Giant spiders, page 6

reply to post by dayve

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You do get used to them and instead of killing them most people tend to chase them into a box and then throw them into the bush outside.
I guess they are frightening to people who are not used to them:

reply to post by OzTiger

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If i woke up and saw that ^^^ eight legged monster crawling up to me,i think i would probably have a heart attack and getting use to spiders that size would be impossible for me to do...

When little spiders fall on me, I might get shocked at first, but my mom use to tell me when a spider lands on you it's good luck or you'll get a message soon.

What I can't get over are the big wood and potato spiders. Potato spiders or at least what the Dorm Police claimed to be a potato spider was this big orange thing crawling on top of a stuffed animal I had back in college. I remember screaming and saying something along the lines of colorful spiders belong on National Geographics and not in my dorm room. A dorm cop killed it for me.

Years later in grad school, as Spider Karma I guess, a wood spider came into my room and gave me a near heart attack. This time it was brown in appearance and way too big, we're talking hand big. I called my sister, because well that's what rational people do when they see big spiders and the two of us tried to kill it together. A huge can of Raid wouldn't kill it. Clorox bleach spray wouldn't kill it. Finally, I threw my dictionary on it. We picked up the dictionary and the thing still had the will to live. I screamed, my sister threw the dictionary on top of the spider again and began jumping on the dictionary. After doing that for several minutes, the thing finally died.

What I haven't been able to figure out, to add to your discussion, is if camel spiders are real or just a hoax. Look at this picture below.


I would think those spiders are larger than the one you mentioned.

And unfortunately, I don't think my dictionary could kill that thing.

reply to post by MissDirtySouth

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I think thats a picture of "two" camel spiders,the one on the bottom is biting a hold of the one on top of it and they are very real.Some of them can grow to one foot across > en.wikipedia.org... camel spider bite > www.camelspiders.net...

reply to post by blocula

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Deep down inside, I was hoping the camel spider website was one elaborate hoax. I refused to look them up on wikipedia too. That's the stuff of nightmares.

I still couldn't kill one of those spiders with my dictionary.

reply to post by blocula

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I was stationed in Aden and during one of our sojourns to the desert we were billeted at a place called Abyan(?) where these Camel Spiders used to crawl down the guy ropes of our tents. I was playing cards one night when I kept feeling this light scratching on my shoulder and when I turned round there was one dangling off a rope and was trying to reach me. I had a photo of it for years but I lost it which showed it in a soup plate with the legs well over the rim. I understood that they were unique in that they not only had normal jaws (mandibles) but also side ones too. The place we were at was like a small oasis I guess and the trees were riddled with Chameleons which most of us had pets. The place was infested with flies so we would put a spoonful of jam alongside us when we laid on our beds, and the Chameleon would feed of them as they buzzed round. There were also Asps and Sand Lizards to beware of too so it wasn't a really nice place to be.

reply to post by MissDirtySouth

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I live in south eastern,mass. and about 20 -30 years ago a 40 year old lady who lived across the street died from a black widow spider that bit her on her front steps,thats what her husband told me,he said he was tearing out their old wooden steps and she walked out to give him lunch and it bit her foot or ankle...> The top-10 largest "known" spiders and the photo for number 6 is hard for me to even look at for very long www.top10notes.com...

reply to post by OzTiger

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Thank you for the military service you performed and i mean that most sincerely and thanks for that spider story.I would think that scorpions would be something you and others would have had to look out for over there as well,ever see any of them? I use to date a girl whos grandfather died from a scorpions sting while fighting in africa during ww-2.My grandfather was stung...by nazi artillery shrapnel...in his thigh and also when his tank destroyer ran over a land mine,he lived both times,but he was never stung by a spider or scorpion...

reply to post by blocula

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I'm afraid my 9 month period in Aden was served during my 2 year National Service in 1958 and although classified as 'active service' there was not much going on except for very minor Nassar protesters and the Yemen uprising.
It proved to be very educational by virtue of the different animals, lizards, birds, insects etc.,etc., that we saw amongst which were the small Gebel Monkey's that inhabited the small mountains on the Arabian Peninsular. They would come down at night and invade our camp but were very easy to catch by putting a marble (or something similar) in a large tin canister. They would rattle these and put their hand in to get it out but found that they couldn't get their clenched fist out through the opening. They simply would not let go of their 'find' so consequently would just sit there as they couldn't drag the canister around. We all made pets of these and became quite attached to them even though they were forever coming back clutching other soldiers watches and rings. We didn't have to keep them tied up or anything as they were well fed and followed us everywhere. I made enquiries about taking mine back to the UK but the costs regarding quarantine and transportation were far too much for me. We gradually introduced them back to their colonies before we left.
I remember one day we had been on a 'recce' and were all sat round in the baking hot sun when an ice-cream van came out of nowhere - nobody moved for about 5 minutes because we all thought it was a mirage!
But, I digress, regarding the spiders in Australia. We do have the very poisonous ones in the form of the 'Red Back' and the infamous "Funnel-web" which are to be avoided like the plague. They can give a very nasty bite and although they can kill anti-venom is available at all hospitals the same as for snake bites.
Just out of curiosity, did you know that the spider with the deadliest venom is none other that the dear old Daddy Long-legs but it's bite is so minute it cannot penetrate a humans skin?

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