Spider ID

[Caddyshack]

I had a package come from Spain and I have found a spider in the box, it could have entered at any time but it looks a bit more robust in the body shape and could it be a tarantula spiderling?

Hard to get a good pic:

[Caddyshack]

[Caddyshack]

[Vsix and Vtec]

Burn everything. I remember "arachnophobia" from the 80s.

But yes, the last photo especially looks like a tarantula spiderling. Couldn't tell you which species though.

[croyde]

Take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way.

[AW111]

They are cute when they're puppies, but do you still want to keep it when it's eating a pound of steak a day?

[Caddyshack]

AW111 said:

They are cute when they're puppies, but do you still want to keep it when it's eating a pound of steak a day?

If it grows to something like that it would be great fun...would it eat a Mother-in-Law, If so how long would it take to get that big and can I give it steroids to speed things up?

[C5_Steve]

That's known as a Nope spider. Closely related to the Hell No spider.

In all seriousness, I think it's a Mouse Spider (hard to judge size from the pics). Does live in Spain or nearby, also, worryingly, lives in the UK as well. Which means you're probably fine to release him into the wild (500 miles from your house of course).

[Caddyshack]

C5_Steve said:

That's known as a Nope spider. Closely related to the Hell No spider.

In all seriousness, I think it's a Mouse Spider (hard to judge size from the pics). Does live in Spain or nearby, also, worryingly, lives in the UK as well. Which means you're probably fine to release him into the wild (500 miles from your house of course).

Thank You, it does look exactly like the pictures of the Mouse Spiders that we get in the UK. I will release it.

[croyde]

Are you mispronunciating House Spider. As I've seen monsters in my bath

Seriously if you release that in the UK, it and it's kind will be ruling us within a decade.

I would like to be the first to welcome our new Arachnoid Overlords.

Edited by croyde on Monday 18th March 15:45

[Caddyshack]

croyde said:

Are you mispronunciating House Spider. As I've seen monsters in my bath

Seriously if you release that in the UK, it and it's kind will be ruling us within a decade.

I would like to be the first to welcome our new Arachnoid Overlords.

Edited by croyde on Monday 18th March 15:45

I let it go and now I can’t find our pet rabbit…you may be right.

[UTH]

Again, I click on the thread. And again I now know of yet another massive spider that lives in this country that I didn't know about before. FFS. Why do I do it?!

[Caddyshack]

UTH said:

Again, I click on the thread. And again I now know of yet another massive spider that lives in this country that I didn't know about before. FFS. Why do I do it?!

These are little spiders…don’t worry.


Spiders are great and nothing to be scared of. Go and hold a Tarantula at a zoo.

[DoctorX]

Wikipedia said:

Bites from these spiders are painful, but not generally dangerous. There is evidence that a mouse spider bite can potentially be as serious as that of an Australian funnel-web spider, but recorded bites are rare, despite the abundance of some species amid human habitation

[C5_Steve]

Caddyshack said:

UTH said:

Again, I click on the thread. And again I now know of yet another massive spider that lives in this country that I didn't know about before. FFS. Why do I do it?!

These are little spiders…don’t worry.


Spiders are great and nothing to be scared of. Go and hold a Tarantula at a zoo.

You know what, I'm scared of spiders and I really wish I wasn't because I do find them fascinating. There's just absolutely no way I'd ever hold one. They are amazing things but it doesn't change the fact they scare the st out of me.

It's an irrational fear and I know precisely at what point it was formed. I'd happily dive with Great White's, stroke a Crocodile, hold a snake etc. All things that could actually kill you.

Touch a spider? Absolutely not

[UTH]

C5_Steve said:

You know what, I'm scared of spiders and I really wish I wasn't because I do find them fascinating. There's just absolutely no way I'd ever hold one. They are amazing things but it doesn't change the fact they scare the st out of me.

It's an irrational fear and I know precisely at what point it was formed. I'd happily dive with Great White's, stroke a Crocodile, hold a snake etc. All things that could actually kill you.

Touch a spider? Absolutely not

Yep, you and me both.
Judging by your username, maybe it's a Corvette owner thing? haha

[Caddyshack]

C5_Steve said:

Caddyshack said:

UTH said:

Again, I click on the thread. And again I now know of yet another massive spider that lives in this country that I didn't know about before. FFS. Why do I do it?!

These are little spiders…don’t worry.


Spiders are great and nothing to be scared of. Go and hold a Tarantula at a zoo.

You know what, I'm scared of spiders and I really wish I wasn't because I do find them fascinating. There's just absolutely no way I'd ever hold one. They are amazing things but it doesn't change the fact they scare the st out of me.

It's an irrational fear and I know precisely at what point it was formed. I'd happily dive with Great White's, stroke a Crocodile, hold a snake etc. All things that could actually kill you.

Touch a spider? Absolutely not

I believe that some humans have an ancient part of the brain that means many are born with a fear of spiders and scientists think it could be a throw back to living in caves.

Evolutionary Factors: Some researchers propose that humans may have developed an innate fear of spiders as a result of evolutionary factors. Throughout history, encounters with venomous spiders could have posed a greater threat to survival compared to encounters with non-venomous snakes.


I had an aquatic store when I first left college and I had a small reptile section, I used to do quite well getting ladies that I met in the pub to come to the shop to handle a Tarantula....

[croyde]

Caddyshack said:

I believe that some humans have an ancient part of the brain that means many are born with a fear of spiders and scientists think it could be a throw back to living in caves.

Evolutionary Factors: Some researchers propose that humans may have developed an innate fear of spiders as a result of evolutionary factors. Throughout history, encounters with venomous spiders could have posed a greater threat to survival compared to encounters with non-venomous snakes.


I had an aquatic store when I first left college and I had a small reptile section, I used to do quite well getting ladies that I met in the pub to come to the shop to handle a Tarantula....

That's funny, I don't call mine that

[C5_Steve]

Caddyshack said:

I believe that some humans have an ancient part of the brain that means many are born with a fear of spiders and scientists think it could be a throw back to living in caves.

Evolutionary Factors: Some researchers propose that humans may have developed an innate fear of spiders as a result of evolutionary factors. Throughout history, encounters with venomous spiders could have posed a greater threat to survival compared to encounters with non-venomous snakes.


I had an aquatic store when I first left college and I had a small reptile section, I used to do quite well getting ladies that I met in the pub to come to the shop to handle a Tarantula....

Interesting theory and I appreciate this is now massively OT but let me share a lengthy story.

So for me, I wasn't scared of Spiders as a kid, well, not for a few years as I remember the exact moment I got my fear of them. I must have been around 3/4 and sat with my mum on a chair. Across the room, something large and black (I'm short-sighted so it was just a blur) moved along the skirting board between two cabinets. My mum picked me up and very calmly left the house. She went and got our next-door neighbour to come and remove the offending black blur (which I knew was a spider because she'd told our neighbour). He was a giant of a man and he had it in his hand as he carried it out and said something about the size of it before throwing it off the balcony.

From then on, scared of spiders but specifically the way they move. I'm fine with pictures, I find them fascinating to look at but if I even see one move out of the corner of my eye I'm off. It's the way they move, literally. Also means I'm really not fond of bugs for the same reason.

What's really, really interesting is my Mum was ill years ago with something that affected her brain for a while. Was an autoimmune disease that affected her brain like dementia (she's fine now). When she was suffering with it, she lost memories in the most random way, and one of the things she "forgot" was her fear of spiders. We realised it when Harry Potter was on the TV and she was sat there watching it. It was the one with the massive spider in the forest and all the little ones attack This is a woman who couldn't even see a picture of a spider in a book before, yet she had no concept of why she would be afraid of them. Much like me, my Mum also developed her fear in a similar way except it was her nan in her incident. Her nan was apparently someone never scared of anything normally, came across a massive spider on my mums swing one day and gave it a wide berth. And from then on, my Mum was scared of spiders.

Once she'd recovered from her illness, she went back to being scared of them again.

The brain is an odd thing sometimes.

[Caddyshack]

C5_Steve said:

Caddyshack said:

I believe that some humans have an ancient part of the brain that means many are born with a fear of spiders and scientists think it could be a throw back to living in caves.

Evolutionary Factors: Some researchers propose that humans may have developed an innate fear of spiders as a result of evolutionary factors. Throughout history, encounters with venomous spiders could have posed a greater threat to survival compared to encounters with non-venomous snakes.


I had an aquatic store when I first left college and I had a small reptile section, I used to do quite well getting ladies that I met in the pub to come to the shop to handle a Tarantula....

Interesting theory and I appreciate this is now massively OT but let me share a lengthy story.

So for me, I wasn't scared of Spiders as a kid, well, not for a few years as I remember the exact moment I got my fear of them. I must have been around 3/4 and sat with my mum on a chair. Across the room, something large and black (I'm short-sighted so it was just a blur) moved along the skirting board between two cabinets. My mum picked me up and very calmly left the house. She went and got our next-door neighbour to come and remove the offending black blur (which I knew was a spider because she'd told our neighbour). He was a giant of a man and he had it in his hand as he carried it out and said something about the size of it before throwing it off the balcony.

From then on, scared of spiders but specifically the way they move. I'm fine with pictures, I find them fascinating to look at but if I even see one move out of the corner of my eye I'm off. It's the way they move, literally. Also means I'm really not fond of bugs for the same reason.

What's really, really interesting is my Mum was ill years ago with something that affected her brain for a while. Was an autoimmune disease that affected her brain like dementia (she's fine now). When she was suffering with it, she lost memories in the most random way, and one of the things she "forgot" was her fear of spiders. We realised it when Harry Potter was on the TV and she was sat there watching it. It was the one with the massive spider in the forest and all the little ones attack This is a woman who couldn't even see a picture of a spider in a book before, yet she had no concept of why she would be afraid of them. Much like me, my Mum also developed her fear in a similar way except it was her nan in her incident. Her nan was apparently someone never scared of anything normally, came across a massive spider on my mums swing one day and gave it a wide berth. And from then on, my Mum was scared of spiders.

Once she'd recovered from her illness, she went back to being scared of them again.

The brain is an odd thing sometimes.

The thread had ended as I got the spider identified so I think it is nice to go off topic.

Fascinating to hear this as it does show we can forget what we are scared of. Similar in the way that I was hypnotised to give up drinking - I went from 2 bottles of wine a night to ZERO for the last 6 years.


I have a strong memory of standing in front of our patio windows as a 5 yrs old, I remember the jumper I was wearing and my shadow on the wall has a massive spider walking over my shoulder - I freaked and my parents "saved me" - I was not scared of spiders though and I am glad of that, I think my fascination with creepy crawlies overtook any fear.

Finding the little fella that started this thread has made me look at Tarantulas and I am thinking of putting one next to my desk in my office as I would be interested to watch it work.


My mother-in-law has dementia and she has forgotten that she was allergic (according to her) to prawns and other shellfish, she now eats them without any problems at all.