Yeah, we have crazy spiders down south. Grove spiders, wood spiders, black widows, brown recluse spiders.My parents' house where I grew up was surrounded by 20 acres of woods and pasture and the wood spiders (I don't know any other name for them) were nightmare creatures. They were the size of your hand and carried the baby spider on their backs/legs so they looked like tarantulas to me. Nothing like taking a relaxing dip in the pool only to feel something touch your back and turn around to find this freaking octopus of a spider behind you...I levitated out of the deep end of the pool exactly once before I learned to check that whole pool for spiders for the rest of my life!!
And the first time I met my husband's extended family in Florida they took me on a tour of their citrus groves. Holy Cannoli!! Grove spiders are shiny plastic-looking Wood Spiders!!! I walked into a web and was face to face with one of those beasts and ran screaming back to the edge of the groves.