So yesterday was borderline spectacular

[TerryMiller]

 

[Bocephus123]

Yep that's it!

 

[Johnny]

Why do you guys freak out when running into spider webs? It’s not like there is a radioactive spider going to bite you. Or you would get some flesh eating disease. Or even the web itself in no way can really cause you injury. Now all the jumping and dancing around in the dark in the woods may hurt you. But the spider and it’s insect trap can’t.

 

[turkeyrun]

They can turn you into a mall ninja, walking through a web in the dark.

 

[DRC458]

I do not like spiders at all, but most of them get a pass from me. Since I have learned what those orb weavers are they always get a pass. Love watching them. We've had one showing up the last couple of years in all the basil we have on the north side of our house. I try to be careful when I'm watering that I don't knock it out of the web. Even the wife is coming around about spiders and snakes ... to some extent.

 

[HoLeChit]

Could be worse, two guys I have hunted with have screamed when almost stepping on snakes, in the middle of a hunt.

I personally love those orb weaver spiders. Super cool. I love feeding them, and then if theyre hungry, you just sit real quiet and listen, sometimes you can hear a "crunch" when they shove their fangs into the grasshopper. Super cool.

 

[OKRuss]

Could be worse, two guys I have hunted with have screamed when almost stepping on snakes, in the middle of a hunt.

And, what's wrong with that? I could be in the middle of a spot/stalk with my bow on a huge buck and would scream like a girl and start flinging arrows...at the snake! I'm carrying my .38 anywhere I go on the property now especially when walking through oak trees with 6" of leaf litter on the ground.

 

[Bocephus123]

snake chaps and boots keep on truckin

 

[tynyphil]

And, what's wrong with that? I could be in the middle of a spot/stalk with my bow on a huge buck and would scream like a girl and start flinging arrows...at the snake! I'm carrying my .38 anywhere I go on the property now especially when walking through oak trees with 6" of leaf litter on the ground.

Yep. If i plan to get off the cleared ATV trail I have on my snake boots. I have snake gators available for visitors. Too many Pygmy rattlers and cottonmouths have been seen. Not telling how many there are that haven’t been seen.

 

[leemozoid]

But this goes to show how quickly your world can be turned upside down.
I was out in the woods putting out corn and strapping a camera to a tree.
I was holding the short camera strap and reached around the tree to grab the other one that was dangling in the weeds.
I pulled it around and this is what I had.






View attachment 413894
A gargantuan spider (I've always liked that word... 'gargantuan'... so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence).
I believe it is both venomous and poisonous. And maybe radioactive.
My first thought, of course, was to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit, but I realized I had something even better.

View attachment 413896

Harmless Orb Weaver.