They can get quite a bit larger than the one in your picture. Leg spans of over three inches.
Why oh WHY must I always look???
** checks floor, puts feet up on chair rungs **
** SHUDDER **
Yes, the Giant House Spiders are fast! Really impressive for a crawling spider. We have them where I work and walking into a dark room then turning on the light and watching them run, sprint, for cover is amazing.
From the Wiki:
In August and September they and many other spiders in the US are “looking for love in all the wrong places”, spider mating season.
DAMN! I was just coming in here to post that!
From your Wiki cite -
Now* that’s* reassuring.
Regards,
Shodan
OMFG!!!
that’s the indianapolis fox affiliate. i LIVE here. i watch this channel in the morning before work. how the HELL did i miss this??? it was **this **week, for crying out loud… ROTFLMAO!!! ray, you are my new hero because ganote and o’brien just simply deserve to be tormented!!!
LMAO all over again!!!
I rescued one of these types of spiders tonight from the hallway that goes past the laundry room of our house. I would have taken pictures before setting the spider free but it was slamming itself up against the drinking glass I had it in, and I wasn’t about to annoy the spider any further!
Back on the friggin’ spiders again, eh, Johnny? Haven’t you got enough hobbies that DON’T include the most revolting, disgusting, creepy organisms known to mankind?
ETA: 
[Lenny & Squiggy]
Hello!
[/L&S]
As much anxiety and of all the phobias I suffer, I love spiders. They are graceful and generally rather intelligent. I’ve even been bitten by a recluse and I still find myself admiring them up close without the least bit of fear. I love those fat jumping spiders we get around here.
This one reminded me of this. 
It was running at full speed and hit an obstacle. (I heard the impact.) Then it was like, ‘Duuuuuhhhh. What now?’ It was quite easy to catch her while she tried to figure it out.
Damn, man. This may be the shortest funniest post in the history of the board. I’ve been giggling like Anderson Cooper for the last five minutes and trying not to wake anybody up.
And nobody under the age of about 35 is going to get the joke.
We had a female dark fishing spider in the barn a couple months ago that had a legspan of 97 mm. I photographed it on the wood siding, then later tacked a machinist’s rule to the same spot and photographed that, then imported both into a CAD package and traced knots and splinters in the wood to transfer the size.
97 mm. Nearly four inches. And this is between Philadelphia and Washington.
That egg sac could result in about 100 more spiders.
For all the wonderful things that spiders do, I figure they can do it someplace OTHER THAN MY HOUSE. If I see a spider in my house, it’s gonna die.
Period.
Thank you very much.
~VOW
That’s why I have the penalty jar. Caught inside, go to the penalty jar!
I use a penalty shoe. Get caught inside, get squished with the penalty shoe.
Except for many of the ones in this thread…they would get the penalty flamethrower.
I agree with you here. They need to learn that crawling all over me, surprising me in bed and taking a shower with me is NOT ok. Unfortunately, they haven’t learned yet. :rolleyes: