The Giant Spiders of Louisiana

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]When it comes to creepy crawies, none scare people quite like the spider, as the mere sight of one large spider crawling along can trigger a reaction of pure terror. But in the wilderness of Louisiana, man-sized spiders have been reported since the 1940s, and their existence may have been kept a secret for so long because the military wants to keep it that way. Welcome to Crypted Corner, the series all things crypteds.

[00:00:27]And today we are going to look into the giant spiders of Louisiana.

[00:00:34]Today's topic takes us down to Louisiana, specifically around the city of Leville, whose reports of large spiders have hit the desk of legendary cryptozoolologist Carl Schuker, who has covered these reports in detail on several of his blog posts that we will be using as our sources for today. Uh, I'll link them down below, so definitely make sure to give them a look on their own. They're definitely worth a read.

[00:00:58]And Carl Schuger is the goat. The first report of giant spiders in the Bayou State dates back to 1948 when William Sladen, his wife, and their three grandchildren were walking up Highway 171 on route to their church. But out of nowhere, they would spot a giant spider, which was described as hairy, black, and the size of a wash tub, which ran from one side of the road to the other, vanishing into the brush. And after this encounter, the Sladens would never travel 171 on foot to church ever again.

[00:01:36]The next sighting wouldn't take place until 2005 when a trainee would be sent to Fort Pulk just next to Leville. The trainee, who will be referred to as Sergeant S, would be tasked with escorting a fellow soldier in the wee hours of the morning, equipped with flashlights and rifles. And as she walked 10 to 15 ft or 3 to 4.5 m ahead of him, she would suddenly trip and let out a loud scream. Rushing to her aid, he noticed something hairy about a meter or two away, describing it as being a beige bristled creature, which s later referred to as animal 1A with a rectangular head equipped with two main eyes that were 2 in in diameter each with several smaller eyes across the face, fangs each 5 in in length, and long limbs raising two into the air in a defensive stance. According to Sergeant S. these four legs were raised 5 ft or nearly 2 m in the air. The two would open fire on the spider and although they only fired training blanks, the flash and noise from the shots were enough to scare off the creature retreating into the brush. S would cut the soldier free from what seemed to be a rope. And later there were long weblike strings which led to a halfmeter wide hole covered by leaves which were seemingly glued together with the same sticky substance. And also once the encounter was over their clothes had a strong ammoniaike odor which stunk for days. Matu would leave unharmed, but the other soldiers training would be put on hold for mental health concerns, and both her and Sergeant S were ridiculed and pressured to stay quiet on the incident, insisting that they were instead just attacked by a mangy dog.

[00:03:33]Shortly after this encounter, as S was getting changed and ready to take his clothes to the laundry, he and another trainee would encounter another large spider, which he refers to as animal 2A, who after being pelted with tobacco spit and hot coffee, would quickly yet clumsily make its escape, crashing into tents and ripping holes into the sides of them in the process. The next day, during a combat simulation, an opposition sniper would go missing with screams being heard in the woods prior to his disappearance. For the next few days, reports of the sounds of something walking on the roofs and odd sightings across the fort would persist. Flash forward to 2007 when Sergeant S would be sent back to Fort Pulk for training where he would have yet another series of sightings. During an afternoon run, a sergeant would complain to S about stepping on a sticky substance. And right after this, the two would spot what appeared to be a giant spider's face labeled animal 1B peeking from a pile of leaves. Although this time the spider appeared far larger with a brown coloration. The face would disappear quickly and the sergeant would write off the sighting as just an odd-looking squirrel and in a hurry the two would leave the scene in a truck. Although the sergeant would lose his shoe on the trail. Later, S and his platoon sergeant would go out on the trail to look for the shoe. And as they reached the same location that S had spotted the spider, something odd happened.

[00:05:13]Despite seeing no shoe on the path, the two would find the shoe behind them in the middle of the road, clear as day, as if it had just appeared out of nowhere.

[00:05:23]It was a white shoe on a dirt path, so it would be pretty hard to miss.

[00:05:28]Examining the shoe, they found that it was wet and seemingly had been chewed on by something. Believing this to be a prank, the platoon sergeant demanded that whoever be out there show themselves. But after a loud hissing sound could be heard from the leaves, the two took off running. Later that week, S was in the middle of a training exercise when he would spot an old friend and decided to go chat with him next to the house that he was positioned at. But a few minutes into their catchup, the friend would spot something on the wall behind him. Something so scary that it made him take off screaming. And as S turned around, he would see in great detail a ginormous spider clinging to the house wall, who S labels as animal 2B. The spider resembled a dark brown tarantula, but 6 f feet around with legs 2 in thick and 2 ft long. S would throw rocks at the spider, and like the first incident, the spider scured off. with this being the last time that Sergeant S had spotted these spiders. Years later, Sergeant S would send a series of emails to Carl Schuker in 2020 and 2021 for coverage on Shucker Nature. And two years later, Tucker would receive an email message from Rich Yanous, a friend of his who had a secondhand account of yet another giant spider incident in the Leville area. According to Rich, his brother-in-law, who was an MP for the Connecticut National Guard, was sent down to Fort Pulk during either 2011 or 2012. And while doing night vision training, he and his friend would spot a trash cansized spider crawling across the trail. Since then, no exceptionally giant spiders have been reported in the Leville area, leaving these arachnid encounters a mystery.

[00:07:25]So, what's the deal with these giant spider encounters? The state of Louisiana is known to be home to some pretty large spiders, such as the giant golden orb weaver, the Carolina wolf spider, and the Texas brown tarantula.

[00:07:40]But these reports of man-sized spiders blow these other ones out of the park.

[00:07:45]Given Sergeant S has the most detailed sightings, his will be a primary focus, and both him and Shucker have made their own observations and theories regarding these spiders. Sergeant S's observations indicate that these spiders are nocturnal ambush predators that utilize underground tunnel networks and spin tripwirelike webs similar to trapdo spiders. But unlike trapdoor spiders, he believes that these spiders are more willing to actually track down prey by tracking the scent of those that it couldn't capture, potentially even using pherommones to mark them with their webbing. The behavior with the shoe seems to also indicate that these spiders are highly intelligent, baiting people with discarded belongings. And given the size differences, S believes that these spiders were all probably the same species, but that animals 1 A and 1B were male and that animals 2 A and 2B were female, as female spiders tend to be larger. Disturbingly, Sergeant S also thinks that the military, specifically those in charge of Fort Pulk, decided to cover up the existence of these giant spiders to prevent panic or a delay in training. Chucker 2 believes that these spiders seem reminiscent in behavior to trap door spiders. And I also feel that these spiders are identical to the Jaba Fi, giant spiders said to inhabit the Congo basin who hunt prey in an identical way, laying web trip wires to capture large prey like antelopee and even people. And like the Jabahi, I have come to similar conclusions regarding their lost Louisiana relatives. As also mentioned in Chucker's blog post and in my own video about the Jabahi, a major factor limiting spiders from growing to extreme sizes is their respiratory systems. As spiders get their oxygen through trachea, which pump air through a series of holes throughout the spider's body, or via book lungs, which have plate-like structures resembling the pages of a book that fill with oxygen and allow for oxygen to reach hemolymph, which is spiders equivalent to blood. Both of these breathing systems can be found in large spider species, but as they are, they are both unable to properly support an organism as giant as these giant super spiders.

[00:10:12]But even outside of their respiratory issues, other complications such as metabolism, fragility, molting complications, and even stress would also be significant factors when it comes to spiders reaching absurd sizes.

[00:10:26]But with all that being said, there is a pretty interesting theory that could explain these creatures. Meet the coconut crab, the largest terrestrial arropod in the world, weighing up to 9 lb or 4.5 kilos, and a leg span of up to 3 feet. An entire meter of crab. Well, not a real crab, but an orthopod like a crab. Not a true crab, though. But what is most odd about them is that they are terrestrial and even aroreal and can even drown if they are submerged in water for too long. This is due to them essentially evolving lungs, thriving on land and climbing trees for food as their gills have become vestigial. But one limitation of their lungs is that they require a moist environment to survive. But this would not be an issue in the swamps of Louisiana. There are some pretty significant problems with this hypothesis, though, as coconut crabs are only found in the Pacific, which is pretty damn far from Louisiana.

[00:11:29]And also, the described creatures appeared and behaved nothing like coconut crabs. Not to mention that coconut crabs cannot spin webs. So, if these creatures are real, they would likely be some form of arropod that evolved to life in the bios of Louisiana, similar to how coconut crabs evolved to the islands of the Pacific.

[00:11:50]But given the reports of these creatures is so sparse and an area that is somewhat well populated, it's not likely that man-sized spiders are crawling around the Leville area. As Carl Shucker himself says, these are entirely anecdotal and are unsupported by physical evidence. And given we only have three accounts of these spiders with only one of them coming from an eyewitness, it all seems pretty fishy.

[00:12:18]Surely more people in the Leville area would have come forward out of concern for their safety if giant spiders were running around eating people. And regarding the military coverup angle, I find it pretty unlikely. Not only that the government, you know, it's not like the government wouldn't cover something up like giant spiders. We know they've done some messed up stuff in the past, but I don't feel like they'd be able to cover up the existence of these spiders.

[00:12:43]I mean, they just seem too large. And spiders produce a lot of young, so there'd be a ton of them running around.

[00:12:50]I just don't think, especially in the 2000s, that they could keep that a secret, or at least for a long period of time. We'd know about it eventually. One theory I had was that Sergeant S's encounters were all an elaborate prank from the other trainees at the fort.

[00:13:07]Most of the encounters were under the veil of darkness, meaning realistic props didn't have to be exact, and it would be easier for people to hide in nearby bushes. Pranks are pretty common in military culture and serve far more of a function than just being funny as they can build bonds and coordination skills between soldiers while also testing their targets alertness. The trainees at Fort Pulk were training to be soldiers at the end of the day. So, the ability to stay hidden while distracting someone wouldn't only be useful for pranks, but a skill that could fare extremely well on the battlefield. My biggest problem with this is that Sergeant S was sent to Fort Pulk on two separate occasions and two years apart, meaning it would be unlikely that the same people would still be there to prank him with the same giant spider bit all over again.

[00:14:00]Seeing how Sergeant S's account reads out perfectly as a story, it could also just be a hoax. But that's not a really fun conclusion, now is it?

[00:14:10]And so Louisiana is home to some giant spiders, but not those that are the size of wash tubs that are being covered up by the military. Ultimately, arachnids are limited by their own anatomy from reaching gargantuan sizes. But at the same time, evolution doesn't operate off of a set of written rules. Just look at the coconut crab crustaceian once bound to the sea who's evolved to live on land and even climb high into the trees. So if you find yourself in the bios of Louisiana, make sure to stay alert as danger can lie behind any corner and those corners can be big enough to hide giant spiders.

[00:14:54]And that's going to do it for the giant Louisiana spiders. This was a pretty interesting crypted encounter that I found as the Jabahi is a very popular crypted. It's one of the most popular crypted corners. It's always getting a ton of views. So, I'd figured that this would be pretty interesting. And I found this kind of through a rabbit hole. I found a little news article thing on it and that kind of spiraled into the the Shucker Nature posts, which definitely check those out. Carl Shucker's the goat of cryptozoolology. I saw that like even to this day he's still covering cryptids. He co recently he covered a giant scorpion encounter in Florida. And if you think that I'm not going to cover that at some point, you are out of your mind. That is so cool. So yeah, this was very interesting. And it's also weird how it's exactly like the Jaba Fi. Of course, if this is a hoax, uh, Sergeant Des could have just been regurgitating the tale of the Jabba Fia with a Louisiana twist. But, uh, what did you think about it? Do you think that there truly are dog or man-sized spiders running around Louisiana? Do you think it's all just BS? Do y'all or maybe do you think it's an elaborate prank? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below. I wanted to get this one out here sooner, but uh the the past week's been pretty busy, pretty jam-packed, and I figured just kind of chill and look into this during the down moments. But ultimately, this was a pretty interesting read. And I'd like to thank you all for watching. If you like this video, make sure to leave a like, leave a comment down below what you thought about it, and if you're able to, make sure to hype the video. Make sure to hype this video on up. Uh, if you like this content, make sure to subscribe and ring that notification bell for all the crypted goodness. And if you really, really like this content, consider becoming a member. For $3 a month, you gain early access to videos, priority recommendations, a spot here on the member shoutout section, and you are a real one. But if you made it this far into the video, you're a real one regardless. And for one last time, I'd like to thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.