Tarantulas in Missouri

[w00lyb00ger]

When I was a kid I went to scout camp at H. Roe. Bartle near Osceola. They had displays set up of some of the creatures scouts there had caught. There were some tarantulas on display.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

My dad saw a tarantula out by the shed yesterday.

[igotafever]

I spotted this guy on the highway between Rockaway Beach, MO and Highway 65 on Hwy 176 just over a week ago. It was early evening and I also spotted another one about 1 mile father down the road. Sorry, I didn't check to see if it was a male or not. They were both in the process of crossing the road.

[thevez2]

That's a mature male for sure. Nice Picture. It's cool to see them out on the prowl, looking for ladies.

[billr]

Well I can truthfully say that Spiders of any kind freak me out and always have.

However snakes have never been a problem for me. In fact during my years in Florida I use catch rattle snakes live. Of course that was when I was many years younger and much more foolish.

I have tried to figure out why I am so freaked out by spiders and the only thing I can think of is an incident that happened when I was very young. My older brother and I were catching bugs to feed the birds and I picked up a black widow. My brother knocked it out of my hand and said never do that again because it will bite you and it will kill you.

From information I have read since I understand that while it can be bad they are not that deadly. I mean like he told me that if it bit me no one could save me.

Here in MS we have a spider that is much worse called the Brown Recluse and there is a pretty heavy population of them in many places here. I know one woman who has been bitten by a Brown Recluse on three different occasions and the last time she lost much of the upper part of her arm by the time they got it healed.

I can remember many years ago driving through the Ozarks at night and seeing the huge spiders on the roads. Strange thing is that I lived up there for several years during my teen years and do not remember them from back then.

You go hunt them all you want, just don't bring any down here and set them free. All I need is to start seeing them in my yard.

[bluenoter]

I live in NW Arkansas and didn't realize tarantulas lived this far north. I've seen tarantulas in Texas. Now I'm going to have to check under my sheets when I crawl into bed tonight.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I've never seen a tarantula in the wild, so I wouldn't worry about it. You're more likely to see crickets or wolf spiders.