Eeeeek ... guess what was crawling under my desk?

[bagwell1987]

Jerry, I know the bug you were talking about. In 1995 we had just remodeled our home. It was finally done and I was enjoying some quiet time in the bathroom when I heard a sound I couldn't identify. Like pecking or shuffling or something. I turned around just in time to see one bore it's way out of the sheetrock!! YEP! BORE it's way out of the sheer rock! I screamed like the girl I am and went skidding outside on 2 toes cause my feet didn't have time to hit the floor! MH said it was a huge spruce bore, well, I call it dead, you can call it anything you want!

 

Then we moved over here to the beach. We bought a "house" that was actually a fishing house- garage on the bottom, 1 bedroom/bath/tv room upstairs. Only lived in during fishing trips etc. So spiders had already set up housekeeping. One morning I got up early to go to work. I was drying my hair and swished my head around, looked up and there was a spider, an aggressive house spider or Hobo spider.   Hoping it wouldn't attack me I ran screaming upstairs to tell MH "get up and go kill that thing!" He mumbled about what a ninny I was then he went in the bathroom with a paper towel......humm, dear that won't work! He ignored me and went in.......and came out yelling for the broom! As he tried to brush the pterodactyl errr...spider down from the ceiling it was putting up a fight. Rearing up on it's hind legs and pawing the air with it's front legs. NOPE, I SWEAR I'M TELLING THE TRUTH. He got it knocked down to the floor and it ran for the sink cabinet. It tried to squeeze between the wall and cabinet. When it realized it wasn't going to win you could see it give up and knew what was coming it's way. YEP, sorry bug lovers, I'm not one of you. (don't get me started on how I almost sent us careening down a cavern because of a bee!) We had to get a dust pan, the stand up kind cause I'm not getting near that thing dead or alive, and we threw it outside!! Gives me the shivers just looking at the pic.

OK, and here it is, it was as big as my out stretched hand with fingers spread, oh yes it was. 

Edited February 2, 2015 by bagwell1987

[Stormswift]

That is soo interesting - I'm guessing it's part of the same family of the Weta going on the body.

 

We have a spider here in NZ called the Avondale - as far as spiders go - they are termed very placid and quite cute. This species was used in the Film  "Arachnophobia"

because they are easy to work with.

 

Your photo of the weta relative looks like a combination of the Avondale and the Weta. Amazing what is on the planet isn't it?

 

 

Ooops just counted the legs on your spider ... it's not related even though it looks like it is. Weta have six legs.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Stormswift

[Stormswift]

Perhaps your hobo spider is related to the red roman: