Spider in daughters apartment - do you know what kind of spider it is (Bushnell: real estate, crawl space)

[sithlord72]

There are only two kinds of poisonous spiders in North America..the Black Widow and Brown Recluse..


That spider is either a brown recluse or a wolf spider...

[jsimms3]

haha Chilldude, I agree. I HATE spiders and I have had bad luck with them, too. I do think I have arachnophobia, nothing scares me except for Satan and Spiders. My three worst experiences were:

1) Middle of the night I am half asleep and "dream" that a GIANT black spider is crawling up my bare chest to my face. I fling it off in a panic and FREAK. I sleep in a different room the rest of the night because I still can't determine whether or not I was dreaming. I could see into the guy's 8 beady eyes. Sure enough the next day the house cleaner found a massive black spider that was killed in my bedroom. I had panic attacks about it for an entire year afterward.

2) I am cleaning our pool, I go to the back of the poolhouse to get the brush, and a medium sized TARANTULA lunges at me. Ok I am assuming someone's pet got free, but this thing looked like it could kill a mammal or a bird. I thought I had a heart attack, I was even too afraid to kill it. I just ran inside crying and nobody believed me until we saw the thing later that day and pest control identified it. Some people think that spiders make good pets. Well F you. You are probably the same people to blame for our massive boa constrictor problem in Florida. Get a freakin dog or cat or even a bird or some fish.

3) In high school we used to go to UNF to run around on their land for cross country. Well I'm running and running and just thinking and day dreaming, and lo and behold the next thing I know I am head first into a massive nest of massive banana spiders who thought it would be funny to block a jogging trail. Ahhhhh! I think I wet my pants and threw a massive fit. I HATE Banana spiders even though they aren't dangerous. These spiders are full of attitude and they hate people, AND they are massive and scary looking. Their "nests" are exactly like those from the movie Arachnophobia. Very dense webs, and BIG webs to support their BIG bodies. They shake and throw a hissy fit if you disturb their nest and I think they are big enough to kill decent sized small animals, too.

OK enough about spiders. I hate 'em and they stank! Kill them. Exterminate them. Get rid of them. Thank God they don't cause very much trouble or enter our lives very visibly very frequently, but when they do it sucks.

Oh lest I forget the time that a huge spider entered my shower. I step in and turn the water on and there is this big guy spasming out in one of the corners. His leg span was like that of an albatross. I scream, run out naked and wet, and throw a fit (i'm really not dramatic except for with spiders), and my dad goes to check it out. Water is still running so the spider is probably not happy. My dad ran out screaming. My mom had to kill it. That is when I learned it was "spasming" out because it had entered the "pest control barrier" and suffered fatal nerve damage. It would have died shortly afterward anyway. Pest control ID'd it, but I can't remember what it was.

PS: I am not afraid of little spiders at all. Black widows give me chills and I have seen a couple before, but I am not afraid of them. Same with brown recluses. It's the big "non-dangerous" spiders that will be the death of me via heart attack. I am absolutely terrified of big spiders. I'll actually pick up a jumping spider or a house spider or those colorful garden spiders because I think those guys are the good guys. It's the spiders that can kill a friggin rat that cause me to go NUTS. Ew, reminds me of the time we saw a big fat wolf spider with all of her gross little babies on her back just walking by us one time with not a care about us in the world. I couldn't even stomp on it. I got a hose jet and exterminated the hell out of them right there. I happily prevented the world from hosting a bunch more soon to be huge wold spiders. By mommie, I hate you. You ate the dad anyway, so you were obviously unfit to raise a bunch of babies.

[jsimms3]

Originally Posted by chilldude

Kill spiders in your house. Spiders need to learn to stay outside. The genetic bloodline of those that tend to venture into houses needs to be eradicated.

Yes. +100000

[jsimms3]

Oh, and interestingly enough, my uncle in law imported a bunch of stuff from Brazil, and put it into storage (he has his own storage facility for his random interests/hobbies). Soon enough the whole place was run amok by rare, giant Brazilian spiders. I think he took a loss because they had to burn part of the thing down, but he was telling me that the body of these things would cover your palm and the leg span was enormous. He said after they identified the spider (apparently took a while to figure out what they were and where they came from), that one of the effects of the venom was an erection lasting so long that you could become impotent. I am absolutely not kidding. He said they were so venomous that you would "suffer" the erection IF you lived (i.e. they put black widow and brown recluse venom to shame).

This is not here in Jacksonville, thank God, but up north. Just think of all the import/export going on between places in FL and crazy tropical places elsewhere. And these things can still LIVE here without predators.

[gingerbreadgirl]

I just came to the Jacksonville forum to read because we are seriously considering moving to Jacksonville. I am definitely arachnophobic. I grew up in Miami but have never seen any of these spiders mentioned. Maybe I was just too dumb to look back then. I have never heard of banana spiders but they sound like my worst nightmare! I was hoping Jacksonville was far enough north NOT to have all those exotic spiders. We have black widows and brown recluse here in Virginia....but these banana spiders are making me think twice about moving back to Florida. Please tell me they are very very rare!

[mississippimagnolia]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

Oh, and interestingly enough, my uncle in law imported a bunch of stuff from Brazil, and put it into storage (he has his own storage facility for his random interests/hobbies). Soon enough the whole place was run amok by rare, giant Brazilian spiders. I think he took a loss because they had to burn part of the thing down, but he was telling me that the body of these things would cover your palm and the leg span was enormous. He said after they identified the spider (apparently took a while to figure out what they were and where they came from), that one of the effects of the venom was an erection lasting so long that you could become impotent. I am absolutely not kidding. He said they were so venomous that you would "suffer" the erection IF you lived (i.e. they put black widow and brown recluse venom to shame).

This is not here in Jacksonville, thank God, but up north. Just think of all the import/export going on between places in FL and crazy tropical places elsewhere. And these things can still LIVE here without predators.

Brazilian Wandering Spider!

Brazilian wandering spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by gingerbreadgirl

I just came to the Jacksonville forum to read because we are seriously considering moving to Jacksonville. I am definitely arachnophobic. I grew up in Miami but have never seen any of these spiders mentioned. Maybe I was just too dumb to look back then. I have never heard of banana spiders but they sound like my worst nightmare! I was hoping Jacksonville was far enough north NOT to have all those exotic spiders. We have black widows and brown recluse here in Virginia....but these banana spiders are making me think twice about moving back to Florida. Please tell me they are very very rare!

Actually - banana spiders are kind of cool. They're huge - hard to miss - and don't bite people. Have never found one inside (but have some outside).

I've been an avid gardener for years - and have been bitten so many times by so many things that I get big red welts whenever any bug bites me now (and most of them are not spiders).

If you're worried about bugs - get 4/X year interior pest control service - and keep your windows closed most of the time. That's what we do.

FWIW - to me the biggest pests here in Florida aren't spiders - they're those crummy little ants (I think they're called sugar ants). If you have an infestation - you'll wind up with thousands in your kitchen. I'll take the occasional spider any day of the week. And last year my pantry got infested with "pasta bugs" - thousands of them too. Took me about 3 days to deal with those ridiculous bugs and clean out the pantry.

Oh - and about the most dangerous critters you're likely to find in your house are scorpions - not spiders. Robyn

[madcapmagishion]

The Golden silk spider commonly called the banana spider because of the females yellow body is quite harmless and fascinating to observe
Golden Silk (Banana) Spiders

...on the other hand the Brown Banana spider or The Brazilian Wandering spider is the most deadly spider in the world (so some articles suggest), but it is also the one mentioned above that can cause the unusual side effect
Spider venom can cause four-hour erections 'the new Viagra' | Mail Online

[wb3690]

yuck! I won't even open the picture. I hate hate hate hate HATE spiders.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by pinda

She just wants to know if it is dangerous to her or her cats. She saw a red mark on her cat too after seeing 2 spiders. The brown recluse looks like it is kinda of flesh eating and is really scary if it bites. Hopefully there is nothing to worry about. Thank you for the replies.

Spiders - including the brown recluse - don't "eat flesh". Some do have "dirty" bites though - and those bites can lead to infections that damage flesh (or worse). It's a good idea to get an insect bite checked out if there's any evidence of infection. And one should always go to a doctor for a tick bite (because you'll need a prophylactic course of antibiotics). Robyn