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.

My neighbor came over and asked me if i could kill this spider for her hanging on the side of the garage, "I said yes" and grabbed the broom. We went outside and two other people were watching it. I rounded the corner of the garage and i stopped dead in my tracks. The f# thing was a foot in diameter. As i slowly walked up to it i could see that it was a hairy tan spider. I took a step back and threw the broom at it and i missed. The thing went lightning speed past me and i ran like hell, so did all the other people. A person spotted the thing running to the other corner of the garage. I went into my garage and got my shovel. I then spotted the spider in the long tall grass next to the garage. I again walked up to it and i stopped by it. I slowly raised the shovel and hit the spider dead. I was in utter fear. All i could think about was that i do not want this thing to have babies crawling around my house. God only knows what kind of spider that was and how deadly a bite. I hit it again to make sure it was dead and i stepped on the part of the spider to crush any babies it may be carrying. Now i live in MN. How can a foot in diameter spider like this live here in minnesota? I looked up on the web for spiders that looked like it and i never found one that looked like it and not to mention the size of the thing. I figured it was a mutant spider since we live by the sewer system. I also encountered a fly the size of a fifty cent peice. I was walking out to have a ciggarett and this thing buzzed by my head and i watched it land on my car. I walked up to it and looked at it awhile. I went back inside to show my roomate and we went to my car and it was gone. He did not believe me, but he got a shock a few minutes later when we were walking back in to the house when the thing flew past his head and flew away and landed on the deck. We both walked up to it to take a closer look. The thing flew at us and went over to the neighbors house somewhere.

I already know i won't be able to sleep for a week after looking at some of the pictures in this thread Idk what it is about spiders but even the smallest ones make me scream like a little girl. I don't even want to imagine what i would do if they did find some "giant" spider somewhere, probably barricade myself in my house and never leave. Luckily in my part of New York we don't have anything as big of some of you guys but even the little ones cause me to vacate the room until i know its dead.

So....anyone come across a 5ft spider yet?

Nah, in all seriousness I don't think they exist. The fossil of the prehistoric spider was what...30cm long? And every creature seems to be getting smaller. Ahwell, there's always next year.

oooo I love spiders.

Here's some i photographed hanging around our backyard.

funny enough these bastards are everywhere in south west wa... also quite common in the gardens in sydney cbd.

not deadly.. you'd probably die from the heartattack instead of the bite





These ones are pretty fat and juicy.. but i have seen larger.

funny story:

back in yr5 ( i think i was like 11 ) our science class was studying spiders.
For some unknown reason we were encouraged to bring spiders in we catch at home, we had a large fishtank we'd put them in and study them. Of course some kinds came in one day with redbacks and whitetails and that bit of fun immediately stopped. But not before we had a collection of spiders... huntsman, orbweavers, wofl spiders.

One day during sports i had to run back to the classroom to get my hat, and i couldnt resist looking into the spider tank.

'BANG'

crap, i accidently hit the glass top and it falls in.. no way im putting my hand in there.. ill just run away pretending it wasnt me.

the next morning i come to class a friends runs up explaining somehow all the spiders got out.

WHOOPS!

I go into the class room and yep.. all the spiders are gone. in the top corner of our class room is an orbweavers who's spent the night making this f'kn huge cirqular web. IT was awesome.


but the best part?

was watching the girls FREAK OUT when they'd find a huntsman in their desk trays! bahahaha

Id say at a guess the size of the abdomen and head
4-5cms? (grabs ruler)
yeah that'd be about right

Well, these arent poisonous, and to be honest ive never seen one of these inside.. only outside under the porch or in the bushes.

Redbacks.. now ive caught some f'n big redbigs strolling through the house. there the ones you need to be careful off.



not my pic.. but if i took my camera out today at home i could snap atleast 4 of these bugrs sitting pretty!

Originally posted by Krono
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?

Yeah I think I remember seeing something in a documentary where they think there aren't many giant species left and why a lot of species have shrunk is because of how the environment and everything has changed over the years and that it just wouldn't be able to support them

Originally posted by doodles40

Originally posted by Krono
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?

Yeah I think I remember seeing something in a documentary where they think there aren't many giant species left and why a lot of species have shrunk is because of how the environment and everything has changed over the years and that it just wouldn't be able to support them

Then why are whales and elephants and other animals more or less still the same size as their giant ancestors and so why not giant spiders as well?

This is our regular household spider called a "Huntsman". They are harmless but give you one hell of a fright when they pop up out of nowhere. Measuring 5" across at maturity I would suggest that this one is in an appropriate place of the household:



This one (not a Huntsman) from a back yard in Adelaide (I believe) went viral across the web when it was first published: