Spiders in Africa

Longtrang

Longtrang

Joined
Jan 21, 2010
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I am told by the locals that there are no poisonous spiders here in Zambia. Snakes are the real nuisance. Didn't stop me from soiling myself when this guy decided to visit me in bed.
DSC00327.jpg

You can't tell by the picture but this thing is bigger than my hand. I felt something in bed with me, I jumped up and this monster ran up the wall. I have been trying to do some research and find out what kind of spider this is but no luck so far. Any ideas?
 
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I saw one like that when I was in Tanzania. I woke up to see it hanging at the top of my mosquito net. Freaky scary.
 
Detour said:
I thought all spiders were poisonous.
Click to expand...
All spiders are venomous. The degree to which the venom affects a human varies from one species to the next of course.
I encountered that spider quite a bit in Zimbabwe. The house geckos seemed to relish them.
 
Reminds me of the spider I saw when I was in Haiti on the island of Laganove. It lived behind the toilet in the house I was staying and it or another one would roam the bedroom. Man it was fast and bigger than my hand. Whenever I need to use the BR I would make sure it was in its hole, if not, I used a different BR. At least if I could see it I knew where it was.

Sweet dreams :D
Jason
 
Yeah, looks very similar to the Huntsman spider in Australia - same sort of body structure. Not sure if its actually the same species, but looks similar. They grow large in Aus, too.
 
Get a cat, they love spiders. I've seen them chewing on the legs of a four inch huntsman spider.

Mmmm tasty.
 
That looks like a Rain Spider to me.
We get plenty of them here in Johannesburg and surrounding areas.
They come out in the summer rainy season and they get huge.
Pretty harmless but very quick.
 
IF you are in VA, and it is as large as your hand, then it is probably a fishing or nursery web spider. They are sometimes found in houses near woodland habitats.


BUT...since you are in Africa It could be the african huntsman. Your picture has the same body style.

africanhuntsman_spider.jpg


HuntsmanSpider.jpg
 
looks like a huntsman spider to me...had one crawl up my back while i was cleaning my teeth after a shower before work..great way to start a day!
 
The first time I saw a Huntsman in Australia, I nearly soiled myself. When in Australia, I kinda assume that everything is poisonous. Poisonous or not, I do not want one in my bed ...
 
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