Let's Talk About Spiders In Hawaii

[PukaFace]

More likely to be attacked by the "Spear Clan" from the History Channel's "American Jungle" on the Big Island than by provoking Jungjohann's cannibals over on Maui. . . . Seriously, have you seen THAT reality show ?!
I have seen black widows on the Puna side in the darker areas under the house and inside water heater timers and
in junk piles in carports. They do like drier areas but I can't speak for the Kona side. And way more of them in California
like scgali said, along with the brown recluse spider.
We used to play with the cane spiders when I was a teen and they can bite, but are not supposed to be very poisonous. We were very afraid of the bigger centipedes though.

[AlohaLucy]

New to the forum...hello

I had to comment on the Buying Hawaii show. It is my personal belief (and I just wrote a blog on it) that the show's purpose is to DISCOURAGE people from moving to Hawaii. Its focus on spiders, centipedes, wild pigs, and homes in the middle of lava fields for $800,000 with no bathroom has convinced me that they really want to turn people AWAY from the islands.

We had to stop watching it. It was truly freaking us out, there are no normal situations, most of the guests want to live "off the grid" and are excited when there is no one within 10 miles of them, and most of the houses are beyond ridiculous.

Hawaii Life is more normal, although we think they advertise for guests with something like this: "are you moving to Hawaii, not very picky, and just a little weird? Contact us and be on our show!" but the situations, budgets, and houses seem much more realistic.

[Due]

Originally Posted by AlohaLucy

New to the forum...hello

I had to comment on the Buying Hawaii show. It is my personal belief (and I just wrote a blog on it) that the show's purpose is to DISCOURAGE people from moving to Hawaii. Its focus on spiders, centipedes, wild pigs, and homes in the middle of lava fields for $800,000 with no bathroom has convinced me that they really want to turn people AWAY from the islands.

We had to stop watching it. It was truly freaking us out, there are no normal situations, most of the guests want to live "off the grid" and are excited when there is no one within 10 miles of them, and most of the houses are beyond ridiculous.

Hawaii Life is more normal, although we think they advertise for guests with something like this: "are you moving to Hawaii, not very picky, and just a little weird? Contact us and be on our show!" but the situations, budgets, and houses seem much more realistic.

AlohaLucy-

Welcome to the forum.
We all need to take these shows with a "grain of salt". Buying Hawaii is just a TV show and like Hawaii Life is there to make profit. We watch both shows, laugh at both, but also enjoy watching them.

Note: my wife and I (although now on Hawaii) were born and raised in Texas. Not only does Texas have scorpions, centipedes (smaller), spiders (Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Tarantulas), Texas also has poisonous snakes (Rattlers, Water Moccasin, Copperhead, Coral) and feral pigs: plus alligators.
It doesn't seem to stop people from moving to Texas. Why the concern over the critters in Hawaii?

Funny: I saw a couple of large black centipedes in Hawaii when I moved a plant in a pot on the ground; the centipedes..... just ran away...... :-). Never saw them again.

FYI: I believe the home for sale in the lava field was $100,000.

Kindest regards,
Due

[AlohaLucy]

Originally Posted by Due

AlohaLucy-

Welcome to the forum.
We all need to take these shows with a "grain of salt". Buying Hawaii is just a TV show and like Hawaii Life is there to make profit. We watch both shows, laugh at both, but also enjoy watching them.

Note: my wife and I (although now on Hawaii) were born and raised in Texas. Not only does Texas have scorpions, centipedes (smaller), spiders (Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Tarantulas), Texas also has poisonous snakes (Rattlers, Water Moccasin, Copperhead, Coral) and feral pigs: plus alligators.
It doesn't seem to stop people from moving to Texas. Why the concern over the critters in Hawaii?

Funny: I saw a couple of large black centipedes in Hawaii when I moved a plant in a pot on the ground; the centipedes..... just ran away...... :-). Never saw them again.

FYI: I believe the home for sale in the lava field was $100,000.

Kindest regards,
Due

I think your right, perhaps it was the cabin with the dorm like size mini fridge and outdoor bathroom I was thinking of? LOL.

We like to see different areas, so the shows are good for that. I love House Hunters International, been watching for years, the Hawaii ones seem extra fake, but useful for entertainment purposes.

One of my husband's most vivid memories of our trip to Molokai was a huge banana spider that was on his leg in our house there, it looked like it could eat beef, it was so big. To this day he says "remember that spider?" In Vegas we got black widows and rattlesnakes...in the midwest we got brown recluse and coyotes. I do have to admit, those huge centipedes to give me the heebie jeebies, but most critters just want to stay away from people. Every summer here we get a bunch of spiders, we clear them off the decks but one bush we leave alone, it ends up with like 10 webs, looks pretty cool in the morning sunlight!

[hotzcatz]

The spiders in the webs are usually crab spiders unless they are garden spiders. Occasionally, it seems like there is an explosion of crab spiders and there will be webs everywhere. I rarely see multiple garden spiders, though. The crab spiders are like little bumps in the middle of their web, kinda with tiny short spikes like crabs have on their shells. The garden spiders are black with yellow stripes and stay on their webs with their feet out and look much more spider like. They do seem to keep their feet in pairs, though, so it's almost like a four legged spider when they are at rest in the middle of their web.

Cane spiders don't make webs, which, IMHO, is one of their more endearing traits. They also seem to have territories and stay in them. We had one that lived above the dryer for a long time. Sometimes we'd catch bugs for it.

Don't like the centipedes. Usually we see the blue ones with an occasional red one. I'm not familiar with the black ones, although there are a lot of black millipedes which are a lot slower and I don't think they bite. The centipedes bite. And it hurts!