Any spider experts out there?

I'm not an arachnologist, but based on your description in the first post, it would seem to be a type of jumping spider or maybe a lynx spider because of the shape of the abdomen. As to specific species, danger of the venom, etc., that's way out of my league.

I checked the link but didn't see much of a likeness in the pictures.

The text mentioned that the lynx was typically 4 to 10mm in size. This one had a body of about 15 to 20mm long, not counting the legs. The one I described in the first post was even larger.

I chased this one out of the bathroom until it went out the back door and it didn't jump at all. Amazingly, it moved quite fast for a spider missing two legs!

Color's a bit different but certainly looks like it.

Great! Now I have a name to research into. Thanks!

I have a riding lawn mower as I have about an acre of lawn to mow. On the edge of the lawn is some pampas grass and one day I ran the mower up as close as I could to the pampas.

As I came out of the fronds, hanging from my steering wheel was your friend, but my version had all eight legs..

I am sure I looked pretty funny as I abandoned ship post haste. Fortunately the dead man switch in the seat of the mower worked and the mower died.

After recovering from chest pains I carefully moved him back into the brush, figuring any spider that big must be eating a lot of mosquito's and deserved to live. I promise he still had eight legs when I last met him...oh and I am not sure how he got from Houston to the Philippines. Japan Air maybe?

Actually they originated from Asia. He probably came with imported bananas.

Oh! So, I guess it's the other way around. Imported from the Philippines.

Gawd, that's a big lawn!

I've got a strip of lawn about two meters wide by six meters long.

No wonder Spidey decided to come in. He couldn't find any prey outside!

Smart Spidey. To get to the Philippines, he had enough sense to get a transfer in Tokyo, Japan to Manila, Philippines. Then he gets on another plane to get to my place (about an hour and a half from Manila). Next he hitches a ride in a taxi (probably the one I rode from the airport) and makes it to my place. He's been breeding here ever since.

I've lived in my present residence for the past 10 years. This is the first time these critters have appeared. I guess they like my place.

Everything is big in Texas. Including lawns, spiders, and cockroaches...

And belt buckles....to call attention away from that which is not usually so big. but also away from the face.

All spiders are poisonous. However, they may not have adequately developed fangs, or associated appendage components, to penetrate or inject venom sufficiently deep enough to cause you harm, or may not be capable of delivering anough volume of toxin to cause any serious harm. This is actually the case for most spiders. To a spider, we are kind of like those pictures you se of lionesses trying to take downan elephant and they can not bite into their hide, except much thcker tougher hide in our case. In the US, for instance, there are only two spider listed as potentially deadly, and even for those only people who are seriously weakened are at any real risk (though the recluse leaves a nasty wound and the window can cause some pretty sick feelings for a few days like bad food poisoning or such).

Next time tell the wife that these huntsman spiders capture and feed on cockroaches and other domestic insect pests and is not dangerous.

Might want to keep a few as pets!

See http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/spiders/giant_crab_spider.htm

My wife is very meticulus when it comes to cleaning and I've always attributed the relatively small number of cockroaches in the house (compared to my neighbors) to her efforts. Now it seems that she's had some help.

I've shown her the pictures and she's read the text. I think I saw a hint of indecision in her eyes (kill them or let them be).

As I said in the previous post (Case of the Hungry Spider), I'd rather let them live as long as it's outside the house. We studied spiders back in elementary school and learned that most of them are actually beneficial in addition to being relatively harmless.

Pets eh? I'd have to find a collar, small enough for her neck (yes, the tan color makes it a "she").

Ahh, so it seems that he migrated from the Phillipines to Houston, and he eats cock roaches... Well Houston is the cockroach capitial of the world so I can certainly see why he came over...

Might want to see if he has a green card!

Seen some of those Houston sized cockaroaches in Dallas.

The cubical next door, we thought the resident entomologist left one of his prizes pinned to the ceiling. Until it ran and jumped into a light. Big enough for a mouse to saddle and ride. That spider has his work cut out for him. Glad to know they are benign to humans.

Had some Fire wasps in the North West not so lucky. Black and white, built like a hornet, about 4-4 1/2 inches long. The come to check out the fire and were such nosy pests we took the shotgun to them. The 3/8 long stinger was not benign and they had no fear. Wanted to look in noses and ears for things to hunt. Loud sounding too. The hints to go away just agitated them.

Brad

Here's a Philippine orb-weaver (makes big round web)

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Philippines/Wildlife/index.html#Argiope

and here's a jumping spider from the same part of the world...

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Philippines/Wildlife/index.html#PhilippinesSpiderWatchingMe

Warm locales provide a friendly home for lots of big arthropods. One of your neighbors may be able to identify it. Many boys are quite fond of spiders. I have a friend who (as a teenager) carried a tarantula around in a matchbox. There are videos on YouTube of boys staging spider fights in the Philippines. You might call or write one of your local museums or public schools, or a University.

And you might also get a clearer photograph. You probably won't have to wait long for a subject.

spider fights in the Philippines

I've never done that. I've seen kids clustered around outside their school having a great time staging fights. You'd think they were watching a boxing match.

get a clearer photograph

Yeah. I'm not much of a photographer. That first pix was actually the fourth one I shot. I put the zoom at the maximum for optical (4x) and I came as close as I dared. The pictures came out blurry (thank goodness for digital cameras! Instant verification!) until I remembered the the macro function. I snapped that and got the first picture I posted. Then I tried increasing the zoom to around 5.7x. This put the camera into digital zoom which isn't very good. Result? close but blurred.

'Need to practice more.

You are all taking this a bit too lightly I feel. In southern USA and certain other areas that do not get frosts, the Brown Recluse Spider does occasionally bite and the results can be devastating to humans flesh if left untreated.

See the following links:-

The pictures alone on this German link should convince anyone that treatment is required immediately to stop such devastation:-

Awful Pictures of Brown Recluse Bite

Brown_recluse_spider

Facts

Wow! Thanks for the warning Andy. I'll look more carefully but the ones I've seen certainly look more like the Huntsman than the Brown Recluse. Besides, the text says that the Recluse tends to hide in dark places rather than move around.

The ones I've described seem very much willing to be out in the open (on the wall in our bedroom and one the wall in the bathroom) and did not try to hide when the lights came on.

Still, the picture of that thumb rotting away is a terrible sight to behold.

Brown recluse bite day one

Day three

Day nine

Day eleven

Brown recluse

Bonus from Iraq "Camel spider" pair these have extremely strong pincers

I have live in the brown recluse country for 25 years, and have never seen one. So while I appriciate your concern Andy, and while the bite can be pretty ugly, I am not going to spend much time worrying about them...

It was more of a "Heads Up" so that everyone is aware that treatment is needed as quickly as possible IF by some mischance you get bitten.....not to wait a day.....!

I do realize that the likelihood is small percentage wise.....but "a one in a million chance" is still possible!!

Now those Camel spiders from Iraq scare the bejeezus out me. That is an incredibly big critter...

Emptying a C02 bottle into the deer or duck blind is a good precaution in recluse country prior to occupying, and beware of those portable toilets the area just under the seat is prime recluse territory. Don't need another hole in your butt!

Yes that would leave a mark

Brad

Ouch!!!

When I was a youngster my Dad told a story of visiting a remote radar site in the Nevada desert. There was enough construction activity going on in the area that they put a porta potty out there.

So after lunch Dad walks in for a constitutional, and just before sitting down, he gets a creepy feeling, and lifts the toilet seat to have a check.

Hanging from the bottom of the toilet seat is a scorpion, about six inches long. That would have put a hurt on his neither regions for sure...

The thing with recluse spiders is that they do want to hide in dark, undisturbed spaces. Lots of homes in Florida are built over crawl spaces and these are virtual spider condominiums. My brother is in the bug business there and nobody likes to get under a house to go after the spiders.

The warning about seldom used sheds, porta potties, etc. is also good.

But you're not going to run into these things out in the back yard.

Nevertheless if you are bitten Andy's advice to get thee to a doctor is correct. Brown recluse venom is nasty stuff.

I don't know if there are brown (are there other colors?) recluse spiders in the Philippines. If someone suffers a bite and the tissue damage shown occurs, we'd be sure to get it in the news coz that's something we don't see everyday. In fact, I've never seen or met anyone who has been bitten.

Occasionally, we get centipedes both in and out of the house. These are typically an inch or so long (probably juveniles).

Once, back when I was working for another company, we delivered a vacuum oven to a client. It was in a box which I carried into the building.

As I was opening it, I saw a centipede, about 1-1/2" long on my forearm! I guess I gave a small scream because everyone looked at me as I swatted it off me. I didn't get bit but my heart was a-thumpin' and someone remarked that I looked pale.

Anyway, the client rejected the delivery (not because of the incident, the oven was too small) so we re-packed the oven and put it back in the car. I was in the backseat with the box while my boss and the other technician were in front.

I felt something crawling in my pantleg. I stomped my foot down and it fell out. It was the centipede again! Man, I stomped and stomped, trying to catch it with my shoe but kept missing. It wriggled this way and that with me lifting my feet and bringing it down when I saw a chance.

My boss was trying to drive while watching my theatrics in the back but I wasn't concerned with that (I should have but I had other, more important things to think about at the moment).

After what seemed an eternity, I finally caught it and wriggled my shoe to crush it completely. It was in pieces when I lifted my foot. Then I heard my boss ask, "what were you doing?"

I thought of picking it up and showing him but I was too exhausted from all the adrenaline and just mumbled my reply. Besides, I've heard stories about sections of centipede remaining alive after being cut. I kept crushing it every now and then just to make sure.

The local health department usually clamps any media exploitation due to a panic that may cause. That scenario occurred when a friend was bitten at convenience store; the authorities were johnny on the spot proclaiming the recluse had been brought in with cigarettes from Arkansas. No nothing was reported in the media.

Not all Brown recluses are equal. The ones in the Portland Oregon area you will loose a sizable chunk of flesh even if caught right away, the complications can kill you. But in Arizona an identical looking Recluse in the Tucson area would just give you a small staph infection that a poultice of chewing tobacco would stop easily. The worst part is the staph infection will spread by touch from scratch to scratch etc.

Not that I'd volunteer to be the test subject for either.

Brad

Could depend on the person or recluse. I recall two brother's cleaning out a shed in Oklahoma and both were bitten. One went to intensive care the other just foamed at the mouth a little.

Two friends in Portland required surgery (both female),

about ten landscapers in Tucson where it took a week to figure out the source of the staph infections ( don't think the Doc's ever did).

Brad

No I haven't been bitten but have firsthand seen the results of a bite from a brown recluse. I don't know how far up they go from the south in the US but know they are at least as far up as Virginia. Andy Germany is very correct in this. The lady I know that was bitten didn't get any treatment and several days later her whole forearm was black and blue and swollen! They are nearly as plentiful as black widows in this part of the US.

They go up just about to the extreme southern area of Iowa. But they've been piggy backed to Oregon and I've heard are making a slow but methodical trip eastward.

Reading a spider book it says that they like areas where strong frosts DO NOT happen....eg. a warmer environment, which means as the weather changes over the next 100 years of so, they will be moving farther north in Europe and the USA......

Contrary to popular belief the weather is becoming cooler each year

There was a Blog last year which appeared to show that the fruit (Conkers in English) of the Horse Chestnut tree keeps spiders away from areas of the house where "Conkers" are placed.....

See:-

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/13991

Actually it is the "Daddy Long legs" commonly thought to be harmless which has the most deadly toxin in north America, though it doesn't the means to bite humans.

Both the brown recluse and the black widow can cause significant discomfort and or neurological damage if bitten in the right or wrong spot. Yes the recluse has the reputation causing a very ugly scar or hole in the flesh, but it too is the type which can not bite unless trapped between skin and an object; i.e. folds of clothing, etc..

Many are afraid of tarantulas but only those with red or orange marking need caution be observed or succumb you may.

Maintain a creepy-crawly consciousness (:

The semi-tropical centipede is far more dangerous than any spider on the north American continent.

The semi-tropical centipede is far more dangerous than any spider on the north American continent.

In Tucson Ariz. I have seen several desert centipedes over a foot, legs tip to tip about 4 inches.(didn't stop them to measure) They have some serious fangs on them.

We also seen scorpions bigger than the record books say they get in Florence Ariz. Length of a #9 American boot and 8-9inches to the arch in the tail when it was walking. Now that is a paper weight that would hold your desk down.

Don't know the poison factor for either but both could give you a heart attack from the size of what just bit you.

Brad

I was bitten by Hawaiian centipede when sleeping in hotel on Kauai. The bite was right over my sternum and eeeeyowwweee! I never found the critter and the bite swelled to golf ball size and tender; ouch! Very difficult wearing shirts and ugly, gradually developed a hole in center of swollen area; an open sore about 11mm diameter and 8mm deep, sore lasted about three weeks a show stopper!

Centipede eating tarantula: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f5gBFMMmGc

Centipede eating mouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CL2hetqpfg&NR=1

All yellowish and a bit longer of leg but that is the critter.

I guess I'm a little vindictive, once bitten I'd invent a centipede trap. Related to the roach motel. No checking out. Sell them on the internet at cost.

Brad

My experience with the live critters has been exciting, they were 7"-9" long, English racing green body about .750" wide, bright yellow curved legs; ground clearance about .125", red horns on one end and yellow on the other end, I dunno which end bites though.

Don't try crush under foot they'll get pissed and have a nasty habit of of incredibly swiftness in their climb up your leg and POW! Yep they'll get cha. I've warned others and seen and heard other try to step on them, heard the crunch but then the bug zips up the leg and pow!

I prefer spray with adhesive, WD-40 or gasoline. No fire needed, gasoline or WD-40 will melt the exoskeleton or adhesive... you know.

I Enjoyed Hawaii and love to return but becarfull in the jungle and above the third floor mosquitoes can not fly (open windows) and ascorbic acid trails crisscross my room (:

Be pleased he did not bite your Dick!!!!

So, I guess the point of all this is that some critters have very strong toxins, but no delivery method capable of delivering the toxin effectively to humans; and toxins to varying degrees have defensive characteristics meant to cause a ton of pain, and/or offensive characteristic meant to kill. The most painful sting/bites typically come from critters like ants, bees and wasps (and i guess because of our allergic response bees actually accidentally kill many times more people than all the spiders, scorpions and centipedes combined). However, their bites/stings are not intended to kill their next meal. There really isn't anything all that deadly poisonous to contend with in North America, so we can count ourselves blessed in that case (maybe those rattlesnakes on the santa catalinas and the rare coral snake if pissed off). Their is definitely nothing like a taipan, gaboon viper, those giant japanese wasps, bullet ants, Fat0tailed scorpions, funnel-web spider, or banana spiders.

I would take care around Green Mojaves

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

Stated 10 - 30 times stronger neurotoxins compared to a standard Rattle Snake.

A lot of variation in the liturature.

Brad

Yeper you got that right I know where to find them critter fur sure.

But truth be known you won't find a rattler or any snake for that matter above ground when temperature is over 85°F their cold bloodedness will not allow it.

Grew up around Rattlers, seen them so thick they would clog the bailer. Taste alright but I'd rather have them eating the vermin (rodents not you Vermin).

As an old Native American that baby sat me when I was a toddler used to say "you don't bother jonny he won't bother you" couldn't tell ya why he called Rattle Snakes jonny.

Brad

Hey,

I'm certainly no spider expert but on a trip to Hawaii one of our guides pointed one of these guys out, and called it a "Cane spider." not sure if this helps at all. A quick Google search brought this up:

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hawaii?Animals.cane

It also has some pictures there that have similar single "over red eyeing" going on.

Hope this helps.

Same guy, different names.

According to my research, they're called cane spiders in Hawaii and huntsman spiders in Australia. Your link, however, gave me some more information especially my concerns about its venom.

The "red-eye" was also mentioned somewhere else. It's one way of spotting it during the night when using a flashlight or torch.