The Huntsman

Andy was hosing the car last week when the biggest spider we have ever seen in the wild raced out from the top of the car bonnet and sat looking at us. No matter how many times someone has said to us that the huntsman is a good spider and won’t hurt you, when you are looking at something as big, hairy and fast as what we were then it was difficult to feel any calm.

The following information is from a few websites I looked up following this event (thanks to http://www.termite.com/spiders/Huntsman-Spider.shtml and http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/spiders.htm to name a few) :

Huntsman spiders are a non-aggressive group of spiders. They are very timid and will try to avoid and when encountered can move at lighting-fast speed to escape human contact. The bite of Huntsman Spiders is of low risk to humans. However, a large individual can give a painful bite. Size - the size of an adult varies greatly around 15 mm in body length, and has long legs extending 160 mm outstretched top to bottom.

The ensuing drama, as we decided that the best plan would be to move the car down the drive and then try and knock the spider off the car (so it wouldn’t run straight into the house), must have been quite an entertaining few minutes for our neighbours. Andy decided that he would be best reversing the car and I could knock the spider off with a bit of coconut palm leaf (how gallant of him!). I managed to get it off on my second swipe and watched it hurtle along the road as Andy continued reversing and unknowingly ran right over it! We were actually sad that we had killed it as that wasn’t intended, and we felt it was enjoying watching us try and remove it. I just hope all his relatives don’t come looking for his killer with pitchforks and shovels…