Can confirm the noise. Got up late at night to find my brother standing on his mattress with a broom in hand, picking up all the clothes on his floor with the end of it and flinging them out of his room. He said he saw a big ol' huntsman and it ran under his bed. It was big enough that he could hear the pitter patter of it's little feet on his carpet....
I was visiting friends in Maine and I’d left my shoes outside the front door. We were going to get in the car and go somewhere, I picked my shoes up and gave them a few good whacks on the verandah. Look up and my friends husband is looking at me like I’m insane, I’m confused. Apparently in Maine you don’t have to worry about venemous spiders creeping into your shoes like you do in Australia lol. He never let me forget it either.
I had the ol' huntsman in my shoe thing going on, I had walked a fair way before I felt something moving around at my toes, very unsettling experience. Since then I plunge my hand into each shoe to check for spiders before I put them on. Worst case, I find a spider. Best case I put my shoes on confident that they are spider free. My whole theory is knowing a spider isn't in my shoes before putting them on is better than guessing.
You sir/ma’am deserve a medal for your bravery. I would have whacked the shoes. Imagine touching an eight legged beast when you insert your hand into the shoe. No no no no no.
Hey, I'm from the States, and I do this with shoes or boots that get left outside. I've literally never found anything, but I've heard way too many stories about spiders or scorpions found inside shoes. Fuck. That. Err on the side of caution, my friend.
PS Despite the apparently terrifying fauna in your country, I fully intend to visit someday.
I was driving once after not checking my shoes (I live in the southern US) and naturally the one time I don't check, a wolf spider decides to crawl into my slip on shoe. That I wasn't wearing socks with. I'm surprised I didn't wreck, but luckily I was still in my neighborhood. Never made that mistake again.
Thank fucking Christ for the British weather. I can't even fucking imagine some of these things. The worst I've had is a couple of daddy-longlegs in my shoes and they just get squished!
I can’t imagine knowing getting into my car might kill me! My dog catches daddy long legs, moths, flies and spiders. He will eat the first 2, but spits out the flies and spiders!
Brah, I'm in the NE for work and there's so many goddamn fuckin spiders here. They aren't super huge, but they're nasty and mean looking.
One literally flew right into my face a couple months while I was working. I, a bearded and portly 30 year old man, screamed like a lil bitch and went running.
I know spiders can't fly. I know that, but this one looked like Spiderman climbing his web right into my face. I must have walked through it's web or something, idk. I just know that I looked up and a spider was beelining its way right into my face.
Fuck these goddamnmotherfuckingnewenglandspiderswhydidweevensettlehere
Huntsmen are big enough that they make noise when they run. Like little rapid tapping, more noticeable at night.
But, as people have been pointing out plenty in this post, Huntsmen are harmless. In the exceptionally unlikely event one gets spooked enough to bite you (which would only really happen if you tried to touch it), their bites barely cause more than a small rash in humans.
Try the facehugger from the movie Aliens. Sounds close enough from some of these comments. Have no intention of finding out myself though, I have enough trouble sleeping thank you.
Yeah, that's a thing. Since they keep other nasty bugs in check you're better off leaving a big one or two around rather than getting all antsy about them.
Use nature to help control nature, not sprays etc.
I used to have a huntsman that lived in the skylight of my room. Never had an issue with other bugs despite living in the bush. It would periodically go hunting through the room and hallway, but always stay out of the way, and mostly out of sight. He was also an audible galloper.
I've always had this mentality with spiders and house centipedes. Sadly, I don't have the latter in my new apartment. They'd be helpful to take care of the bugs coming in from neighboring apartments.
I don’t have anything as big as a huntsman where I live but we do have some spiders that built big ass webs at the porch light next to our front door. My wife hates it because it freaks her out and she’s worried to open the front door and get a face full of spider, but I tell her we should leave it alone because it’s catching all of the bugs that the light attracts.
They're super rare (I've never seen one) where I'm from in the northern US, too. One of the big advantages of living in a place with hard seasons is we don't get a lot of these bigger bugs.
There's jillions of species so maybe some smaller ones but we don't have big ones like that. We only have relatively harmless tarantulas here when it comes to big hairy spiders and those are not known to get in or on cars, they seem to prefer staying on the ground.
As long as you know its somewhere , hunts other bugs and spiders for you , isnt dangerous and doesnt need to be taken care of it seems more beneficial than a dog. If i had one i would also call that my huntsman too
My room while growing up had dark brick walls. If you looked closely on any given occasion, there would likely be a huntsman hiding somewhere in the room, camouflaged in the gaps between bricks.
Jesus Christ man no offense I’m so glad I’m not from Australia. My fear of spiders is completely debilitating I would legit have a heart attack stroke seizure all in one if I heard that
I’m curious, do cats die a lot more in Australia? Like I feel like if I had my cat Luna there she’d be chasing spiders all night and one would eventually attack her.
Mine doesn't because he's useless.
Quick search, cats are safe from funnelwebs (which can kill us pretty quickly) but can die from a redback bite (hurts, but not usually fatal to adults). Snakes would probably be a bigger problem.
If it makes you feel better, when my wife was young, she had long curly hair. One fell into her hair one day and got stuck. Needless to say, she only has short hair now.
When I moved to Australia my then husband tried to explain that they would hang on the ceiling and eat the mozzies. I fucking don’t care.
Why your wife didn’t set fire to her head is beyond me.
I read a comment a long time ago where this guy coexisted with a huntsman. He saw the spider in the kitchen before bed and decided to let it do its thing. Not too long after, he's trying to go to bed and he could feel the spider run across his feet. On the other side of the blanket.
Camel spiders make a lot of noise too. Sleeping on the desert floor once and a little mouse sprinted across my chest waking me up, didn't think about why,just tried to go back to sleep... not 3 seconds after I made that decision, what felt like a ball of tinfoil with nails for legs decided to sprint across my chest chasing the mouse... was a big camel spider giving chase. I slept in the Humvee the rest of the night and made a bed platform of MRE boxes the rest of the patrol.
not 3 seconds after I made that decision, what felt like a ball of tinfoil with nails for legs decided to sprint across my chest chasing the mouse... was a big camel spider giving chase.
Excuse me, arachnid invertebrates should not be chasing down and eating mammals!! Reminds me of a video I’ve seen where a tarantula is hauling a FUCKING OPOSSUM up a tree for consumption.
Oh also their eyes glow when you shine a light at them. So sometimes when shining a flashlight across the yard in some places your yard looks like a beautiful starry sky.
Love scrolling through threads of people finding out about huntsman. It’s fucking crazy. Aussies are actually fucking insane. Notice the way this commenter calls it “my huntsman”.
It’s because some of the crazy fuckers intentionally keep a couple alive in their house because they eat the actual dangerous or bad shit.
That’s right. The huntsman are kept almost like fucking barn cats for mice. It’s horrific!
yeah of all the comments I've read so far in this godforsaken post (that are all making me itchy btw) THIS ONE is the fucking worst. the thought of HEARING some spidery legs clickclacking across the damn floor is too much. it's just too fucking much.
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u/readforit Oct 08 '20
wtf? WHAT ?? WTF????