Gorog, since you like spiders. . .

Cpl Punishment

Cpl Punishment

Joined
Jan 28, 2006
Messages
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Let me introduce you to a little lady that frequents my neck of the woods.

Locally known as the banana spider, formally known as the Golden Orb Weaver (pics from Google)

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Oh, that is so SWEET!!! I was tubing down a little river in the Smoky Mountains, and I am almost positive that I, on the fly, ID'ed (and ran face first into) a giant golden orb weaver female. No wonder you wanted to paint one like that, those beauties are gorgeous! Sorry if I freak anyone out, but I LOVE spiders, I would marry spiders if I could, and if they did not slightly scare the you-know-what out of me. I think they are some of the coolest creatures on the planet, especially huntsman spiders. Did you know their legs are horizontally jointed instead of vertically, so they look squished even when alive, can move in between crevasses, have virtually no drag, and can move at unholy speeds that would scare the stuffing out of even a seasoned spider expert? My karate instructor found a brown recluse in his backyard, and they are fine looking spiders too, though very dangerous, so, get rid of them with professional help, 'cause they be fast and venomous in a necrotizing way (don't quote me on the necrotizing part, it might be just wild guesswork on my part)! Anyway, THANK YOU for sharing, I am in love with spiders, and am willing to discuss the finer points of them for hours, if I know enough to keep on the edge of their seat that long...anyway, thanks for thinking of me, I'll vote Corporal Punishment when I am in jury duty next (just kidding, I would only do that if the person in question was an abomination.) See you all later, and keep this thread alive, please?
 
Now that it's hot, they are out and about (saw one crawling the ceiling in my bedroom a couple days ago), I'll carry the camera around and see if I can get some live pics.

I haven't seen any recluses around, although a lot of people confuse the male orb weaver as a recluse, as it's brown and roughly the same size, but doesn't have the same markings.

I did see a total of one black widow in my yard since I moved here, so they are about, but not common.
 
Oh, I saw a black widow female once, and man, was I on tenterhooks! I was totally praying (and I almost never pray, not very religious) that that spider would please spare me, because, oh man, she was faster than a bullet (I don't know how, other than spider awesomeness, seeing as she was pretty big around the abdomen, and had THOUSANDS of red spiderlings surrounding her. My childhood friend showed it to me in a cage, and there were spiderlings pouring out of it, and there was a relatively easy to spot hourglass of red on its abdomen, and I nearly wet myself in excitement and fear. Yeah, I know, silly David, it was in a cage, there is nothing to fear, unless it was outside of the cage, but, man oh man, do not mess with spiders, I don't care if you are Chuck Norris to spiders, I still highly disapprove of anyone taking on a recluse, black widow, brazilian wandering spider, australian funnel web spider, and other such dangerous monsters. Tarantulas actually do not have exceedingly potent venom, and they are exceptionally fragile, by the by, so if its ever a you or a tarantula deathmatch, don't hesitate to give it a good smack, and it will probably explode spider guts...kind of like a morbid fireworks display...yuck. I'm into researching spiders, so if anyone needs spider ID, or just some filler conversation when talking to your buddies, I'm ready and waiting for deployment, like an ICBM...or a water pistol, more like...I wish I was an ICBM, then I could kill TERRORISTS, YAY!!!! Anyway, I think I am suffering from sleep deprivation, I get weird when I'm not pushing out Z's, so its time for me to hit the sack. Peace. Oh, and you might want to take care of the Black widow, real soon, real professionally, otherwise, you could end up real dead, and it would not be painless. I heard that Black widow venom is a neurotoxin...ugh. So, yeah, if you see a single Black Widow female, either relocate her and her brood by calling the dear police's animal control sector, or get some serious firepower and spray her down, its not worth walking around, say, bare foot, and stepping on a shy little black widow. They will react, though they do not attack normally. So yeah, stay safe Punishment, it is NOT good to get bitten by one of the world's most dangerous spiders, though, by now, you must be well aware of that fact, and do not stick your hands underneath, say, a piece of furniture, or in cabinets without taking care of the problem first, otherwise, you might find yourself with a little black and red present sinking its fangs into you. I was really not to have taken a trip to the ER myself, so learn from my success, please. Thanks for listening, everyone, and peace, once again.
 
Don't worry, I saw her 8 years ago and it was WAY out back in the woods. Never seen another. I think the orb weavers pretty much ran off any other spiders.

Except, I get wolf spiders every now and then. They're cool since they run their prey down and don't make webs. It's freaky, though, how the females carry the spiderlings on their body -- looks like moving hair, and then when you get close, POOF! A billion tiny spiders run in all directions.

I think I had a spider of some sort lay its eggs in my leg one time too. I don't remember it happening -- getting bit, or sliced open, however you want to look at it. But a HUGE abscess formed, like bigger than a golf ball. I cut it open and flushed it with peroxide and squeezed out the blood and puss. After the swelling went away, there was this hard, black lump there. I had to cut the skin over it, and use tweezers to extract it. It was very hard, black, and wrapped in what, for the life of me, felt like white silk (making me suspect spiders).

Talk about your one-night-stands!
 
Haha, that was creepy, painful-sounding, and intensely funny at the same time. Yeah, that sounded nasty, but I have no clue what could have caused it, unfortunately. But I can certainly try and find it on our erstwhile friend/enemy, the internet. I have to go to class and such, so, see you all later. Peace.
 
Did you know there is a vegetarian spider? It sinks its fangs into plants and sucks 'em dry. (I am serious, by the way, just look it up, there's only one of the buggers out there, unless there is a subspecie or something. Also, professional spider milkers took a bunch Nephila's, also known to us everyday folks as golden orb weavers, banana spiders, and whatnot, and made possibly the strongest silk cloth specimen known to man. I bet you taking just a strand, and applying all your bodies force, would probably slice that strand straight through your fingers. Spider silk is incredibly strong, stronger than aramids, para-aramids, even ultra high molecular weight polyethylene UHMWPE or DYNEEMA, SPECTRA, ect. The Darwin's Bark Spider silk is so strong, it outdoes kevlar by 10 times in strength, as well as resistance to thermal energy, radiation, and other stimuli. Spider silk is nearly the ultimate natural fiber, super light and super strong, the only thing more awesome is the crust of a neutron star (which is estimated to be 10 billion times harder than steel!! Imagine having a knife made of that! You could hammer through layers of graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon fullerences, buckypaper, and hyperdiamonds without a scratch on it! In fact, you would probably, theoretically, be able to stick that blade in a mountain crevice, and with appropriately titanic strength, you would probably be able to pry that same mountain off the ground with that same knife, with hardly a bend in the blade. Neutron stars are so dense, they are second only to black holes, and black holes have singularities on their sides! Singularities are anomalies in our understanding of the universe, with (for now) infinite gravitational force, infinite energy, infinite mass. Pretty scary, eh? Event horizon surfing is definitely not worth the risk, to me, if an unlimited monster awaited me at the core.) Anyway, back to spiders. Jumping spiders can leap over 20 times their length, did you know? Only fleas are more impressive, as they have an elasticin or something like that in their legs that allows them to jump at least 100 times their height (I once heard a comparison would be a human clearing the empire state building in one go.) Oh, and where are those wonderful banana spiders, Punishment? I'm getting old here! I'm just kidding, take your time, I've heard that the Planet Earth photographers took over 48 hours to finally get a snow leopard, an exceedingly rare and beautiful big cat, on film, so maybe there is something to 'patience is a virtue'. Okay, everyone, I have run out of ideas for now, but I'll be back for more, trust me on that. Peace.
 
Here's the skin of our pet tarantula.
She gave it up willingly. (They molt every year or two.)
The spinnerets are at the far left.

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Ever get a good look at a spider's mouth?

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I thought I would let her crawl on my arm sometimes.
Until I saw her fangs.
Approaching 3/8" long.

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If she stretched out her legs, she measured about 5 inches.
She could climb up the glass walls of her terrarium and hang from the screen top.
Don't forget to put the lid back on, kids.
My wife said she would sleep at the neighbors house if the spider ever escaped.
She was serious.
We got her for free (as my son's pet) and kept her for some years.
We gave her away to a good home before we moved several years ago.
They can live 25 years in captivity.
An incredible creature. I felt sorry for her.
 
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Ah, the wonders of myglamorphic spiders. Myglamorphs are spiders, such as tarantulas, (that beauty is a keeper, by the by), that have downward pointing fangs, for hammering and ripping their prey with paralytic venom, deadly strength, and 'fangs of fury'. I love that they are slow movers, it is terrifying to me how smaller spiders move so quickly, I would probably scream like a baby if I saw a huntsman spider show off its mad agility in any way. Oh, and some advice for you Steve, though it might be common knowledge to you: DO NOT DROP YOUR TARANTULA. If you do, it will explode melodramatically and you will have a very expensive, very dead spider on your hands. Also, do not let it bite you, because, while I am positive tarantulas do not have killer venom, it is more than likely that even the most isolated of tarantula's are vectors for disease, and you do not want to have an infected bite, it is not fun. EDIT: I just read your unfortunate parting with your tarantula (Should have read the whole thing FIRST, David, darn you! Could have had a V8 -THUMP-). Sorry to hear it, arachnids have a terrible reputation they hardly deserve, and I find it heartening you took on the responsibility to care for such a hated creature. Thanks everyone for your contributions, and for reviving this awesome thread. I was running out of ideas to keep it going. Peace everyone, and long live spiders, for they are awesome, though, admittedly, they are scary, too.
 
Interesting trivia:

A friend of mine had tarantulas in a terrarium. We experimented one day when one was hanging on the side of the glass (how do they do that, by the way?). We'd tap on the glass under one of her feet until she lifted it. We found out they can hold their weight up on glass with as few as three feet in contact with the glass.
 
Tarantulas have tiny claws at the ends of their legs which they hook into the surface irregularities of glass to climb it.

I've read that they also have such sensitive "hearing" that they can detect the vibrations from an insect walking nearby. Imagine hearing the footsteps of a cricket. Having all those bristles must help with sensing vibrations and movements.

Captivity must be sensory overload for them with normal household sounds, music, tapping, etc.
 
All spiders have those claws at their feet, along with a fair amount of insects. I forget what they are called, but yeah Steve, they do catch surface depressions, impurities, burrs, edges, and basically the microscopic topography of the glass and help them climb it. Geckos do the same, but can stick to even a perfect surface because of micro hairs that invoke weak atomic attraction that, with every single surface of the hairs pressed on the surface of the material, provides a very strong stick that is completely adhesion free (save for the molecular attraction). Elephants can communicate via these incredibly deep noises they can make which travel as seismic waves through the ground for miles, and pick them up with their enormous ears. I bet it is a similar concept with tarantulas. Insects and arthropods have ears, tympanic membranes, organic hearing devices, whatever you want to call them, so I am not surprised that their hearing, or touch, is exceptional, seeing as their eyesight is fiendishly poor (no surprises there, look at how tiny their simple eyes are!). And yes, Steve, the bristles create an immensely powerful sensitivity level for the spiders, an ingenious and lightning quick reaction time to stimuli. Touch a live spiders web, and they react, fast. If you don't believe me, believe my karate instructor, for he had a brown recluse in his yard, how, as he lives in delaware, I do not know, but a brown recluse it was, and according to him, that big thing was so fast, it nearly bit him, and he is a third degree black belt in both Tang Soo Do and Hapkido, which equals serious reflexive speed. Okay, I have to go, talk to you all again at around 8:00 North Atlantic time. Peace.
 
The molting process, resulting in the intact "skin" shown in the photos, is pretty amazing.

Here's an analogy: Imagine a guy wearing a full suit of armor, including gauntlets and face cover. The armor has a "trap door" rear end, like old-time longjohn underwear. The guy sits on a hill, with extended legs pointing uphill, and he bends forward like he is trying to touch his toes. In this position, he wriggles butt-first out of the trap door, leaving behind the suit of armor.

It's a dangerous time for spiders, as they can get stuck and die. They are also defenseless and can get eaten during the process, even by the crickets which are normally its food (I've read that it's happened.) After emerging, it takes a while for the fresh exoskeleton to harden, so they are vulnerable and hide out.
 
The pictures of the banana spider reminded me of an hilarious family story.
We were living in Houston and one night around 11pm my 9yo daughter started screaming, my wife and I ran into her room and asked why. She said something had crawled over her face. I said 'dream', but my wife (always the more believing parent) said 'let's look'.
So we got her out of bed and looked all over, nothing. My daughter was still freaked out, so we eventually pulled the mattress and lifted the supporting plywood (it was a Captain's bed); sure enough there was a large (the size of my hand, not just the palm mind you, my ENTIRE hand) banana spider under there. I caught it and brought it to the nature reserve near the house the next day, but first I gave my daughter a hug and apologized for not believing her.
Can you imagine what that felt like? To have something that big crawl over your face? I like bugs and that would have scared the crap out of me. To her credit (she's now 20) she still insists on capturing and releasing bugs found in the house rather than just squishin' 'em.
Cheers,
Russel
 
I walked through a large (full size of my body spider web (empty / no spider was ever found)) spider web one night in pitch dark on 2 hits of blotter acid -- what i freak out that was - as i felt that web lace over my whole face and upper body i did what probably looked like a strange break dance

did not sleep that night or next day - took awhile and some friends to convince me i was ok -- just saying
- peace out
 
russde: I've woke up with a banana spider dangling from a thread directly over my face, about 6 inches away. Talk about your standing starts!! Don't know what the hell that thing was thinking!

BFH: I walked into a banana spider's web last year. Mind you, it wasn't there the day before, and stretched from the house to the tree next to it, about 16 feet. I was looking down at something Chopper was doing and woosh, right into it. The thing was so strong (and big), it stopped me. I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, and here comes the thing from It bearing down on me at about 40 MPH. I forgot what I had in my hand, either my R-10 or kerambit, but I remember raising it to her, where she stopped dead in her tracks, and said "I'm too big for you." and began to extricate myself from the web. She started toward me again, and again I raised the blade and said "Don't you do it! I'll be eating you!" Thing is, after walking into the web and then pulling myself out of it, it was intact. That's how strong they are (and this one was about 2 feet tall, starting 4 feet off the ground).


What's really freaky, is during the height of summer, there's a road near me, and it's a main road, where the banana spiders weave webs between the power lines for MILES, and like the famous Australian picture, I have seen small birds caught in them. That's got to be a bad way to go. . .
 
Spider silk is strong, guys. If spiders, or any crawler for that matter, gets bigger than 48 inches, which is highly unlikely because of the weight of their exoskeletons would inhibit movement, then we are going to be absolutely swamped in a matter of days. They are some of the most incredibly powerful creatures on the planet, spiders are, and it would be nothing like Hollywood portrayed with those clumsy tarantulas, not even like Harry Potters scene with Acromantulas. If, somehow, spiders defied science and grew to the size of human beings, they would probably be as agile as their tiny counterparts, and would be more than capable of overturning cars and trailers in search of their nice, hairless, slow prey. Ugh... so, yeah, be cautious of spiders, but don't let primeval fear get in the way of liking spiders, they are fabulous creatures, worthy of our attention, or at least, our respect. Have to go to class now, see you all later. Peace.
 
Yeah, man, I mean, you were practically ensnared by a spider, so I fully support your dislike of spiders, as it is very terrifying to be touched in the middle of the night by anything, much less something with the tensile strength and stickiness of a full sized golden orb weavers web. It MUST have been traumatizing, I would have been traumatized, and I love spiders. So, yeah, I hope someday that the plague of fear lifts from you, Eric, so, until that day, hang in there, and try not to kill spiders when you see them because they are not as uselessly terrifying as they seem, unless they are up in your face, then, I give you my blessings to kill them, because that is a sign of arachnid rudeness, and, since you can't teach spiders to behave, you end them! Yay for squishing rude spiders with personal space issues! Anyway, someday, I will get me a dead, monster of a huntsman spider and keep it in a preservative substance, so I can admire it from afar. I can just imagine me getting in an argument, with the opponent insulting my mother, (which is the sin of the world, by the by, my mother is so amazingly talented at being a good person, while it is practically a chore for the rest of us, I envy her so much...bah, humbug.), and me saying, "You know what? I own the biggest, baddest predator on the face of the Earth, and YOU DON'T! OH, YEAH, ROCKED IN THE FACE, YOU HAVE BEEN! HAH!"...Whew, sometimes, the hyperchondriac in me wants to self diagnose myself as having multiple personality disorder or whatever it is formally known as. Well, peace everyone, I hope I didn't scare anyone off with that micro-rant of mine. Bye!
 
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