Don't worry about it, they're more afraid of you than you are of them - really! (Well, except maybe the centipedes)

LESM--
I have been to Maui and am so glad I didn't know about these spiders before I went--I have a huge phobia about spiders and am feeling sorry for you right now. I know just how you feel.
We didn't see any of these spiders and I bet most people don't while on a short vacation there. I just needed to tell you ....I understand...........

OMG...giant HISSING centipedes??? I hate centipedes...tiny ones. Give me the spider...Yikes! I may have to rethink Hawaii.

In 30+ years, I've never seen a cane spider, and have only seen dead centipedes a couple of times. My husband has only seen one or two- outdoors- in 55 years.

they're with the hitchhikers

Geez, people, read the thread....many of us who live here have never seen one.

lcuy,

I'll have you know the cane spider life altering experience happened to the hawaiiantraveler in Manoa Valley at the young and tender age of 9

your DH probably was probably surfing when the spiders were attacking, lol

lighten up, i was only kidding...

lcuy,

I'll have you know the cane spider life altering experience happened to the hawaiiantraveler in Manoa Valley at the young and tender age of 9

your DH probably was probably surfing when the spiders were attacking, lol

ask him if he remembers Joe Pao the controversial Manoa contractor of the early 60's

ON my first trip to Hawaii, years ago, a cane spider crawled up the wall from behind our TV. My brother and I just about had a heart attack. This was at the Royal Hawiian. We called the front desk and they sent someone up to dispatch the poor creature and we decided at that point we should keep the screens closed. Duh!!! Saw another one on the Big Island, climbing up some vines on the patio of a restaurant where we were having drinks. THAT time, it didn't bother me at all, I got another straw and asked it over to share my drink. I'll take a cane spider any day over a centipede ( I have NOT seen thank goodness) OR a roach.

Stayed at a retreat place on Maui and went out to the kitchen one night and turned on the light and "oh mamma", there were about eight huge roaches climbing the kitchen walls. Yuk, yuk. I can't kill them because I can't take the "crunch".

LOL. This is the funniest thread I've read in awhile.

Not so funny: the time I saw a centipede scurrying outside my door. For some reason, I thought they only used their rear pinchers to bite, so I stepped on it's rear end (wearing slippers) thinking it would render the little bugger harmless at that point and allow me to casually squish the front end.

Well surprise, surprise when it turns it's head and bites me on the toe. There I am, widely shaking my foot as the centipede hangs on for dear life. My roommates cracked up.

The only bug we encountered was in the dryer on the day we left--a huge roach--I was glad to be walking out the door and luckily I didn't fold it up in the clothes and take it home with me.
I can't believe these stories!

I hope tourism doesn't drop bc of this thread! Still, it's difficult to get past the images of hundreds of baby spiders spreading across a wall and a giant spider straddling hawaiiantraveler's poor face.

I've lived on Oahu 33 years, and I'VE NEVER SEEN A CANE SPIDER. Wdn't know what one looks like.

I've seen one centipede.

When I was a child a cockroach ran across my face while I was sleeping. I now have a phobia of cockroaches. Have been held hostage some nites of late by a B-52 that likes to climb to the top of the curio cabinet and contemplate whether to take off. It doesn't like Combat and I dread the thought of Hoy Hoy Trap-A-Roach.

But no cane spiders! And of course Hawaii has no snakes!

I must admit that I've only seen a cane spider once and I've been to Maui, Kauai and Oahu several time. I WISH I had taken a picture of it!

I was at the Haleakala parking near 7 Pools and Pipiwai Trail and went into one of the outdoor restrooms there. I had to wait in line and when I entered the stall I saw that spider sitting up in the corner of the ceiling! Needless to say I came right back out, warned the ppl in line and then used another stall (really had to go). I returned to tell my husband about it and he insisted on seeing it so we waited in line AGAIN and he wasn't believing me b/c several people went in there and didn't even notice! But when he finally went in there he couldn't believe it either. I guess we were so shocked that we didn't think about getting out the camera (after all - who uses them in a bathroom - LOL).

I know we Hawaii residents are kidding around; it's the tourists reading this and are goofy enough to think they should rethink their Hawaii trip that I'm worried about!

I think I've only seen a centipede twice in my whole life. Perhaps I'm sheltered?

don't worry mh, you're not sheltered. no cane spider, centipede or boeing kakaroach will stop tourism...

Mels and Mari,

I don't think we have to worry about tourism declining because of spiders.

Most everyplace else have spiders that would really make your skin crawl.

Aloha!

Hey, JohnD, that photo isn't what I thought the cane spiders were! What we've called Cane Spiders are Garden spiders, the ones with the long black legs and yellow backs that hang vertically in an X shape from bushes, they are everywhere.

I found a photo of one on Treknature.com, but for some reason I can't paste it in here, put garden spider in the search box and a good photo comes up.

Well, learned something new.

I can say that I've never ever seen THAT one in my life! HT, have you seen the photo that gigib has linked to? Maybe it's a portuguese spider.

Recently back from BI and Kauai. Had a roach problem in our BI rental (see trip report) and then saw two cane spiders outdoors (thanks goodness!) in Kauai. I was worried about the giant centipedes I had read about but didn't see one. Let me just say, no creatures could have ruined our trip!

The funniest thing was that after leaving the roach-infested rental, we did see one more roach (much smaller than in the rental-whew) in our new hotel room. My husband called the lady at the front desk, and she asked if it was a 747. He thought she was asking if it was one of the large ones, but she meant was it flying. I thought that was hilarious. Needless to say, that was the last roach we saw in Hawaii (though we saw about 25 in the 1st 2 days--eek!). Growing up in FL we thought we had large roaches, but the biggest one we've ever seen was in HI!

Maybe just leave the lights on when you go out at night so you aren't surprised when you get home