What type of spider is this?

[ChickensXOXO]

Found in southeastern NC.
Picture taken at night in outside storage building.

 

[Godsgrl]

We call them wolf spiders around here. They don't spin a web, they actually go out and hunt for their prey-hence the name. I do believe they can bite, but it's not fatal. We frequently find them in and around our pool.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Appears to be a wolf spider but looks a bit different from the ones I get in northern VA. I would imagine there are different types of wolf spiders. They carry their young on their back and will look huge but - if you touch it - what looks to be 100's of babies will scatter! I've read they bite but haven't had one bite me or anyone in my family. The bite isn't known to be poisonous. No web, they're ground hunters. They seem to be curious little creatures as one was living in my house under my daughter's bed. She kept complaining about a big spider but I couldn't find it. Seems like it would come out to "play" on her bed when I'd turn off the light! Finally saw it one night on her pillow! YIKES! Had to bomb and then clean out the entire room to make sure they were gone.

Here's a pic of one from my garden last spring. You can see it looks a bit different from yours.

 

[chooks4life]

They make great pets. Spiders in general do. You'll have the odd one who thinks it can take you, despite you being an enormous mountain compared to it, but in general they very quickly tame to being hand fed. They're smarter than one might think. Some are stupid though.

I've rehabilitated wolf spiders before, i.e. looked after them and hand fed them until their legs grow back or whatever the issue is. They're very tidy and will collect the husks of their prey into a cute little graveyard to keep their cage clean. I've not been bitten by a pet spider yet. All of them were from the wild, not cage bred, though I did breed some for a while. Had issues with the mothers carrying an egg eating parasite, it was endemic and epidemic in that place, likely caused extinctions.

We used to get bitten doing cropwork though. There were pale whitetails by the millions in this one orchard, an each spider owned one orange it thought was its private planet. If you picked it, you'd get bitten. So we got bitten hundreds of times each day. We got so used to it so quickly we stopped reacting altogether and now I'd guess we're probably sensitized to their venom. They reckon you can fail to react thousands of times but your body is slowly and permanently losing its ability to cope with each bite.

But they're such beautiful little killing machines. Fascinating predators, jumping spiders might be my all time favorite.

 

[Godsgrl]

this guy was next to the latch on our pool gate one night. Beautiful of course, but kind of scary as well.

 

[b.hromada]

this guy was next to the latch on our pool gate one night. Beautiful of course, but kind of scary as well.

I agree with you. I believe in live and let live!! thanks for the pics everyone!

 

[annageckos]

I would guess it is some species of wolf spider, maybe a nursery web spider. But it looks a little big/thick to be a nursery web spider. There are many species of wolf spider though. All spiders have venom, but most are harmless to people. How big is that spider? It looks very large from the picture to me.

 

[theoldchick]

Spiders.us might be able to help.

 

[sourland]

Redhen is also a spider 'expert' - send her a PM or better yet send the spider to her in Mass.

 

[theoldchick]

That'll brighten her day!

Here's my current spider pet: