# Tonight I am releasing three huntsman spiders in the lab **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211 "2007-07-26T12:03:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/1 "2007-07-26T12:03:25Z")
I acquired three huntsman spiders from a rare pet dealer in Somerville. They’re quite fearsome in person I must say. I figure I’ll put one in the bathroom behind the toilet, and I’ll try to coax the other to stay behind the clock in the main lab area. The IMHO part of this is me asking you guys, where would be a good place for the third? I figure the hallway is out, way too immediate and it would give away the whole trick before everyone even gets in the lab in the morning. Maybe a desk drawer? That would be a good “gotcha yah”. No one will ever forget my last day working there. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/2 "2007-07-26T12:19:46Z")
Do you have light fittings that you could get one into? Just think of the shadow it would cast! ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/3 "2007-07-26T12:23:26Z")
We do have overhead florescent lights, with covers. That’s a good idea. Maybe a room that normally has the lights off in the morning though. Wouldn’t want to give away the location too early. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/4 "2007-07-26T12:27:26Z")
how are you going to get them to stay where you put them? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/5 "2007-07-26T12:30:35Z")
How 'bout a link? I want to feel the fear from afar. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/6 "2007-07-26T12:30:41Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] how are you going to get them to stay where you put them? [/QUOTE] It is a well known fact that huntsmen spiders feel an affinity to clocks, so that one won’t move. The one in the bathroom is a wild card, maybe he’ll sneak under the toilet lid. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/7 "2007-07-26T12:31:44Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] How 'bout a link? I want to feel the fear from afar. [/QUOTE] I will post pics of the event after tomorrow morning. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/8 "2007-07-26T12:31:52Z")
[QUOTE=bigbabysweets2000] Maybe a room that normally has the lights off in the morning though. [/QUOTE] Could you get one to sit right beside the lightswitch so that whoever turns the lights on will realise just how close they came to actually touching it? ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/9 "2007-07-26T12:35:58Z")
[QUOTE=ScareyFaerie] Could you get one to sit right beside the lightswitch so that whoever turns the lights on will realise just how close they came to actually touching it? [/QUOTE] You’re evil. I like you. PS:[Here](http://www.fazed.org/content/clock_spider/) is my inspiration for the main lab clock spider. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/10 "2007-07-26T12:40:06Z")
[QUOTE=bigbabysweets2000] It is a well known fact that huntsmen spiders feel an affinity to clocks, so that one won’t move. [/QUOTE] Is this a joke? Did you actually purchase dead spiders that you’re going to put in different places, and I’m being totally whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/11 "2007-07-26T12:44:27Z")
[Huntsman spiders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider) I would not be happy to find one of these anywhere near me. I’d think it was a Tarantula. Especially the one behind the clock. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/12 "2007-07-26T13:04:15Z")
OMFG! I found one of those crawling across the floor in my hotel room in Orlando…it then crawled up into the couch/folding bed. I thought it might be a Wolf Spider, but seeing the body shape of the Huntsman, that’s what it must’ve been. It wasn’t all that big, though, maybe 3 inches across, including the legs. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/13 "2007-07-26T13:11:44Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] OMFG! I found one of those crawling across the floor in my hotel room in Orlando…it then crawled up into the couch/folding bed. I thought it might be a Wolf Spider, but seeing the body shape of the Huntsman, that’s what it must’ve been. It wasn’t all that big, though, maybe 3 inches across, including the legs. [/QUOTE] No, these ones are just under a foot long. (Okay, okay, one of them is just 8 inches. I’m considering using that as the one I suspend under the light to scamper around when one of my coworkers turns it on.) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/14 "2007-07-26T13:23:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Huntsman Spiders are found living under loose bark on trees, in crevices on rock walls and in logs, under rocks and slabs of bark on the ground, and on foliage. Dozens of the social huntsman species, Delena cancerides, can be seen sitting together under bark on dead trees and stumps (notably wattles) but they can also be found on the ground under rocks and bark slabs. Badge Huntsman Spiders are often found on foliage but some woodland species are burrow builders, with and without trapdoors. Huntsman spiders of many species sometimes enter houses. **They are also notorious for entering cars, and being found hiding behind sun visors or running across the dashboard.** Okay…just fucking kill me. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/15 "2007-07-26T13:49:07Z")
They’re also notorious for dropping onto your head, without warning and getting tangled in your hair.\* \*source:me ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/16 "2007-07-26T13:54:47Z")
I think they are cute. I was staying in a cabin recently and found one on the bathroom door. When I woke in the morning and had a shower I noticed he’d moved onto the shower curtain. I felt sad to leave my little buddy. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/17 "2007-07-26T14:10:26Z")
Hmmm thats odd. I just had to wrangle one of them back into it’s case I got him in with a newspaper and a fork. I could have sworn I had securely locked their boxes. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/18 "2007-07-26T14:35:20Z")
> [@Wikipedia](#): > > Members of the Huntsman family of spiders are very common in Australia, but also in many tropical and semi-tropical parts of the world. They have been introduced to many parts of the world, including China, Japan and southern parts of the United States, such as Florida and Puerto Rico. Reason #20847 I am glad I live in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/19 "2007-07-26T14:36:02Z")
May I just say that I would _kill_ you? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211/20 "2007-07-26T14:48:46Z")
Keep us informed on your mayhem. I salute you, nefarious sir. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonight-i-am-releasing-three-huntsman-spiders-in-the-lab/413211.md?page=2)