Big yellow and black spider

[lunadesign]

We get these in our yard every summer. I like watching them grow because they get so huge. They can get to be a good 4" with their leg span. They're pretty amazing looking.

Actually, when we first were looking for homes here, it was October. We looked at one new house where a writer spider had made a web across the front dining room window and then planted itself right in the center. I had never seen one before and I honestly thought it was a Halloween decoration. It wasn't until the realtor nervously said "Uh, I guess we need to get rid of that" that I realized it was real - it was huge! But I enjoyed examining it from the inside of the house through the glass

[mike052082]

Spiders are one thing that I don't want to see over about an inch. Something about spiders larger than that. I get chills. We used to use those spiders as target practice for our BB gun b/c they were big enough to see from a distance away.

I'd turn into a little screaming kid jumping up and down frantically if one of those got on me.

[AngieSue]

We have a big one on a web between 2 of our tomato plants. I am terrified of spiders and was going to kill it but we have had problems with bugs eating our plants, and since it's too big to miss and run into it I let it stay! Do they kill the males after mating? Because I noticed a smaller one on the web with it yesterday and said "I bet it's dead tomorrow." And sure enough, today it plus another smaller spider were dead in her web!