I have been meaning to write a Rising Tide post but after last night I have to defer the post to another day while I indulge you in one of the primary reasons for blogging in this modern era…giant effin bugs!
We saw this fella last night in the laundry room and it is plainly stated the biggest thing I have seen in my house that wasn’t a mammal (and to be honest it’s bigger than that mouse we spotted a year or so ago).
See photos….
Now, when this thing moved, it looked like some CGI special effect or something. It was very fast. Like a mouse. Extremely creepy to observe. Cringe-inducing really. My usual method for disposing of large palmetto bugs is to pump my air rifle up a few times and shooting them with the puff of air that comes out. No pellets in it, just compressed air. It’s usually enough to kill them Jon-Erik Hexum style. I made the decision since we were about to go to bed that we couldn’t just have this thing running around the house. He could have easily made his way into the bedroom. He could run as fast as a man could walk. So I fired the air rifle at him and it seemed to scare him a bit and he ran behind a peice of art but otherwise, no damage.
Luckily for him the art was right by the back door and I started moving it back and forth until he stepped out to see who the hell was messing with him and I was able to knock him out the back door with a broom.
Romy and I looked him up after and he fit the description of this spider…
While frequently very large – in Laos, Heteropoda maxima males can attain a legspan of 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in) – they are (like the vast majority of spiders) not deadly to humans. They do bite if provoked, but the victim will suffer only minor swelling and localized pain, and will recover in a day or two. Some larger types resemble tarantulas, and that term is sometimes loosely applied to them by Australians as well as the similar-sounding slang name ‘triantelope’.[1] Huntsman spiders can generally be identified by their legs, which, rather than being jointed vertically relative to the body, are twisted such that the legs extend forward in a crab-like fashion.
That “crab like” shit? Right own. This bastard moved like a crab!
Also, note the large red, glowing orb on his back. Okay, it’s probably an effect on the flash. Or is it?
Interesting description because arachnophobia is actually strongly related to people with a low disgust threshold (I guess it’s low–get grossed out easily). And one of the proposed reasons is that there’s something “disgusting” about how they move, so I thought it was interesting that you focused on that. My wife is phobic (truly) and very easily disgusted, so she fits the bill for the two characteristics.
My understanding is that huntsmans (huntsmen?) are really common in Australia, and it’s one reason she’s reluctant to go there.
Spiders don’t bother me, but that’s one guy (gal, more likely, since male arachnids usually hibernate til they mate and get eaten, and they’re usually smaller, but I don’t know about this species) I wouldn’t really like to see in my house.
We came home and found one of those in the house one night and decided it needed to die. I don’t care to be painfully (if not fatally) bitten but mostly there was no way I was going to find out what effect it might have on my cat through trial and error.
I can’t stand those things. Though I like how you use a Monopoly game piece to describe forensic scale.
I can’t remember how big the Park Avenue Mutt was, so the third picture means nothing to me. Try a pic with a dollar bill, I’m sure it will be quite shocking.
Your Google ads now feature PermaTreat, which offers 10% off treatment for brown recluse spiders. But damn, after seeing the pictures of that huntsman, I’d almost prefer a brown recluse. Almost. Spiders, UGH.
oops, shoe up side your haid , shoe up side your haid.
this is one time when smash and ask questions later is o.k.
liprap ask anyone who has ever suffered a recluse bite.
you do not want that in your life.
Are you sure it wasn’t just a Granddaddy Long Legs? And harmless?
Rick, I managed to save it but I maintained the right to kill it if I had to. Luckily it positioned itself by the door and was swept out.
Bev, This thing eats Grandaddy longlegs for breakfast.
Cuz, I never knew that piece had a name.
We had one of those in the dumpster we lived in until last year. I couldn’t catch up with it and the catz ran from the front room and didn’t go back in for a few days.
I’m a live and let live type of gal, but spiders are to never be seen by me. I was bitten by a Reluse many years ago and almost died.
Had someone in my yoga class I took a while back who was absent from it for a while. Turned out she’d been bit by a brown recluse on her hand and she felt the venom traveling up her arm almost instantly. if she hadn’t gotten treatment for it as soon as she had, she might have lost the arm and God knows what else.
I can’t decide, though, if a spider’s size is more frightening or the poison of its tools, so to speak. I mean, UGH, gottagonowthisisgrossingmeout.