f13.net

Now I'm bugging out.

he'll be down at the spider bar bragging and picking up the ladies.

Ok let's play.  Take that.

Now spider pictures infect this AND the funny pictures thread. Not fucking cool!

Man, I see that picture and not even a minute later a spider comes crawling out from under my keyboard. Didn't help that when I turned over my keyboard it looked like the spider was trying to lay eggs on it. Now I'm bugging out. :ye_gods:

Ok, I have checked my keyboard now. Three times so far. Thank you very much.  :ye_gods:

WTF?  How do you get bit by a spider in the pool?  How the hell does that even happen?

you have no choice but to get at least 4 webs right across the face.

They are fast on land compared to other invertebrates, the fastest can run perhaps 16 kilometers per hour (10 mph)...

...due to the strong muscles of their chelicerae, they can produce a proportionately large, ragged wound that is prone to infection.

This is my spider theory. It has so far withstood significant peer review.

Spiders are actually the remnants of a prehistoric alien invasion force which is why they so often elicit revulsion and even fear - deep down our lizard brain knows they don't belong here. They came from another, much larger planet where creatures were much smaller, through some reconnaissance errors they ended up invading the Earth where they found that the dominant life forms were too large to eat/subjugate. Since then they have been reduced to a life of scuttling around and pretending they don't care.

Other members of the family arachnidae also arrived with the main invasion fleet. Scorpions for example are not creatures at all but are armoured fighting suits for spiders. If it were possible to cut one open without triggering the self-destruct systems, you'd find a spider in the central cockpit operating it like a machine.

Every so often you'll be walking down a street with fallen leaves being blown around and you'll see the occasional leaf moving in the opposite direction to the others, this is no leaf but a scout craft from the mothership trying to make contact with the beachhead.

South Africa has too many danged spiders (http://www.spiderclub.co.za/Gallery.html)

This is my spider theory. It has so far withstood significant peer review.

Spiders are actually the remnants of a prehistoric alien invasion force which is why they so often elicit revulsion and even fear - deep down our lizard brain knows they don't belong here. They came from another, much larger planet where creatures were much smaller, through some reconnaissance errors they ended up invading the Earth where they found that the dominant life forms were too large to eat/subjugate. Since then they have been reduced to a life of scuttling around and pretending they don't care.

Other members of the family arachnidae also arrived with the main invasion fleet. Scorpions for example are not creatures at all but are armoured fighting suits for spiders. If it were possible to cut one open without triggering the self-destruct systems, you'd find a spider in the central cockpit operating it like a machine.

Every so often you'll be walking down a street with fallen leaves being blown around and you'll see the occasional leaf moving in the opposite direction to the others, this is no leaf but a scout craft from the mothership trying to make contact with the beachhead.

The scariest spiders by far are the Northern Australian funnel webs, they are really fucking agressive I saw an awareness broadcast about not having enough antivenom when I was living in Oz the doctor was teasing one with a stick and the spider snapped the end off it with it's fangs. Hmm wonder if I can find it...nope but here's a nice closeup sweet dreams motherfuckers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkzlINZsXu8

Walking stick, man! Pro tip: they're not for walking. They're for hitting things (and clearing webs).

I never trust anything with more eyes than me.

Yeah, so that means all your four-eyed f13'ers too!

(http://www.spiderzrule.com/spider606/Jewel_small.JPG)

This reminds me that you are (statistically) never more than 3 meters (roughly 9 feet?) away from a spider, wherever your are.

Also there are round about 200 spiders in or around a typically European flat.  :ye_gods:

The scariest spiders by far are the Northern Australian funnel webs, they are really fucking agressive I saw an awareness broadcast about not having enough antivenom when I was living in Oz the doctor was teasing one with a stick and the spider snapped the end off it with it's fangs. Hmm wonder if I can find it...nope but here's a nice closeup sweet dreams motherfuckers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkzlINZsXu8
[/quote

jesus, that's one aggressive fucker

I fucking HATE spiders. HATE HATE HATE. Also, snakes.

At least in NJ anything more than a daddylonglegs is fairly rare.

I wish all insects and arachnids a swift death and extinction.

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1386/1120991317_ce2aec27f6.jpg)

(http://archive.gulfnews.com/images/07/05/07/08_tb_star_wars_jabba_5.jpg)

Ugh, so happy I've never encountered a wolf spider. I might seriously be arachnophobic.

I was never scared of spiders until I saw Arachnophobia at the age of eight.  I don't think I realized at the time that it was a comedy.

No child did. Goddamn, it probably scarred a shitload of kids.

About half way through that movie, it triggered arachnophobia in me, and I have had it ever since. No joke. I used to have a big ass tarantula as a pet, ever since seeing that movie, I scream like a little girl if a spider gets on me.

The scariest spiders by far are the Northern Australian funnel webs

Some of the troops found a tarantula when I was stationed down in Panama.  The two guys were keeping it in a cage and feeding it insects, it was a kinda docile blue-ish/blond-ish-fuzzywuzzy slow thing.  He did eat up the crickets, would jump on them and suck them up.  The two troops who had him, went to the library to see what else they eat, and found the some eat mice.  Well they caught a mouse, and the mouse ate the tarantula.  Go figure...

An old sergeant major of mine would tell us stories about his unit in Panama bivouacking in a banana grove and occassionally feeling banana spiders crawl over them in the middle of the night.  Fuck that, I'll take actually being shot at to being part of a spider freeway.  Worst I ever saw were camel spiders, and unlike that one picture that circulated around the internet at the beginning of the war they're not really that big.  Big enough, though.

Dance, All Blacks, Dance!

You know in some situations you get in trouble for shouting that. Also I love NZ's team naming system as it resulted in the awesomest badminton team ever: The Black cocks.

I can see that happening after a recluse bite.  Can't fault you for that one.

Let's just say I didn't know what packing a wound was until later. I thought it was anything but sticking gauze into a hole in my flesh with an oversized q-tip.

I was wrong.

Edit: And I forgot to mention that the little SOB also shot staph straight into my veins. For about 6 months after the bite I'd get weird staph infections. Like the one under my armpit where I had to tell my boss I was under doctor's orders to avoid deodorant. In the summer. Needless to say I was banished to my office and not allowed to do face-to-face work with our users. (I'm in IT)

You'd have fit in nicely with our offshore team.

Ever since a Brown Recluse took a chunk of flesh out of me I show no quarter to spiders. Period. It has also turned me into one hell of an arachnaphobe.

Spider missing on space station (http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=78bc6c1e-11ad-4305-807d-c5298be50af6) :drill:

Yeah, someone should tell NASA that if you put two spiders in one box, you will have either one fat spider or two dead ones before very long.

It's from Fordel's link, it's a giant spider community in Texas.

Well MOST (http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/giant-spider-community-in-texas-of-course/) of the time.

Apparently, from the vid, that sprung-up overnight.  That makes it even creepier.  However, if your first reaction is to look around for the GIANT spider that spun that web instead of thinking that somehow hundreds of spiders had spun it, you've probably watched too many horror movies.

The scariest spiders by far are the Northern Australian funnel webs, they are really fucking agressive I saw an awareness broadcast about not having enough antivenom when I was living in Oz the doctor was teasing one with a stick and the spider snapped the end off it with it's fangs. Hmm wonder if I can find it...nope but here's a nice closeup sweet dreams motherfuckers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkzlINZsXu8

As always, especially with a board full of smart-asses, it is best to consult with a medical professional.

Fuck that. I'll need flamethrowers. With lots of spare tanks.

Okay, I sent out the pictures, we'll see what they say.

As always, especially with a board full of smart-asses, it is best to consult with a medical professional.

My money is on new spawn eating Riggs from the inside out.  I'll make a side bet on him being tagged by a Predator.

The wood spider! (http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1460660/4992876)   :awesome_for_real:

The "caffeine" one was hilarious.

See that? ^ That thing up there? Fuck that. Spiders make me all Arthur Parker. You will never convince me those things actually belong on this planet. I'm fairly sure they arrived on the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs. (It was actually one of their space stations.)

She was only about 4 inches across, leg tip to leg tip.

Only?  ONLY??

I think 4 inches doesn't mean what you think it means.

Only?  ONLY??

I think 4 inches doesn't mean what you think it means.

Got this guy while I was at the zoo today.

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/704172/April%2024th%20Zoo%20Photos%20073.jpg)

Ed: hey I resized it to a decent forum size. yay me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv7YSEIOxwo&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv7YSEIOxwo&feature=related)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxbuysNGLOM&feature=channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxbuysNGLOM&feature=channel)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/theguinnessbug18550124007690841240173055.jpg)

They've just discovered this bad boy infesting hop farms in Ireland, apparently it's a previously unknown species.

I found a cool spider in my ceiling tiles yesterday. Wish I had more time to check him out. At first I thought he was an old dead spider cocooned into a crevice between tiles, so I casually bumped him with the can I was holding and he dropped onto my hand. Not wanting to get bit, I flicked him onto the floor and he moved amazingly fast into another crevice I couldn't get to.

I cheered him on, those dudes eat ants and I've got carpenter ants coming in now. I cheer when I find a little ant cocoon, so awesome! Git 'em boys!

The fiancee noticed an attack spider (not web-based) in the living room. She pointed him out to me, I went over and checked him out, sat down again. "Aren't you going to kill him?" she asked. "You don't see any ants over there, do you?" I replied.

amblypygid.

It's almost time for the fucking centipedes to start showing up.  Those fuckers will die.

It's a shame ants are on your KOS list, in general I think ants (along with the rest of the hymenoptera) are one of the most remarkable orders of animal in existence. Only humans, tardigrades and various extremophile bacteria can rival them in my view.

You're obviously not a homeowner.  Ants are great until you have to battle them a few times because they've built nests around your foundation, are tearing up parts of your yard or are coming into the house.  Then you start thinking of new and inventive ways to kill the fuckers.

True, I'm not a homeowner, even if I were I'm not sure that the species we have here in England are really as much a threat to structures as some of the ones y'all get.

Really you should move into a caravan and get back to marvelling at how awesome ants are.

It's a shame ants are on your KOS list, in general I think ants (along with the rest of the hymenoptera) are one of the most remarkable orders of animal in existence. Only humans, tardigrades and various extremophile bacteria can rival them in my view.

Cow killers were my favorite, though we didn't get a lot of them.  Real pretty red and black striping.

Hey we had those growing up as well! No one ever seems to know what Im talking about when I mention them. They are like, "What? Huh? Cow killers?"

You know its strange in all my time as a kid I never ever saw more than 1 at any given time, never saw them traveling in groups or even a pair. Also never ever found one of their nests or homes. Weird.

Since they're wasps and not a communal variety that has nests (they plant eggs in other creatures) this is not especially surprising. (I did have to Wiki them since I am very much one of those people who'd go, "What? Huh? Cow killers?"

Asked what he would do with the giant spider he caught this week, Mr Geiszler said: “I think I’m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big it is. It’ll make a great paperweight.”

That's not a spider, its an amblypygid.

It has begun: Giant spiders invade Australian Outback town (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6231301.ece)

Tarantulas are amazingly soft and velvety. When handling one, make sure there are no sudden movements or they will take a flying leap. Not the kind of thing one wants to see airborne in the house.

Tarantulas are amazingly soft and velvety.

They're called velvet ants, but aren't ants. Kind of like amblypygids are called whip spiders but aren't spiders. The big hairy red ones you see are the females, which are wingless. The males have wings and are much more traditionally wasp-shaped.

    * 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
    * 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
    * 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
    * 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
    * 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
    * 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
    * 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
    * 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
    * 4.0 Tarantula hawk: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.
    * 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

    * 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
    * 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
    * 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
    * 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
    * 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
    * 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
    * 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
    * 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
    * 4.0 Tarantula hawk: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.
    * 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

Yeah, I've had a paper wasp more than once. Not fun times. When I was a kid, I had an allergic reaction to it, but haven't since. My hand literally swelled up like a balloon. I also caught a fleeting glimpse.

 
    * 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
    * 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.

Just to add more pedantry, I can't be sure but those look like harvestmen, not spiders.  :oh_i_see:

Just to add more pedantry, I can't be sure but those look like harvestmen, not spiders.  :oh_i_see:

We call those daddy longlegs around these parts.

Here in California, crane flies are crane flies, and 'daddy long legs' means the cellar spider (which is actually a spider):

(http://nature.berkeley.edu/~stevelew/cbcstuff/common_spiders/images/pholcus_rovner.jpg)

(http://www.fohguild.org/forums/attachments/screenshots/120242d1252326173-animated-gif-thread-fuckmeno.gif)

This count?

Since I get a image expired thumb when I clicked it, I was all ready to come on this and make fun of you. But cutting and pasting the pic lead me to pass out for an hour and I forgot what I was going to ridicule you about.

 :ye_gods:

That is definitely NOT a spider, and thus not 'awesome'.

(http://www.fohguild.org/forums/attachments/screenshots/135797d1269636544-animated-gif-thread-wtfspider.gif)

Wolf spiders...

Wolf spiders... yeah fuck that. They are known for running down their prey instead of using a web or trap to catch them. Step on it and kill a whole generation seems like a bonus.

You call me into your room to destroy life? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2klX-puUU)

I still shudder to think, what if I hadn't looked?

I still shudder to think, what if I hadn't looked?

I actually consider pictures of baby spiders hitching a ride to be comforting.  You have a species with almost nothing at all in common with humanity, but here's a mother taking care of her kids.  It puts them in a slightly different light than monstrous little eating machines.  Very slightly.

So I'm walking down my first-floor hallway by the kitchen and a decently big wolf spider scuttles by.  About the size of a quarter, counting the legs, so still tiny by our scale, but impressive by the standards of the local spider population.  I am overjoyed at this, as the number of bugs spotted in the kitchen had been on the rise as the weather warmed up, and I didn't really want to go spray poison around the place with all my food if I could help it.  So I say, "Fuck yes, big spider cleaning out the kitchen!" to one of my roommates nearby.  He sees this spider and immediately turns into a gargantuan vagina, blubbering something about killing it.  I reach down and shoo the spider under the fridge so that my hysterical idiot friend can't kill it, and explain to him at great length that spiders make a living by eating bugs and that we, as generally anti-bugs-eating-our-food creatures, need to have a positive relationship with the things that kill lots of bugs.

He still insists that he's going to kill the spider if he sees it.  Moron.  It's a little wolf spider, it's not poisonous, and it's going to make my house nicer while minding its own business.  Seriously, if I could buy a dozen non-web-spinning spiders in a box and just sprinkle them around the little dark corners of the house so they can clean it out, I'd be all about it.  Bring on some biological warfare against anything else that tries to move into my place.

People that don't like wolf spiders piss me off something fierce.  And jumping spiders.  God those are awesome.  All of the bug removal, none of the annoying web removal.  Good stuff IMO

As long as a spider is neither huge nor poisonous, I'm happy to have it around.  It has no interest in me, and I'm glad for it to live a good spidery life and keep my place free of actual vermin.  Other bugs eat your clothes, eat your books, spread germs all over the place, fuck those guys.  I like insect predators, to me a spider's as useful as ladybugs and praying mantises in the garden eating all the pests.  They improve my life for free, so yay for them.

The huntsman lives for about two years, and this one is believed to be about a year old. It feasts on live crickets and cockroaches.

It was added this month to the museum's Bugs Alive! exhibit, where it can show off what Mr Henderson describes as excellent climbing and jumping skills.

"Once she jumped and then in mid-air turned and landed on the opposing surface," he said. "I held up the 10-card for that."

(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090421025512/zoids/images/3/3c/Ojrgurantula.jpg)

Yeah, I loved Spiderzoids

Note to self:  avoid clicking youtube links in the spider thread while eating lunch at my desk.

Why do they glow? Do Scorpions see in Ultra Violet or something?

Yeah, it's odd - people who are around them a bit grow used to having them around.

They are everywhere at my job and I have to actively avoid them.

Where do you work - Hell?

Where do you work - Hell?

Erm, thought scorpions were poisonous...

Erm, thought scorpions were poisonous...

Erm, thought scorpions were poisonous...

Quite apart from being poisonous, scorpions are scary looking motherfuckers and were most certainly created by demons.  I HATE them with the fire of a thousand suns. 

Funny thing, scorpions are apparently also pussies.  In a series of insane Japanese bug fight videos where various bugs were tossed into a box together to see which would win, the scorpions invariably ran away from the other thing, paused to lash their tail at it a couple of times, then went back to running away.  They're apparently lovers rather than fighters.

They're apparently lovers rather than fighters.

Orb Weavers are pretty cool.  We had one in my neighbor's garden a few years back that was bright yellow and black.  The body was just a little smaller than a ping pong ball... which makes it just about the biggest damn spider that I've seen in Ohio.  Pretty common spider though.

I would be relocating all of these spiders if they lived near me.

I didn't actually know they could be that quick.

I was just sifting through some site photos from field work I did a month or so ago and remembered this beaut (garden spider, Argiope aurantia):

[image]

Wow, great picture, beautiful spider.

Thanks, I just set it to my desktop background. Its abdomen was about as big around as a nickel!

Nice sized garden spider!  Did it have any color on the under-abdomen?

I know those things are harmless, but I had one huge bastard of a garden spider sitting next to my porch screen door last spring.  Was as big as my hand (but I have small girly hands).  Wish I'd taken a picture, but I was too busy shrieking, while trying to run past it with the laundry.

You don't really get to see much of anything.

That's half the terror, tho. Not knowing where the spider ended up. Down his shirt? In the laundry hamper?

That's an Australian huntsman, basically a docile house-spider, they are non deadly and rarely ever bite. My Australian cousin was bitten by one once, rendered him fairly ill.

Sorry to ruin the illusion, but he tried to run away and then got rammed with a plastic basin. Probably quite damaged or missing a leg or two, poor fella.

No honestly they are like any typical housespider around the world. I've shared rooms with them myself when I lived in Australia, they do look quite scary but they're totally harmless.

No! I refuse to knowingly sleep in a room with a palm sized spider free to crawl on my face!

Spiders I can handle, but roaches are not cool.

That's an Australian ... spider, they are ... deadly and ... bite. My Australian cousin was bitten by one once.

My brain filtered out the rest of the words in your post.

Who will win in Battle Spider v. Ant?  http://vimeo.com/13681269

My question is how does a palm sized spider get INSIDE your house? Invest in some window screens or something!

Spiders I can handle, but roaches are not cool.

With all your talk of hunting I figure you'd just blast the little fuckers into oblivion, regardless of insect genre.

Crazy spider shit

I'd wager Huntsman spiders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCO56iyBXtU

 :awesome_for_real:

Thats not a spider. Thats the scout for an alien invasion force.  :ye_gods:

This is my spider theory. It has so far withstood significant peer review.

Spiders are actually the remnants of a prehistoric alien invasion force which is why they so often elicit revulsion and even fear - deep down our lizard brain knows they don't belong here. They came from another, much larger planet where creatures were much smaller, through some reconnaissance errors they ended up invading the Earth where they found that the dominant life forms were too large to eat/subjugate. Since then they have been reduced to a life of scuttling around and pretending they don't care.

Other members of the family arachnidae also arrived with the main invasion fleet. Scorpions for example are not creatures at all but are armoured fighting suits for spiders. If it were possible to cut one open without triggering the self-destruct systems, you'd find a spider in the central cockpit operating it like a machine.

Every so often you'll be walking down a street with fallen leaves being blown around and you'll see the occasional leaf moving in the opposite direction to the others, this is no leaf but a scout craft from the mothership trying to make contact with the beachhead.

You're right in that it isn't a spider. It's a solifugid, like the camel 'spiders' in Iraq. They're their own category of arachnid.

Surprising considering the year I spent in Sydney where the Redback (a variant of the Black Widow) in the stairwell wasn't even in the ballpark of dangerous compared to the Funnel Web in the garden.  

I had to swat one off my forearm, a redback that is, when I was in Byron Bay, Time stood still for about 10 seconds.

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiderwebs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before. (Courtesy: National Geographic)

Isn't that a BW from the spider thread? I know I've seen it before I'm just not sure if it's from here or elsewhere.

Isn't that a BW from the spider thread? I know I've seen it before I'm just not sure if it's from here or elsewhere.

That tree needs to be soaked in gasoline and cleansed with fire.

Fuck it, drop a metric fuckton of napalm over the whole countryside just to be sure.

My skin is crawling just thinking about that shit.

First they came for the flying insects, then they came for the mosquitos, then they came for US!

Fuck it, drop a metric fuckton of napalm over the whole countryside just to be sure.

Just going to leave this right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4u6SEZlbPs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4u6SEZlbPs)

Just going to leave this right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4u6SEZlbPs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4u6SEZlbPs)

This may be a BW, but screw it.  I found it fascinating, especially since I do battle with orb weavers every summer - and lose.

http://www.ted.com/talks/cheryl_hayashi_the_magnificence_of_spider_silk.html

I kept thinking wtf will happen if those two spiders start fighting?

Spider with green fangs on Easter Island. I don't know its name - this is from a fellow journalist who is currently on Easter Island.

Um.  Is that what I think it is?  And if so, why does Jesus hate Australia so much?

The funny thing is, the spiders aren't sticking around on those big blankets of web.  They're using them as launch platforms to fly away.  Anyone who's over there and worried about the stuff on the ground is going to be in for a rude surprise when the wind blows spiders all over them.

I learned the other day that apparently some tarantulas make hissy noises when they move from their furry body plates rubbing against each other.  So on the upside, at least you'll hear them coming for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNHK565cVe8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNHK565cVe8&feature=related)

There are some more photos of that here (http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-79551.html).

I learned the other day that apparently some tarantulas make hissy noises when they move from their furry body plates rubbing against each other.  So on the upside, at least you'll hear them coming for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNHK565cVe8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNHK565cVe8&feature=related)

Okay I think that belongs in the Cute Pictures thread.

This had led to some scientists to speculate that spiders castrate themselves to create a "mating plug" that continuously transfers sperm to the female after the male is gone - and at the same time stops competing males from inserting their sperm.

But animal behaviour expert Daiqin Li from the National University of Singapore says other males can easily remove the mating plug, which called for other explanations for the emasculating behaviour.

One hypothesis is that castrated males are better fighters because they are not weighed down by their manhood and thus have more energy to fight off competing males.

*cuts off cock, gains +1 Agility*

So ok... trying to follow the logic on this. Male spiders compete for female spider in order to pass on his genetics. However, the males with the best chances of competing with other males for that chance with the female spider is to lop off the sac containing the genetic material he is trying to pass on.  :uhrr:

That went right to my Facebook.

I don't know why, but I think jumping spiders are cute in almost any context. I almost wish we had these (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oRRBPdM6Wc&feature=player_detailpage#t=36s) here in Ohio. Since it looks like it belongs on Deathworld, I'll just assume it's from someplace in Australia.

Fantastic... and I agree.

I'm failry sure that there's a TUV standard for when a spider can be counted as 'pretty big'.

I can walk for 16 hours a day, but I wouldn't walk for 16 seconds through a bunch of spiders.

Anything bigger than my thumbnail is too big of a spider, so I guess I can never leave Canada.

I've found the best way to combat my arachnophobia was to research spiders and get somewhat up close and watch them.  It helps since we have black widows of the giant variety everywhere.  I also let a cellar spider hang out in the corner of a room in my house and then noticed what appeared to be gnats in the web and was proud of myself for letting a spider do its thing and catch the bugs in the house.  Except it wasn't gnats, it was about 500 spider babies.  Oops.  Preggers spider and her brood all over the wall.

Rhyssa would enjoy me posting more black widow and huge critter pictures I bet...

I'M WARNING YOU, DO NOT LOOK AT THE SPOILER.

[spoiler]
Doctors remove spider hiding in woman’s ear canal (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/doctors-remove-spider-hiding-woman-ear-canal-195029859.html)

Babies are not cute. Sorry dude.

(http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7011/6459054777_6666d237d7_m.jpg)

Rule of thumb: If there is a horror film about it, it's not cute!

example: --> Arachnophobia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia_(film))

Rule of thumb: If there is a horror film about it, it's not cute!

example: --> Arachnophobia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia_(film))

Is this more cute?

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/868747/Spider%20on%20Bear.jpg)

Horror movie:  Bats. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bats_(film))

There's only one place in the world to escape bat-catching spiders: Antarctica. These arachnids ensnare and pounce on bats everywhere else in the world, researchers say.

...

Giant webs
Approximately 90 percent of known bat-catching spiders live in the warmer areas of the globe, in the third of the Earth surrounding the equator. About 40 percent live in the neotropics — the whole of South America, and the tropical regions of North America — while nearly a third live in Asia and more than a sixth live in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Eighty-eight percent of the reported cases of bat catches were due to web-building spiders, with giant tropical orb-weaving spiders with a leg-span of 4 to 6 inches seen catching bats in huge, strong orb-webs up to 5 feet wide.

In instances seen in Costa Rica and Panama, the spiders had built their webs near buildings inhabited by bat colonies. Bat-catching via spiderwebs was also witnessed particularly often in the parks and forests of the greater Hong Kong area. Future research may investigate whether the huge webs that sometimes block the entrances of tropical bat caves in east and southeast Asia and the neotropics may occasionally snag any members of the giant swarms of bats that emerge from the caves at night. [Photos: Creepy, Crawly & Incredible Spiders]

The other 12 percent of cases of spider kills of bats were from spiders that hunt without webs. For instance, tarantulas were seen eating small bats in tropical rainforests in Peru and eastern Ecuador and on the forest floor in northeastern Brazil. A reddish parachute tarantula (Poecilotheria rufilata) was also seen predating on a small bat in Kerala, India, while a huntsman spider (Heteropoda venatoria) was observed capturing and killing a small bat in a shed near Kolkata, India. An attempt by a large fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) to kill a bat pup was also witnessed below a bridge in Indiana.

The victims
Most bat prey of spiders are small or juvenile insect-eating bats, and usually are among the most common bat species of their areas. Bats entangled in webs were usually 4 to 9.5 inches in wingspan, including some of the smallest species of bats in the world, and they sometimes died of exhaustion, starvation, dehydration or overheating — but there were many cases where spiders were seen actively attacking, killing and eating these victims.

I got bit by yet another spider.  Again.  This time on my forearm and lower leg.  I was advised it was probably a black widow judging by the marks and swelling (which is what it was last time).  And there isn't anything they can do about it.  I'd post pictures of them, but I'm pretty sure no one wants to see overly large black widows in their nests ;-)

I'm just waiting for them to send me to the Congo or something next.   :oh_i_see:

Hope the bites aren't too bad.  What is the treatment for getting bit by a black widow, anyways?

Nope, we only have Consulates in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and then of course the embassy in Canberra.  Which are all far away from that area, so I'd be safe from that danger zone if they sent me there next tour (spoiler: they wont).

When biting, the funnel-web spiders maintain a tight grip on their victim, often biting repeatedly

:ye_gods: :ye_gods: :ye_gods:

Maybe they just love humans so much they don't want to let go.

That one just might be out of bounds even for RK.  :ye_gods:

Aww a cute facehugger. :grin:

Yes, I suggested that to my in-laws, whose house has a problem with scorpions.   

"We don't want to know just how many there are.  Really."

I'm pretty sure they have a nest somewhere in their backyard.  Just thinking about using a black light out there gives me the willies.

(http://blog-imgs-31.fc2.com/z/o/i/zoidsocean/isa_ch262343s6jn8d88659.jpg)

That green one is crazy looking.  I bet it's extra special poisonous.  I don't really understand the one that seems to be made of sauerkraut.  

I'd post pictures but people get mad when I do.

Widows don't jump and don't move all that fast so spraying them is pretty easy and they die pretty quickly when doused.

Later I find out that 1) black widows have red marks, not bright neon orange and 2) they don't like the sun much.  So most likely I freaked out for no reason but hey, I regret nothing.

Around here we have a lot of these dark greenish-black orb web-weavers with the neon orange markings outdoors.  Probably one of those.

We have some orb weavers supposedly.  I haven't seen their markings, since i only see them at night, but they always form massive (and I mean massive) webs in the middle of my yard at night and they are always gone by the morning.

(http://i.imgur.com/vcGRiP1.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/uzSRksE.jpg)
It's an Orange Tortoise Spider.  It's very cute so it probably jumps onto your face and lays its eggs in your eyeball.

Wow, that's awesome.  Now I have to go read-up on what the hell focus stacking is .

Focus stacking seems like cheating.

Yeah in my day we worked with toxic chemicals that we breathed in and absorbed through our skin all day AND LIKED IT.

Do you get bonus points if you spell it Analogue over analog?

I hate the word "sausage".

Just sayin'....

Maybe...  but I LIKE sausages, I just hate the word.  It sounds nasty.

This is why some people respond to your posts in a creepy manor.

Sequin spider.

(http://i.imgur.com/PywJVal.jpg)

SIZE

I wonder if most people are freaked out by spiders? 

I accidentally killed him with a pencil.  :( 

That said, I still very much want to hold a tarantula.[...] so thus far it is an unrealized dream.

If not pulling that lever meant people might die, I am afraid to say that people would die.

Nightmare gif.  :ye_gods:

Spider crab!

Malaria outbreak in Japan? In fucking March?

That bullshit is a pic from Pakistan, with the Pakistani person cropped out (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110331-pakistan-flood-spider-trees-webs/).

Soldiers freaking out over spider in their dorm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQRKjoAr_q8)

They're also really aggressive. It would help if they kept their room in order though.

Spider removed from man's chest after burrowing into skin (http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/bali-spider-removed-from-bunbury-mans-chest-after-burrowing-into-skin/story-fnhocxo3-1227092448314)

Also, what the fuck Balinese doctors. "Yeah, that two foot long blistering red strip up our torso is totally some sort of bug bite or something. Here's some ointment.

When Naskrecki approached the imposing creature in the rainforest, it would rub its hind legs against its abdomen. At first, the scientist thought the behavior was "cute," he said, but then he realized the spider was sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. When these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes, they are "extremely painful and itchy," and can stay there for days, he said.

That scene from Prometheus just became more plausible to me.