***WARNING*** CREEPY PIC!

[Chesapeake]

Once again, I decide to take advantage of crisp fall night by hanging out in my front yard to take in the view, and what do I see starring at me when I unzip the net on my XLC in the morning and go to put my feet in my flip flops that were sitting on the tyvek next to the hammock? Nothing other than a large wolf spider of course! I almost stepped on it but luckily I ALWAYS check before I put my feet down, and just for that reason too. I wish I could have gotten a better pic of the monster blood sucking, flesh disolving fangs on the nasty creature. He would have given me a nice good morning surprise for sure had I not seen him first and sent him to spider hell where it belongs with a swift stab to the body with a nearby stick. I know it was stalking me all night too, waiting for just the right time to sink its needle like fangs into my meaty foot flesh. Man I can wait until the first frost and these little demon creatures are to cold to continue to spin there nasty webs and lay in wait for me to give them a small piece of skin to attack. I'm seriously ready to set my whole yard on fire at this point. But alas, colder temps are drawing ever closer and so is the only time of the entire year when I can sleep sans bug net and without feeling hundreds of small evil eyes watching me from their lairs in the trees above my hammock. Does anyone else have as many spiders as I do? Or did you all send them my way?

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[robertjackson]

Stay inside your Hammock..
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[SilvrSurfr]

You've got some serious arachnophobia, huh? I don't have even the slightest amount of arachnophobia. I had a huge wolf spider crawl on my leg one trip, looked like this with her babies on her back:

Wolf_spider_with_young_in_garden.jpg

I commented, "Oh, look - a wolf spider." My daughter went straight for her hammock!

[Rekoob]

i opened this tread just for the title and wasn't disappointed with the post. You should have burned the yard down months ago.

[NarlocB]

How do you know they will bite?? Perhaps they recognize you as part spider......like Spiderman or something and you can control them like Antman controls ants.

[Ratdog]

Ha.

We had the night of a thousand spiders in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

A literal biomass overtook our camp, they crawled over everything, you had to wipe them from your mug before drinking, brush them off your face but no chance of keeping them off your body, it was incredible.

Even so, they eat so so many bugs, the thought of killing them never occurs. In fact I look forward to the various webs that surround the property, quite stunning as the morning dew shimmers in the sun.

[SilvrSurfr]

Wolf spiders don't make webs - they ambush their prey or run them down.

[Chesapeake]

Exactly, and no better place to wait to ambush me than right under the wide strap of my flop. Lol. I get that they eat lots of other bugs, and that's great, but do they need to use my RL or suspension to do it? I swear they don't even make full webs, they just kinda hang there around the edges of my tarp, from my tree straps and from my XLC pull out lines just waiting for me to walk right into them. And a bio mass rolling through like slow moving lava spewing from an unseen spider volcano? No thank you, I would have to employ the " hairspray and lighter" trick like they do in " Arachnophobia " lol. But then again, a flaming spider bio mass isnt much better once they start to crawl up you and you hammock! I hate having to use a net for so much of the year, but netless is only an option when everything is frozen solid..... Frozen spider = no webs or eyes watching me sleep, stalking me as soon as I come out the front door to hang my rig up. Normaly I don't mind them SS, its just when they are trying to kill me thatI get eeked out lol. You can have some of mine to play with if you want lol. Come take as many as you want!

[Chesapeake]

You've got some serious arachnophobia, huh? I don't have even the slightest amount of arachnophobia. I had a huge wolf spider crawl on my leg one trip, looked like this with her babies on her back:

Wolf_spider_with_young_in_garden.jpg

I commented, "Oh, look - a wolf spider." My daughter went straight for her hammock!

I had one just like that get trapped between my storm and screen doors. I opened the door to go warm the car up on a chilly fall morning and *splat* * squish* * crunch* I stepped on it, Flattening the momma but lucky me, the babies survived between the treads of my boots. When I lifted my foot to see what I stepped on, all I saw was a million little spiderlings, scurrying in every direction away from their eewy gooey smooshed mommy towards every single dark and recessed corner or crack of my house and all over my boot. I grabbed the first thing I saw that was kinda caustic ( at least in the moment I thought so anyway) goo-gone, and dumped the whole bottle of it on them to drown the little *******s. That kinda worked but I ended up playing " whack -a- mole with them and my newspaper lol. Good thing it was damp outside that morning and the paper lady put it in a plastic bag! Lol.

[Trail Runner]

Be thankful that you're a hammocker and not a ground dweller. If you had been sleeping on the ground that bad boy would have been crawling all over you during the night.

BTW, spiders are the primary reason that I became a hammock camper. I woke up one too many times with 2 or more of the little buggers sharing my blanket.

Also, good move checking your footwear prior to donning them. I lived in the high desert in Cali for about a year and I had to check all my footwear for scorpions prior to sticking my feet in them.