Welcome back to another Halloween post! Now let’s get real here, spiders are quite bizarre. These eight legged creatures can arguably be determined as the original nightmare fuel of the personification of fear itself. Even if you’re not that terrified of these things, even your brave soul must admit that there is viable evidence here for why most are shaken up by the visual appearance of a spider. This list is our favorites in the spider world.

Black Widow

Let us start off this list with America’s most venomous spider. The Latrodectus (or widow) family member is a medium sized spider that is hairless with a jet black colored body. Its most iconic feature is its hourglass shaped symbol below its abdomen, although not all in the widow family have this feature. America’s black widow, also known as the “southern” black widow or even button-shoe spider, is a native and most likely exclusive specie to the country. These spiders have a large reputation of harming humans with their toxic bites, most primarily from the females of the species. But keep in mind that the amount of venom injected by fully adult black widows can vary, and that deaths from these bites are considered highly rare by today’s standards. Also this spider inspired the female Marvel hero of the same name so that’s also pretty cool.

Goliath Bird-eater

The bigger the scarier seems to be the mindset with spiders. This in reality actually doesn’t make much sense considering the largest arachnid species, the tarantulas, are generally harmless to humans to the point of even becoming a popular pet to own. But how about a spider that eats birds? The goliath bird-eating tarantula is perhaps the bulkiest arachnid known. While it gets its name for eating birds, the tarantula typically only eats hummingbirds and rarely eats adult sized fowl. This creature lives within the northern South America regions and is a nocturnal hunters. They have a defense mechanism which allows them to shoot their hairs at foes which causes great irritation to skin, which I guess makes this tarantula somewhat harmful to humans. Also, this is a special species in which the males don’t get eaten by the female after mating.

Banana Spider (weaver)

There are a number of spider species that claim the name of Banana spider, but we’re specifically talking about the ones also known as the golden orb-weavers. These spiders are popular for their golden coloring on their webs. To this day there are those who try to make clothing and fabrics from this spider’s silk such as textiles. Fisherman in the Indopacific ocean bundle these webs up into a ball, toss them into the water, and let the web spread out and catch fish like a net (no joke). And while their venom is similar to that of the black widow, the toxicity of it is only mildly potent and only causing blisters and redness. The female of the species is considering among the largest spiders on earth.

Spiny Orb Weaver

Yes, another “weaver” spider. These spiders, not to be confused with the crab spider, 30 millimeters by diameter from spine to spine. They are known to be brightly colored and there are even differences between males and females. Females have a shell that is ringed by six red or orange spines, whereas the smaller male lacks the spiny projections and instead has four to five stubby dark projections. Also, they are harmless to humans… generally.

Camel Spiders

This one is kind of a cheat, since camel spiders or the “solifugae” class of arachnid is more closely related to the scorpion family than the spider family. The biggest reason why it is on here is due to it’s similar capability to terrify people regardless of specie specification. Also known by the names wind scorpions or sun spiders, these creatures are the subject of many urban legends which exaggerate their size, attitude, and even the lethal venom of which they carry. It’s worth confirming that most of these exclamations are false. Although not dangerous in terms of venom, they can still persist a possible nasty bite with those large fangs. Also the fear and spooks given by these multi-legged critters through their myths and appeal still makes them truly unique and worth a look.

I hope whoever read this enjoyed this top five, tune in tomorrow at 1:00 pm for another Halloween related post!