# Need a spider identified **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 28, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843 "2010-06-28T21:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/21 "2010-06-30T14:39:19Z")
Did you try going to [http://images.google.com](http://images.google.com) and putting in “black jumping spider” ? Just curious since I did that and found a link like this [http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/daring\_jumping\_spider.htm](http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/daring_jumping_spider.htm) Did it look anything like that? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/22 "2010-07-01T00:47:25Z")
> [@notsoheavyd3](#): > > Did you try going to [http://images.google.com](http://images.google.com) and putting in “black jumping spider” ? Just curious since I did that and found a link like this > > [http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/daring\_jumping\_spider.htm](http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/daring_jumping_spider.htm) > > Did it look anything like that? Erm, it was a LOT smaller. :eek: Dunno, it was fuzzy, about the size of my thumbnail, and black. Whenever I see a fuzzy spider that’s obviously not a tarantula, I just assume “Wolf Spider” cause that’s the only other kind of fuzzy spider I know of. Honestly, the possibility that it was a spider that could _jump_ never ocurred to me.:eek::eek: Dunno if jumping spiders weave silk or not, but this guy seemed to spin a bit to rappel on at one point. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/23 "2010-07-01T04:12:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I have a population of giant house spiders here. When I see them in the house, the get taken outside. They probably die, but they have a chance to get under the house or natural habitat. I’ve heard that GHSs prey on hobo spiders (to which they are closely related). I’ve caught two false black widows and let them outside. There’s another one, but I haven’t taken it out yet. It’s doing a good job on the woodlice. **Giant.**** House. ****Spider.** Three words that should _never_ be together in a sentence. \<_shudder!_\> ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/24 "2010-07-01T04:26:49Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > **Giant.**** House. ****Spider.** > > Three words that should _never_ be together in a sentence. \<_shudder!_\> Oh, they’re just _called_ ‘giant’. They’re really only a couple inches or so. [Here’s one I captured a few years ago](http://www.flickr.com/photos/27492458@N05/2789008624/), with a disposable lighter for scale. Here are some [better pictures](http://www.spidatrap.com/Arachnophobia/Giant%20House%20Spider) from a website. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/25 "2010-07-01T04:59:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Oh, they’re just _called_ ‘giant’. They’re really only a couple inches or so. > > [Here’s one I captured a few years ago](http://www.flickr.com/photos/27492458@N05/2789008624/), with a disposable lighter for scale. > > Here are some [better pictures](http://www.spidatrap.com/Arachnophobia/Giant%20House%20Spider) from a website. To be fair, when they’re scurrying around YOUR house, they look much bigger… We had a veritable invasion a few weeks ago, as the weather started to get hot in south Georgia, and they freaked the entire Matata family right the hell out. I’m not phobic about spiders, and I get “harmless” and “beneficial,” but spiders the size of the palm of my hand just aren’t allowed inside the house, TYVM! (During the “invasion,” my daughter prowled the house holding her dad’s flip flops, because a~“His shoes have a larger surface area, and are more efficient bug-killing devices,” and b~“Eeeew, I don’t want those things touching MY shoes!” Perfect combo of logic and extreme girly-ness! I, on the other hand, chose less direct methods of spider-cide: Some were air-freshened to death, others got Windexed, and others were overwhelmed with learning, when large books were dropped upon them from great heights.) ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/26 "2010-07-01T05:00:29Z")
_Duplicate post_ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/27 "2010-07-01T05:04:59Z")
I don’t kill them. I put them in the Penalty Jar until I let them go outside. There’s more food under the house than in it. I’ve caught three this year, and it’s still a little early for them. I suspect I’ll be catching more than usual in the Autumn breeding season. Now if only I could catch that false black widow-looking one in the bathroom. Cagey thing retreats to where I can’t catch it whenever I come into the bathroom. I’d hate to kill it. (I accidentally killed a spider that had built one of those sheet webs with the funnel in it when I mopped the floor last week. Poor thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/28 "2010-07-01T05:45:34Z")
In theory, I really hate to kill the critters, but when the entire household is panicking over the Spiders of Unusual Size? Eight-Legged Carcass! (My husband still thinks it’s weird that I gather up small spiders and put them outdoors. And that I left two lizards undisturbed in the laundry room all winter, and put them outdoors in the spring - couldn’t let them freeze to death, after all! This spring, I’ve also left a cabinet undisturbed on the carport for an extra month, because a pair of Carolina wrens nested unexpectedly, and left the lumber pile alone as the dominion of a lovely rat snake. Good thing we weren’t married the winter that everyone had to go through the gate and use the back door, since a tree frog took up residence between the front door and the storm door, else he’d have had me committed!) ---
**Author:** ![moldybread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@moldybread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldybread)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/29 "2010-07-01T14:54:49Z")
Most spiders are way to useful to kill. Anything that eats mosquitos is a friend indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/30 "2010-07-01T14:56:11Z")
I caught the bathroom spider. I managed a quick flick with a fly swatter. It’s been released outside. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843/31 "2010-07-01T20:56:47Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Erm, it was a LOT smaller. :eek: > > Dunno, it was fuzzy, about the size of my thumbnail, and black. Whenever I see a fuzzy spider that’s obviously not a tarantula, I just assume “Wolf Spider” cause that’s the only other kind of fuzzy spider I know of. > > Honestly, the possibility that it was a spider that could _jump_ never ocurred to me.:eek::eek: > > Dunno if jumping spiders weave silk or not, but this guy seemed to spin a bit to rappel on at one point. No silly, the picture is kind of blown up they’re only about 1/2"😃 Seriously though a decent size jumping spider is about the size of a thumb nail.(Not a huge spider but decent size.) Plus the only silk they do is a drag line which they use to catch themselves if they miss a jump. (Which would basically be a form of rappel.) Did it look anything like the one in this video?(Did it move sort of jerky like this one?) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VakdmcbHuCA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VakdmcbHuCA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-spider-identified/544843.md?page=1)