221 replies to this topic

[rcade21]

Rafterman, on 08 March 2011 - 04:20 PM, said:

Might I suggest that it was just a larger than average spider and your imagination has made it grander over the years?  

Or, perhaps, it was, in fact, a fake spider that someone had left on the wall and your Dad simply made a show of the whole thing?

There are all kinds of escaped, non-native critters in Florida - but as was said above, there's not a spider on the planet as large as what you're describing.

Considering my dad and never plays jokes, our family are the only people that built the house from the ground up and moved in and had any kind of access to the building itself, and that it only happened 2 years ago, yeah there's no way I could have distorted anything in my mind, to be frank.

[rcade21]

quillius, on 08 March 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

Hello Rcade21, can i clarify something.....the truck is stationed outside of the garage about to pull in? did you open the garage doors so that the vehicle could go into it, or where they open already? you then both see the thing jump back into truck, then father has enough courage to go to the door of the garage and hurls a shoe at it, at which point it runs off? correct?

how did it get out? I assume your father was at the door when he threw the shoe?

many thanks

Truck was stationed about 5 feet away from the garage entrance. As he opens the garage door we're all talking, grabbing clothes to bring inside to start the move-in process, we all 3 walk into the seemingly empty garage until we get a couple steps into the garage, notice something huge and black moving. We stand in surprise and horror for a few moments and run back in the truck. Moments later my dad, being a Marine vet, decides to get his massive boot and hurl it at the thing so we can get our stuff moved in. He throws it from the entrance of the garage to the back wall where the spider is clinging. He misses by an inch, the spider freaks and runs SUPER fast out of the garage like a big black blur. I mean this thing was booking. We all assumed it went into the woods but had no effing idea how it got in the garage in the first place. My dad assumed he may have left the garage door open the last time he finished the last few touches on the place, went to Lowe's like he normally did, came back and closed the garage door. Sometimes he would forget to close it while he went to run his errands.

Hope that answers your question  

[rcade21]

Sakari, on 08 March 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

The actual appearance of the spider looked almost exactly like this (I  know this is a fake halloween decoration, but you get the picture):




I still must say , a 2.5 to 3 foot Spider is not a realistic thing ,not to mention the biggest is about the size of a dinner plate......

I have to ask , how would a Spider that big get into the garage?....

I believe you saw a large Spider , but not as big as you think it was.....

Many years ago , I had to crawl under our home in Nevada ( Black Widow Heaven )...I put on all of my bow hunting apperal ( net over head , etc...)..I crawled on my back to where I needed to be , turned my head , and BAM!!!!....Black widow inch's from my eye's....I could swear that thing was the size of a silver dollar ( impossible ).....
I also had a similar experience with a Crayfish ( crawdad) while Snorkling in a river...Turned my head , and it was right in front of my mask...Scared the hell out of me , and looked HUGE!!!!

When you are scared and startled , and even confused , things are not what they seem...

Actually, I wish I hadn't seen the spider since I'm pretty afraid of the bigger ones, though I'm not one to fabricate size just to make a good story. I know what I saw. I've seen all kinds of spiders, being originally from Tennessee and living next to the woods with all sorts of critters and creepy crawlies. I had a kind of OCD as a kid to look under every rock I could find and taught myself the names of arachnids and insects so I have a decent education on the matter. I still look up animals and anything I don't recognize to this day.

[Setton]

rcade21, on 08 March 2011 - 11:28 PM, said:

Considering my dad and never plays jokes, our family are the only people that built the house from the ground up and moved in and had any kind of access to the building itself, and that it only happened 2 years ago, yeah there's no way I could have distorted anything in my mind, to be frank.

Don't be too sure about that. In strange and unfamiliar situations, everyone misremembers or misjudges things.

To give an example from police training (not mine - from when my mum taught it ):

Role play of two men robbing a bank with 2 cashiers and 4 witnesses (police officers in training).
Robber 1 - wearing green t-shirt, blue jeans and black balaclava, carries pistol wrapped in bag - hieght around 5'6"
Robber 2 - wearing white t-shirt, brown trousers and black balaclava, no weapon visible - height also around 5'6"
Cashier 1 - wearing uniform of blue shirt and black trousers
Cashier 2 - same as cahier 1
Witness 1 - white shirt, black trousers
Witness 2 - blue blouse, black skirt
Witness 3 - black shirt, dark blue trousers

Coloured text will come in next to show mix ups.

If witness 4 is asked to describe those present, he might well say something along the lines of:
Robber 1 - wearing blue t-shirt, blue jeans and black balaclava, carries pistol wrapped in bag - hieght around 6'
Robber 2 - wearing black t-shirt, black trousers and black balaclava, no weapon visible - height also around 6'
Cashier 1 - wearing uniform of blue shirt and blue trousers
Cashier 2 - same as cahier 1
Witness 1 - blue shirt, black trousers
Witness 2 - white blouse, black skirt
Witness 3 - black shirt, dark blue trousers

As you can see, people's memories often play tricks with them especially with regard to overestimating size. If something is threatening, we tend to remember it as larger than it really was.

[rcade21]

Dharma D, on 08 March 2011 - 08:39 PM, said:

Well I believe you. I have seen some insects that I would not have believed had I not seen them with my own eyes. It may be some mutated spider or it may just be an unidentified species. If it is that big I bet it has pretty good survival instincts, I'm sure it can easily avoid being seen. Maybe an under ground spider, who knows... Maybe it was just looking for a dark place to hide. I do have one question tho that someone had previously posted... If your dad was standing in the way of the door, how did the spider get out? did it just run at your dad??

When I lived out in the country there was these huge spiders that carried babies on their backs, it was the grossest thing ever... I was terrified of those, they would sit outside my window under a light post. There was also these things that people called children of the earth; they were these tailless scorpion kinda things that had a really round head, they looked like babies and when you pulled the out from under the ground they would screech like a baby, those were definitely the scariest insect I have ever seen.

If you really saw this I would suggest contacting a local Wild Life center, you can usually get a hold of them trough your local ASPCA.  If it is out there it has to be identified, it's habitat could be endangered bringing them closer to people which could put people in danger. Another question... are you in a swampy area in Florida??

Wow, those scorpions sound awful. I could only imagine something looking creepy already only to amplify the moment by using a horrific sound. That would give me chills!  

Luckily NOT in a swampy area, that house is located in the more rural back woods of my town though. Not very many neighbors and mostly wooded areas, even a park close by. Whether it is a new species or mutation, it was effing scary looking. I used to play with some tarantulas my friend had and those never scared me because they were furry and fatter and they moved slowly for the most part. For some reason, this one scared me because it was more spindly and the legs were long, pointy, and sharp looking (but I'm sure they weren't actually sharp that's just the look) and when it moved it didn't scurry like most spiders do when they run, it BOLTED. Within the 2-3 seconds it was out of the garage, my dad jumped onto the truck. He thought throwing the shoe and backing up real fast would do the trick but it even surprised him to the point of him doing a double take and jumping on the front hood to escape it because he had no idea where it went either. We all looked around to see if it was anywhere closeby and took us a few minutes to get out of the truck to move in.

I talked with my dad after the incident happened and he was wondering if the spider had been hiding under all the brush in the woods. You'd be surprised how many palm fronds, thick dead monkey grass, and pine needles (yes, we have some pine trees in Florida too lol) there is on the ground in all the woods. You cannot walk through the woods unless you literally carve a path through like we had to have the tree cutters do for our backyard so we could see the creek. And forget mowing the grass, it used to take me 2 hours to do if I left it more than 5 days without cutting it.

I may just call ASPCA to find out if there have been any reported spiders of this description and see what comes up.

[rcade21]

Setton, on 08 March 2011 - 11:43 PM, said:

Don't be too sure about that. In strange and unfamiliar situations, everyone misremembers or misjudges things.

To give an example from police training (not mine - from when my mum taught it ):

Role play of two men robbing a bank with 2 cashiers and 4 witnesses (police officers in training).
Robber 1 - wearing green t-shirt, blue jeans and black balaclava, carries pistol wrapped in bag - hieght around 5'6"
Robber 2 - wearing white t-shirt, brown trousers and black balaclava, no weapon visible - height also around 5'6"
Cashier 1 - wearing uniform of blue shirt and black trousers
Cashier 2 - same as cahier 1
Witness 1 - white shirt, black trousers
Witness 2 - blue blouse, black skirt
Witness 3 - black shirt, dark blue trousers

Coloured text will come in next to show mix ups.

If witness 4 is asked to describe those present, he might well say something along the lines of:
Robber 1 - wearing blue t-shirt, blue jeans and black balaclava, carries pistol wrapped in bag - hieght around 6'
Robber 2 - wearing black t-shirt, black trousers and black balaclava, no weapon visible - height also around 6'
Cashier 1 - wearing uniform of blue shirt and blue trousers
Cashier 2 - same as cahier 1
Witness 1 - blue shirt, black trousers
Witness 2 - white blouse, black skirt
Witness 3 - black shirt, dark blue trousers

As you can see, people's memories often play tricks with them especially with regard to overestimating size. If something is threatening, we tend to remember it as larger than it really was.

Good point and good examples! I know everyone's definitely not perfect with story telling

The only thing is I'm not trying to debate, I just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone else had experienced or seen similar. But I am definitely sure of one thing: I've not really had much excitement in my life despite regular everyday human issues, but when something astronomical happens and I get really scared, I remember those most. Sure, I may forget certain details I'm still human, but for the most part I think I hit the nail on the head this go around. I have other stories that were a lot worse than this.. haha

[~TheBigK~]

Well, regardless of if it was real or your imagination I would have been traumatized. Seriously.

[tipotep]

Sakari, on 08 March 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

The actual appearance of the spider looked almost exactly like this (I  know this is a fake halloween decoration, but you get the picture):




I still must say , a 2.5 to 3 foot Spider is not a realistic thing ,not to mention the biggest is about the size of a dinner plate......

I have to ask , how would a Spider that big get into the garage?....

I believe you saw a large Spider , but not as big as you think it was.....

Many years ago , I had to crawl under our home in Nevada ( Black Widow Heaven )...I put on all of my bow hunting apperal ( net over head , etc...)..I crawled on my back to where I needed to be , turned my head , and BAM!!!!....Black widow inch's from my eye's....I could swear that thing was the size of a silver dollar ( impossible ).....
I also had a similar experience with a Crayfish ( crawdad) while Snorkling in a river...Turned my head , and it was right in front of my mask...Scared the hell out of me , and looked HUGE!!!!

When you are scared and startled , and even confused , things are not what they seem...

Im going to have to agree with Sakari on this one , there are no spiders that size in the world , you may have seen a large spider but not as big as you may think ...

TiP.

[rcade21]

~TheBigK~, on 09 March 2011 - 12:10 AM, said:

Well, regardless of if it was real or your imagination I would have been traumatized. Seriously.

Hahahaa, I was for about a week. I refused to open my window because it was 3 feet away from the woods.. and no mesh covering for the window sill  

[Setton]

rcade21, on 08 March 2011 - 11:57 PM, said:

Within the 2-3 seconds it was out of the garage, my dad jumped onto the truck.

Sorry, how big is this garage?

Using house spiders as an example, their speed is apparently 1.17mph and their minimum body length is 4.1mm.
A little bit of maths gives you that they can run about 127 body lengths per second
This is one of the slower speciess of spider and using the same result gives the answer that in 2 seconds, your spider should have moved 317' (95m).
Going back to what I said before, either you misjudged the size of the spider, misjudged the time it took or you have a garage about 100m long. If so, I want your house - it must be huge!

EDIT: sorry, finding the measurements and doing the calculations took a while. Only just read your other post.

Edited by Setton, 09 March 2011 - 12:23 AM.

[Ryinrea]

Creepy as hell but still still serving thanks Sakari and others for showing the big spiders for me to be more terrified and dammit I had to go and read the big cockroach story  servers again.

Thought I tend to agree with Sakari their is no such spider other than the Acromantula from Harry Potter that could even remotely get that big. Plus Harry Potter is a fictional story and I was just given that as example that any thing that big couldn't really exist and yes I am also a believer in bigfoot.

However, most spiders really don't get that big unless its a freakish thing but that is a really big IF.
You probably were judging your measurements calculations wrong from how far you were from the spider ect. But I too would call the ACSPA to see if their have been other reports of this type of spider.

Edited by Ryinrea, 09 March 2011 - 12:42 AM.

[Sakari]

rcade21, on 08 March 2011 - 11:36 PM, said:

Truck was stationed about 5 feet away from the garage entrance. As he opens the garage door we're all talking, grabbing clothes to bring inside to start the move-in process, we all 3 walk into the seemingly empty garage until we get a couple steps into the garage, notice something huge and black moving. We stand in surprise and horror for a few moments and run back in the truck. Moments later my dad, being a Marine vet, decides to get his massive boot and hurl it at the thing so we can get our stuff moved in. He throws it from the entrance of the garage to the back wall where the spider is clinging. He misses by an inch, the spider freaks and runs SUPER fast out of the garage like a big black blur. I mean this thing was booking. We all assumed it went into the woods but had no effing idea how it got in the garage in the first place. My dad assumed he may have left the garage door open the last time he finished the last few touches on the place, went to Lowe's like he normally did, came back and closed the garage door. Sometimes he would forget to close it while he went to run his errands.

Hope that answers your question  

Quote

It was almost dark when my parents and I pulled the truck with some of  our belongings into the driveway in front of our new house we were  moving into. My dad opened the garage door and he gasped. We were asking  him "what! what's wrong?" and then we looked in the garage. The garage  was empty except for a HUGE black spider that was sitting dead center on  the center wall in the garage. It had to have been about 2.5-3 feet  from tip of legs to the center of it's body, the whole circumference of  the spider. I remember the body being really thick and the legs thick  towards the center of the body then really spindly and pointy at the  ends and the whole spider was pitch black and shiny and smooth. My dad  was frightened and grabbed a shoe and hurled it at the spider because we  had to pull the truck in, and I have never seen a spider move so  quickly as this one did. It was gone within seconds into the woods that  are right next to the garage. I have not gone out into the woods since.

"As he opens the garage door we're all talking, grabbing clothes to bring  inside to start the move-in process, we all 3 walk into the seemingly  empty garage ....."

"My dad opened the garage door and he gasped. We were asking  him "what! what's wrong?" and then we looked in the garage."

So , you walked into the garage , or did you open it and look into it?....What scenario is correct , considering they are different versions of the story?

".....notice something huge and black moving."

"The garage  was empty except for a HUGE black spider that was sitting dead center on  the center wall in the garage."

So , did you see " something " that was "moving " , or a "huge black spider sitting dead center on the wall"?...Again , different version.

I still think you either saw a big spider , and mis-judged the size.....Or , this may just be a story , and a false memory.When something happens to someone , and they are 100% sure of it , the story will stay the same.If there are doubts , or memory loss of the details , the story will change.

I know , you just want to know what it was....I am attempting to answer that , because Spiders of this size do not exist....Also ,as mentioned above , the speed that you say this spider crawled is pretty far out there....

Edited by Sakari, 09 March 2011 - 01:47 AM.

[Avant]

Was there any webbing around?

[AliveInDeath7]

I personally believe that fear took a great factor in the estimate of it's size.

[Sakari]

I remember somewhere here a expert talking about how Spiders breath and move , and explaining how it is impossible for them to get this big....Here are some examples :

Quote

Hello all -
I am an entomologist/zoologist and I do spider identification at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science when I have time.

On the topic of giant spiders – I’d love to see one, but I doubt very  much that they exist.  As has been mentioned, their respiratory system  is a limiting factor, as it works in known spiders.  Another factor GSs  would have to overcome would be desiccation.  Spiders are much more  susceptible to this than insects.  Also, blood pressure would be an  issue.  Spiders use their muscles to contract their legs and they use  blood pressure to extend their legs (that is why their legs always curl  up after death).  I think, given millions upon millions of years of  evolution (spiders and insects were around LONG before dinosaurs and  look who is still here), if spiders had evolved to larger sizes, mammals  would not have had a chance to get going.

http://www.cryptomun...s/giantspiders/

Quote

I will say that, that is nothing but an urban legend. It is biologically  not possible due to the way that a spider intakes oxygen and the O2  content of the atmosphere.

Above quote is from the topic on here called " Giant Spiders " Giant Spiders

Come on MattShark , get on here and reply.....