THERE IS A SPIDER ON YOUR WALL WHAT DO YOU DO

[Formalhaut]

Florida is the land of 8 million bugs the size of your dog, so I tend to leave most spiders alone, so they eat the bugs I hate more. Unless they touch me. Then they die.
We have had a black widow show up on the porch once. That one died immediately.
Our spiders to get pretty massive down here too. Years ago, we had a massive banana spider build a nest between our shed and a tree. Including legs, the spider was bigger than my head. My younger son was about 3 at the time, and completely fascinated by it. He never tried to touch it, just liked to sit in the yard and watch it.

[blackmage_nuke]

I saw "THERE IS A SPIDER..." (swearing in that link) in the tab on my browser and thought someone had made an Always Sunny in Philadelphia thread and I was raring to quote

[Citizen Bleys]

Unless it's a poisonous one, then it needs to die.

If they are poisonous, I'll kill them.

No spiders are poisonous. However, if you encounter poisonous wildlife of any sort, there is no need to be alarmed. You are safe as long as you don't eat it.

All spiders, however, are venomous to one degree or another. Spiders use their venom to digest their food, so a nonvenomous spider would die of starvation immediately.

For this reason, most defensive spider bites are dry bites, devoid of venom, since the spider needs that venom to live. An envenomed bite will only come from a spider in fear of its life and are thus easy to avoid.

Few spiders in North America are aggressive.

A spider's diet consists exclusively of things that piss me off.

In conclusion, if you kill spiders, smurf you.

[Freya]

Brown recluse are common in my area and bites from them are not rare either. They put holes in limbs. I'm okay not letting them get close. So I guess, smurf me eh?

Honestly, bugs die before they get to my house. Perks of dating a guy who's father owns a pest control company I guess. They never get in.

Bugs don't bother me too much but cockroaches are crazy gross. And crazy weird.

[Citizen Bleys]

Brown recluses are timid. The clue's in the name.

Also, this

Spiders are good for humans. They are a lot more harmless, and a lot more fragile, than people think. A fall from your computer desk would be fatal to a Chilean Rosehair Tarantula (The most docile breed of T, popular as pets, and often used in movies due to being unlikely to bite). Spiders are smart enough not to pick fights with things like us that can easily kill them without ever becoming vulnerable to the spider's defence mechanisms.

Spider prey, conversely is dangerous to human beings as it contains bugs that are not only "gross creepy-crawlies," but also carriers of disease, as well as more aggressive bugs, such as wasps (defending on the breed of spider, of course -- naturally a tiny salticidae-type could never digest a wasp, but some argiopes are big enough to tackle the little bastards)

I do, however, understand how some of you feel about spiders because that is how I feel about children.

[SammieBabe]

I saw another banana spider once make a web between two trees. They get huge, but are beautiful and really don't do much. We also get some rather large Huntsman and Wolf spiders too, but they're pretty harmless. Occasionally one shows up in my bathroom. The live and let live policy is still active unless they touch me.
We also get Brown Recluse spiders here too, and I know two people who have been bitten. They only tend to bite if you get into their areas.

[Fynn]

I just googled banana spiders. They do look rather pretty, but I'm sure my wife would die on the spot if she saw one of them.

Why is arachnophobia so prevalent?

[Freya]

Our banana spider, Jolene, She lived between my recycle can and the garage for 3 months last summer. I didn't recycle that whole summer just to not move the recycle can xD My trash guy must have thought I was crazy after then and My bin was full for every trash day after. I named her jolene because she ate another banana spider once. So JOLEENE JOLENE I'm begging of you please don't take my man. Please don't take him because you can, as Dolly Parton said.

[Formalhaut]

fatal[/I] to a Chilean Rosehair Tarantula (The most docile breed of T, popular as pets, and often used in movies due to being unlikely to bite). Spiders are smart enough not to pick fights with things like us that can easily kill them without ever becoming vulnerable to the spider's defence mechanisms.

Spider prey, conversely is dangerous to human beings as it contains bugs that are not only "gross creepy-crawlies," but also carriers of disease, as well as more aggressive bugs, such as wasps (defending on the breed of spider, of course -- naturally a tiny salticidae-type could never digest a wasp, but some argiopes are big enough to tackle the little bastards)

I do, however, understand how some of you feel about spiders because that is how I feel about children.

I like to think myself as rational and that all bugs (and spiders) that I dislike are actually very useful in the ecosystem and prey upon actually dangerous creatures. I really do.

Until they enter my home. Rationality sort of flies out of the window when you have a phobia.

I named her jolene because she ate another banana spider once.

[Aulayna]

Burning the house down is the only solution.

[Fynn]

I named her jolene because she ate another banana spider once.

Typical newlywed spat

[Shiny]

Harmless my ass!

[Fynn]

Oh, I remember reading this awesome Cracked article some time ago! Apparently, some ant-eating spiders have evolved to look exactly like ants so they can surprise their victims.

Some spiders have evolved to resemble two ants because their mandibles are too big to make them believable ants, so those just become another ant

[Bri]

Wow, everyones post on here is just amazing in every detail. Well as for me if I see I spider on the wall i will kill it, 'cept if it is daddy long legs.

[Formalhaut]

Wow, everyones post on here is just amazing in every detail.

I'm fighting hard not to take this as witty sarcasm, to be honest