Cities make spiders gigantic
from Grist:
People who fear extra-large spiders might want to choose to live out in the country. Because not only do spiders live in cities, they thrive and get fat there.
According to a new study, spiders living in cities are notably bigger than those living out in the bush. They love the warmth of the urban heat island effect, the abundance of delicious insects that stupidly congregate around street lamps, and the artistic and cultural opportunities that the ‘burbs and the country just can’t provide.
Ph.D. candidate Lizzy Lowe examined 222 spiders in Sydney, Australia, and in the bushland surrounding it. She looked at the spiders’ size, weight, and body fat, hopefully without giving them too many body image issues, and found that city spiders were bigger. And even within cities, the spiders that lived closest to human-made objects were larger than the rest. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/list/cities-make-spiders-gigantic/
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wanna to go call a truce with our wolf spiders. They're the worst I've ever seen in my location (northern Delaware), but they can get to 3" or slightly bigger in diameter. We have them in our basement and outside. They usually run from you, but you don't want to be reaching in anything (like a box glass pitcher to reach a stray ping-pong ball).
Last fall, I scooped a dead one up with a twig and leaf and carried it inside to inspect it under a good light and a microscope. I'm sorry, but anything that I can see it's fangs without my glasses or a magnifying glass is too darned big for me. I could take my exacto knife and and make a sound on it's fangs. UGH!!! The kids were fascinated. We identified as many various body parts as were still in tact.
If you go out on you tube and look up 'spider sounds woods', there is a video out there where these spiders are running around in the leaves making a skittering noise. We taped the audio, multiplied it, and were planning on using it for the spider part of our haunted house this Halloween. Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy changed our plans 
Of all the spiders I've actually seen, the kind that freaks me out the most -- big fat hairy jumping spiders!
that tarantulas aren't venemous to people, and the ones I've seen aren't trying to come inside. We only see them for a few weeks in late summer, the males are out looking for lady-mates and they will often die crossing the roads . I always steer around them. I am afraid of black widows, they tend to pop up in unexpected places (like in door jambs, or in the aforementioned garden tools). But I had a wolf spider charge at me once. Ran right for me. I had moved into a long-vacant house, and for months they were just literally coming out of the woodwork (but mostly the crawlspace)...
a tarantula you have living in your crawlspace? A normal sized wolf spider looks like a baby tarantula to me - all hairy and stuff. A frightening looking spider in any case.
It is really quite nice of you to share your space with it. I would be inclined to evict the damned thing!
and we have a bit of wine down there - maybe it is a drunk wolf spider!
It built the most beautiful web in the far corner and feasted on dumb flies that always flew there.
My boys used to bring in their friends to see "Mom's pet spider"..We would sometimes stun flies & flip them into the web just to watch it scamper up the web
I never saw it outside its web..and then one day it disappeared forever..
No WAY I'd let that thing crawl on me!
This is me:
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