Cane Spiders (house, scorpions, tax)

[blueeyz911]

Originally Posted by MWS

Blue, I too live in Arizona and am deathly afraid of spiders! I will be moving to the Big Island in May and have read a lot about Cane Spiders and Happy Face Spiders.

About them not being in nice hotels....that goes for sh**y hotels too. I visit the island 2-3 times a years, stayed in the cheapest hotels in Hilo (which I love, they have character) and have never seen any spiders. When looking at homes to buy, I have only seen Happy Face spiders and they were on bushes (seemed very harmless).

I used to live in a home in AZ that was a scorpian hotel (and I hate them almost as much as spiders - but spiders still take the cake). I currently live in a COMPLETELY bug free home and love it. Because of my positive experiences with spiders on the island (seeing hardly any and none in the houses or hotels) I have decided they are not going to deter me from moving there.

With all that said, I think you will find your trip quite enjoyable and spider free.

I hope this helps. Have a great time!

Thank you for your post. That makes me feel better. Yeah my place seems like a scorpion hotel too- Haven't seen one in 5 days though since the exterminator came. The Happy Face spiders look very pretty with the colors but I really don't want to see any of them either but they are not as scary as the Cane Spiders.

[Sweetbeet]

Does anybody have any photos of these spiders (cane, happy face) that they could post? Or any others? We took a pic of a cool spider (OK, we like spiders! what can I say?) at our new house, I will post that tonight after I get home and maybe someone will know what it is.

[blueeyz911]

here's one. If you go to google images- and type "Cane Spiders" quite a few come up. They sure are creepy looking dudes.

[Sweetbeet]

OK, anybody know what this is? We found it on the outside wall of our shed. (You have to click on the thumbnail to get a good view, I don't know how to make it put the photo right in line without a thumbnail - maybe it's just too big or something.)

[MWS]

That too, is a picture of a Cane Spider. The Cane Spider has different variations to it, but that's it too. This one looks very similar to a Banana Spider and I believe that the Banana Spider is even in the same family of the Cane; Argiope Appensa.

For as much as I am TERRIFIED of spiders, I have done research on who my neighbors will be. These spiders "are harmless", from what I've read.

Hope this helps and please don't make me look at any more pictures of spiders!

[109*]

I went to turn on my light in my room the other night and about 5in from my hand was this cane spider. not the bigest one ive seen.
here is an albino cockarouch

[JennySquirrel]

OK can I share my favorite cane spider story?

I lived in Hawaii when I went to college and we were at the drive in (pearl ridge). Anyway, so we were not paying attention to the movie and all of a sudden we look up and see a big cane spider on the windshield. It was almost as big as my hand. Of course I screamed and freaked out and my boyfriend said no to worry roll up the windows and he would turn on the wipers and knock it off. SOOOO up went the windows (sure didn't want him jumping in on us) and he turned on the wipers. We anxiously watched in anticipation of the spider getting smashed or jumping off the windshield when we noticed that the wiper wasn't bothering him because HE WAS ON THE INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!! That was a date I will never forget! LOL

[Waianaegirl]

The happy-face spiders

[Waianaegirl]

Hawaiian Creatures - Cane Spiders

[Sweetbeet]

Thanks for those great links! I am so bummed that the happy-face spiders aren't on Kauai - I think they're beautiful. Oh, well, I'm sure we'll have something just as interesting.