No worries... I was privileged to see tarantulas migrate when I lived in Arizona. They're quite fascinating, from a distance.
I went looking, to see if I could find a picture of a black one on the web, and to confirm that they live in your state.
Remind me, next time you post about spiders, that they FREAK ME OUT!
Ngyaaah!
They don't live in your state. Tarantulas do not go east of the Mississippi River. In my little moment of research (before I ran shrieking), I found that there is a brand new, never before seen type of spider in your state. The picture in no way fit your description, however, and I'm not going to tell you what it looked like. Ngyaaah again.
I found two possibilities (though one (joke) website said there are 10,000 spider species, and all of those and at least two undiscovered ones live in NC).
1. The wolf spider, which is harmless to humans, and is similar to your description--but most of them have patterns. The only one I found without patterns was a juvenile, but it was more brown than black.
2. The brown recluse, which I never realized, but in low light looks black. It's VERY long legged and furry, no patterns. The picture I saw looked just like your description sounded.
If you think it might be a brown recluse, you might want to think about fumigation. They're poisonous, though you won't (according to a very helpful NC scientist) die from the bite.
I'm very sorry to add to your NGYAHHH. If it helps any, I'll be freaking out at every shadow for the next two days, at least.
in Arizona
I went looking, to see if I could find a picture of a black one on the web, and to confirm that they live in your state.
Remind me, next time you post about spiders, that they FREAK ME OUT!
Ngyaaah!
They don't live in your state. Tarantulas do not go east of the Mississippi River. In my little moment of research (before I ran shrieking), I found that there is a brand new, never before seen type of spider in your state. The picture in no way fit your description, however, and I'm not going to tell you what it looked like. Ngyaaah again.
I found two possibilities (though one (joke) website said there are 10,000 spider species, and all of those and at least two undiscovered ones live in NC).
1. The wolf spider, which is harmless to humans, and is similar to your description--but most of them have patterns. The only one I found without patterns was a juvenile, but it was more brown than black.
2. The brown recluse, which I never realized, but in low light looks black. It's VERY long legged and furry, no patterns. The picture I saw looked just like your description sounded.
If you think it might be a brown recluse, you might want to think about fumigation. They're poisonous, though you won't (according to a very helpful NC scientist) die from the bite.
I'm very sorry to add to your NGYAHHH. If it helps any, I'll be freaking out at every shadow for the next two days, at least.