New to Hunting... Really Excited! But--Spiders!

[Macchina]

Spider Medicine:
Aim for one of the eyes, that way there is less meat damage.

 

[kentucky_Dave]

Saw these giants along side Lake Okeechobee in florida.

They are HUGE and have invaded.
One of these photos shows their webs and what looks like debris all over the web...well...that is NOT debris, it is all spiders.

The locals call them banana spiders.

 

[qwert65]

when I'm walking I just walk around the web

 

[Deer Hunter]

Dave,

Arn't those just garden spiders? We had them all around my house when I was growing up down here in East Texas.

The Wood Spiders are the fun ones!

 

[rino451]

Banana spiders.

 

[herohog]

Ok, if no one else will, I will be the 1st: When I unexpectedly run face first into a spiderweb, I run around in circles clawing at the web and screaming like a little girl! I HATE that!

 

[HB]

Ok, if no one else will, I will be the 1st: When I unexpectedly run face first into a spiderweb, I run around in circles clawing at the web and screaming like a little girl! I HATE that!

Sorry, your the first and only I don't scream and scratch though, I dance and slap....

 

[MCgunner]

Spiders ain't bad. Ride a motorcycle during love bug season sometime.

 

[garlicguy]

Spider Medicine:
Aim for one of the eyes, that way there is less meat damage.

Precisely!!

brockgl-

Since you're new to this hunting thing, use your time afield now to practice stalking and cleanly killing your prey after properly identifying it and studying its habits. Take pictures, keep a notebook... you know, in general it is best to be over-the-top!

Kentucky_Dave:

All I know about banana spiders (click for info) is that at least one variety is dangerously poisonous to humans.

 

[kentucky_Dave]

GREAT thanks for the scale / perspective shot.

 

[1911 guy]

Anything that can move eight legs at the same time is of the devil.

The most common spider we have around here is wolf spiders. Hairy and can get pretty big if grown to an old age, but mostly harmless. Doesn't mean I like them any better, though.

The big black and yellow ones are Orb Web spiders, usually called garden spiders. Totaly harmless, but big and ugly. Unless it's like the one in the above pic, then I'd have a stroke, which isn't harmless! When I was a kid I was absolutely phobic about spiders, now I just find them distasteful. And ugly. And of the devil.

 

[Deer Hunter]

I used to use Gardeon Spiders as target practice with my Red Rider BB gun. Shot them right out of their web.

 

[bowl443]

I remember reading awhile back about the real Banana Spider.

It's in the jungles of Vietnam, lives high up in the trees, and falls down onto it's prey, screeming all the way down. It's is apparently afraid of heights.

I will not sleep tonight....

 

[qajaq59]

Get used to the spiders. I think there is something like 10,000 per acre of meadow or woods. Just don't reach under old logs or rocks and the nasty ones wont get you.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

Yep. Get used to them. I heard from a science geek once that no matter where you are on earth, you're never more than a couple of feet away from some kind of arachnid or insect.

I just try to walk around the webs in the woods. And, I don't bother them much around the house.
Like others here, I worry WAY more about stinging bees like yellowjackets and hornets, rather than spiders. But, I don't get worked up about any of them They're just trying to survive like me.

If you don't have the patience to walk around, just get a small limb and brush the webs out of the way as you go. After the first frost their numbers will diminish greatly.

 

[JeepGeeek]

Today is opening day of Deer Season 2008.

I have got the itch like a mofo.

I just got off work at 0600. I go back at 1800 to do another 12 hours.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Holy crap - lemme get this straight - those banana spiders (Brazilian Wandering spiders) are an invasive species, already in Fla., the size of your hand, AND aggressive to humans, AND its bites are highly venomous to the point of life-threatening & excruciatingly painful?!?

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Hmmmmm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider

 

[ranger335v]

We hunters have two choices with spiders and other bugs in the woods; put up with it or stay home!

I put up with it.

 

[Jeff F]

Spiders aren't half as bad as yellow jackets. A mess of those can be worse than a bear.

I can second that. I dug up a nest of yellow jackets with a backhoe and got swarmed real bad. Not only do they sting but they bite as well and when they do they take a piece of meat with them.

 

[JShirley]

Banana spiders.

Not to be confused with garden spiders. I saw my first banana spider this year, but I have seen many garden spiders.



John

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Oh, I see what's going on here.... there are two completely different spider types, both being referred to as "Banana Spiders":

1. Harmless Golden Silk Orb-Weavers of family Nephilidae, genus Nephila, various species, common to North America,

and

2. Not-so-harmless Brazilian Wandering Spiders, of family Ctenidae, genus Phoneutria, various species, native to Central and South America, which hitch a ride on actual bananas to the U.S. and elsewhere around the world.

So garlicguy, the one you have pictured is likely the harmless type #1 above, and the one you linked to is the very dangerous type #2 above.

Of course, beware the spiders on drugs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

 

[kentucky_Dave]

Looks like what I saw was the "Golden Silk Orb-Weavers".
Good.

Thanks for the info ya'll

 

[Zip7]

One of the nice things about living on the coast is that just like humans, these nasty spiders get complacent and spin their webs anywhere they please and then BAM! - Hurricane wipes 'em out.

 

[flynlr]

Nice Thread "pun almost intended" the spiders outside do not bother me so much as the fact that As I was reading this thread. about 50 baby spiders made their way down their silk from my ceiling to my desk. I just about broke my desk killing them all.