Not what you want for a neighbor.

[icarus]

This is the spider that I took out of our bathtub in a jar last night. It was a good three and a half inches across, hanging out threateningly over the cat's water dish.

Yes. I noticed the fact that it tried to bite me through the jar.

Repeatedly.

Yes, turns out it is a Hobo Spider. Yes, it is poisonous.

About 50% of Hobo Spider bites are 'dry,' meaning that no venom is injected and nothing happens to the victim. In fact, often times the victim does not even realize that he has been bit. Typically, when venom is injected, the victim will experience an immediate redness which develops around the bite then begins to disappear within a few hours. Very often, for the first 24 hours, the bite appears to be no worse than that of a mosquito; then it begins to blister in the center. Within 24 to 36 hours the blister breaks open, leaving an open, oozing ulceration.

This ulceration 'scabs' over within three weeks from the initial bite, leaving a permanent scar. If the bite is delivered in fatty tissue, the lesion may be very deep and extensive, not healing for over two or three years. Systematic reactions to Hobo Spider poisoning include severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, soreness and flu-like symptoms.

I thought that spider seemed a little cocky. wildernessguru's gonna freak and want to bomb the entire apartment with napalm.

Now the cat's bugging me. Lay off, kitty, and show some gratitude. I may have saved your life last night.

Comments

[orange-bastard.livejournal.com]

OMFG that's horrible! I'm glad you trapped it and no one got bit! One time, I caught a black widow that had an abdomen half an inch long.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. I'm a little bug-eyed. I confess to locking the bathroom door last night and briefly hoping it would go away. *reopened door* No such luck.

When I went online I hoped that it was just a very large jumping spider that was not even remotely dangerous (if scary-looking). Turns out that this bastard is native to (elsewhere) but has followed shipping lanes from (elsewhere) and turned up in Seattle. It's as poisonous as our native U.S. brown spider.

*bug-eyed*

Yeah, when I took it outside I set down the jar and ran.

Icarus

[anothersuperboy.livejournal.com]

Yep, I think that calls for napalm, dude. O_O

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

Hobo and Giant House Spiders look a fair bit a like. GHS are not particularly venomous.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=giant+house+spider&meta=

B

[tonicollins.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're... whatever the insect word is for humanitarian because if I saw that in my house, it would get beaten to death with a fly swatter or, if on a tile surface, stood on and ground into dust.

If it has more than four legs, it dies.

[florahart]

How'd you identify it? There are hobos in the PNW, but there are also giant house spiders that are nearly indistinguishable from them without at least a magnifying glass, that are non poisonous (well, other than, you know, the 25 bites all welted up and gross on my legs). Giant house spiders are more common by a lot. The distinguishing features are like, no pale barely-visible spots on sternums (that would be the belly side) and no parallel stripes on the thorax and stuff.

Doesn't mean you didn't have a hobo, course. I get big-ass giant house spiders a LOT--though less in this house than the last one I lived in. That house, they all had seven legs, which is, if possible, even creepier than 8-legged ones. My point here is, maybe it's a hobo, but maybe not, and no need to go all crazy with the napalm. Heh.

*has appropriate icon*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Wow, they look very similar. Are they equally aggressive, I wonder? They do trap and attack prey the same way.

I hope this was a Giant House Spider. I'd hate to have unleashed another Hobo Spider on the world, but I don't believe in the bash-it-with-a-shoe approach to pest control.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I see smoking towels in our future....

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

*fights urge clean and wash everything she owns just in case*

Hate spiders. Hate hate hate spiders.

*whimpers*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I promise you this: I was not standing over it with a magnifying glass.

It could be either a Hobo or Giant House Spider, and I hope it's the latter. Because I have unleashed it free upon the world.

My point here is, maybe it's a hobo, but maybe not, and no need to go all crazy with the napalm. Heh.

WG is less sanguine about non-purring wildlife than I am.

The mere mention that a large spider (poisonous or otherwise) temporarily existed in our bathroom will send him on a killing spree. All my Buddhist lectures seem to have very little impact on this territorial drive.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's WG's usual approach, only generally involving some sort of male overkill (instead of a flyswatter, the spider meets the ass-end of a 10-pound barbell). I'm much happier with my method. Better karma, and if this is a Giant House spider and not a Hobo, then it will keep the population of poisonous Hobo spiders down (they compete in the wild).

Icarus

[chrissie-m.livejournal.com]

I do not know why I clicked on that link when you very clearly said 'spider.' Now my toes are all curling up and I've got goosebumps.

And I'm with WG's overkill approach, to heck with the bad karma. Creepy crawlies definitely get the barbell treatment here.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I have to say that spiders, especially large frightening one, test my Buddhist Bodhisattva-ness to its limit. I no longer want to kill it or think I should, but man do I not want to carefully take it out of harm's (from us and to us) way.

But when I unlocked the bathroom door, it was still there. Damn.

Icarus

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

Normally I let the cats take care of anything that makes me scream, unless its flying in my face. Then all bets are off and the bug is going down.

I'm very irational about spiders and anything that looks like a cockroach.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ha. Well, I have this Buddhist training, plus a mother who grilled us on spiders. Spiders and ladybugs (in Michigan) were good. Mosquitos and ants and other critters were bad. That was the self-serving gardener's perspective on pest control.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, this would have been too big for a cat. The span of the legs was about the breadth of my palm. Also, if it was poisonous--? Way more dangerous to a 14 lb-kitty.

Icarus

[izzybeth.livejournal.com]

thank you a million times over for linking to the photo and not actually posting it. glah. full-body shudders just thinking about it. (and yes, i was almost stupid enough to click. and that would have been my own fault.)

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

I'm a big believer in Spray, spray, toxic spray and THEN bash it with a shoe, m'self, but then Loki gets a terrible, terrible reaction to ANY spider bite. They go black and puss-filled.

And we have GHS in our building. They're only aggressive if cornered/threatened. Mostly they try to run away! Hobos come looking for you. They're like GHS after last call at the local bar ... looking for a fight.

B

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

*whimpers*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, that's more laziness than kindness, but you're welcome. I'm still a little creeped out myself, though I feel better thinking that it was probably the non-poisonous Giant House Spider.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Sorry.

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

Not your fault. I'm just...its not a logical fear. Oddly I can deal with Daddy Long Legs and a lot of other types of bugs... which is good since I work with small children that like brining me bugs.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm going to pretend I'm absolutely certain it was a GHS because that gets rid of the chill down the back of my neck.

Icarus

[sffan.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEKKKKKK.

That's just nasty.

*shudder*

O_O

[kagyakusha.livejournal.com]

and i thought the spiders in my bathroom were scary.

That one makes me cringe!!