Ooh… It might be a Grammastola aureostriaum (Chaco golden knee) then. If so, those suckers get to be HUGE, especially the females (about a 9" legspan, as I recall). What’s more, they’re incredibly sweet and docile. I love to let little children pose with my monster G. aureostriatum, as I know that she’s absolutely gentle and easy to handle.
Additionally, even the North American tarantulas can cause misery to a person. That’s mostly due to the amount of mechanical damage that their fangs can cause though, since their venom is fairly mild. In other words, they’ll leave a big and painful bite, but unless you have a severe allergic reaction to their venom, they shouldn’t cause you much trouble.
Thankfully, the vast majority of them are quite docile–the only exception being Aphonopelma moderatum, as I mentioned earlier.
Who’s-Yo-Daddy-Longlegs has trekked upstairs. I found him in the bathroom tonight. Either that or we’ve got TWO that size roaming the house. That does tend to give me, uh, a bit of pause. <steadfastly refuses to be skeeved>
I used to be deathly afraid of spiders (as well as dogs, bugs, needles and surgery). I eventually realized that, in most cases, none of those five things were out to hurt me. I got over my fear of spiders and dogs and made pretty good progress with the other three, and you know what I’ve realized? Spiders are not only beneficial for home and environment, but are also pretty cute. (That orb weaver thing looks pretty funky, though.)
My XBF actually kept a wolf spider as a pet. It had spun its funnel web in the kitchen sink. I said, “eeew”, he said “kewl”. It took me a couple of days to persuade him to remove it so I could, you know, do the dishes? Eventually Spider Friend was given a home in a disused aquarium, where he lived for several months.
I once had a spider try to catch me. OK, twice. I came out of my apartment to go go grocery shopping and found that a smallish rendition of one of the larger, and nastier, orb-weavers native to the area had strung its net between the railings of my front steps. I grabbed a stick and tore down the web. I came home with my groceries a while later and the sucker had rebuilt its web. This thing was determined it was going to stock its larder with me. I tore the web down again and it gave up after that.
A few years later, I saw a Far Side comic in which two spiders had built a web across the bottom of a playground slide, and one was saying to the other, “If we pull this off, we’ll eat like kings!!!”
Obviously, I’m not the only person to ever have this experience.
Spiders are pretty creepy but when you live in an area where your as likely to see one of these monsters ,which are for the most part pretty harmless, a few arachnids dont bother you as much.
