Other side for the bug lovers

Lol I don't think I could cope with one this size it is indeed a MONSTER! Hel.xxx.

How big is it?

Just around a quarter. We don't have big spiders, and no snakes. This one was biggest I've ever seen up here, though not on the scale of actual big spiders, Skippy :-)

ooo.. he's (she's) lovely! short life span though? Maybe not if they grow to that size in such a short growing season...maybe he lives in a burrow? was there any sign of a web nearby? do you have trapdoor spiders up in Alaska? Look at the mandibles! wow...a real predator. (not Schwarzenneger? no. was that Sigourney?)

I had one about this size last year that had moved into the cabin.....eeeeeek! I'm wondering if there are less that come through winter, there has been just one each year. Also Spiders will spread themselves out naturally, so you don't see a bunch.

This one reminds me of one I felt crawling on my leg a few years ago, it was so big it covered the front of my leg...lol. I slung my leg so hard trying to get it off of me, that I thought I'd dislocated my knee. It hit my kitchen cabinet with such force that it was knocked out cold. I then proceeded to jump around the kitchen squilling and trying to talk myself into stepping on it, but everytime I got close to it, I was afraid it would wake up and jump back on me. It took me a minute to get up the nerve to do it. For my bravery I was rewarded with green goo spattered half way up my cabinets, that I had to clean off. I swore to my huband that it had to be a tarantula, and that the eggs must have arrived here on the bananas I'd been buying, shipped from South America. I was yelling at my hubsand and son, saying it was all their fault for letting the bananas lay around until they rotted, instead of eating them...lol. Turned out to be a female Hogna carolinensis,Carolina wolfspider. The females get to be about three inches in diameter, counting the legs. So much for my tarantula tirade...lol. Never knew any of the spiders grew that big around here !

Eek! I always seem to hurt myself when something comes crawling on my skin. I can't take getting touched by them. Those wolf spiders are as close as one can come to tarantula. They were always around by my grandmothers in Utah, I never saw one though, Just heard about them. They were good sport for some cousins at reunions. They explode when thrown into the fire. Not kind, but I think they had plenty around on their farm, they didn't miind killing them. I'm glad you weren't getting tarantula with your banana's. :-)
We ond't have many spiers in alaska, this was the biggest I ever see, and this would be very seldom

Oh my aching sides...Why is it we completely lose our wits if a spider lands on us?...where I grew up there were tarantula like (wolf spider) creatures that lived in the cribs of the docks we used to swim under. came up on the far side with one of these on my shoulder...I can't express the feeling of fear and revulsion...but you did a good job when relating your kitchen experience!! It's not unheard of to find wildlife in imported stuff...I've heard of produce people finding tarantulas in the bananas...and a tiny harmless green snake in a box of florist fern...lol.