Lycosae catching-Help needed

[The Snark]

I am seeking suggestions, tricks or techniques, for catching the larger lycos I have around here.

Problem: I am a clutz. Two days ago I found a beautiful specimen in the kitchen sink. I tried to catch it bare handed and ended up mashing it. Thus I was hoping someone has some tricks to teach this old dog.

The catching problem is exacerbated by our lycos being huge, often 4 to 6 inch leg span, extremely fast, capable of jumping 2 or 3 inches into the air as they run, and when caught by a leg will throw itself about so violently it will tear the leg off. They will also, when held, occasionally try to bite. With the chelicerae over 1/8 inch long and up to 1/2 inch spread, they can tag flat surfaces. The bite gives me a nasty localized itching burning and a very itchy rash that can last for a couple of weeks.

Why catch? We have relatives that, when they visit, casually mash any critters they see around the house. No amount of cajoling or admonishing on my part will stop them.

Suggestions please!!?? (Aside from banning or doing in all my outlaws)

 

[crpy]

A 6 inch fish net=perfect

Net the spider and make the spider run into the large area of the net and hold a stick or dowel over the net frame so the spider cant run back out of the net and "viola" there you go. I do this for catching huntsmans

 

[The Snark]

I'm off to the local aquarium supply store! Thanks!

 

[traxfish]

I always used a cup or some sort of container large enough for the spider, and something that could cover the top of the cup, like an evelope or a piece of paper. Herd the spider into the cup with the paper, or trap the spider by placing the cup over it and slide the cup over the paper, then flip the cup over. After that, the spider can't escape, as most spiders can't climb the glass.

 

[The Snark]

I always used a cup or some sort of container large enough for the spider, and something that could cover the top of the cup, like an evelope or a piece of paper. Herd the spider into the cup with the paper, or trap the spider by placing the cup over it and slide the cup over the paper, then flip the cup over. After that, the spider can't escape, as most spiders can't climb the glass.

These kids have up to a 6 inch leg span and take off running when you get within a couple of feet of them, and they run fast!
I just spent 5 minutes trying to call the wife to get me my new net with the darned pidey sitting on my foot. It saw her coming 5 feet off and zapped into another room.

 

[Techuser]

Are you sure you are dealing with lycosids?
Take a ruler and see what are 6 inches, that is about the size of most tarantulas

 

[The Snark]

Are you sure you are dealing with lycosids?
Take a ruler and see what are 6 inches, that is about the size of most tarantulas

Yups, Lyco's. They have 'those eyes'.
The one I mushed in the sink had a body about 25 mm long and 18 mm across the head. The largest body I have ever seen in one of these. (I still feel bad about that)
This one's leg span is a bit over 5 inches by guesstimation. It jumped from the roof of the jeep over to that wall. A leap of 2 1/2 feet.

This bucket is 16 inches across at the top making this pidey about a 4 inch leg span. Not very large but she posed so sweetly. Usually the closest you can get to these is about 3 feet before they run. Their eyesight is very acute. I took this shot with a zoom from about 10 feet. When I tried to get closer she ran around to the other side of the bucket.

 

[The Snark]

And nope. Net's no good. They see me coming a mile away. Am trying the net on a bamboo pole next. Maybe I'll experiment camouflaging it.

 

[Tarantula_Hawk]

nice guys u got there... but i doubt they are lycosids.... they look a lot more like huntsman.

 

[ErikWestblom]

Indeed, that's a sparassid.

 

[MaartenSFS]

Indeed.. The Huntsman over here are exactly the same. You are lucky to live in Thailand, though. There is a wealth of wildlife there. I have to go really far to find the really cool stuff, but I can find these, along with geckoes and other smaller animals here in my neighbourhood, if I look hard enough. What do you do, if I may ask? I've been thinking about moving South, but I don't know what I'd do. At the moment I'm working on an adventure tourism website.

About capturing them, I once used a broom in my wife's parents outhouse/shed to coax a massive one out. They get even bigger than what you're seeing, trust me... And they are fast. Good luck!

 

[The Snark]

I was initially adamant these were sparassids. We packed off three specimens to the local university. The professor took one glance and pronounced sparassids. Then a student looked closely and brought the eyes to the attention of the prof. Definitely Lyco. I still swear I am looking at Huntsman sometimes but the ones I have examined all have the stargazer eyes and always turn, rather than run laterally. They also have hardly any or no scopula.
This is one of the reasons I would like to catch more. I'm wondering if there is a mix of Huntsmans and Wolfies. Some definitely have decidedly different body shapes.

Here's one that just posed. About 4 inch leg span.

 

[The Snark]

Indeed.. The Huntsman over here are exactly the same. You are lucky to live in Thailand, though. There is a wealth of wildlife there. I have to go really far to find the really cool stuff, but I can find these, along with geckoes and other smaller animals here in my neighbourhood, if I look hard enough. What do you do, if I may ask? I've been thinking about moving South, but I don't know what I'd do. At the moment I'm working on an adventure tourism website.

About capturing them, I once used a broom in my wife's parents outhouse/shed to coax a massive one out. They get even bigger than what you're seeing, trust me... And they are fast. Good luck!

I've used our locally made feathery brooms to capture these sometimes. They have to be laconic usually. I've encountered a couple of S. China Huntsman.

Possibly the ULTIMATE DUMBEST messes I have ever seen. Up at the Burma border someone pointed out a pidey in the back of a truck that I estimated to be near 8 inch leg span. I think it was a Huntsman. I was really determined to catch it, even if I accidentally mushed it. Someone grabbed my shirt and pulled me off to the side. A moment later a grinning border guard shoots the pidey with an M16, also punching a hole in the truck. The moron practically fired over my shoulder! Him and the rest of his buddies had a good laugh at the truck owner objecting to his truck being used for target practice.

I live in a second growth rain forest, next to a river. What isn't undisturbed habitat is rice paddies. It's a naturalists heaven! I'm also lucky to have a Hmong wife who was raised in the jungle and has no qualms about having critters running all over the place. She still refuses to let me have a kwai though.

Hey MaartenSFS, if you get a chance, could you have a look at the eyes of your Huntsman? Maybe even a photo? I don't have a macro for my camera.

 

[MaartenSFS]

I live in a second growth rain forest, next to a river. What isn't undisturbed habitat is rice paddies. It's a naturalists heaven! I'm also lucky to have a Hmong wife who was raised in the jungle and has no qualms about having critters running all over the place. She still refuses to let me have a kwai though.

Hey MaartenSFS, if you get a chance, could you have a look at the eyes of your Huntsman? Maybe even a photo? I don't have a macro for my camera.

Were the guards Burmese or Thai? Either way, they are uneducated pigs.

My wife is a minority, as well. It was in her hometown (Further south) that I have seen the biggest and more colourful specimens. I'll see what I can find here, though. She is only afraid of one thing; ze MAO MAO CHONG!!! (Hairy hairy worm) What is a kwai?

I'll try to make a photo when I catch one. It's highly inconsistent around here. The rainforest is a ways off and I live in apartment complex, so they aren't as easy to happen upon as you. I wish I could live closer but there is no employment there..

 

[crpy]

These are Sparassids for sure.
Wow, you need a three foot fishing net.
I guess I cant expect everyone to be a MASTER spider catcher like me.....jk;P

These all appear to be males btw

 

[The Snark]

Maarten. Burmese, though the Thai's aren't much better. All psycho IMHO.
Most rurals are scared sh*tless of caterpillars. It seems many of them have venemous hairs. Kids are always bumping into them and getting a major rash for weeks.
Kwai: water buffalo. (A cross between a giant pig and a Caterpillar tractor)

And now I am back to thinking these are Huntsman, but the eyes and leg hair is wrong. I'm not fully inclined to trust the local experts here in this. Anybody know an easy sure fire way of telling if these are Huntsman or Lycos?

 

[MaartenSFS]

Maarten. Burmese, though the Thai's aren't much better. All psycho IMHO.
Most rurals are scared sh*tless of caterpillars. It seems many of them have venemous hairs. Kids are always bumping into them and getting a major rash for weeks.
Kwai: water buffalo. (A cross between a giant pig and a Caterpillar tractor)

And now I am back to thinking these are Huntsman, but the eyes and leg hair is wrong. I'm not fully inclined to trust the local experts here in this. Anybody know an easy sure fire way of telling if these are Huntsman or Lycos?

I wouldn't trust them either, as the ones here make up new species when they have been described and named accross the border.

Your spider looks like a Huntsman because of the crab-like legs. It looks like a variant of the ones here, which an Australian pointed out as being Huntsman and seeing similar ones in his house back home. There are many types of Huntsman and many have yet to be described.

O, why would you want a waterbuffalo (Shuiniu in Chinese)? My wife's family doesn't own them anymore. Her father is a blacksmith, anyways.

As far as I know this irrational fear of catterpillars is not based in reality (At least over here). I have seen women screaming like lunatics (Mostly city people) and going out of their way to kill them, even if I explain that many of them will turn into beautiful butterflies. Idiots.. :evil: They also say that moths dust you when you sleep with some checmicals and you will die. And there are supposedly demons in the caves I have been in and out of..

 

[The Snark]

I've seen the exact same (semi rational) fear of the caterpillars here. Very similar to mid west American housewife attitude towards pideys. I guess the kids pass these fears along. It certainly supports the psychologists that point out it only takes one encounter during our impressionable formative years of an authority figure going freak at something for our minds to be branded for life.

I want a kwai just because they are so impossibly filthy. Mechanics wise they are also fascinating being, by far, the most powerful mammal in the world, pound for pound. One estimate I heard being up to 20 times the strength of a horse. They also look so darned cute out lying in a mud wallow. I live to see tourists spot a kwai in mud and go over to pet it or look closer, only to discover that tail flings pee and poo soup in a 20 foot radius every few seconds. :clap:

Over in eastern Thaiville at a small village I visited there is an enormous elderly kwai, retired and living in a field next to a temple. He is exceptionally stinky. Every day starts with the monks getting up at 04:30 and one of them moving the kwai to the opposite side of the field next to the village. Then in the evening when the monks have gone to the chant, the villagers sneak the kwai back over to the temple side. Next day, repeat. I was told this has been going on for 40 years.

As I mentioned, I assumed these pideys were huntsman until the eyes 'confirmed' lyco. Well, they do have lyco eyes and the lack of 'leg warmer' fur. I am now hopelessly confused.

What do you do, if I may ask?

I'm a retired (disabled) paramedic, engineer and semi-pro lazy slob.

 

[MaartenSFS]

I've seen the exact same (semi rational) fear of the caterpillars here. Very similar to mid west American housewife attitude towards pideys. I guess the kids pass these fears along. It certainly supports the psychologists that point out it only takes one encounter during our impressionable formative years of an authority figure going freak at something for our minds to be branded for life.

I want a kwai just because they are so impossibly filthy. Mechanics wise they are also fascinating being, by far, the most powerful mammal in the world, pound for pound. One estimate I heard being up to 20 times the strength of a horse. They also look so darned cute out lying in a mud wallow. I live to see tourists spot a kwai in mud and go over to pet it or look closer, only to discover that tail flings pee and poo soup in a 20 foot radius every few seconds. :clap:

Over in eastern Thaiville at a small village I visited there is an enormous elderly kwai, retired and living in a field next to a temple. He is exceptionally stinky. Every day starts with the monks getting up at 04:30 and one of them moving the kwai to the opposite side of the field next to the village. Then in the evening when the monks have gone to the chant, the villagers sneak the kwai back over to the temple side. Next day, repeat. I was told this has been going on for 40 years.

As I mentioned, I assumed these pideys were huntsman until the eyes 'confirmed' lyco. Well, they do have lyco eyes and the lack of 'leg warmer' fur. I am now hopelessly confused.


I'm a retired (disabled) paramedic, engineer and semi-pro lazy slob.

Damn, the retired people always have the best expat life. I would retire too, but I'm only 22.. Anyways, it sounds like you deserve it. I'll have to figure out something slightly more tangible for someone in my situation.

Waterbuffalo are indeed fowl creatures. The quality of the mud they choose to bathe in is disturbing. Much more so than catterpillars. Until proven otherwise I'm going to logically rule it out as bull. When venomous snakes (I have seen cobras), centipedes, and scorpions don't phase a local, but they run at the sight of a cute furry catterpillar something up there just isn't right. :?

 

[The Snark]

I once was stomping the forest at the exactly right time of year. Every bush and shrub was laden with large light blue-white caterpillars. I had been duly warned about these, and had seen and even treated a couple of brushes with them; massive rashes loaded with edema that promote all sorts of opportunity infectors such as staph. Permanent scarring is not unusual. The appropriate method of walking through the forest was to hire a local kid or two to swat at the foliage with sticks and knock the caterpillars out of the way.

Water buffalo's make their own mud.