identify my friend (new pic!)

Third picture of the clock spider, I think it's real....
IMAGE(http://web.archive.org/web/20030625234708/users.pandora.be/nicolas1/clockspider3.jpg)

The noise around the legs of clockspider is just jpeg artifacts. Common at high compression around lines of stark contrast (dark legs against white walls). Also note the artifacts along the top edge of curtains against the wall.

This is just icking me out. I'm freaked to even go in and check on the sleeping children. Something might move in the darkness. Or I might just imagine something moving and freak out for good measure. Quit with the spiders.

O, and suck it up man! That spider doesn't look big enough to have fangs to puncture skin. As long as it's in your house and not mine.

Your nightmares brought to you by..

Ooh, spiders!

I grew up in the wilds of southern Missouri (i.e., recluse central), and even so I've only seen one once that I can remember, and that was last spring. Before it was crushed, I noted that the violin pattern was actually pretty distinctive. I'd always been wary of spiders with stripes running down their backs, but the recluse pattern really isn't anything like a wavy stripe; it's more like a bulge which narrows to a noticably thinner line. There's a good picture here, as well as some photos of misidentified spiders. Your guy is definitely not a recluse.

Why the hell did I click on this thread. Good god.

I hate you all so much right now.

I HATE spiders yet I always seem to be fascinated by them. The clock spider is f'n huge and I'd probably crap my pants if it was in the house. What does one use to kill a spider of that size? *cringes and gets ichy all over*

Same here. But let me suggest an RPG, that would get rid of the thing. Or at least make it part with a leg or 2.

Let's not forget out friends in the deserts of Iraq that have to contend with Camel Spiders.
IMAGE(http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/5079/camelspidermi2.jpg)

The above picture distorts the perspective by holding the spider closer to the camera, check out the guys sleeve that's holding the spider. Below is a more realistic shot showing the actual size of a camel spider. Still a big beast.

IMAGE(http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/6728/camelspider2za4.jpg)

Camel spiders are quite creepy, especially with the stories that surround them.

However, I think the big thing that makes Clockspider triumph is the fact that it's hiding behind a clock. I know if I was minding my own business in my living room, looked at the clock to see what time it was, and I was met with four legs sticking out behind it I would surely start screaming like a 3-year old girl.

pol wrote:

How did you light that pic btw?

Just the flash on the camera. I had the camera right down on top of the spider though, and it was in a hallway that was at the time competely white. White tile, walls, and ceiling. We'd recently primered the walls. Combine that with very bright ceiling lights and I didn't really have to do anything.

I just wish my camera showed better detail. Stupid cheap sony 4 megapixel thing

Oh man - great thread. I was sitting here at my father-in-law's house for the holiday and getting bored out of my mind. Needed something to read and I came upon this thread - fantastically creepy stuff!

Why oh WHy did i click on this thread. I'll be under my desk in a very small fetal position. Someone come get me when the eight legged monsters from hell are gone.

Oh my gosh, spiders freak me out.

When I lived in Japan, I kept having run-ins with spiders... big, nasty looking monsters that shouldve been in B-grade giant monster movies.

1) My in-laws house had an attached shower. You had to go outside to go into the shower stall. One cold morning, I saw a bulbous spider in there, kinda like a mini shelob. I dont know what I was thinking, but I started my shower and the thing seemed to leap onto my leg biting me. I slapped him away, but my leg burned that day.

2) If you have seen a traditional japanese potty, they are of the squat over an oblong hole with running water variety. One day I did my best to be the adaptable foreigner while at my in-laws house. I finished my 'squat' and looked behind me, almost leaping out of the tiny bathroom stall. (It had a sliding rice paper door.) Stuck on the wall (near my dear behind) was the shed exoskeleton of a spider so big he should've been a crab. Freaked me out.

3) Later, my wife and I lived in a Japanese mansion (an apartment building). I was taking the garbage out, which meant going down a narrow stairway/alley to the garbage drop. I glanced up at the wall I had to pass by and a hairy spider, maybe the size of my wifes hand was just hanging out on the wall. I had to pass by the guy, and my adrenaline was going full speed. I side-stepped past it twice, it only being shoulder to shoulder distance from my face. It freaked me OUUUUUTTT.

Nowadays, the spiders I encounter in Jersey are smaller.. but they seem quick and inhumanly intelligent..... and most of all bulbous.... oh i hate that.

Oh my I cant stand spiders. More power to Conan(the Barbarian) and Samwise for squishing big ones.

Might I recommend taking off and nuking it from orbit? Expert opinion holds it's the only way to be sure.

Hey thanks for all the good information. It is nice to have been able to rule out the recluse, though it has been funny reading up on all the info that says you need to get a look at the eyes in order to positively identify one. Have this picture of myself trying to stare one in the eye(s), counting slowly, wondering if that bugger will jump.

Went hunting for more the other night hoping to get another chance at a good picture, and its quite queer. There seems to have been a mass exodus of these things from my house. The garage is usually a hotspot, but we moved every piece of furniture and junk without finding a single one. Not a total loss as we found no less than 2 dozen ping pong balls

So anyway now that everyone is hunkered down for the winter I guess there isnt much chance of new information, but knowing it isnt some highly poisonous thing that can kill my 2 year old in a blink will help me to sleep better at night.

Don't know about recluses, but we have hobo spiders around here (who I know a little about), and that doesn't look like one of them. Probably some harmless thing. As someone mentioned, its nigh impossible to tell without really knowing arachnidology, but check around for web patterns too, might be some clues there.

This is why I love Wisconsin winters. A good -20 degree day kills these f*ckers off.

Do NOT click the below link if this thread freaks you out. It contains pictures of a Brown Recluse Bite over a period of time.
SamF7

http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...

Trashie wrote:

This is why I love Wisconsin winters. A good -20 degree day kills these f*ckers off.

Go Wiscosin!

mumford wrote:

Go Wiscosin!

Home of Chese?

Badferret wrote:
mumford wrote:

Go Wiscosin!

Home of Chese?

And cheese.

Sadly, California is the new home of cheese. Much sadness on the farm reports here in Chicago. Get moving Wisconsin! Now that Farve is dead, you've little to hang your hat on.

Also, very glad it's not the brown recluse. A friend of my had a hand the size of a grapefruit after my fraternity house got infested.

Vrikk wrote:
Badferret wrote:
mumford wrote:

Go Wiscosin!

Home of Chese?

And cheese.

Are you sure Wiscosin is the home of cheese?

thewanderer14 wrote:

Sadly, California is the new home of cheese. Much sadness on the farm reports here in Chicago. Get moving Wisconsin! Now that Farve is dead, you've little to hang your hat on.

Not to derail even further but if I can't walk into a bar and order up some fried cheese curds, you are no Dairy State - stats be damned.

Back on topic: spiders are scary. Up at our family lake house, we get those wolf spiders on our docks. Something about water, I guess.

Badferret wrote:
Vrikk wrote:
Badferret wrote:
mumford wrote:

Go Wiscosin!

Home of Chese?

And cheese.

Are you sure Wiscosin is the home of cheese?

Ah, no. My apologies. Wisconsin is the home of cheese. Wiscosin, however, is the home of chese.

mugshots!

IMAGE(http://pol.chum.net/mugshotsml.jpg)

best I could do with the eyes, very hard to hold the camera still as well as discern the focal point that finely. Any recommendations for better results, or requests for different angles are welcome as I HAVE THE BASTAGE IN THE BRIG!

Prederick wrote:

That sound you hear is me, screaming like a 8-year old girl.

No, I'm almost positive I'm drowning you out.

Can you put him on a finger or something? Cause there's no sense of scale. Looks friendly though. Can you get a top and/or side shot? Maybe with him next to your nose or something. On an eyelid, that would work.

Seriously, put him on a quarter or something in one of the shots. I'm really curious to see if we can figure out which variety of deadly poisonous arachnid you've got running the place.