I don't like spiders but love insects and other crawling things such as snakes but spiders have always left me creeped out... not saying I wouldn't put a tarantula in my hand but I'd rather try and avoid them. What about huge jungle centipedes and mantis shrimp? Really scary stuff there!

I've always dreamed of seeing a tarantula in the wild. I had a friend who was a rancher in New Mexico that would call me via cell when he would find one. He said they are hard to find even there.

I found this spider in my apartment in Taipei a few years back. It was crazy fast and I'm crazy suicidal with animals like that. I ran after it to try and catch a good picture. It was huge. I've done the same with snakes.

Here's a stick bug that walked around with me for an hour on a hike in Hongkong.



And a nice mantis found on the same hike.



(Sorry for the crappy quality, they were taken in fairly dark conditions with a crappy camera almost 10 years ago...)

A friend of mines boy friend collects spiders. His office is full of aquariums with different spiders. I often wonder about him having a female black widow and brown recluses. I'm like dude what do you do if that thing gets out? He says oh shes gotten out before, I find her usually in the corner and catch her and put her back....

if that spider above was in my house, I'd move out if it got away and wasn't dead by my shoe. Scary.

Spider collectors...no thanks. I don't get it.

It slid in the tiniest of cracks and I never saw it again in the two years and a half I was there. I was sort of disappointed... Does anyone know what species it is?

spiders = epic because mosquitos = lame

haha for real. I'd probably fuckin throw up if I saw that thing in my place.

It looks like a type of Huntsman Spider, there are many kinds. Here in Japan during summer our house is full of them.

Are they poisonous, Dennis? Do they bite. I remember seeing a Japanese documentary on them. Couldn't understand what was said. Damn! This one is HUGE!

this isn't horrific because it was outside and it's a less dangerous breed, but this wolf is the biggest spider I've seen in person



look at this fucking camouflage



EDIT forgot to mention, petitetoilonrouge, every time I have the opportunity I share your photo and story of that monster slipping into the tiniest of cracks, and always give myself the chills...WEUGHAUGHEGH.

AHHHHHHHHHHH I read the disclaimer and still looked, WHYYY!!!??!

Hahaha! Next time I'll tell you my snake stories...

(plus the one you saw looks huge as well!)

I wish my photos had gotten a better sense of his size. once he wasn't spread out as much and moving around he looked a lot smaller. we found him in our firepit after a long time of being unable to use it, and I guess he ran off as soon as my dad started the first fire in months so I dunno if I'll ever see him again.

had a really frightening encounter with a gigantic wasp recently but I don't expect there will ever be a thread for that

also this thread reminded me of this fascinating piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

Thanks for sharing that vid Gareth, it was great!