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It could be a brown recluse
home.texoma.net/~lines...spider.htm
Don't let it take a bite the results are not pleasent
Humid TEXAS ..........HMMMMM not here!! Just hot and dry..........

I'm sittin here reading this and just had to add a little spider story of my own.
Last week I was out in the pool cleaning the calcium deposits off the pool tiles. I usually wear a ball cap, swim trunks, and a walkman radio on my head so I don't miss Rush Limbaugh.
Well at each end of my pool is a skimmer that spiders love to build nests in, and they can get pretty big. When the grandaughter comes over to swim we splash the spiders away and they leave til we are done.
On this particular day I look over and happen to see this large spider hanging out around the skimmer. Now eventually I'm gonna be working in that area so I begin to splash him and as usual he beats a hasty exit over the cool deck into the plants. Good, its gone and I go back to scraping with the pumice stone.
All of a sudden I look down and see this son of a bitchin spider has outflanked me and has inititiated a full frontal assault on my chest. I'm at the deep end of the pool hanging on to the cool deck with one hand when I see this prick on my chest. I begin to swat at it with my right hand and miss so I initiate a follow up left hand swat. At this point I'm goin under the water Walkman and all. I resurface gagging and choking on a mouthful of water looking for the spider. Its hard to try and keep your mouth closed and scream at the same time. My nice Sony Walkman and my Pratt&Whitney ball cap are now at the bottom of the pool. I see the spider making his way back to the skimmer and now I'm pissed so I grab the aluminum shaft that holds the net and begin to ram it into the skimmer hole. Don't really know if I killed the bastard or not. He or she hasn't been around the last two times I've been in the pool. Course it's hard to see em when your at the opposite end of the pool.
Don't really know what species it was. Do know that any spider with nuts enough to charge a 285lb man is probably one you don't need to get to know up close and personal.
Fortunately the grandaughter wasn't there to see big brave ex-cop grampy scrambling like some pussy away from a little spider, and wifey wasn't there to preserve the incident with a Kodak moment.

Sorry I can't help with the identification of your eight legged freak!!!!!!!!!!!

- JG300-1Bullet

It could be a brown recluse
home.texoma.net/~lines...spider.htm
Don't let it take a bite the results are not pleasent
Humid TEXAS ..........HMMMMM not here!! Just hot and dry..........

If you liked that, you should LOVE this! (yuckky, beware)
www.emedicinehealth.co...0729-8.asp

Sorry I can't help with the identification of your eight legged freak!!!!!!!!!!!

well,,,,being a big ol' water spider i can set you in the right direction Thud, by the way,,,great story,,I love to hear someone else talk about confrontations with spiders as battles,,,at least I know I'm not alone...

after this thread was first brought up I decided to do some investigating about the monster water spider I encountered years ago while fishing back home .
I emailed a fella I found on the internet who seemed to have an extensive knowledge of these monsters,,,I refrained quite alot when explaining my story to him as I didnt want to sound like too much of a chicken...,,but here is the email and reply I had sent out,,,he has a nice link at the bottom that should also show you possibly your swimming pool rival....do let us know if you find the match.....




Hi there,,,,am just looking for information about a cetain large size spider
I encountered some years ago that still haunts me.
I have never found a picture of it to this day nor do I know its name,
although someone said it was a "rocky mountain water spider",,I think this
is incorrect but I can tell you this huge beast really had no business in
that area.
I am from golden, british columbia, canada., I was fishing at a small lake
that you have to hike to,,,I am guessing the elavation is around 5500 feet
above sea level and the winters are very harsh here. I had just got out on
a wooden raft about 25 feet from shore and this behemoth came running up
from under the raft and stood there at the opposite end from me,,,,it was
rather startled as was I. If I remember correctly I would say with its
legs extended it was as big around as the rim of your average coffee cup,
extremely hairy like a tarantula, all black with a yellow ring on each leg
at the knee, I do not remember seeing a large abdomen but rather one large
main body.
I must say I am terrified of certain spiders and this one having been the
largest I had ever encountered in the wild really freaked the hell out of
me. I then decided to duel with it with my trusty fishing rod as to scare
it off the raft...my ploy worked and the thing actually jumped a huge
distance,,,(I think about 6 feet or so) towards the shoreline and then
proceeded to run across the water to land leaving a tidal wake behind it.

Forgive me for my crude description but I get the willy's every time I
remember this event. for some reason I just think this spider was realy out
of place for this area. I have never returned to that lake since then,,,had
never seen it before that time either. I am just wondering if maybe you
have some information that can shed some light on this for me. I have
looked at many pics of water and jumping spiders but nothing seems to match
what I remember....I doubt it was a wolf spider ....have seen many of them
and this was twice the size and much more hairy....
If you have any information for me that would be great,,,,,,thanks


Dave T.


Hi Dave,
Almost certainly you encountered a spider in the genus Dolomedes, commonly called fisher, fishing, or raft spiders. They can get quite large and are generally found near water.
bugguide.net/node/view/1985
-Troy

Yep Ascout pretty graphic check this one.. scroll down the page. I DON'T CARE WHAT YA SAY, THAT HADDA HURT.... SOME BEACH!!
thefuntimesguide.com/m...cluse.html

cool story of your battle with that spider Thud. And wow that is one big hairy spider Hoppa. Thanks for sharing the storys.

My big thing is snakes.
My uncle still laughs about the time when i was a little boy and i seen a garden snake he says i jumped out of my boots and was gone in a flash.

They don't do much, but the camel spider sure is unpleasant...


OK, so this well-known photo gives a false perspective, but the little bugger is known for being FAST and jumping. Has a bite, but rarely nips at humans....still...good idea to check your boots.

I think I have your bug. Check this link www.photosapien.com/photo-364.html
and here for more bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/c...spider.htm