In Japan, the huntsman spider is cherished by the people for their amazing ability to eradicate cockroaches in the house. So much so that we've given them the nickname Gunsou (軍曹) - which means "sergeant" - out of respect. Everybody will kill a bug without second thought, but will try their best not to harm a huntsman spider unless they really REALLY hate bugs. Some of us will actually salute when we spot one in the house. Many Japanese people consider spiders as benevolent creatures because when we are in Elementary school, we read a story about a criminal saving the life of a spider, and when the criminal died and his soul was falling down to Hell, the spider that he had saved cast a web down for the criminal to climb up. So from childhood we have a good image towards spiders.
What I've observed over the years from these Australian videos of huntsman spiders, it seems the ones in Australia are much more active but chill when being hunted by humans. The ones in Japan are very stationary, but extremely speedy once threatened. I know that they are not the same species, but it fascinates me.
@@MIZZKIE thank you Mizzkie, for sharing your experience with spiders in Japan! I’m in the US Pacific Northwest. I have a huge fear of spiders but funny enough I don’t fear our harvestman which looks just like a spider though it doesn’t make silk. It has 8 long legs, a gray pea sized body and they are abundant in around our yards and climbing up the sides of our houses and garages outside in the summer and fall. (They actually aren’t considered spiders but opiliones) anyway, they don’t scare me because i remember when I was 3 my dad sat on the front porch step with me and I saw one of these and was scared but he said “you don’t have to be afraid of those, they are called “Daddy Long Legs” . And ever since then I just saw them as a harmless old daddy long legs. It looks like a spider though but because he gave it a cute name, in my young mind I inferred that to mean it wasn’t a spider and was harmless. So that just goes to show how what we both learned as children colored our views and opinions of things in our environment.
Coincidentally, I am working on a picture of a jorōgumo as I watch this video and read your comment. It's interesting to hear about more positive views about Japanese spiders!
ive recently become disabled and a huntsman moved in a couple of days ago. it dawned on me at that point ive lost my ability to relocate huntsmans and would now have to adopt a room mate position with them if i was unwilling to kill them. this video was both reassuring and horrifying.
Australian here. I was hospitalized by a huntsman a few years ago, it bit me on the chest while I was sleeping. While huntsmen aren't venomous, bacteria from their previous meals can build up on their fangs and be transferred to their next victim, which just happened to be me.
I have a huntsman living in my house now. In fact I never remove huntsmen from my home if they make their way in. Bad luck what happened to you, is all.
@@margyb7469 Luck has nothing to do with it. Yes huntsman aren't generally considered dangerous or aggressive, but that isn't universal. They can be dangerous and aggressive, and to dismiss that as bad luck is folly. There is not a single species of animal where every single member behaves the exact same way.
I'll never forget my first encounter with a huntsman -- which was also my dad's quite unfortunate first encounter, lol. We're from the UK and moved here when I was in primary school. We were heading to the car so he could take me to the GP and saw this massive huntsman just chilling on the roof of the car, getting a bit of sun, lol. My dad's always been a hippie and none of us will kill or harm a spider unless we truly have no safe alternative. So he was thinking, "Oh cool, my first huntsman! Everyone says they're super timid, so..." And he banged his fist on the roof near it to scare it off. Unfortunately, no one told him they could jump -- and instead of fleeing, this one jumped directly at his face, lol. I watched it scramble over his bald head with incredible speed, jump off him and scurry away into the bushes -- and naturally, laughed my butt off 😂
It does not help that Aussies put the fear of God into us for the lolz, being hyperbolic about how dangerous this country is. I’ve lived here for 15+ years now and have not died even once.
Years ago at work I felt something tickle my upper left arm. I glance at my arm, only to see a Huntsmen sitting there. So, I walked up to some workmates and said" How do you like my new spider tattoo, it's very realistic!" They just laughed, and I went outside and leaned my arm on a tree. The spider crawled off onto the tree, and I went back to work.
very apt - - ima happy for my home to be shared with a huntsman about three inches across - - i wouldn't kill her because she's just a small animal she keeps the roaches down and has started a family of two or three - ! -
Another good one. When moving huntsmen or even wolfies, I'm always afraid that the glass I'm using will hurt one of their legs, because they move so fast.
Plus one for the takeaway container. Some cardboard packaging from the recycling is great to slide under it. (Glossy side under the spider, so you can flick it away.)
The way huntsmans move is what gets me the most... the complete stillness, then sudden weird lightning speed galloping 😬 I can't even do the plastic box catch thing cos I have trouble looking at them that close. Once I found one in my bedroom and managed to get it on the end of a broom, then ran with it downstairs and chucked the entire broom out the back door
When Steven Spielberg was producing the movie Arachnophobia , they decided to use huntsman spiders (Flat Huntsman) that have established themselves in New Zealand and are known as Avondale spiders , after the Auckland suburb they first arrived at. they came in in a shipment of Australian tree bark destined for a local leather tannery. Avondale has a giant spider statue in the main shopping area. "Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters said in Popular Mechanics that Arachnophobia was one of the first films on which he worked, and he often relied on simple magnets for effects. The film used over 300 Avondale spiders from New Zealand, chosen for their large size, unusually social lifestyle, and harmlessness to humans; they were guided around the set by heat and cold. " -wikipedia My sister worked at a local scientific and industrial research center (DSIR) that bred the spiders for the movie , she raised crickets for them to eat.
One of the things I noticed when I was growing up is that the only scary spider was the fake one that screeched. Huntsmans were just a fact of life down here lol
@@PaulG.x I’m so glad I never saw that movie! You couldn’t have paid me enough to work on that set. Did the actors have to let the spiders crawl on them?”
They’re protected in my house. Sometimes I’m asked to take it outside. Often they hang around for a week or days and then leave. We had a mum lay babies. They looked smaller (tiny), very light brown and cute. They started all together, next day they had spread across the room and by the end of the week you’d see maybe one or two.
Wall puppies! ❤ The more other people are afraid of spiders, the more I love them. A garden covered in orb weavers and a few large huntsman on the walls are often far more effective at deterring intruders than a guard dog.
@natp3408 We haven't sprayed our house in 20 years. We leave internal pest control to the spiders and geckos, and outside it's them and the other lizards, frogs, and my large collection of carnivorous plants.
@@grandmothergoose wall puppies? Well, they’re certainly the size of puppies! I live in the Pacific Northwest of US and I reflexively look at all the walls, corners and ceilings of every room I enter because I seem to actually attract spiders. Darned if I know why. invariably especially in the fall ( which is spider mating season for our spiders ) two that like to come in our houses are the European House spiders which can get up to 4 inches across including legs or the hobo spiders and the males of those two love to enter our homes between the end of August and into October where they are looking for females who like to lay their eggs inside where it’s warm. They would freeze if laid outside which is quite fine with me. Anyway, twice in the last two weeks I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to see a 4 incher clinging to the wall up by the ceiling above my bed. I then get out my vacuum cleaner with a long hose attachment and carefully suck that nightmare up. Then I plug the end of the hose just in case he was extra tough and survived the process so he can’t crawl back out. That’s how paranoid and scared I am of spiders in my house.
Apparently white tailed spiders are now considered to be as harmless as huntsmen. There are no confirmed white tailed spider bites that have ever caused any major issue, nor is there any reason to believe that their venom could be capable of doing much damage. There was a big study tracking over 130 confirmed bites and they were all relatively minor.
@@wormalism I have been bitten by a white tail spider and I can assure you they hurt like you have been burned, and the bite site goes all black and necrosed. Mine was about the size of a 20-50c coin. No other symptoms like headache, but the burning localised pain after the bite and black blister that took about 2 months to heal (scar remains)
It's the bacteria on the white tails fangs rather than the venom that causes the problems,so I have heard,how bad the bite is depends on what it was eating before it bit you.
Yesterday, my mate discovered a huntsman spider sitting on a large leaf of an aquatic plant that stretches out of the water and hangs over the the small aquarium in his living room. It had one leg dipped in the water, ‘fishing’ - trying to lure and catch the little fresh water minnows in the tank. My mate told me that the spider had been sitting quietly high up on an adjacent wall for two days ‘casing the joint’ - staring at the fish tank and studying it. The fish are safe for the moment; the spider has been relocated to more suitable premises in the garden outside near the back patio.
A friend of mine lived in Kurrajong and would drive his old (nobody wants to steal it) ute down to Richmond railway to go to work. He flipped his visor down as the sun was rising and had that aircraft experience driving down the notoriously steep, winding Bell's Line of Road in traffic. Once he sorted it out, he looked in the rear view to find the guy driving behind him laughing his ass off. He had us all in tears recounting the story with Italian flair.
@@shereejones5965 Yeah, unless I feel like the spider is out to get me, i catch and release. lol I had one no matter where I moved it threateningly advanced on me, so I had to kill it 😭
A few years ago I was scrolling through a set of photos from around the world of different types of spiders. When, suddenly, one of the images was of a Huntsman spider and instantly I dropped my phone. Even though I was born and have lived in Australia all my life, there is something particularly creepy about Huntsman spiders.
I had my laptop on my bed one night and laid my head down to watch some TH-cam. I opened up the laptop and there was a massive female huntsman right in the middle of the screen 10inches from my face. Keep in mind I had all the lights off except the laptop screen lighting up. At first I thought it was a paused video until it moved a leg. Also had another on climb up my windscreen inside the car and I nearly crashed lol
We imported these to Japan since they are so good at hunting cockroaches. I get in my head spiders tend to be helpful but huge insects that move fast and unpredictably are just terrifying…
I've turfed out my share of big huntsmen. One time I used the plastic tub trick, and got it in one - you must never hesitate. But then I lifted one edge to slip in a manilla folder, and it bolted for the opening immediately. I slammed the tub down just in time and it just kind of... kept running up and around the inside of the tub and came to rest right underneath my palm. I was able to get the folder under after that and flung it off the balcony without incident, it's just that my palm was tingling the whole time. I knew it couldn't get me through the plastic, but some deep part of my nervous system didn't understand that and was screaming at me about it. There's also the time I got rid of a side-plate-sized one from a friend's car in a macca's parking lot. I just shimmied some paper under it and flicked it away, where within about 1 second of landing a car showed up and just nailed it right under the tyre. It was so sudden, like something from ASDFMovie. Car: 1; Spider: 0, but I can't help but wonder what would've happened if the car arrived just a few seconds earlier with its window down. It might've been a very different scoreboard.
i'm near Maryborough Victoria, about 12 or so years ago i moved a 30cm long log that was about 30cm diameter from the front yard to the wood splitting area. the first swing of the wood splitter saw two bits of wood and 5 huntsman running away, 2nd swing another 1/2 dozen huntsman's, 3rd and 4th another 1/2 dozen, i would NEVER have believed that bit of dried and split gum log had 30 damn spiders in it, and they were grown spiders (3-4 inch across their leg span). oh and yes i am arachnophobic, we have Eastern Brown snakes here as well, but i'm not scared of them just very cautious, 2 of my dogs were 30cm away from one a few weeks ago, i was lucky they didn't get bitten.
I was a back seat passenger, as a kid.... (My uncle was driving) of a car that had a LARGE huntsman on the OUTSIDE of the windscreen. The driver turned on the wipers to knock it off. Worked fine, too... BUT it flew straight INTO the open window of the car beside him... with two young women in it... driver and passenger. It landed ON the passenger. THAT car ended up in the middle of a medium sized roundabout, with the two women scrambling out of it as fast as possible, screaming their heads off. Luckily they didn't have or cause an accident, and were both fine. I believe someone went to help them out of their 'predicament'... I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have done the same thing, had it landed in MY lap....
I love huntsmans. I remember when I was a teen living in sub tropical Queensland, Australia. My flyscreen panel in my bedroom was missing for months and because the Goldy is either hot or very hot I couldn't close my window. I could literally walk out my window to sneak to parties on the weekend. I had a huntsman move in an they ate all the insect that came in. I called him Terry. Now I live in the middle of the bush in deep rural NSW and snake, possum, kangaroo, fox, lizard and nearly any other animal live just outside my back and front door. The flys and mosquitos are terrible inside during the warmer months. So when ever I see a huntsman ( any huntsman) I call them Terry an act like there a roommate who is welcome to stay as long as they like. Only bad thing that ever has happened was one fell off the roof when I was asleep and landed right on my forehead waking me up. Bet I scared him more than he scared me tho, poor little dude 😂
Love Huntsman (and spiders in general)! One morning I picked up a coffee mug that had been sitting raised up on the draining board overnight. Out scuttled a medium sized Huntsman. Love them so much I didn’t even flinch and just said: “Oh, hello”. About lunchtime it and I agreed the safest place to go was the pantry before I accidentally skittled it. Everyone happy!
There are spiders I tokerate (eg jumping spiders, daddy long legs), spiders I can't tolerate (rain spiders) and there are spiders I love (eg peacock spiders)...
I had a beautiful Garden (UK orb-web) spider that lived and span her web on one of my wing mirrors for several years. She'd hide in the housing behind the mirror when the car started moving, only coming out to grab any insects that got swept up by her web, then dash back inside. Perfect niche exploitation :)
When I was walking down the street yesterday, I somehow got an enormous, round thistle thingy stuck to my shoulder. No idea, where it came from. But when I casually looked that way, I thought it was a really large spider and screeched like a banshee 😆. Yeah. That's my spider story.
Unfortunately, I had a similar story, but I had a spider sitting on my shoulder/ throat area. I opened and simultaneously walked through my bedroom door. Felt something land on my throat.... panicked and brushed it off me out of the room and shut the door to recover for a few minutes, too scared to look what it was. When eventually I opened the door the spider was nowhere to be seen. The next morning my brother told me he found the spider, hours later sitting on the wall over his bed as he went to sleep. 😅🙈
@@NianForestbird Scarred for life, am I right?? 😆😅 We don't even have dangerous spiders here in Germany. There's literally no reason to panic. A tick would be more dangerous. And yet I would never voluntarily let one touch me!
I adore this video even with my arachnophobia lol I’ve actually come a long way in my life - since starting to garden at 28, I’ve found a lot of respect for them. They still have the ability to scare the hell out of me, but for the most part, I leave them alone. I’ve had one living in my kitchen for well over a year. He doesn’t bother me, I don’t bother him. Why not? He’s just trying to survive. I used to be the most afraid of jumping spiders but ever since following some IG accounts with pet jumpers, I’m actually infatuated with them now. Spiders creep me out but I’ll take them over cellar centipedes most days of the week lol
As I became interested in spiders I increasingly realised that nearly all, aside from jumping spiders, much prefer to avoid us and will usually do anything to keep their distance (unless protecting an egg sac). Most “attacks/bites” have been because humans have accidentally disturbed and surprised them and they feel trapped and threatened. I used to fear huntsmen as a kid and slept with my head under my sheet in case one dropped on my face overnight (Australian, so common to have them suddenly appear on your ceiling). Now I catch and release them - they seem to know if they stay near a corner it’s harder to catch them. I now have a some pet jumping spiders and it’s true that knowledge and familiarity whelps reduce your fear. While I’m not going to invite a huntsmen to jump on me I also know it mainly just tickles when spiders walk on you. my only issue is one of my jumpers has a penchant for hiding in my hair which gets annoying because until I find him I’m so paranoid I might accidentally hurt him. The first time it happened I was upset thinking I had lost him for good when he leapt and “disappeared”. I was feeling despondent when 1.5 hrs later I bent over to pick something up and he casually jumped back onto my hand.
This is lovely and amazing to read! I have a mild fear of spiders but I have deep affection for all creatures and it warms my heart to see someone else acknowledge that they’re just trying to live their life. Just because we have an (often) irrational fear of a creature does not give us the right to kill.
I am terrified unsure why but I always have been and watching this is just nightmare fuel for me I think I threw my phone multiple times watching this the jump scare gets me every time 😅
I’m from the US. We don’t have Huntsman, our largest is the Tarantula, here in Colorado they are out looking for love right now. The males head out at night searching for a lovely lady to share a few moments of passion with. My husband and I went to Southern Colorado to see the romantic Tarantulas but unfortunately it was too windy for them, wind tends to send the amorous males flying so they stay home. We will try again. Thank you for your videos.
Huntsman’s are awesome to keep as pets, (captive bred of course) and they do get to know you and what you’re there for, and there’s far more to observe with them than with my tarantulas, who at most, and only when they’re extra hungry, will leave some hairy legs poking out the entrance of their burrow.
My older brother used to let a big Huntsman spider walk on his arms and hands - no problem at all. I've never been troubled by them. good video, thanks
I lived in a place that almost certainly had a colony of social huntsmen living in the roof. They were just everywhere. A few things I saw during that time were: Two very large, presumably old spiders on the lounge room wall, about 30cm away from each other. They didn’t appear to be in conflict with each other, as they were neither aggressive towards or fearful of each other. I saw one at first, then looked back a minute later and there were two. I thought I might be hallucinating. Either of them could’ve been a matriarch, as they were huge. Over a hundred hatchlings spreading out of the light fitting in the same room. I noticed a tiny spider on me, so small I didn’t recognise it as a huntsman. Then a minute later another one. Then I saw one rappelling its way down through the air in front of me using its web. That’s when I looked up and saw something similar to what was in the video, but radiating out from behind the light fitting cup. I stopped counting when I got to 100, and just got out the bug spray. A mature one did a bunji jump at me while I was walking past it. It was on the wall at about chest height, and I had to walk past it quite close. As I did, it flipped out and did a threat display, waving its legs at me and showing me its teeth. But it also did a little jump towards me at the same time and then swung back onto the wall by its backside. It was tethered by its web. I could have imagined this last part, because I was freaked out, but I swear I thought I heard it hiss at me. I was talking to a friend on the lounge, and over his shoulder I saw one slowly climbing up over the back of the lounge, right behind him. It was like something out of a horror movie. I think he saw the blood drain from my face, because he realised something was wrong. I saw what I thought was a huntsman dragging a cockroach it had caught across the floor. But, when I looked closer it was actually a giant wasp dragging the huntsman across the floor. It dragged it all the way into the bathroom, where I ended things. I had never seen anything like it before. I was already afraid of the huntsmen, and this thing could fly, so it was worse. At one point we also had mice coming in, and I think they and the spiders got into a bit of a war. One mouse came out from under the lounge and was writhing around on the floor like it was in its death throes. I also saw a couple of huntsmen that had missing legs around the same time. I’ve seen a video of a huntsman carrying a mouse it had caught online since then, so I think they were going at it. The mice disappeared, but the huntsmen didn’t, for those wondering. Ever since then I’ve been petrified of the things. I now have arachnophobia, but only towards spiders that roam around, or other large ones. I won’t tolerate them inside. Daddy Long Legs and House Spiders that stay in their webs don’t bother me. I have met someone who claimed they were bitten on the thumb by one they tried to shoo off their windscreen. The said it felt like hitting your thumb with a hammer, and it hurt for quite a while, but there were no other ill effects.
In my experience, the panic is because of their speed and unpredictability more than the fear of being bitten. Although my daughter (who was 4 at the time) and two of my adult friends HAVE been bitten by huntsman(s).
It's really only Huntsman spiders you see here in Australia that are that large. And a lot of people actually like them as they are harmless to humans and will keep all other (potentially dangerous) spiders away. That said, most Aussies do freak out when they see a huntsman and we always run about screaming.
@@jenniferbates2811 Some, like me, kind of do get used to them, whilst others are petrified. If we see one inside, and it's just hanging out, we'll leave it to eat mozzies and flies. But if it's on the move, or I find it in the bedroom, we gently catch it and put it outside in the garden. Cool fact: if you shine a torch at them, their eyes reflect the light back at you!!
When we were kids we went on a primary school camp in bungalows. There were a some huntsmen on our cabin ceiling. We lifted up the hatch into the roof cavity and there were hundreds of them in the roof. We did not sleep in that cabin after that.
I love them ..Ive seen one jump off the wall and catch a big fat blowy..ive also had them in my hand and crawl up my arm..the baby ones are the cutest as they tumble and roll and do silly things
I was having a shower and saw something dark moving in my peripheral vision, looked over and it was a large huntsman on the shower curtain inches from my face. She was flicking her arms as though she was angry at me for disturbing her. Relocated her to a tree outside and she was happy. They are interesting creatures.
I love spiders, I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid. They kill the bugs that we don't want around. We have Huntsman spiders here in New Zealand but they're called "Avondale Spiders" because of where they mostly hang out I guess. I went there looking for them with an entomologist and held one on my hand without fear.
Just put your hand up and get it to climb on. They usually don't go far, so cup your hands and carry it out side. It will not hurt you and if it sits on your hand you get to have a good look at them. They are harmless, and really interesting to look at.
We moved from London to Sydney back in the 1970s. Bought an old VW beetle. Driving up the Parramatta Road a Huntsman walked out of the air vent on the right hand side of the windscreen, walked up and across the windscreen and disappeared down the left vent. "What the Duck?: we said. Or something similar.
I was bitten by a huntsman once, I was using a shower block at a caravan park, felt a pinch on my side… huntsman 😂 my guess is the steam knocked it down,it landed on me, then bit me because the water was washing it down. I flicked it off me, finished my shower, went back to the caravan we were staying in… I go to tell my wife and she says “Hun there’s a spider on you” 😂 little buggy must of got a ride so I put him outside. Didn’t get sick or super powers. 😂 good times 😂
From Germany here and been a fan of australia since 2009. always wanted to travel there. Now after seeing this, I‘m gonna stay out of this country for good! And didn‘t know spiders are mauling (?). Always thought they died when they hang on the wall like this. Thank you for scaring me even more xD. But awesome video. Please carrie on with other australian animals 🙏
Save up your money and come for a visit, anyway the Saltwater Crocodiles, poisonous Snakes, Great White Sharks and Drop Bears make more of an impact on the tourists than the spiders.
I’ve recently been able to deal with my arachnophobia very well and I have house spiders now. In Canada so they are just a few centimetres, but they all had babies this spring and they all left my apartment. Only the toughest stayed, and so glad because no tiny annoying bugs this summer!
I was stuck in peak hour traffic one morning and the guy in the car behind me was laughing his heads off as I jumped out of my car when a huntsman landed on my head after I pulled the sun visor down. I was dancing all over the road trying to get it off me as it ran over my face, neck and around into my hair. If I could have, I would have stripped off to make sure I was spider free, but luckily it dropped onto the road and ran away under my car. Now, I never sit down in the car without checking the visor.
"Timid and hairy little roommate" sounds just like a description I'd offer my wife, when a spider finds its way into our apartment. I'm usually like: "He's your buddy, he's come to say hi." My wife rarely buys it... 😅
Funniest story of Huntsman experience is involving a newly purchased car. I followed behind while my partner at the time drove out new car home. He decided to travel with our large dog in a very little car. As we followed I noticed erratic movement by our dog and partner. It was crazy watching our dog jumping around chasing what was later to find out a Huntsman.
Has anyone ever seen a four legged huntsman? One used to live with me. He’d lost four legs off one side and he used to haul himself around in a swinging motion. I don’t know what happened to him because I had to move somewhere else, but he was fun to have around. 🕷
A massive huntsman crawled into my office the other day. I threw my shoe at it but it somehow took no damage and crawled under some furniture. It’s like he vanished into thin air because I never saw home again. Another time I came home super late from a night out and there was a massive huntsman near my bed on the wall. He ran away before I could get him and I was too sleepy to deal with him so I went to sleep and never dawn him again either.
i got bitten by a spider as a teenager here in the UK , my whole arm swelled up for 4 days . was never afraid of spiders before that but like anyone who has an allergic reaction to a bite or a sting i feel justified in being fearful off them since . having said that I try to catch and remove them as gently as possible. They can live outside but I don't want them in my house !
I usually leave them alone in the house. I did have some hatch in my car and the babies came crawling all over the steering wheel while I was doing 100kph down the tollway. Not fun.
I'm Arachnaphobic, always have been and always will be but Huntsman & Daddy Long Legs spiders are cool. I have tried to learn as much as I can about cetain Australian Spiders and I find that the Daddy Long Legs & Huntsman Spiders are quite fascinating, surprisingly. I Loved the video, especially seeing the Huntsman malting, which explained the times I've seen 'dead' huntsman's bodies (thier exoskeletons).
😳 from California, USA! There are big bugs and spiders here too but not like the Huntsman. I try to make an agreement that the poisonous spiders stay outside, and when one forgets, I trap it in a cup and return it to its home. I really enjoy these videos, thank you, Dr. Jones.
Spiders are our friends and keep nasty pests out of our homes (or relocate them into their digestive system). Sadly, in the past I've killed every spider I found in my home, but about three years ago I decided to instead embrace their presence instead and allow them to roam my home freely. I will still panic when I see a spider, but I now surpress the urge to kill them. Of course, I live in Europe, so we don't have Dachshund-size spiders here... 🙂
As far as catching them I would never slap a container on them, as there is too much risk of smashing a leg or worse ~ I'd seriously just try to coax it on my hand. Then walk outside before it climbs around to your back. I wish there were huntsman spiders in California; it would brighten my day to see a big one hanging out on the ceiling at home.
I remember as a kid bringing home a wolf spider, it had an egg sac and I had hundreds of babies in my room. It was really awesome. Obviously I had to hide it from my parents. I’m an adult now and still have spiders and critters in my room. I devote my life to urban ecology, and think of my yard as an oasis for biodiversity, as I’m in a rural town devoid of much native vegetation. We have to embrace the things that scare us, I do snake catching relocating snakes but I’m terrified of blue tongue lizards. We as humans don’t have much longer to go as a species, but I feel it’s important to protect what biodiversity still remains for the next journey this planet is on.
That was fun to watch. I am from Europe and I like spiders. Ours are harmless and the jumping spiders are cute. I even have some spiders free ranging in my home.
My Japanese language teacher tried to catch a huntsman by tossing a container over it a few years ago. I asked her to let me try and catch it but no, so I got to enjoy the circus. I don't mind huntsmans in the house, I just draw the line in my bedroom (removed without harm). Funnel Webs are a "kill on sight", they're the only spider I'm terrified of.
If you're highly allergic to venom of animals and bugs and stuff then yeah you have to worry Most people don't know that There's people like me in the world who are highly allergic to venom and one bite by a venomous animal can literally put us in some bad situations
Vacuum cleaner works best.. I do appreciate a nice Huntsman though. I’ll often get a lone Huntsman follow me along the wall from my bedroom, to around the corner and watch me take a bath.
many times i've seen the lackluster finishing of window and door trims and losely fitting flyscreens, which naturally lets in insects. you can fix this easily with proper caulking and better fitting flyscreens. when i replaced my horrible standard aussie windows with double glazed good windows, i chose plaster reveals, which means no more wood trim covering up gaps, all fully sealed by plaster. big huntsman are scary looking but much smaller white tail spiders can cause problems if bitten by their tiny bite...and so we should exclude them from our homes.
Not in Australia; only a handful of Asian species (heck, maybe just one) get that big. Australian huntsmen, at the very biggest, can still fit comfortably in one hand, and most species mature at under 10cm across.
I used to have at least 1 huntsman a week in the house over the warmer months, but haven’t seen one for at least 15 years now. I don’t know what’s happened but they seem to have vanished from Melbourne, I’m not the only one that’s noticed this, was talking about it with a mate last week. I kinda miss them to be honest.
I had one right outside the bathroom on the wall, straight up unwrapped and slapped it with my towel, don't know what I was thinking because it was still alive afterwards
I didn't have time to grab the glass and piece of cardboard i use to put spiders outside with , so i gently picked it up and it bit me on the palm, (and i don't blame it at all,) drawing blood. It felt like a Jumping Jack bite which surprised me. I still wouldn't harm a spider though.
I used to live in a house with high ceilings and would find these incredible monstrous moults everywhere but rarely the culprits who dropped them. 😅 I think the big ones just used our house as like a changeroom and then went back outside. Had plenty of the smaller one's hanging around though
I've been bitten by a huntsman spider though it's hard to blame the spider. It was on the side of a long haired cat which had been catty with it. Picked the cat up to put it inside and that's when I got bit, hurt a fair bit but nothing else.
I was in the shower when one crawled over the ceiling from behind towards the nozzle. I challenge anyone not to scream when you're naked with a large spider inches above you.
Huntsies also taste fantastic! I don't condone eating them , but i have once accidentally and is like a BBQ flavoured pop corn kernel. Plus they have soft scottish accents if you get close enough to hear them.
My husband and I had some really large spiders that would come out of our gutters and a tree every year. They made enormous webs that would easily span six feet or more. My husband named them Fred. They were all named Fred. We have had several exterminators knock on our door offering us a deal if we will let them kill our spiders. We always tell them No! This is their environment and we want them there. By the way, I am an arachnophobic. I just firmly believe that they shouldn’t pay for my fear with their lives.
One of my primary schools was in a rural area and had an underground art room. It was infested with huntsmans lol. We used to stand on the chairs and kept our legs away from the underside of the benches against the walls. Our art teacher, mrs Brown, didnt care at all lol
Oh and I’ve totally almost crashed my car because a spider dropped directly in front of my face. Thank god no one was on the road because I absolutely swerved to the other side. Why do they always seem to drop an inch from your eyeballs????
I have been driving and found a huntsmen crawling up the front of my shirt. I pulled over and got out of the car and it went over my shoulder. I took off the shirt and brushed to off into the grass.
I love my hunstmen. They get big enough in my house you can hear them tapdance on the wall. I also love my Badumnas. I had a badumna in my kitchen window i watched grow from a tiny baby to a big mumma, having several sets of babies. She would feed her babies, and when theybwere ready they'd all leave. One day i found Natasha had a bad moult and it killed her. I was devistated. Ive preserved her in resin. I love looking up close to huntsmen Nd badumna. They are so fluffy, and have adorable toes and legwarmers.
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
In Japan, the huntsman spider is cherished by the people for their amazing ability to eradicate cockroaches in the house. So much so that we've given them the nickname Gunsou (軍曹) - which means "sergeant" - out of respect. Everybody will kill a bug without second thought, but will try their best not to harm a huntsman spider unless they really REALLY hate bugs. Some of us will actually salute when we spot one in the house.
Many Japanese people consider spiders as benevolent creatures because when we are in Elementary school, we read a story about a criminal saving the life of a spider, and when the criminal died and his soul was falling down to Hell, the spider that he had saved cast a web down for the criminal to climb up. So from childhood we have a good image towards spiders.
What I've observed over the years from these Australian videos of huntsman spiders, it seems the ones in Australia are much more active but chill when being hunted by humans. The ones in Japan are very stationary, but extremely speedy once threatened.
I know that they are not the same species, but it fascinates me.
@@MIZZKIE thank you Mizzkie, for sharing your experience with spiders in Japan! I’m in the US Pacific Northwest. I have a huge fear of spiders but funny enough I don’t fear our harvestman which looks just like a spider though it doesn’t make silk. It has 8 long legs, a gray pea sized body and they are abundant in around our yards and climbing up the sides of our houses and garages outside in the summer and fall. (They actually aren’t considered spiders but opiliones) anyway, they don’t scare me because i remember when I was 3 my dad sat on the front porch step with me and I saw one of these and was scared but he said “you don’t have to be afraid of those, they are called “Daddy Long Legs” . And ever since then I just saw them as a harmless old daddy long legs. It looks like a spider though but because he gave it a cute name, in my young mind I inferred that to mean it wasn’t a spider and was harmless. So that just goes to show how what we both learned as children colored our views and opinions of things in our environment.
@@MIZZKIE aiding and abetting criminals!
@@MIZZKIE aaaah, I love that! I'm going to start doing that.
Coincidentally, I am working on a picture of a jorōgumo as I watch this video and read your comment. It's interesting to hear about more positive views about Japanese spiders!
ive recently become disabled and a huntsman moved in a couple of days ago. it dawned on me at that point ive lost my ability to relocate huntsmans and would now have to adopt a room mate position with them if i was unwilling to kill them. this video was both reassuring and horrifying.
He can keep you company and wont eat your cereal like other roomates :)
He’ll be a great roommate and he’ll keep all the bugs under control for ya ❤
You have a choice. One big spider or 600 insects.
I was in a similar situation but when I found my roommate on my head board one morning, I had to evict him
Being disabled you may find it difficult to get rid of cockroaches. Your Huntsman mate will do that for you, no worries.
Australian here. I was hospitalized by a huntsman a few years ago, it bit me on the chest while I was sleeping. While huntsmen aren't venomous, bacteria from their previous meals can build up on their fangs and be transferred to their next victim, which just happened to be me.
I have a huntsman living in my house now. In fact I never remove huntsmen from my home if they make their way in.
Bad luck what happened to you, is all.
@@margyb7469 Luck has nothing to do with it. Yes huntsman aren't generally considered dangerous or aggressive, but that isn't universal. They can be dangerous and aggressive, and to dismiss that as bad luck is folly. There is not a single species of animal where every single member behaves the exact same way.
I'll never forget my first encounter with a huntsman -- which was also my dad's quite unfortunate first encounter, lol. We're from the UK and moved here when I was in primary school.
We were heading to the car so he could take me to the GP and saw this massive huntsman just chilling on the roof of the car, getting a bit of sun, lol. My dad's always been a hippie and none of us will kill or harm a spider unless we truly have no safe alternative.
So he was thinking, "Oh cool, my first huntsman! Everyone says they're super timid, so..." And he banged his fist on the roof near it to scare it off. Unfortunately, no one told him they could jump -- and instead of fleeing, this one jumped directly at his face, lol.
I watched it scramble over his bald head with incredible speed, jump off him and scurry away into the bushes -- and naturally, laughed my butt off 😂
Probably thought dads head was a rock they could use to escape.
It does not help that Aussies put the fear of God into us for the lolz, being hyperbolic about how dangerous this country is. I’ve lived here for 15+ years now and have not died even once.
I don’t mind Huntsman spiders but that would creep me out
@@_letstartariot lmao! Not even once? You got me laughing out loud at 2:30 am.
🤣
Years ago at work I felt something tickle my upper left arm. I glance at my arm, only to see a Huntsmen sitting there. So, I walked up to some workmates and said" How do you like my new spider tattoo, it's very realistic!" They just laughed, and I went outside and leaned my arm on a tree. The spider crawled off onto the tree, and I went back to work.
very apt - - ima happy for my home to be shared with a huntsman about three inches across - - i wouldn't kill her because she's just a small animal she keeps the roaches down and has started a family of two or three - ! -
Another good one. When moving huntsmen or even wolfies, I'm always afraid that the glass I'm using will hurt one of their legs, because they move so fast.
Me too, I use a piece of paper to help keep the legs tucked in
I use a plastic takeaway food container, it's big enough to contain them without injury.
Plus one for the takeaway container. Some cardboard packaging from the recycling is great to slide under it. (Glossy side under the spider, so you can flick it away.)
If you put the glass down real slowly they actually tuck their legs in
The way huntsmans move is what gets me the most... the complete stillness, then sudden weird lightning speed galloping 😬 I can't even do the plastic box catch thing cos I have trouble looking at them that close. Once I found one in my bedroom and managed to get it on the end of a broom, then ran with it downstairs and chucked the entire broom out the back door
I would sometimes vacum them up then put the vaccum cleaner outside.....They were never there the next day..?????
When Steven Spielberg was producing the movie Arachnophobia , they decided to use huntsman spiders (Flat Huntsman) that have established themselves in New Zealand and are known as Avondale spiders , after the Auckland suburb they first arrived at. they came in in a shipment of Australian tree bark destined for a local leather tannery.
Avondale has a giant spider statue in the main shopping area.
"Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters said in Popular Mechanics that Arachnophobia was one of the first films on which he worked, and he often relied on simple magnets for effects. The film used over 300 Avondale spiders from New Zealand, chosen for their large size, unusually social lifestyle, and harmlessness to humans; they were guided around the set by heat and cold. "
-wikipedia
My sister worked at a local scientific and industrial research center (DSIR) that bred the spiders for the movie , she raised crickets for them to eat.
One of the things I noticed when I was growing up is that the only scary spider was the fake one that screeched. Huntsmans were just a fact of life down here lol
@@PaulG.x I’m so glad I never saw that movie! You couldn’t have paid me enough to work on that set. Did the actors have to let the spiders crawl on them?”
Spiders are much better then fly spray.
They’re protected in my house.
Sometimes I’m asked to take it outside. Often they hang around for a week or days and then leave.
We had a mum lay babies. They looked smaller (tiny), very light brown and cute. They started all together, next day they had spread across the room and by the end of the week you’d see maybe one or two.
I've had hatchlings in my house too; next thing you know every daddy longlegs in the house appears and hunts them.
So happy to see any Dr Anne videos. Keep them coming.
Wall puppies! ❤ The more other people are afraid of spiders, the more I love them. A garden covered in orb weavers and a few large huntsman on the walls are often far more effective at deterring intruders than a guard dog.
I was about to mention this fabulous nickname for our incredible housemates. Wall-Puppies is a great name for them.
I actively encourage orb weavers in my garden. 1000x better pest control than any poison.
@natp3408 We haven't sprayed our house in 20 years. We leave internal pest control to the spiders and geckos, and outside it's them and the other lizards, frogs, and my large collection of carnivorous plants.
@@tobiasware love a good ecosystem 💚
@@grandmothergoose wall puppies? Well, they’re certainly the size of puppies! I live in the Pacific Northwest of US and I reflexively look at all the walls, corners and ceilings of every room I enter because I seem to actually attract spiders. Darned if I know why. invariably especially in the fall ( which is spider mating season for our spiders ) two that like to come in our houses are the European House spiders which can get up to 4 inches across including legs or the hobo spiders and the males of those two love to enter our homes between the end of August and into October where they are looking for females who like to lay their eggs inside where it’s warm. They would freeze if laid outside which is quite fine with me. Anyway, twice in the last two weeks I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to see a 4 incher clinging to the wall up by the ceiling above my bed. I then get out my vacuum cleaner with a long hose attachment and carefully suck that nightmare up. Then I plug the end of the hose just in case he was extra tough and survived the process so he can’t crawl back out. That’s how paranoid and scared I am of spiders in my house.
The only spiders that get evicted from my home are redbacks and white tailed spiders. All others are allowed to stay.😊
With you there. We have white tails at our place the size of 5-10c pieces
Apparently white tailed spiders are now considered to be as harmless as huntsmen. There are no confirmed white tailed spider bites that have ever caused any major issue, nor is there any reason to believe that their venom could be capable of doing much damage. There was a big study tracking over 130 confirmed bites and they were all relatively minor.
I'm fine with letting Huntsman hang around until I sit down on the toilet and it's on the back of the door. Then I relocate it outside. :)
@@wormalism I have been bitten by a white tail spider and I can assure you they hurt like you have been burned, and the bite site goes all black and necrosed. Mine was about the size of a 20-50c coin. No other symptoms like headache, but the burning localised pain after the bite and black blister that took about 2 months to heal (scar remains)
It's the bacteria on the white tails fangs rather than the venom that causes the problems,so I have heard,how bad the bite is depends on what it was eating before it bit you.
Yesterday, my mate discovered a huntsman spider sitting on a large leaf of an aquatic plant that stretches out of the water and hangs over the the small aquarium in his living room. It had one leg dipped in the water, ‘fishing’ - trying to lure and catch the little fresh water minnows in the tank. My mate told me that the spider had been sitting quietly high up on an adjacent wall for two days ‘casing the joint’ - staring at the fish tank and studying it. The fish are safe for the moment; the spider has been relocated to more suitable premises in the garden outside near the back patio.
A friend of mine lived in Kurrajong and would drive his old (nobody wants to steal it) ute down to Richmond railway to go to work. He flipped his visor down as the sun was rising and had that aircraft experience driving down the notoriously steep, winding Bell's Line of Road in traffic.
Once he sorted it out, he looked in the rear view to find the guy driving behind him laughing his ass off. He had us all in tears recounting the story with Italian flair.
Spiders are nature's pest control ❤
❤
the reason why I keep a daddy long legs or 2 around the house 🙂
@@shereejones5965 Yeah, unless I feel like the spider is out to get me, i catch and release. lol I had one no matter where I moved it threateningly advanced on me, so I had to kill it 😭
@@shereejones5965unless that long legs is nicholas cage 😂
Ummm.. and who control them? 😭
A few years ago I was scrolling through a set of photos from around the world of different types of spiders. When, suddenly, one of the images was of a Huntsman spider and instantly I dropped my phone.
Even though I was born and have lived in Australia all my life, there is something particularly creepy about Huntsman spiders.
I had my laptop on my bed one night and laid my head down to watch some TH-cam. I opened up the laptop and there was a massive female huntsman right in the middle of the screen 10inches from my face. Keep in mind I had all the lights off except the laptop screen lighting up. At first I thought it was a paused video until it moved a leg.
Also had another on climb up my windscreen inside the car and I nearly crashed lol
We imported these to Japan since they are so good at hunting cockroaches. I get in my head spiders tend to be helpful but huge insects that move fast and unpredictably are just terrifying…
I've turfed out my share of big huntsmen. One time I used the plastic tub trick, and got it in one - you must never hesitate. But then I lifted one edge to slip in a manilla folder, and it bolted for the opening immediately. I slammed the tub down just in time and it just kind of... kept running up and around the inside of the tub and came to rest right underneath my palm. I was able to get the folder under after that and flung it off the balcony without incident, it's just that my palm was tingling the whole time. I knew it couldn't get me through the plastic, but some deep part of my nervous system didn't understand that and was screaming at me about it.
There's also the time I got rid of a side-plate-sized one from a friend's car in a macca's parking lot. I just shimmied some paper under it and flicked it away, where within about 1 second of landing a car showed up and just nailed it right under the tyre. It was so sudden, like something from ASDFMovie. Car: 1; Spider: 0, but I can't help but wonder what would've happened if the car arrived just a few seconds earlier with its window down. It might've been a very different scoreboard.
i'm near Maryborough Victoria, about 12 or so years ago i moved a 30cm long log that was about 30cm diameter from the front yard to the wood splitting area.
the first swing of the wood splitter saw two bits of wood and 5 huntsman running away, 2nd swing another 1/2 dozen huntsman's, 3rd and 4th another 1/2 dozen, i would NEVER have believed that bit of dried and split gum log had 30 damn spiders in it, and they were grown spiders (3-4 inch across their leg span).
oh and yes i am arachnophobic, we have Eastern Brown snakes here as well, but i'm not scared of them just very cautious, 2 of my dogs were 30cm away from one a few weeks ago, i was lucky they didn't get bitten.
As a Canadian i would officially die of a heart attack waaay before i had a chance to even crash the car 😂
As a canadian living in australia, yeah nah
I was a back seat passenger, as a kid.... (My uncle was driving) of a car that had a LARGE huntsman on the OUTSIDE of the windscreen.
The driver turned on the wipers to knock it off. Worked fine, too...
BUT it flew straight INTO the open window of the car beside him... with two young women in it... driver and passenger. It landed ON the passenger.
THAT car ended up in the middle of a medium sized roundabout, with the two women scrambling out of it as fast as possible, screaming their heads off.
Luckily they didn't have or cause an accident, and were both fine. I believe someone went to help them out of their 'predicament'...
I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have done the same thing, had it landed in MY lap....
I love huntsmans. I remember when I was a teen living in sub tropical Queensland, Australia. My flyscreen panel in my bedroom was missing for months and because the Goldy is either hot or very hot I couldn't close my window. I could literally walk out my window to sneak to parties on the weekend. I had a huntsman move in an they ate all the insect that came in. I called him Terry. Now I live in the middle of the bush in deep rural NSW and snake, possum, kangaroo, fox, lizard and nearly any other animal live just outside my back and front door. The flys and mosquitos are terrible inside during the warmer months. So when ever I see a huntsman ( any huntsman) I call them Terry an act like there a roommate who is welcome to stay as long as they like. Only bad thing that ever has happened was one fell off the roof when I was asleep and landed right on my forehead waking me up. Bet I scared him more than he scared me tho, poor little dude 😂
Love Huntsman (and spiders in general)! One morning I picked up a coffee mug that had been sitting raised up on the draining board overnight. Out scuttled a medium sized Huntsman. Love them so much I didn’t even flinch and just said: “Oh, hello”. About lunchtime it and I agreed the safest place to go was the pantry before I accidentally skittled it. Everyone happy!
Yes I've been the passenger of a car with a huntsman spider that decided to crawl along the drivers side window. Went straight into a parked van.
The video clip of the molt is amazing!!!
There are spiders I tokerate (eg jumping spiders, daddy long legs), spiders I can't tolerate (rain spiders) and there are spiders I love (eg peacock spiders)...
Huntsmans are frens, even though they are not particularly fren-shaped
I had a beautiful Garden (UK orb-web) spider that lived and span her web on one of my wing mirrors for several years. She'd hide in the housing behind the mirror when the car started moving, only coming out to grab any insects that got swept up by her web, then dash back inside. Perfect niche exploitation :)
When I was walking down the street yesterday, I somehow got an enormous, round thistle thingy stuck to my shoulder. No idea, where it came from. But when I casually looked that way, I thought it was a really large spider and screeched like a banshee 😆.
Yeah. That's my spider story.
Unfortunately, I had a similar story, but I had a spider sitting on my shoulder/ throat area. I opened and simultaneously walked through my bedroom door. Felt something land on my throat.... panicked and brushed it off me out of the room and shut the door to recover for a few minutes, too scared to look what it was. When eventually I opened the door the spider was nowhere to be seen.
The next morning my brother told me he found the spider, hours later sitting on the wall over his bed as he went to sleep. 😅🙈
@@NianForestbird
Scarred for life, am I right?? 😆😅
We don't even have dangerous spiders here in Germany. There's literally no reason to panic. A tick would be more dangerous. And yet I would never voluntarily let one touch me!
I adore this video even with my arachnophobia lol I’ve actually come a long way in my life - since starting to garden at 28, I’ve found a lot of respect for them. They still have the ability to scare the hell out of me, but for the most part, I leave them alone. I’ve had one living in my kitchen for well over a year. He doesn’t bother me, I don’t bother him. Why not? He’s just trying to survive. I used to be the most afraid of jumping spiders but ever since following some IG accounts with pet jumpers, I’m actually infatuated with them now. Spiders creep me out but I’ll take them over cellar centipedes most days of the week lol
As I became interested in spiders I increasingly realised that nearly all, aside from jumping spiders, much prefer to avoid us and will usually do anything to keep their distance (unless protecting an egg sac). Most “attacks/bites” have been because humans have accidentally disturbed and surprised them and they feel trapped and threatened.
I used to fear huntsmen as a kid and slept with my head under my sheet in case one dropped on my face overnight (Australian, so common to have them suddenly appear on your ceiling). Now I catch and release them - they seem to know if they stay near a corner it’s harder to catch them.
I now have a some pet jumping spiders and it’s true that knowledge and familiarity whelps reduce your fear.
While I’m not going to invite a huntsmen to jump on me I also know it mainly just tickles when spiders walk on you. my only issue is one of my jumpers has a penchant for hiding in my hair which gets annoying because until I find him I’m so paranoid I might accidentally hurt him. The first time it happened I was upset thinking I had lost him for good when he leapt and “disappeared”. I was feeling despondent when 1.5 hrs later I bent over to pick something up and he casually jumped back onto my hand.
This is lovely and amazing to read! I have a mild fear of spiders but I have deep affection for all creatures and it warms my heart to see someone else acknowledge that they’re just trying to live their life. Just because we have an (often) irrational fear of a creature does not give us the right to kill.
I am terrified unsure why but I always have been and watching this is just nightmare fuel for me I think I threw my phone multiple times watching this the jump scare gets me every time 😅
I love this lady n I this channel. Thank you!!!
I’m from the US. We don’t have Huntsman, our largest is the Tarantula, here in Colorado they are out looking for love right now. The males head out at night searching for a lovely lady to share a few moments of passion with. My husband and I went to Southern Colorado to see the romantic Tarantulas but unfortunately it was too windy for them, wind tends to send the amorous males flying so they stay home. We will try again. Thank you for your videos.
Huntsman’s are awesome to keep as pets, (captive bred of course) and they do get to know you and what you’re there for, and there’s far more to observe with them than with my tarantulas, who at most, and only when they’re extra hungry, will leave some hairy legs poking out the entrance of their burrow.
def yes, my girls are super silly hunters and it’s always fun to watch them grab prey
My older brother used to let a big Huntsman spider walk on his arms and hands - no problem at all. I've never been troubled by them. good video, thanks
I lived in a place that almost certainly had a colony of social huntsmen living in the roof. They were just everywhere. A few things I saw during that time were:
Two very large, presumably old spiders on the lounge room wall, about 30cm away from each other. They didn’t appear to be in conflict with each other, as they were neither aggressive towards or fearful of each other. I saw one at first, then looked back a minute later and there were two. I thought I might be hallucinating. Either of them could’ve been a matriarch, as they were huge.
Over a hundred hatchlings spreading out of the light fitting in the same room. I noticed a tiny spider on me, so small I didn’t recognise it as a huntsman. Then a minute later another one. Then I saw one rappelling its way down through the air in front of me using its web. That’s when I looked up and saw something similar to what was in the video, but radiating out from behind the light fitting cup. I stopped counting when I got to 100, and just got out the bug spray.
A mature one did a bunji jump at me while I was walking past it. It was on the wall at about chest height, and I had to walk past it quite close. As I did, it flipped out and did a threat display, waving its legs at me and showing me its teeth. But it also did a little jump towards me at the same time and then swung back onto the wall by its backside. It was tethered by its web. I could have imagined this last part, because I was freaked out, but I swear I thought I heard it hiss at me.
I was talking to a friend on the lounge, and over his shoulder I saw one slowly climbing up over the back of the lounge, right behind him. It was like something out of a horror movie. I think he saw the blood drain from my face, because he realised something was wrong.
I saw what I thought was a huntsman dragging a cockroach it had caught across the floor. But, when I looked closer it was actually a giant wasp dragging the huntsman across the floor. It dragged it all the way into the bathroom, where I ended things. I had never seen anything like it before. I was already afraid of the huntsmen, and this thing could fly, so it was worse.
At one point we also had mice coming in, and I think they and the spiders got into a bit of a war. One mouse came out from under the lounge and was writhing around on the floor like it was in its death throes. I also saw a couple of huntsmen that had missing legs around the same time. I’ve seen a video of a huntsman carrying a mouse it had caught online since then, so I think they were going at it. The mice disappeared, but the huntsmen didn’t, for those wondering.
Ever since then I’ve been petrified of the things. I now have arachnophobia, but only towards spiders that roam around, or other large ones. I won’t tolerate them inside. Daddy Long Legs and House Spiders that stay in their webs don’t bother me.
I have met someone who claimed they were bitten on the thumb by one they tried to shoo off their windscreen. The said it felt like hitting your thumb with a hammer, and it hurt for quite a while, but there were no other ill effects.
You have a really good personality and demeanour for teaching. Best of luck
In my experience, the panic is because of their speed and unpredictability more than the fear of being bitten. Although my daughter (who was 4 at the time) and two of my adult friends HAVE been bitten by huntsman(s).
did the bite cause any illness or problems?
@@sherrijennings9309 just a painful local reaction. Nothing systemic
I'm in Rhode Island, USA, and I have never seen a spider that big before.
Tip of the hat to people that live in Australia.
It's really only Huntsman spiders you see here in Australia that are that large. And a lot of people actually like them as they are harmless to humans and will keep all other (potentially dangerous) spiders away. That said, most Aussies do freak out when they see a huntsman and we always run about screaming.
@@tdb7992 Really? I wasn't sure if you guys got used to them from seeing them growing up with them
Wolf spiders in RI can get that big. My dad killed one. It was big enough to intimidate him and. He was a paratrooper.
@@jenniferbates2811 Some, like me, kind of do get used to them, whilst others are petrified. If we see one inside, and it's just hanging out, we'll leave it to eat mozzies and flies. But if it's on the move, or I find it in the bedroom, we gently catch it and put it outside in the garden. Cool fact: if you shine a torch at them, their eyes reflect the light back at you!!
@togian755 I had no idea and I've lived here my whole life
I used to see them in Grandma's house in Kingaroy, and they were big spiders, they even walked sideways like a crab.
When we were kids we went on a primary school camp in bungalows.
There were a some huntsmen on our cabin ceiling.
We lifted up the hatch into the roof cavity and there were hundreds of them in the roof.
We did not sleep in that cabin after that.
I love them ..Ive seen one jump off the wall and catch a big fat blowy..ive also had them in my hand and crawl up my arm..the baby ones are the cutest as they tumble and roll and do silly things
my arachniphobia started when i was shown a funnel web in perspex.
the huntsman is pretty quick , what’s faster is the BABY.
I was having a shower and saw something dark moving in my peripheral vision, looked over and it was a large huntsman on the shower curtain inches from my face. She was flicking her arms as though she was angry at me for disturbing her. Relocated her to a tree outside and she was happy. They are interesting creatures.
I love spiders, I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid. They kill the bugs that we don't want around. We have Huntsman spiders here in New Zealand but they're called "Avondale Spiders" because of where they mostly hang out I guess. I went there looking for them with an entomologist and held one on my hand without fear.
Just put your hand up and get it to climb on. They usually don't go far, so cup your hands and carry it out side. It will not hurt you and if it sits on your hand you get to have a good look at them. They are harmless, and really interesting to look at.
We moved from London to Sydney back in the 1970s. Bought an old VW beetle. Driving up the Parramatta Road a Huntsman walked out of the air vent on the right hand side of the windscreen, walked up and across the windscreen and disappeared down the left vent. "What the Duck?: we said. Or something similar.
I was bitten by a huntsman once, I was using a shower block at a caravan park, felt a pinch on my side… huntsman 😂 my guess is the steam knocked it down,it landed on me, then bit me because the water was washing it down. I flicked it off me, finished my shower, went back to the caravan we were staying in… I go to tell my wife and she says “Hun there’s a spider on you” 😂 little buggy must of got a ride so I put him outside. Didn’t get sick or super powers. 😂 good times 😂
From Germany here and been a fan of australia since 2009. always wanted to travel there. Now after seeing this, I‘m gonna stay out of this country for good! And didn‘t know spiders are mauling (?). Always thought they died when they hang on the wall like this. Thank you for scaring me even more xD. But awesome video. Please carrie on with other australian animals 🙏
*molting ❤
Save up your money and come for a visit, anyway the Saltwater Crocodiles, poisonous Snakes, Great White Sharks and Drop Bears make more of an impact on the tourists than the spiders.
I’ve recently been able to deal with my arachnophobia very well and I have house spiders now. In Canada so they are just a few centimetres, but they all had babies this spring and they all left my apartment. Only the toughest stayed, and so glad because no tiny annoying bugs this summer!
The speed, size, and agility combine to make them terrifying 😮
I was stuck in peak hour traffic one morning and the guy in the car behind me was laughing his heads off as I jumped out of my car when a huntsman landed on my head after I pulled the sun visor down. I was dancing all over the road trying to get it off me as it ran over my face, neck and around into my hair. If I could have, I would have stripped off to make sure I was spider free, but luckily it dropped onto the road and ran away under my car. Now, I never sit down in the car without checking the visor.
"Timid and hairy little roommate" sounds just like a description I'd offer my wife, when a spider finds its way into our apartment. I'm usually like: "He's your buddy, he's come to say hi."
My wife rarely buys it... 😅
Funniest story of Huntsman experience is involving a newly purchased car. I followed behind while my partner at the time drove out new car home. He decided to travel with our large dog in a very little car. As we followed I noticed erratic movement by our dog and partner. It was crazy watching our dog jumping around chasing what was later to find out a Huntsman.
Always happy to have huntsman spidies in my house. Friendly, polite, helpful are just some of the ways I would describe them!
Has anyone ever seen a four legged huntsman? One used to live with me. He’d lost four legs off one side and he used to haul himself around in a swinging motion. I don’t know what happened to him because I had to move somewhere else, but he was fun to have around. 🕷
They're just little 8 leggy doggos that eat bad bugs!
A massive huntsman crawled into my office the other day. I threw my shoe at it but it somehow took no damage and crawled under some furniture. It’s like he vanished into thin air because I never saw home again. Another time I came home super late from a night out and there was a massive huntsman near my bed on the wall. He ran away before I could get him and I was too sleepy to deal with him so I went to sleep and never dawn him again either.
i got bitten by a spider as a teenager here in the UK , my whole arm swelled up for 4 days . was never afraid of spiders before that but like anyone who has an allergic reaction to a bite or a sting i feel justified in being fearful off them since . having said that I try to catch and remove them as gently as possible. They can live outside but I don't want them in my house !
I usually leave them alone in the house. I did have some hatch in my car and the babies came crawling all over the steering wheel while I was doing 100kph down the tollway. Not fun.
I'm Arachnaphobic, always have been and always will be but Huntsman & Daddy Long Legs spiders are cool. I have tried to learn as much as I can about cetain Australian Spiders and I find that the Daddy Long Legs & Huntsman Spiders are quite fascinating, surprisingly. I Loved the video, especially seeing the Huntsman malting, which explained the times I've seen 'dead' huntsman's bodies (thier exoskeletons).
😳 from California, USA! There are big bugs and spiders here too but not like the Huntsman. I try to make an agreement that the poisonous spiders stay outside, and when one forgets, I trap it in a cup and return it to its home. I really enjoy these videos, thank you, Dr. Jones.
Who would be scared of a huntsman - they are such gentle creatures
Spiders are our friends and keep nasty pests out of our homes (or relocate them into their digestive system). Sadly, in the past I've killed every spider I found in my home, but about three years ago I decided to instead embrace their presence instead and allow them to roam my home freely. I will still panic when I see a spider, but I now surpress the urge to kill them.
Of course, I live in Europe, so we don't have Dachshund-size spiders here... 🙂
As far as catching them I would never slap a container on them, as there is too much risk of smashing a leg or worse ~ I'd seriously just try to coax it on my hand. Then walk outside before it climbs around to your back. I wish there were huntsman spiders in California; it would brighten my day to see a big one hanging out on the ceiling at home.
I had one in my house for almost 4 years, there amazing.
I remember as a kid bringing home a wolf spider, it had an egg sac and I had hundreds of babies in my room. It was really awesome. Obviously I had to hide it from my parents. I’m an adult now and still have spiders and critters in my room. I devote my life to urban ecology, and think of my yard as an oasis for biodiversity, as I’m in a rural town devoid of much native vegetation. We have to embrace the things that scare us, I do snake catching relocating snakes but I’m terrified of blue tongue lizards. We as humans don’t have much longer to go as a species, but I feel it’s important to protect what biodiversity still remains for the next journey this planet is on.
That was fun to watch. I am from Europe and I like spiders. Ours are harmless and the jumping spiders are cute. I even have some spiders free ranging in my home.
Always have huntsmen in our houses. Great pest control.
They do create some brown trouser moments though.
My Japanese language teacher tried to catch a huntsman by tossing a container over it a few years ago. I asked her to let me try and catch it but no, so I got to enjoy the circus.
I don't mind huntsmans in the house, I just draw the line in my bedroom (removed without harm). Funnel Webs are a "kill on sight", they're the only spider I'm terrified of.
If you're highly allergic to venom of animals and bugs and stuff then yeah you have to worry Most people don't know that There's people like me in the world who are highly allergic to venom and one bite by a venomous animal can literally put us in some bad situations
I've been bitten by a huntsman - it was a tiny, hard, itchy bump that disapeared after a few days. No stress.
I used to have to relocate Huntsmen when they appeared in in the family home. I'd do it with a square duster but still find them very creepy,
Great video, well done
That spider shedding is the scariest thing I've ever seen
I have a few in my back shed, (and occasionally in the house), they do their thing, I do mine.
Vacuum cleaner works best.. I do appreciate a nice Huntsman though. I’ll often get a lone Huntsman follow me along the wall from my bedroom, to around the corner and watch me take a bath.
many times i've seen the lackluster finishing of window and door trims and losely fitting flyscreens, which naturally lets in insects. you can fix this easily with proper caulking and better fitting flyscreens.
when i replaced my horrible standard aussie windows with double glazed good windows, i chose plaster reveals, which means no more wood trim covering up gaps, all fully sealed by plaster.
big huntsman are scary looking but much smaller white tail spiders can cause problems if bitten by their tiny bite...and so we should exclude them from our homes.
These are all babies. Huntsman spiders can grow to dinner plate sizes - leg tip to leg tip.
If I was Australian, I would die.
Not in Australia; only a handful of Asian species (heck, maybe just one) get that big.
Australian huntsmen, at the very biggest, can still fit comfortably in one hand, and most species mature at under 10cm across.
I used to have at least 1 huntsman a week in the house over the warmer months, but haven’t seen one for at least 15 years now. I don’t know what’s happened but they seem to have vanished from Melbourne, I’m not the only one that’s noticed this, was talking about it with a mate last week. I kinda miss them to be honest.
We used to call the Rainspiders, so our English mum wouldn’t be so freaked out by them!
Love your work! Could you please do a video on Greater Gliders?
I had one right outside the bathroom on the wall, straight up unwrapped and slapped it with my towel, don't know what I was thinking because it was still alive afterwards
I didn't have time to grab the glass and piece of cardboard i use to put spiders outside with , so i gently picked it up and it bit me on the palm, (and i don't blame it at all,) drawing blood. It felt like a Jumping Jack bite which surprised me. I still wouldn't harm a spider though.
I had one crawling up the wall beside my bed yesterday, which I didn’t mind until a few minutes later I couldn’t find it!
I used to live in a house with high ceilings and would find these incredible monstrous moults everywhere but rarely the culprits who dropped them. 😅 I think the big ones just used our house as like a changeroom and then went back outside. Had plenty of the smaller one's hanging around though
I've been bitten by a huntsman spider though it's hard to blame the spider. It was on the side of a long haired cat which had been catty with it. Picked the cat up to put it inside and that's when I got bit, hurt a fair bit but nothing else.
I was in the shower when one crawled over the ceiling from behind towards the nozzle. I challenge anyone not to scream when you're naked with a large spider inches above you.
I studied the wolf in my pot plant i knew it wasn’t a huntsman. But they look same most Australians don’t know this is a different spider.
Huntsmans are so gorgeous
Huntsies also taste fantastic! I don't condone eating them , but i have once accidentally and is like a BBQ flavoured pop corn kernel. Plus they have soft scottish accents if you get close enough to hear them.
My husband and I had some really large spiders that would come out of our gutters and a tree every year. They made enormous webs that would easily span six feet or more. My husband named them Fred. They were all named Fred. We have had several exterminators knock on our door offering us a deal if we will let them kill our spiders. We always tell them No! This is their environment and we want them there. By the way, I am an arachnophobic. I just firmly believe that they shouldn’t pay for my fear with their lives.
One of my primary schools was in a rural area and had an underground art room. It was infested with huntsmans lol. We used to stand on the chairs and kept our legs away from the underside of the benches against the walls. Our art teacher, mrs Brown, didnt care at all lol
Huntsman molting is awesome. It really allows you to see that much of their size is just legs.
They are harmless so don't stress ,enjoy.
Oh and I’ve totally almost crashed my car because a spider dropped directly in front of my face. Thank god no one was on the road because I absolutely swerved to the other side. Why do they always seem to drop an inch from your eyeballs????
I have been driving and found a huntsmen crawling up the front of my shirt.
I pulled over and got out of the car and it went over my shoulder.
I took off the shirt and brushed to off into the grass.
the Australian Huntsmen is also known as the common puppy dog
I don’t get many in my house the antechinus are more common
I love my hunstmen. They get big enough in my house you can hear them tapdance on the wall. I also love my Badumnas. I had a badumna in my kitchen window i watched grow from a tiny baby to a big mumma, having several sets of babies. She would feed her babies, and when theybwere ready they'd all leave. One day i found Natasha had a bad moult and it killed her. I was devistated. Ive preserved her in resin.
I love looking up close to huntsmen Nd badumna. They are so fluffy, and have adorable toes and legwarmers.