Are Australian spiders really that big?

[Unesh52]

also, a fun story for you arachnophobes, when i was a baby and used to live further out west, where its drier, my older brother (a toddler at the time) was sleeping and a large wolf spider or huntsman (differs if mum or dad tell the story, so id say it was a huntsman) settled on his face(apparently for the warmth of his breath, but who knows) and mum had to flick it off before the spider woke him up, freaking out thinking it would bite him if it did
good times

Reminds me of the story about me as a toddler in a Publix or something. As the story goes, my mom was looking at the canned foods and whatnot while I'm in the buggy sipping a juice box or something. Then she hears me go like, "Uh, mom? Could you get this thing off my face?" She looks over and there's this 6 inch long praying mantis just chillin like mofo on the side of my head. Mom's freaking out but apparently I was just mildly irritated by the fact that I was being asked to share my face. Little me was kind of a baws, it seems.

 

[Section Crow]

this thread is making me laugh nervously and question why i ever thought about going to australia

 

[ewhac]

It's stuff like this that convinces me that we as a species are in no way ready to meet extraterrestrial life.

 

[Zerazar]

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Ok so i'm pretty sure i can safely say that Australia is seen as a country that has some pretty damn big spiders.

But if i'm walking around my house and see a spider the size of my palm, i don't consider that a big spider. But to the non Aussies here, If you saw a spider the size of your palm, would you consider it big or not? what do you consider to be a large spider?

yes, that would freak me out. Speaking of Australian animals, I heard about something called a drop bear. Is that a real thing, or something that's made up?

When ever I think of Australia, for some reason I think of Dylan Moran's description of Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_43-4xjnVA&feature=related

 

[DarthFennec]

I've never seen a spider that was bigger than my thumbnail, and even those I think are a bit too big ... but all I ever see around here are wolf spiders and the occasional jumping spider. I was never afraid of spiders, and then about two years ago I found a black widow in my bed, so I've been at least slightly weary of them ever since.

 

[Woodsey]

Yea I'd say they are pretty big.

Oh and I just had to share this, I think I fainted a little.
*image snipped to preserve what little sanity remains*

No, HELL no, fuck that. FUCK that. That shit needs a nice heaping of flamethrower and nuke applied to it. Perhaps an Exterminatus just to be sure.

Hold me. I've just spent 4 pages not knowing whether to cry or scream.

The other week I got out of bed in the middle of the night and saw one of those things with the tiny body (millimetres wide) and really skinny legs, and I couldn't fucking sleep all night.

 

[Xyliss]

Ok so i'm pretty sure i can safely say that Australia is seen as a country that has some pretty damn big spiders.

But if i'm walking around my house and see a spider the size of my palm, i don't consider that a big spider. But to the non Aussies here, If you saw a spider the size of your palm, would you consider it big or not? what do you consider to be a large spider?

Oh shit...I'm from England and if I see one any bigger than about an inch diameter I freak. But to be fair, I am an Arachnaphobe so slightly biased (and now very scared of Australia)

 

[Yopaz]

the coconut crab, is actually a spider:

this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.

A spider could never get that big because their circulation system adn respiratory system isn't nearly effective enough to sustain that kind of body size. A coconut crab is as closely related to a spider as a lobster is.

 

[Dastardly]

Ah yes. Golden Orb Weaver... Words fail.

No. Everything fails. Because this exists, there can be no loving God (who could not justify creating this), nor a malevolent Satan (who could not abide such competition), nor natural Evolution (there is nothing "natural" about this). There is only the stark, naked reality that there exists a monstrous, unspeakable feedback loop in the food chain that produces things like this.

I had already reconciled my life with the fact that some species of spider have demonstrated the capacity to learn, or that certain species of trap door spider can catch and eat tiny birds from carefully-planned places of ambush on the ground. But this?

It is a goddamn spider that eats birds. It eats them from the air.

 

[Frankster]

IF there was ever a tiny chance of me going to Australia, it has been reduced to UNDER 0% after this thread.

I considered myself the epitome of braveness when despite being arachnophobe i'd capture spiders in my house with a glass and let them free in a display of generosity. Those are spiders no bigger then my pinkie at its worst, legs included.

With the australian spiders... No fucking way. And large spider visits are common? Up to a dozen times a year? Fuck that!!!!!!

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Awwww, they're adorable! *equips Honey Badger Anti-venom* Besides, they're mostly helpful creatures. It's just a shame they're mostly terror-inducing, the poor misunderstood little guys.

See? They kill wasps! I'd take spiders over wasps any day, the miserable, life-hating airborne squads of death. Wasps want nothing more than to fuck your shit up.

Spoiler: Case in Point

So show some love to our helpful, eight-legged friends.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

The cocount crab was cool....Hmm perhaps someone has asked...What are they like? Just hangin? Agressive? Do you run into them often?


Also part of these pictures make my legs from under this table....-shudder- hate spiders so much...

 

[chiMmy]

That depends, if I can hear it walk it gotta go. If not, I'd rather not bother it if it's not bothering me.
If they on the other hand starts to crawl on me or near my keyboard, they're doomed. We don't really have that big spiders here in Sweden though.

 

[captaincabbage]

the coconut crab, is actually a spider:

this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.

Oh shush, stop scaring the forigner.

OT: Don't worry mate, Australian spiders aren't that big, they're just FUCKING DEADLY AS FUCKING FUCKERY.
Seriously, just take a bit of a wide berth around aussie spiders and you'll be fine. The huntsman is the big baby/stoner of spiders and most others are pretty docile. Thrust me, this is coming straight from an Australian arachnophobe.
Oh, also there's the Wolf Spider. Fuck that guy, just, fuck.

 

[LordHotCakes]

Ah yes. Golden Orb Weaver... Words fail.

No. Everything fails. Because this exists, there can be no loving God (who could not justify creating this), nor a malevolent Satan (who could not abide such competition), nor natural Evolution (there is nothing "natural" about this). There is only the stark, naked reality that there exists a monstrous, unspeakable feedback loop in the food chain that produces things like this.

I had already reconciled my life with the fact that some species of spider have demonstrated the capacity to learn, or that certain species of trap door spider can catch and eat tiny birds from carefully-planned places of ambush on the ground. But this?

It is a goddamn spider that eats birds. It eats them from the air.

So if everything fails due to this thing existing, then I guess it's sorta like dividing by zero. From this day forth all things, everything past, present and future shall be referred to as "...".

 

[Alcamonic]

Suddenly I appreciate Sweden a whole lot more.

I wonder if Siberia is a nice tourist place, or maybe the north-pol.

I kid you not, I am terrified by spiders. Even the common house spider we have is more than I want to deal with. Grab it with a rug and then proceed to burn it gives me only mild comfort... For where there is one, there is a mother, and where there is a mother there are millions of those damned things! I HAVE SEEN THE EGGS!

As someone mentioned earlier about spiders hiding under toilet lids, thanks to someone saying that a few years ago, I am unable to sit down without checking first.

 

[SpAc3man]

*snip*

this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.

I have seen many coconut crabs but I have never seen one that big...

 

[Thaluikhain]

Honestly we haven't had any spider deaths since 1981. Redbacks and Funnel Webs are the only ones potent enough to be lethal but I tend to be more worried about White Tails, not venomous but their bite will cause necrosis (decaying/rotting of the flesh) around the wound, they tend to hang out in your pants and shoes and can be fairly aggressive (though probably not as aggressive as the Funnel Web).

IIRC, they proved it wasn't the White Tails that caused necrosis, that was an urban legend. I think there is something that causes necrosis when it bites, but either I've forgotten what it is or nobody knows. There might be some sort of invisible spider running round biting people.

 

[-Adracko-]

This thread just makes me think of the movie "8 legged freaks" ...