Halloween scare

I opened the curtains this evening to look outside, and saw this right in front of my face. Yeah, it's real, about a 6 inch leg span. After  cleaning out my drawers, took this pic.

Gene

What is it,  super huge wolf spider?

There are literally very few things that scare me more than spiders. Probably other insects.

Old time beer brewers like spiders because they ate flying insects that could contaminate brews. These days we keep the fermenters sealed..

My carport had constantly been in full halloween mode for decades, covered with huge spider webs and scary looking, but the recent cleaning and new coat of paint makes it look a lot less scary...

I had a huge spider web spanning across the entrance to my carport a few weeks ago, but after a few days the spider picked up and left. I guess he wasn't attracting enough traffic.

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here is a similar sighting from one of your TX neighbors


JR

john12ax7 said:

What is it,  super huge wolf spider?

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I don't think so, after much googling, it doesn't look right. Built very much like a typical brown Texas tarantula, but with black fur, and much longer legs. And having run across these before, they are arrogant, where as the usual brown ones are very docile. They sense your presence, spin around quick to face you, hunch down in the back, and do this aggressive front end bouncing up and down thing, as if to say "Put up your dukes, it's on".

I would like to know what it is.

Gene

That is scary!!!!

Definitely not a wolf spider....We have wolf spiders here in FL......

That looks like a damn bird eater or something... Holy smokes..... I would be moving....lol

Maybe someone lost a pet years ago .....

Gene Pink said:

I would like to know what it is.

Gene

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In my house it would be soon dead....

JR

Catch & release baby, just another creature making it's way through...
I abide in semi-tropical Florida, and I can easily estimate by the thriving hoards of lizards, fat frogs and toads,  bats, and spiders of many species, just how many bugs I don't like they must be eating to support their biomass...

nielsk said:

Catch & release baby, just another creature making it's way through...
I abide in semi-tropical Florida, and I can easily estimate by the thriving hoards of lizards, fat frogs and toads,  bats, and spiders of many species, just how many bugs I don't like they must be eating to support their biomass...

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I'm with you on this philosophy. A typical brown/grey tarantula around here is not aggressive at all. You can grasp them by cupping your hand lightly around their legs, pick them up off the carpet, and take them outside while scolding them "You're an outside tarantula, not an inside tarantula. Go find a mate, and try not to chew his head off when you are done". They'll do that, so the male hauls ass at completion, to avoid becoming mommy food. Doesn't even leave her cab fare.

We like them around here, because all things being equal, a tarantula can take a scorpion.

We hate scorpions, they can flatten out and fit under the tiniest gap under a door, come in and hide in a dark cave, such as your shoe.  If you live in TX, you learn to shake out your shoes before sticking your vulnerable foot in there. My wife got stung, my kid got stung, but for some reason, I never got stung. Working theory on this discrepancy:

A hapless scorpion with a sense of smell climbs into one of my old-guy shoes, he gets right the hell back out.

Pic of scorpion, on my living room carpet. They grab prey with their baby lobster claws, and that sausage-link tail comes up over the top and repeatedly stings, like a sewing machine.

Nasty bastards.

Gene

Damn near stepped on this one tonight, something seems wrong with his sausage-tail stinger. Good for the little bastard

Time to start tightening up house gaps between inside and out.

Smacked him repeatedly with the typical cheap brass fireplace accessory shovel, scooped ,and brought to the bathroom for a burial at sea...flush.

Gene

Catch and release down the toilet..... ;D

JR

What part of Texas are you in? Didn't realize there were so many creepy crawly things there.

john12ax7 said:

What part of Texas are you in? Didn't realize there were so many creepy crawly things there.

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still not australia where everything is trying to kill you... 

JR

john12ax7 said:

What part of Texas are you in? Didn't realize there were so many creepy crawly things there.

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NW of Austin.

30 years ago, it was country livin', now, surburban hell. Completely built out, no dense forest left, so the critters gotta go somewhere. Herds of deer setting off my motion detectors day and night, battling with Pepe LePew last year trying to set up house in my crawlspace (bank of piezos and sig gen cranked at 25Khz ran her off), squirrels finally chewed a hole under a roof eave to get in, coyotes(?) that dug under a fence out back last month and tore the hell out of the last remaining goat, various snakes... and of course, the damned fire ants.

And the mosquitoes. A positive for west nile virus in a trap a mile west of me last year, this year a positive a mile south of me.

I miss DDT.

Can't blame the critters, they have nowhere to go.

Gene

Gene Pink said:

NW of Austin.

30 years ago, it was country livin', now, surburban hell. Completely built out, no dense forest left, so the critters gotta go somewhere. Herds of deer setting off my motion detectors day and night, battling with Pepe LePew last year trying to set up house in my crawlspace (bank of piezos and sig gen cranked at 25Khz ran her off), squirrels finally chewed a hole under a roof eave to get in, coyotes(?) that dug under a fence out back last month and tore the hell out of the last remaining goat, various snakes... and of course, the damned fire ants.

And the mosquitoes. A positive for west nile virus in a trap a mile west of me last year, this year a positive a mile south of me.

I miss DDT.

Can't blame the critters, they have nowhere to go.

Gene

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Unless the critters pay rent, they don't get to stay inside...

Fire ants    I suspect the big bags of fire ant poison contain ant eggs... they never stop coming...

Squirrels    I had a squirrel inside the house when I tried to block the crawlspace behind my air conditioner that a squirrel though would make a nice casa... I inadvertently blocked it with the squirrel still at home, so he ended up inside my house... hard to chase a squirrel out of a house. Long story.. ended by a rat trap (that only stunned him), so accidental catch and release..

This year the squirrels have enjoyed far too many of my pecan crop... I haven't had an apple from my tree in 2 years.  I am seriously thinking of buying a pellet gun to take out the squirrels where they live and eat.

JR

Gene Pink said:

I miss DDT.

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lol... your kids' limbs might not though...

JohnRoberts said:

Fire ants    I suspect the big bags of fire ant poison contain ant eggs... they never stop coming...


JR

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I have been doing this for several years and it works great! Of course new mounds pop up every now and then but this stuff lasts years for a small bottle........




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXHU80WPzoY

mattiasNYC said:

lol... your kids' limbs might not though...

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are you confusing DDT with Thalidomide (taken by pregnant women)?

50 years ago Rachel Carson wrote her "Silent Spring" book scaring people from using DDT.  Since then untold millions have suffered from malaria when those mosquitoes were not effectively controlled.  Of course DDT was a miracle insecticide used around WWII, by the 60s some mosquitoes had already grown resistant to it (nature is funny that way).

Shouldn't put DDT in our food , but I am not aware of any children missing limbs from it ever.  Of course it is a severe insect poison so in excess it can interfere with human systems too.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

are you confusing DDT with Thalidomide (taken by pregnant women)?

50 years ago Rachel Carson wrote her "Silent Spring" book scaring people from using DDT.  Since then untold millions have suffered from malaria when those mosquitoes were not effectively controlled.  Of course DDT was a miracle insecticide used around WWII, by the 60s some mosquitoes had already grown resistant to it (nature is funny that way).

Shouldn't put DDT in our food , but I am not aware of any children missing limbs from it ever.  Of course it is a severe insect poison so in excess it can interfere with human systems too.

JR

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Back in the 70's I did scrape my knee running from the truck with the flashing yellow light.......