Woolly Wolf Spiders

I guess I've got Georgia on the brain this week because I have been thinking about the big wolf spiders that hung around the lab where I worked.  We kept the doors to the outside cage area open for the bonobos, so we had a lot of 'visitors', including wolf spiders.  Whenever one got inside, I'd get a big glass, capture them and then take them back outside. Our receptionist, Charlene, hated the things and she would yell, 'Carolyn, come get this spider.' whenever one would get in her area.  So I would oblige.

Source: spiderzrule.com

Wolf spiders are hairy like tarantulas and catch their prey by hunting rather than by a web.  They have 8 eyes, and got the name wolf spider because it was originally believed they actually hunted in packs like wolves.

Source: spiderzrule.com

The momma spider carries both her eggs and her kids on her back, and I was always afraid there would be little spiders everywhere if they scattered while I was trying to catch momma.  But that never happened.  Plus I don't know that I ever noticed babies on the back of any of the spiders I caught.

A lot of people hate spiders, but I don't mind them so much.  Even though there was a wooded area just outside my front door in the apartment complex where I lived, I never saw any wolf spiders there.  I might have felt differently about them if I'd ever found one in my bed!