Came back from a five day camping trip, this summer and decided to tidy up a bit as I was unpacking. Went to tear off the packing tape hanging off a box on the shelf in my second story apartment, only to find that what I had grabbed was not torn packing tape, but a six-foot snakeskin draped over the box.

I screamed like a little girl.

The mice problem seemed to clear up, though...

-brendan

Cool! I managed to smuggle back a 5' section of molted cobra skin I found while in India on Friday. Better than any souvenier I bought.

But to stay totally on topic... they have a really common spider there that's about 4 inches across. You can see the webs (with spider in the middle) spanning across the roads. I made a comment to the guide I was with about how big they were, and he said they weren't big -- they get some that are about 9 inches. I told him that any insect you can see while driving 40km/h down a bumpy road is big. From experience, they make the stickiest spider web I've ever gotten stuck in.

You can see the webs (with spider in the middle) spanning across the roads.

Cue Gary Larson comic: "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings!"

Heh. One darn near ate me. On the way up the hiking trail, I stopped to take some photos of a nice big black spider and the web spanning the path, before carefully ducking under so as not to ruin the web. A couple hours later, on the way back, I ran straight into it. First instinct I had was to duck. Second instinct I had was to twist away from it. Result of those instincts was wrapping it completely around my head and shoulders. And then I got the willies, because I didn't know where the spider was, and tried brushing the web (and spider) off me, just making things worse. Luckily, the spider had scurried off into the tree, rather than onto me, but that web was stickier than cotton candy on a two year old's face.

Here's another creepy spider story. This one I found on the straight dope message boards

Ah, I love The Straight Dope. Cool...

This guy was hanging out on the light outside the door to my apartment. It's body is about the size of my pinky fingernail. It kept trying to build a web from the light, down to the handrail, and over to one of the doors. Every time my neighbours or I opened the door, we broke some of the anchor threads. Eventually it disappeared. I think the girl next door had her boyfriend kill it.



(Sorry if the image is a bit big... only way I could keep the banding at bay.)

When I get the chance, I'll toss up a couple shots of the spiders I saw in India...

And a closer view...

And a side view...

that certainly looks like a well-fed spider.

You know, this thread (one of the best ever, in my opinion) has been dead for too long.

I got thinking about it Friday morning at about 2:30am, when one of the guys I work with came up to me with a little box, saying "look! look!"

About of the biggest damn Brown Recluse I've ever seen. Just over an inch long, I'd say.

So he took it home, and pitted it against his "fightin' spider". Seems he like to put other bugs he catches in with said "fightin' spider" and watching the battle. I'm not sure what type of spider "fightin' spider" is, he just says its big black and mean as hell.

As it happenes, the champ is no more. I guess the Recluse pretty much bit it in half then took it's time with dinner.

Pretty rare to see one in Denver, honestly. I'll see if I can get a picture of this one.

This is a perfect demostration of the fact that every spider looks scary close up:



...a typical, perfectly non-poisonous British spider.

These are all great pics. It's amazing how short the depth of field is at these distances!

Heh, nearly all of my spider is in focus...

My camera still surprises me, that crop was taken from this picture:

That's not scary... that's gorgeous! Beautiful markings, really...

Here's my spider -- first full day in New Zealand 2001: