Here's a link I found from a much older thread.

"The Congolese spider"

www.helium.com...

reply to post by Krono


I'm not sure how well that idea holds up for soft bodied insects or spiders for that matter.

technically not a giant spider but what the hey

I'd run screaming like a little girl if i saw this

www.wired.com...

Here are a couple of links you might enjoy reading. The Congolese Giant Spider here:
www.symondrake.com... AKA 'Jba Fofi' en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Atzil321


Thanks for putting a link up. I think, when I'm older and have more money, I'll go to the areas where they allegedly are, take photos if i see evidence and post them on here.

reply to post by Krono


One time I woke up face to face with a spider that appeared to be so large that it might have been capable of stomping me to death.

Then I had one of those "DONT HURT ME" seizures and it flew off my eyelashes. lol. Seriously though, I do not doubt the POSSIBILITY of them, my question would be if one DID exist, WHERE would it be? Think about how large some spider webs are compared to the actual spider. It would probably be one of the most beautiful and frightening things to witness.

I find the concept of giant spiders to be very intriguing.

What an adventure it would be to fight off some of those in the wilderness..
But I guess movies and computer games with giant spiders are just as good.

Starred and flagged.

reply to post by Mystic Technician


Well nowadays, we'd just call the army in, then politicians would say "we believe the spiders are terrorists and are linking with Al Qaeda" they would then go in, bomb the living crap out of the area and look for oil.

In all seriousness, if I ever saw one, I'd stay well a way from it and try and get a decent photo and chuck it up on here ASAP.

Originally posted by Krono
Here's a link I found from a much older thread.

"The Congolese spider"

www.helium.com...

Yeah, there's an older thread on this forum about giant spiders in the congo. I forgot the name of it but I saw it a couple months back and it's worth searching for.

I believe that there could be 5 foot+ spiders running around. Science can claim it impossible but witness accounts, especially by the jungle locals, are more believable than theoretical deduction in my opinion.

Originally posted by Krono

So I thought to myself...how do giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, humans, well large animals breath? how are we able to breath if the oxygen levels are low?

Spiders take in oxygen much differently than mammals and reptilians. THere are sources getting much deeper into it but there is a very good explanation to the question you posed.

One spring afternoon I was fishing with my father in a small mountain stream. We stopped to admire a hummingbird drinking the nectar of an Easter lily. Suddenly something jumped up and snatched the bird out of the air and it and the bird hit the water. There was a small struggle and a giant (the size of a large dinner plate) spider was dragging the bird out of the water. It was then that Dad and I noticed that there were many of these spiders all around blending near perfectly with the rocks. Without saying a word to each other we picked up our poles and went home. We never spoke of it.

Originally posted by Ookie
One spring afternoon I was fishing with my father in a small mountain stream. We stopped to admire a hummingbird drinking the nectar of an Easter lily. Suddenly something jumped up and snatched the bird out of the air and it and the bird hit the water. There was a small struggle and a giant (the size of a large dinner plate) spider was dragging the bird out of the water. It was then that Dad and I noticed that there were many of these spiders all around blending near perfectly with the rocks. Without saying a word to each other we picked up our poles and went home. We never spoke of it.

Haha I had something similar happen to a buddy and I while fishing up at Lake Fernan in North Idaho. We were lure fishing from shore when a rat the size of a small dog jumped in the water for a small fish. We watched it drag itself and the fish back in a hole almost silently except the little splash. We just looked at each other and went to the dock area because the locals warned us of the wildlife there and that was the biggest F'n rat ever.

I've seen some Huge tarantula swarms in California where they number in the millions crawling across entire hillsides and it is the creepiest thing ever.
google California tarantula swarms or santa cruz tarantula swarms

reply to post by NewsWorthy


Good Gawd! I will just stay put here in Maryland then, thanks. When we have a march of a million, it's people, not tarantulas, thank goodness. It truly is the bugs that keep me a homebody and dampened my enthusiasm for travel. When I visited the Ryukyus one year I had the excitement of blundering into the web of a spider that was as big as a grown man's hand. Having one of those in my face shaved about ten years from my life expectancy and my cousin joked that my scream probably woke some of our dead ancestors. I have no desire to even imagine that there may be spiders as big across as I am tall. I want to hug the scientists who say such a thing is impossible.

Edit: here is a link to a page of a spider similar to what I encountered: rajtents.com...

I did find out that my garden is infested with a bumper crop of huge hairy spiders this year. To my surprise, they were more afraid of me than I was of them and that is saying something! As I was screaming and scrambling as fast as I could in the opposite direction, they looked just as appalled to see me and were scrambling away as fast as they could in the opposite direction. My husband id'd them as wolf spiders. Whatever they are, I rather like them after seeing they want no part of me whatsoever and would do anything to avoid even touching me. I'd rather have a garden full of these guys than smaller ones who think it is a fine adventure to drop from the wall or ceiling and crawl in my hair and go spelunking in my ear!

Originally posted by SheeplFlavoredAgain I'd rather have a garden full of these guys than smaller ones who think it is a fine adventure to drop from the wall or ceiling and crawl in my hair and go spelunking in my ear!

Oh my actual god. Thanks SO much for planting that in my brain! Spiders make me scream like a little bitch, even the smallest ones, and the unseasonably warm weather in the UK seems to have brought out loads of these half-decent sized black things.

Re: the giant Congo spiders -- I'd LOVE to see a few of those. I know, I know, I'm doing it to myself but I expect they'd be horrific and amazing at the same time. I remember watching some mini-series on video when I was a kid about a woman who had the ability to turn into a giant black widow who then goes around killing people. I couldn't tell you too much about it now but I remember being glued to the screen in abject horror. I'd actually really like to see that again, if anyone knows of it and can tell me what it's called.

reply to post by Amadeo


I have the most horrendous luck for an arachnophobe. I do not understand what cosmic forces I may have p*ssed off in my lifetime, but compared to my husband who is not afraid of spiders, I have had more close and horrible and freaky encounters with spiders than anyone I know, despite my making it a point to avoid the beastly things. I have even had a brown recluse bite. They are not native to this area but beware, books and toys are not the only things that come in from eBay and Amazon, as I discovered the hard way!

I've been relatively lucky to not have too many spiders get into this house. But the house I grew up in was sorry to say, a bit of a dump. We were not very well off. Though my mom kept a clean house, it was not the most tightly constructed of houses so the place was repeatedly infested with spiders, millipedes, ants, and even copperhead snakes and rat snakes thanks to openings in the cellar. That's how I'd end up with spelunking spiders. I guess they were a blessing in disguise, because the few times we got roaches, they didn't last very long. I think the spiders and snakes drove them off.