Gah. I… dislike spiders. Not really, actually - I mostly don’t mind them, but huge huntsmen spiders I am not fond of. That is why I am a little bit displeased that I have had no less than three in my house since last night. And now it’s 1am and I just went from ‘about to fall asleep’ to ‘wide awake and fully dressed’ in about four seconds because the bastard was lurking on the ceiling near my face when I happened to open my eyes.
Fuck. Make that four since last night. Maybe I’ll just stay awake all night. Or I dunno… sleep in the shower with the water running. God damn it.
To make this a slightly less content-free post, I hereby link to a short film that presents an authentic view of what it’s like living in the country in Australia in hot weather. Spider on the Ceiling
Huntsman spiders are not dangerous to humans. They aren’t even very likely to bite, apparently, and are more interesting for how they keep the roach population in check. They can get to about a foot wide counting the legs, though.
I had another in my house last night. With children. Argh!
I scooted the big guy (girl, probably) outside this morning, but it just made a beeline for the grille under the house so will probably be back, soon enough.
I think this fucked up weather is what’s causing them to enter. They’re confused by the unseasonal rain.
This video is a great summary of how i remember huntsman spiders.
They will often scare the crap out of you when you’re in a car, and when you walk into a room where there’s one on the wall or ceiling, but they’re basically harmless and do a good job of keeping down the insect population.
It’s certainly true what the video ways about them being a menace in cars, though. On more than one occasion when i lived in Australia, i’d be driving along and a huge huntsman would suddenly run across the windshield, or appear on the ceiling of the car. Even if you know they’re not going to hurt you, their sudden appearance can still startle you enough to be a danger to your driving.
It’s true. The only real danger they pose is having them suddenly go on me and causing me to freak out in an undignified manner (I know this is a real risk because it’s happened before).
Although I suspect some of the larger ones could still hurt you without being poisonous on account of their raw physical strength.
I know a few people who’ve been bitten, including my mother (failed to check her boots one morning, and got bitten when she inserted her foot), and in each case they said the bite itself was a pretty sharp pain, and that it left some redness, swelling and soreness for a day or two after. No danger to health or life, though.
I’ve had a heap this summer as well. They freak me out, but even more fun is when I take pictures and put them on my Facebook to freak out my American relatives. HAH!
I have three cats. We have quite the Dismembered Huntsman Leg Collection going on in a kitchen corner. The one kitty likes to keep them there and gets upset when I move them, so I leave it for a bit and clean them out every fortnight or so.
My husband (the native Aussie) is severly arachnophobic. One day he came home to a massive huntsman on the screen door. He called an exterminator because he couldn’t get it the house. They laughed at him. I found him sitting forlornly on the curb, waiting for me to come home. :(
No, I mean nearly twelve red-blooded American inches, which is the maximum legspan for an adult male huntsman spider, which is apparently the larger of the genders (isn’t this unusual for spiders?).
Ok Derleth, you DID give fair warning along with your link but I don’t think it was enough. I’m afraid my family will be sending you a bill for my upcoming euthanasia.
This links to a picture of the fangs and mouthparts of said spider. Very close-up. Very big. The Wikipedia page has a more representative image of a female in a threat posture. The Sydney funnel web spider can get up to three inches long; it doesn’t look like it has especially long legs. As for the risk associated with these things, it can bite and envenomate you with a nerve toxin, and they’re known to bite (and envenomate) repeatedly, but there have been no reported fatalities since the introduction of the antivenom in 1980.
Finally, as another reason you might want to stay away from Oz: (I’m pretty sure we’ve posted this before, but what the Hell.) This has a picture of a golden silk orb-weaver eating a bird. They usually don’t eat birds, but they can, and I’m sure that will help us all sleep better tonight.
I can tell you from personal experience it is possible to drown one in bug spray and render them utterly helpless. I hear that screaming like a little girl is optional, but I do it anyway, just because it seems to be The Thing To Do At The Time.
