My son found this fella under the door to our shed tonight when he was putting his bike away. We have lots of wolf spiders, but I've never seen one this big. We put the quarter down there for size, then after I took the picture we got in an argument about who had to get it back...the spider now has $0.25 .

We went inside to get the others and show them. My daughter is now refusing to leave the house.

I'm leaving it alone and hoping it takes up residence and starts eating chipmunks.

I never saw any in Hobart.....thankfully!

We have actual tarantulas in NM. When I lived in Magdalena, I could see them crossing the road during my daily commute to graduate school. Quarter? HA! Try a saucer.

When I was in High School I went on a missions trip to northeast Brazil for a month. We guys were housed in a hut with a half-wall in the middle that divided the building in half. Half of us were on one side of the wall, and half on the other. The building was just wide enough to hang hammocks across from wall-to-wall, so we were basically just a big line of hammocks with a half-wall in the middle. Above the half-wall it was open to the rafters, and the roof was overlapping clay tile.

The first day there was pretty busy with travel and getting situated and we weren't paying as close attention to our natural surroundings as we probably should have been. When it came time to go to bed, we all kind of figured out our hammocks and got situated, when we heard screaming coming from the girls building about 100 yards away. Apparently one had found a tarantula in her suitcase.

Of course we thought it was hilarious, until we got to lying there and one of the guys on the other side of the wall said "hey guys, I think there's a tarantula on the ceiling right above my head". Turns out they love to hang out in the cracks between the roofing tiles, and sure enough there was one up there.

The next thing we know, somebody throws a shoe at it. From our side of the wall, all we saw was one thing go up, and two things come down. Then a bunch of screaming "it's on my face, it's on my face!" Then there were a bunch of sparks and more screaming. Finally something came flying over the half-wall and landed on one of the guys on our side, who's now scrambling to get out of his hammock in the dark (not the easiest thing to do) and evict the spider. By the time it was all said and done, the tarantula was broken into a bunch of little pieces (they kinda just disintegrate when you crush them) and one guy had some minor singes from breaking the sketchy light switch off the wall trying to turn it on.

The next day we were on the alert for them, and quickly realized the were everywhere. We also encountered the giant centipedes that also lived in the roof, and are apparently quite dangerous. It was a fun trip and a great experience with lifelong benefits (I met my wife on that trip), but I'm glad I live where I do!

Out here at certain times of the year, the tarantulas get together and wander around in a group looking for love. The groups can get quite large and not fun to run into them on a motorcycle. Kind creepy to see so many at a time.

It's big, but not a tarantula. It's a wolf spider, probably the Tiger Wolf spider. Not generally harmful to humans, unless you have some kind of an allergic reaction and these are very unlikely to bite someone unless grabbed.

https://spiderid.com/spider/ly...dae/tigrosa/aspersa/

Yes it's definitely a wolf spider and not a Tarantula...the thread title was intended as a bit of hyperbole, but that probably didn't come through very clearly in my post. It is, however, the biggest wolf spider I've ever seen!

The good news is that Indiana doesn't have camel spiders.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
The good news is that Indiana doesn't have camel spiders.

FWIW: Camel Spiders (an arachnid, but not a true spider) have large jaws that can pinch you if you really work to provoke them, but they're non-venomous. We have lots of them here in AZ and they're good to have around as they kill and eat scorpions.

https://youtube.com/shorts/z7A...?si=H5B8G1beYMr3hbcx