Not quite gardening but he must have come inside from the garden. I woke up this morning to see this very large spider above my head on the ceiling! I’m generally not scared of spiders. They leave me alone and I stay away from them so I have a fairly healthy relationship with them. But this is just a bit too much for me … and frankly, I’m terrified of this guy (or gal?). The spider is about 15 cm in length and has been sitting in the same spot since I woke up this morning. Unfortunately my camera and macro lens “went away for the weekend”, so this is the best shot I can get until my camera comes home this afternoon, hopefully with some muscle to help me get rid of this spider. Well … not rid of it but moved to a more acceptable (to me) location!
Does anyone have any idea what kind of spider this is? I’ve spent the better part of two hours trying to ID it via info on the internet. The best I can come up with is that it is a common house spider, baboon spider or huntsman spider, all of which are apparantly not dangerous to humans.
We had quite a storm here last night. The garden is a mess this morning with branches and debris everywhere, so I’m guessing she was somehow forced inside by the wind or dislodged from her web. To me the spider looks black, but from the photographs it appears to be a dark brown, not black at all. You can click on the photos to see the enlargement.