Yesterday I found two black widow spiders under the native rock coping. Killed 'em both before they could ruin a perfectly good day in the pool!
Check under your coping for these guys!!!
- Thread starter Rangerman
- Start date
ale: Ugh!! So glad you found your little friends before they found you! I'm an arachnidiot and will hurt myself getting out of the way of a bad spider, or really most any spider. 
Wow...good lessson for everyone. Post a pic of your coping area where they were hiding. I don't think I have a dark enough area they would love. THANKFULLY!! I'd be walking around the pool with an inspection mirror!! At least we don't live in Australia or Brazil...home of the dangerous evil spiders GEEZ! 
They're everywhere here. Kinda hard not seeing them. I recently took apart a pump and had a scorpion come out. 3 days before that I cleaned out skimmer and a snake wrapped around my wrist. I screamed like a girl. LOL
It's official. I'm never moving to the south and I'm never getting an inground pool. Ugh.
This isn't my pool - but the spiders had built very strong webs between the bottom of the stone coping and the top of my liner. I was in the pool when I spotted the first one - then went looking for others and found the second one on the other side of the pool. I will be checking often for others. This is the first year I've noticed them in our pool.
Rangerman said:
There would have been no "looking for others" at my pool...I would have levitated right up out of the water, and headed to the house for a straight-up shot or two of....errr...stimulant. You know...to re-start my heart! 
By the way...that's a GREAT opening sentence for a pool-murder mystery novel!! ...dun dun DUUUUN!!!!! LOL
DBfan187 said:
ale: I just fainted. But I giggled first at the "screamed like a girl" part. I can so picture it... Pisces, you are NOT alone! I had one jump on my hand today from under the coping while in my drained shallow end working on some rough spots in the pebble finish. My 2 yr old son reacted better than me. Do not be ashamed of the things you would do to get away from a spider! That is what normal is, its the people who are not deathly afraid of things with 8 legs that are nuts. My sisters (older, no less) LOVE to make fun of me for being a firefighter who will run into a burning building, but absolutely freaks with a web across the forehead. I submit that they are entirely different!!! I mean come on, FURRY, CRAWLY, TOO MANY LEGS. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. If I were ever to meet a roach and a spider in the same place, it would be over. Great, now I won't be able to sleep tonight.
This reminds me of a hiking trip one time. My son and I along iwth a buddy and his son were backpacking. We were camped along a stream above a waterfall. At night we were walking in the creek with headlamps looking for crawdads. My buddy spotted these pinpricks of light along the far bank. He went to investigate and found out that the light was the reflection of our headlamps in spider eyes. These were big spiders. We then turned and scanned the bank we were camped on....sure thing, lots and lots of spiders.
Here's what they looked like:
I was sleepinging in a tent, but they buddy was under a tarp with bug netting only. I'm not sure his son slept much.
Here's what they looked like:
I was sleepinging in a tent, but they buddy was under a tarp with bug netting only. I'm not sure his son slept much.
OH.....DEAR......GOD.....!!! Reflective spider eyes???!!!! At night? You know why their eyes were pointing straight at your lights dont you? Yeah, its because spiders are never up to any good (except for the whole eating bugs thing) and were watching you.
laff66 said:
Thankfully the boys hadn't seen whichever Harry Potter movie it is that has the huge attack spiders.
These spiders were a little longer than my index finger. I sent the image to the website for Discovery Alabama. They wrote back saying it was a fishing spider. These things get out on the water and hunt bugs. The image and write-up was added to their, "What's this" section for when people are trying to figure out the names of various critters.
Just spotted black widow #2 of the season today. About 5 minutes after I finished doing work all around his house. :|
We just had a couple of Wolf spiders a few weeks ago, appeared on two different days in the back yard - the first ones I've personally ever run across. Oh I've heard of them, and I've seen photos, but I'd never actually seen one before.
Now I have my share of spiders here, all sorts of the little scuzzers, and I generally don't have a problem with them if I SEE them before I feel them, but these two monsters were big and actually had a "I'll kill you in your sleep" look about them. Seriously, they had bodies bigger than a golf ball, and I'll gladly admit that they made an impression on me. I looked for eyes with a flashlight for several days after that before venturing out back at night.
Now I have my share of spiders here, all sorts of the little scuzzers, and I generally don't have a problem with them if I SEE them before I feel them, but these two monsters were big and actually had a "I'll kill you in your sleep" look about them. Seriously, they had bodies bigger than a golf ball, and I'll gladly admit that they made an impression on me. I looked for eyes with a flashlight for several days after that before venturing out back at night.
Ohm_Boy said:
Wolf spiders are amazing. I caught one once in my garage. You can actually see their eyes, they're that big.
When we sold my in-laws' house last year, I was helping clean out their storage barn. My MIL never threw anything away; hence the boxes upon boxes of old magazines in the storage barn. Well, I was just going to town, throwing away boxes and bags of magazines, going through the boxes to make sure I wasn't throwing away anything of value, when I find a big plastic pickle jar with the top off. I look down in there, and see several dried up spiders..."hmmm...those look kinda like brown recluses...OMG, those ARE brown relcluses!!" I must've bug-bombed that barn three times afterward. Oh, in case you're wondering...brown recluses like to hide in dark areas like boxes filled with magazines, etc...
So I take it you've never been "spider hunting" at night? Using a flash light you would be surprised what you might find in your own front yard...sweet dreams... :lol:laff66 said:
Dave
Ummm, I gotta say "Ewww" as well.
Do they have those black widows in NJ? I saw a black spider like that outside my cellar door yesterday. I quickly closed the door because of the 'eww' factor. It's sort of stuck in the space between the two doors, or I'd like to think it is because it was so darn big. I won't open that door until I can get some serious spider remover or something.
It was black like that pic above, but I didn't hang around to see if there were any red parts on it.
Did I mention it was big?
Also, big.
Do they have those black widows in NJ? I saw a black spider like that outside my cellar door yesterday. I quickly closed the door because of the 'eww' factor. It's sort of stuck in the space between the two doors, or I'd like to think it is because it was so darn big. I won't open that door until I can get some serious spider remover or something.
It was black like that pic above, but I didn't hang around to see if there were any red parts on it.
Did I mention it was big?
Also, big.
We used to get these big hairy spiders from time to time... I always thought they were Wolf Spiders, till I actually SAW an ACTUAL wolf spider up north. It was huge, at least 2 1/2 inches in diameter. My "big" spiders must have been babies? LOL
Uh...I'm such a twisted arachnophobe that *this* is my Halloween decoration. The kids love it. I think one of these must be a wolf spider.
The kids love it. I think one of these must be a wolf spider.
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