I fully agree, in concept, that spiders fulfill a valuable function in the glorious tapestry of life.
God, I wish I hadn’t clicked on that link. There’s objectively interesting and attractive and then there’s the lizard-brain, hardwired recoil of pure disgust. That picture is…interesting but mostly makes me want to unload an entire can of Raid on it. Doesn’t matter that it’s just a picture…ick, ick, oh god, kill it now.
::hyperventilates::
Hee hee, my boyfriend once had a beard spider too! We were waiting for the hostess to finish with a phone call and seat us at a restaurant, and just as she’s looking up at us I see this little tiny green thing descend from Himself’s goatee. I think it was spinning a web. “Hold still.” “What, is there a leaf in my hair?” “No, you have a beard spider. It’s a cute little green one.” So I captured it and released it outside. I got back in and the hostess was looking at us like between the two of us we’d grown three extra heads.
Yee-eee-ee.
Reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where two female praying mantis-like insects are in the living room. One offers the other a tray of goodies, to which she responds “Oh, heavens no Gladys; I couldn’t. I just ate my young about an hour ago.”
Why is there a spider on what looks like a pre school rug? Is that spider near little kids? Ahh…
You can come stay with me. And if you see that in my house, burn it the fuck down!
The poor mother spider.
“Billy’s looking at me!”
“Am not!”
“Are to!”
“Are we there yet?”
Man that’s gotta be rough.
The really scary thing is reading the comments.
It says the spider had to be scooped out of the pool - that’s probably a poolside thing. It was evidently dicey because when frightened the babies scatter. 
Awwww. My first thought was of “Charlotte’s Web,” the book that turned me from an arachnophobe to an arachnophile.
I was house-sitting during college, and one day while swimming in the pool, I came across a very large spider. EEEK!! I ran out and grabbed the skimmer. I captured the thing, held it under for awhile trying to drown it, but it just wouldn’t die. So, I flicked it out of the pool, content now to let it live as long as it was away from me. As soon as I flicked it, what looked like a very large pouch on the spider’s back seemed to explode with a hundred baby spiders scattering everywhere!!
This is probably exactly what that spider was.
With a crane?
(Peter Jackson should have made Shelob a new parent. Imagine Frodo being swarmed by a hundred fist-sized babies.)
My people must think I’m nutty, but this made me laugh out loud. Seriously.
The spiders and I see eye to eye mostly. They stay out of the places they should stay out of, I don’t kill them. I let them hang out wherever they need to hang out, as long as it’s not on me, on or near where I eat or sleep. Other than that, meh. Now, I kills the big ones for sport, I can’t always tell what kind they are, but just in case they’re poisonous (the recluse and widow have been seen about these parts, and I’m not sure what little ones of that variety look like, so, off they go) and too small to be recognized, I make sure they don’t get bigger or make more spiders.
My SIL is DEATHLY afraid of the critters, I should TOTALLY send that link.
Dude! I hate spiders. Circle of life, balance, yadda yadda, squish. No really, they freak me out. If I see 'em, they should die. Except wolf spiders.
Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, I watched (through a window, while I was frozen with panic and gibbering hysterically) a mama wolf spider attack and kill a HUGE black widow. Babies scattered, Mama wolf spider attacked, won the battle, babies scrambled back to the mommy butt-ride.
I like wolf spiders. As long as they don’t touch me.
I’m not touching you! Am I bugging you? I’m not touching you!
Those are great shots. How about some jumping spider pics? Those guys are REALLY cute!