I don’t have anything in the background for size comparison, but this thing is the biggest I’ve seen. I realize their not dangerous to humans like a Brown Recluse and Black Widow, but these things look like demon spiders. Looks alone make them seem like the most dangerous spider around, but when add their size to the equation they look furious.

We have one on the back porch that the boys call Wanda. They throw grasshoppers in her web and watch the show.

GT8000

Whoa

Always called them Banana spiders, cool as heck especially when they get a big bug in their web.

I've always called them banana spiders........I have not idea why.
They are not poisonous but will still bite the chit outta ya. Used to get bit by them in the milo fields as a kid when it was my job to walk 100 acres and cut sunflowers down with a machete before harvest.

Good spider. Just like Charlotte the spider and some pig.

Mighty entertaining. We used to feed em so much they'd quit wrapping em up.

I heard they were called banana spiders because they were imported from S. America or some latin country, could be BS.

My parents had many on their back porch, for the grandkids to feed when they came to visit.

Have one on the master window now! Monster sized......Probably because my son loves catching and feeding it grasshoppers.

We called them corn spiders.

Was dove hunting last year and saw one with a web between two mesquite trees and a small bird trapped in the web. Guessing that spider called some friends over for a feast.

Funny...My Aunt had one she left alone for a long time, until one of "Her Baby Blue Birds" fell victim to the spiders web. Spider was dispatched soon after.

I used to pig hunt in Ferris and there seemed to be a healthy population of the spiders. The thing I loathed the most about night hunting was walking into a spider web. I was certain the web belong to one of this behemoth spiders and that I was about to die. When I walked into a web the fight for survival was on and it was the spider or me.

They are not so cool when you walk into them in the dark on the way to the stand in the morning. LOL

Truly gentle giants.

They are great to see which wasp killer Spray works best

Argiope aurantia - the Garden Spider

I saw my first between rows of cotton while dove hunting as a kid. They look bigger when you're little.
We call them zipper spiders & like to have them around the house to trap the bad bugs.

Everybody knows spiders have eight legs, but did you know this big spider has 48 knees?
Their egg sac is huge & they wrap their prey in an explosive blanket of silk. I can see why it's fun to throw grasshoppers in the web.

I new them as garden spiders. They were go to have around.

Yep, same here. As long as they stay outside (and I've never seen one in the house) we get along great.

I can remember doing this as a kid. Some of the bigger yellow grasshoppers put up a decent fight, but the spider wins in the end 90% of the time!!

Gardens, zipper spiders and orbs. Supposedly only live one season and those egg sacks have 400-1400 spiderlings! Spider web is a marvel of design.
They say if spider web was the diameter of a pencil it could stop a jumbo jet in mid flight!

They have caused me to use the kill switch more than a couple times when I un-[censored] the seat of a tractor after running into one.