Goliath Birdeater Spider The Size Of Small Puppy. Fist Sized Body W/1 Foot Leg Span. Picnic Anyone?

[TheMastersNemesis]

On Yahoo news a scientist walking in the rainforest in Guyana at night ran across a Theraposa Blondi. That is a spider as big as a puppy. It does not really eat many birds because it is a ground dweller and its main diet is earthworms, plus frogs and insects.

It has two inch fangs and can deliver a bite that is like putting a nail through your hand. Fortunately its venom is not fatal but is painful to humans.

I would say it is not the best idea to camp out in a sleeping bag in such an area. Imagine finding this creature in your bag or next to your nose. Yikes!!!!

[Arugula Latte]

1. Oh Hell no!

My worst nightmare ...

[irisblue]

23. awww hell no!

not gonna look further, why does nature want spiders that big?!

[Arugula Latte]

24. Nature wants to weed some of us out -- have us die from massive cases of The Willies.

[Orrex]

29. Some people will take any excuse to talk about their massive willies.

Wait. What?

[Arugula Latte]

33. Hmm, that comment gave me the Heebie Jeebies.

[Scootaloo]

2. They're kind of cute.

Like an eight-legged venomous mouse that uses its green blood for hydraulics.

[Solly Mack]

10. Cool!

[NaturalHigh]

3. My wife told me about this tonight.

I kind of have a thing about spiders, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear about this (not so) little fellow.

[Marr]

4. Time to go to war with Guyana.

This is self defense.

[irisblue]

45. I'm with you

[beam me up scottie]

5. Awesome

I photograph spiders every chance I get, trying to capture the eyes, fangs and other features on smaller specimens is difficult, I would love to get up close and personal with a Goliath.

[Warpy]

6. I tend to coexist peacefully with spiders

because they eat stuff I really hate like Wool Eating Bastards, AKA clothes moths.

I think my favorite is the peacock spider. It really squicks people out until they find out how tiny it is.

This one's another contender, though.

No wonder our ancestors left about 50,000 years ago.

[beam me up scottie]

7. argh,

I can't view videos, was it a monster Arachnozilla that munched on small children?


eta I love jumping spiders, they're very intelligent, instead of fleeing in your presence they swivel around and look right back at you. Sometimes they'll even greet you by putting their arms up like they're saying hi.

And the Peacock is particularly beautiful species:

[Warpy]

8. Peacock spiders are smaller than the tip of your pinkie finger

Their mouth parts are so tiny they can't bite humans.

They're just hell on small insects.

[Solly Mack]

9. I would love to see some of your photos.

Pretty, please. With a cherry on top!

I love spiders!

[Fumesucker]

14. I have a few spider pictures

[Solly Mack]

16. I love those! Thank you, Fumesucker!

Great shots!!!

[pinboy3niner]

18. Great pics! Mine came out a little blurry...

[beam me up scottie]

21. LMAO!

[Jamastiene]

38. Yup.

Mine always come out blurry too.

[Jamastiene]

32. Those are beautiful pictures.

Thank you for sharing with us.

[beam me up scottie]

15. SOLLY!

How the hell are you?




Pics of spiders, I'm stuck with dial up now so I can't upload pictures but here's three old ones I posted before, the first two are of a brown recluse, the last is a rabid wolf spider:





Those are pretty lousy, I've gotten much better since I took them.

I have a praying mantis getting his beauty sleep in my kitchen right now, he'll be ready for his close up tomorrow.



eta crap can't see them , sorry

[Solly Mack]

17. BMUS! I'm good. Much better than I was. How are you?

I like your photos! And you're much braver than I am to get that close to a brown recluse. He does have a handsome face though.

I like the wolf, too!

LMAO about the praying mantis....Please know I believe you absolutely.

I love those as well!

[beam me up scottie]

19. Glad to hear it.

I found the mantis this afternoon on one of my rosebushes. mr bmus wandered into the kitchen before work, noticed the critter cage on the window, did a face palm and left without a word about the pretty fellow.

No accounting for taste, I guess.

[Solly Mack]

20. lol! Sounds like Mr. Solly - just used to it. lol

[Jamastiene]

31. If you ever find a macro lens and camera for fairly cheap that works for that,

will you please let me know? I want to get closeups of their eyes too. If you look at the macro pictures of spiders, they look entirely different. You can see a look of innocence and charm in their eyes. I love their eyes. My eyesight is failing me. So, it won't be long now before it will be too late to get any closeups of the spiders at my house, especially Shower Spider. Shower Spider has been here since I moved here. She keeps those pesky gnat things and mosquitoes and other vermin out of my shower for me. They are everywhere down here near the pond.

[beam me up scottie]

46. There are good superzoom cameras with macro capability like the Panasonic Lumix FZ models.

I've had several, their Leica lenses are more than up to the task for almost every kind of photography, including close ups of brown recluses (which only have six eyes) and jumping spiders who have cute faces and wonderfully expressive body language.

I wish I could upload some of my more recent photographs, two months ago I found a monster fishing spider in my kayak, I can count every hair on his body in my pix.

Shower spider is a good roommate, I had to overcome my initial reaction of OMG WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING IN MY BATHTUB to house centipedes.

[Are_grits_groceries]

11. Snakes? No problem.

Other critters? No problem.
Spiders? Not in this lifetime or any other. I hate them! I don't indiscriminately kill them though.

Now Palmetto bugs? Them I'll kill in a second. Nasty creatures.

[Bosonic]

12. video of the related Theraposa Caninus

[hfojvt]

13. not really as bad as

a flying scorpion - the scourge of the Oklahoma skies.

[madokie]

22. I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life

Should never ever look up flying scorpions,
Been stung by a regular scorpion once and I'm here to tell you it hurts. It had stung me on my ring finger and I never could see where the stinger actually went in but I'm here to be witness to the fact that it does hurt and I mean HURT. I wouldn't have known what it was that stung me except that it was crawling across my neck and woke me and I had taken my hand to brush whatever was crawling across my neck off me and when I did that is when it stung me and I also broke a couple of its legs so when I turned the light on there it was going in circles on the floor trying to get away. Old big number 11boot laying nearby put him/her out of its misery. All was left was a wet spot on the floor and the bottom of my boot. I admit I took no mercy on the little bastard

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. I for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords. nt

[LWolf]

26. I don't think I'd plan a camping trip in a rainforest anyway.

I love spiders and would be fascinated to meet this one...but not in my bed, lol.

[DFW]

27. While I realize spiders are useful, the only kind I want in my house is this one:

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[brewens]

28. I worked with a guy in the 80's that had served for most of two years on New Guinea.

He had been an Army National Guard guy before WWII and they all got more or less drafted and made regular army and his unit ended up over there. He survived about as bad as you've ever read about.

He said you'd be out there in conditions where they had Japanese infiltrators trying to sneak through their lines and insects big enough that you could hear them moving around. It was aboslutely terrifying not knowing if it was huge spider, venomous scorpion, centipede, snake or Japanese soldier that might be about to be in the hole with you.

I would not have done well in that place. I hate spiders.

[Jamastiene]

30. Wow, imagine getting to see one "in person."

That would be amazing. I used to be afraid of spiders, but I have now learned to love my spider overlords. There are so many in my yard that I have now gotten used to them being just about everywhere. They eat the blood sucking things I don't like. So, to me, they are good "neighbors."

[hifiguy]

34. That will freak me out for a while

I never bother spiders in the basement or window wells - they eat more destructive insects. A spider in the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen goes immediately to spider heaven via shoe, newspaper or dropped book, however.

[eissa]

35. THIS IS THE WORST THREAD IN THE HISTORY OF DU!!

I'm going to go hide under my blanket now

[pinboy3niner]

36. Do you know what else likes to hide under blankets?

[eissa]

37. You're evil!

I once had to call my dad because a spider the size of a small car was crawling around my kitchen. I had my infant in my arms, and was on the phone in tears, swearing up and down it was going to devour his eldest daughter and only grandchild. He came over, grabbed a tissue, killed it, swore at me and left.

[Marrah_G]

41. Are we related?

[eissa]

42. HA! And I don't care that people mock my total

fear and disgust with these monsters. I was once bitten by one when I was in my teens and my face swelled up into giant ball. I looked like the fucking Kool-Aid man.

[Marrah_G]

43. I can't even look at pictures without panicking

Never been bitten, I was just born with this extreme phobia. I am seriously wanting to smack the shit out of my facebook friends today who think they are funny.

[Vinca]

39. I'm an antique/collectibles dealer and I bought a specimen of one of these a few years ago.

It was amazing. Sadly, it was stolen from the shop. Wish I'd kept it for myself.

[Marrah_G]

40. people keep posting picts of it on FB

It's freaking me out.

[malaise]

44. Live Science has a good report

http://www.livescience.com/48340-goliath-birdeater-surprises-scientist.html


That is one huge spider