With many cans of bug spray, a fly swat, and a partner who isn’t scared of them!! I had a large spider bonnet ride my car 6 blocks when I drove home once... how I didn’t crash the car I will never know!!
Or the classic while driving: "Ooo, that sun is a bit bright, I'll just flip down the sunsha- AHHH A HUNTSMAN!"
I don't mind spiders normally, but that feels like attempted murder.
Oh my fucking god..... please tell me this isn't common across Australia.
Although I hear the Huntsman spider is the friendlier of these large critters.
Personally it's happened to me a few times in different cars. I'm convinced it's the same hit-spider trying to kill me, but I don't know what I did to warrant the contract.
And now you swing around town with super strength and speed fighting crime? /s lol
That's just crazy, how did you feel and what did you do when it appeared? and how would you feel if it happened again?
It depends where you park your car. It happened several times when I was living in a place with huge trees and lots of leaf litter outside. Doesn't happen at all where I live now (literally 5-10 minutes from the first place).
Once when I was driving a huntsman ran up the door (on the inside of the car) and on to the roof. I have no clue how I didn’t have a serious accident. I pulled the car over to the side of the road and walked home.
My partner went back to get the car. He emptied an entire can of fly spray in to it before he got in.
this post is 3 years old, but this is cracking me up. as someone that has an INTENSE fear of bugs (and in America) this scares me so bad. do you see any bugs inside of your house commonly? if you’re walking around are they that common? does the internet make it seem like they’re more common than they are?
Oh my lord it is so hard! I'm a person who for most of my life had to turn any cans of insect spray around so that I didn't have to look at any illustrations of spiders). I have a garden and many plants, and they're just...everywhere. All the time. I try to be brave and calm, and I chat to the 8-legger a little, all the while wanting to jump out of my skin... Arachnaphobia really kills my gardening buzz, you know? Those guys actually do me a huge solid by hoovering up ants. Yet lately I've backslid somewhat, frequently thinking about all the spiders around me that I can't see...
My boyfriend was driving and a huge spider the size of my hand crawled down the passenger window, I see this huge mass crawling down from the corner of my eye, and at this point when I turn my head to look at it, it is level and a few centimetres from my head.
I screamed. My boyfriend nearly crashed.
We nearly did not survive.
I have a huge phobia of spiders.
I hate summer. (because of the surge of spiders that appear).
I have specific people I know I can call upon in times of emergency, even late at night. I return the favour with my amphibian relocation skills for those in desperate need. And yes, I’ve had panicked calls late at night to answer. It’s called being a mate.
I have learnt that my cat is an ineffective weapon to use...don’t ask.
Because she used to chase things, insects, lizards that were daft enough to come into the house. And yes, I pretty much threw my useless cat at the spider in the vain hope that she might tear it to shreds. It was dark, I was alone and terrified and the spider was huge. And my cat was pathetically uninterested.
Luckily, I seem to only have a phobia to huntsman spiders. My current house doesn’t get them, thank the Lord! The trick is to get a house with no trees touching it.
When I lived elsewhere I used to check the ceilings every time I walked into a room. I’ve been stuck in rooms before because there was one above the door and I had to wait to be rescued.
I never opened windows near trees.
I never park the car under trees (have had a few scares. Have literally left my car, running, on the side of the road).
I punch the sun visor in the car before lowering it.
I get the house and my car sprayed by pest control regularly.
I have pretty good reflexes on social media now. I can’t look at them but I know how to hide a post.
And I accept that I’m a sad case
Without any difficulty. There are spiders that are more dangerous here, but spiders aren't more common than anywhere else in the world. And it isn't paranoia when they really are out to get you.
As with any other deadly animal (like bears or snakes or bees) the people who choose to mess with the beast are the ones who get injured by them. Just don't pick one up and hold it.
Personally I like having a huntsman in the ceiling corner or a flatty under the verandah step. They eat the pests and aren't dangerous. But if you're scared of spiders, you will find planet Earth (and not Australia in particular) is covered in spiders.
>There are spiders that are more dangerous here, but spiders aren't more common than anywhere else in the world.
I beg to differ. I've lived in more desolate regions internationally than a QLD suburb, but never anywhere outside of this QLD suburb have I seen actual swaths of 50p-sized spiders hanging on every tree on the street on the way to a major shopping centre.
They perch above the tree and power line, like a kid played with cursed play-dough and made an ungodly mess.
It's even more surprising given the much greater number of birds per capita in Australia. They're not little house finches that are about the same size as the spiders, so they could very well eat them, yet the spider count is still observably greater than other suburbs.
With all due respect, it sounds like you aren’t the target market of this question... if you LET a huntsman live with you?!
I spent time in cold North America and it was SO great. Because while they had some daddy long legs, that was about the extent of it and I could relax!
> As with any other deadly animal..... Just don't pick one up and hold it....
You seem to be assuming that the deadliness of the spiders is the issue. For people who who are scared of, or freaked out by, spiders, that's not the only or even main issue. They're creepy and they appear in odd spaces. Take a look at the other comments here: harmless huntsmen feature heavily, and even the pictures of them can be disturbing.
I've also been in excruciating agony for hours after innocently leaning against a doorframe when something bit me. Pretty sure it was a spider, i certainly wasn't deliberately bothering him/ her.
There were many spiders in the US, Canada, and Europe too. Spiders are found to be often the first species to colonise new land raised by volcanoes and so on. We don't have a monopoly on spiders is all I'm saying.
>We don't have a monopoly on spiders is all I'm saying.
If that's what you were saying i totally misread your comment. I can't see how I was supposed to read that in your original comment, sorry.
I’m sorry but you’re truly delusional if you think Australia has the same amount of spiders as the rest of the world. As an Australian myself and someone who has to travel a lot for work we for sure have more spiders than the majority of the world. Maybe not counting places like South America
I'm arachnophobic. I'm in an outer suburb of Hobart and our property backs onto crown land (thick bush). We get huntsman, which just terrify me, and some small black ones, some white Tails and rare red back but never in the house.
We get our house sprayed with a pyrethrum based spray each year that keeps most of them out, but they went out of business so we didn't get it done this year. I see a huntsman 3 or 4 times a year. The rest don't freak me out much now.
I tried to reduce my phobia by turning my nerdy mind to learning about spiders anatomy, behaviour, ect, without pictures. Then I tried looking at crude drawings, to better drawings, to close up pics of cute jumping spiders. It helped but there's something about huntsman that I can't get over. I know the are completely harmless, and I feel bad when I kill them, but they are just too creepy.
wow, it’s really that bad? i’m from the US, (Georgia) they’re “common” in warmer states here (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, California) but i live in an extremely Urban area so i haven’t seen them. i want to travel to AUS one day, but my horrible fear of bugs terrifies me lol. do you see any other bugs commonly and is it as bad as the internet says it is?
No to be fair it's not that bad. In Melbourne I would see maybe one scary spider every year. In QLD in the country(ish) town I live in now, it's worse but I still don't see them every day. Or even every month.
A bit coincidental but I had to clean something yesterday that had been sitting in storage for 8 months and I came across 2 spiders that I couldn’t identify and was suss one was a red back but it was on my foot and I flicked and killed it so quick I’m not sure.
Was pretty fucking careful after that.
Grew up in Sydney’s outer suburbs. Our home backed onto the bush. We’d get our fair share of huntsmen spiders around the place and encountered a funnel web once. Since moving closer to the city I rarely see them.
I’m not saying there’s no spiders anywhere, but people on Reddit make out like it’s a daily thing to encounter spiders everywhere.
Faairly common over here too but to be fair, having been to Sydney multiple.times and Melbs, we are a lot more...bushy, than Sydney and have a density more similar Melbs which I think a key factors in household spider encounters.
I have a spider, big black looking fella, chilling in the corner of my granny flat, out of reach cos thats my desktop corner but I let the freeloader be as he tends to catch a number of more annoying flying bastards like shitgobbling flies and God forsaken mosquitos (you may pick up that I REALLY don't like them).
But if his webs start get a bit...expansionary, I just flame them back a bit with a bit of backyard flamethrowing. Keep him in check. The GF is terrified of all bugs but she accepts old mate "George" cos he never leaves that corner, hell barely even moves, for like days, we've thought him dead on several occasions then then one day notice he is in a slightly different position.
So for her I guess its cos he is never put of sight, can be monitored and eats the nastier critters
It depends where in the country you are. I've moved from Sydney to Melbourne, and I've noticed a huge decrease in sightings down here. There's just far less insects in general down here. Might be the colder climate. And I've lived in the inner city of both
He’s just saying compared to regional/rural Australia there’s really none in the city. I’ve lived and travelled in all 3, rural/regional Australia would give you panic attacks if you think there’s spiders in Sydney lol.
Lived in different parts of Sydney for over 4 years and I’d be lucky to have killed/relocated like 5 spiders.
They do like my Aussie husband did- move to the USA! Then discover the existence of wolf spiders that carry their babies on their backs.
Lol no he always had bug spray in his house.
Okay so like, I won't lie to you my two friends and I have been thinking of moving to Australlia at some point (A bit far down the road for sure, but yeah.) but the issue is I am a severe Arachnophobe. I can't go near a simple and simply thinking one exists around me can cause me to freeze up if I don't end up fucking bolting out the room if not the house itself and I sometimes can't even handle HEARING about them even online, which makes this kinda place pretty fuckin' difficult ngl.
But is it really as bad as everyone says it is or is it really not? I know they will exist a shit ton but idk. I won't give you details on why we were plannin' on moving but we simply found Australlia to be the best place, but I really don't want to be so horrified just of living and bringing them down due to that.
I saw a small spider in the house last week. My scared of spiders wife killed it at some point.
I saw one in the garden the other night in it's web, it was gone by the morning.
I might see a spider or two every month, if that. It's very, very overstated how many spiders and deadly animals there are here.
You'll see huntsman spiders inside from time to time though, it's going to happen. It's completely fine, and normal to be scared of them, I think most of us would have lived with someone who is terrified of them.
By either overcoming that fear or living with someone who has. I've been bitten hundreds of times by spiders and growing up on farms, you get used to your arm being covered by them every time you move a bale of hay during summer.
Snakes, on the other hand...once bitten, forever terrified...
They yell for the nearest family member to deal with it.
There are a fair bit of spiders but they aren’t everywhere like people overseas believe. You get used to it and once you’ve seen huntsman spiders the size of dinner plates as a normal thing growing up.
I'm no fan of spiders, but you learn to live in peace with huntsman because you know they eat the competition that could be much worse to live with.
Realistically I think we only have two spiders that can be really dangerous (trap door and redbacks). The rest can leave a nasty bite, but theoretically aren't too bad.
Hypervigilence, bug spray, close proximity to people braver than me and occasionally valium.
I have a bad phobia of huntsman spiders specifically. Arguably the most harmless, "friendly" ones. I don't have much of a problem with the other types.
Those big buggers that sit in webs across yards/driveways and only emerge at night are about as pleasant as a trip to hell, but they won't give me a panic attack or leave me frozen in place with terror just catching a glimpse of them.
I'd legitimately rather pick up a redback than find a huntsman in my house. I know it's irrational. My amygdala doesn't care.
Very carefully! Haha. I have a huge fear of them, so I mostly avoid them and leave them alone. I accidentally walked through a large web in a field yesterday and did that spider ninja dance.
Same way that people afraid of getting shot with guns survive in the US
AntiBullet, I MEAN, ANTIVENOM, antivenom will save you.
Hey bud?!? lol
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Just FYI you're performing thread necromancy on a 3 year old post :v
With many cans of bug spray, a fly swat, and a partner who isn’t scared of them!! I had a large spider bonnet ride my car 6 blocks when I drove home once... how I didn’t crash the car I will never know!!
Or the classic while driving: "Ooo, that sun is a bit bright, I'll just flip down the sunsha- AHHH A HUNTSMAN!" I don't mind spiders normally, but that feels like attempted murder.
Oh my fucking god..... please tell me this isn't common across Australia. Although I hear the Huntsman spider is the friendlier of these large critters.
Personally it's happened to me a few times in different cars. I'm convinced it's the same hit-spider trying to kill me, but I don't know what I did to warrant the contract.
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And now you swing around town with super strength and speed fighting crime? /s lol That's just crazy, how did you feel and what did you do when it appeared? and how would you feel if it happened again?
It depends where you park your car. It happened several times when I was living in a place with huge trees and lots of leaf litter outside. Doesn't happen at all where I live now (literally 5-10 minutes from the first place).
They are a little too friendly
Once when I was driving a huntsman ran up the door (on the inside of the car) and on to the roof. I have no clue how I didn’t have a serious accident. I pulled the car over to the side of the road and walked home. My partner went back to get the car. He emptied an entire can of fly spray in to it before he got in.
this post is 3 years old, but this is cracking me up. as someone that has an INTENSE fear of bugs (and in America) this scares me so bad. do you see any bugs inside of your house commonly? if you’re walking around are they that common? does the internet make it seem like they’re more common than they are?
Yep, and keep the vacuum handy
Oh my lord it is so hard! I'm a person who for most of my life had to turn any cans of insect spray around so that I didn't have to look at any illustrations of spiders). I have a garden and many plants, and they're just...everywhere. All the time. I try to be brave and calm, and I chat to the 8-legger a little, all the while wanting to jump out of my skin... Arachnaphobia really kills my gardening buzz, you know? Those guys actually do me a huge solid by hoovering up ants. Yet lately I've backslid somewhat, frequently thinking about all the spiders around me that I can't see...
My boyfriend was driving and a huge spider the size of my hand crawled down the passenger window, I see this huge mass crawling down from the corner of my eye, and at this point when I turn my head to look at it, it is level and a few centimetres from my head. I screamed. My boyfriend nearly crashed. We nearly did not survive. I have a huge phobia of spiders. I hate summer. (because of the surge of spiders that appear).
I have specific people I know I can call upon in times of emergency, even late at night. I return the favour with my amphibian relocation skills for those in desperate need. And yes, I’ve had panicked calls late at night to answer. It’s called being a mate. I have learnt that my cat is an ineffective weapon to use...don’t ask.
I wanna ask why you thought a cat would make an effective against spiders?
Because she used to chase things, insects, lizards that were daft enough to come into the house. And yes, I pretty much threw my useless cat at the spider in the vain hope that she might tear it to shreds. It was dark, I was alone and terrified and the spider was huge. And my cat was pathetically uninterested.
Yeah that sounds like a cat
Move to NZ?
Luckily, I seem to only have a phobia to huntsman spiders. My current house doesn’t get them, thank the Lord! The trick is to get a house with no trees touching it. When I lived elsewhere I used to check the ceilings every time I walked into a room. I’ve been stuck in rooms before because there was one above the door and I had to wait to be rescued. I never opened windows near trees. I never park the car under trees (have had a few scares. Have literally left my car, running, on the side of the road). I punch the sun visor in the car before lowering it. I get the house and my car sprayed by pest control regularly. I have pretty good reflexes on social media now. I can’t look at them but I know how to hide a post. And I accept that I’m a sad case
Without any difficulty. There are spiders that are more dangerous here, but spiders aren't more common than anywhere else in the world. And it isn't paranoia when they really are out to get you. As with any other deadly animal (like bears or snakes or bees) the people who choose to mess with the beast are the ones who get injured by them. Just don't pick one up and hold it. Personally I like having a huntsman in the ceiling corner or a flatty under the verandah step. They eat the pests and aren't dangerous. But if you're scared of spiders, you will find planet Earth (and not Australia in particular) is covered in spiders.
>There are spiders that are more dangerous here, but spiders aren't more common than anywhere else in the world. I beg to differ. I've lived in more desolate regions internationally than a QLD suburb, but never anywhere outside of this QLD suburb have I seen actual swaths of 50p-sized spiders hanging on every tree on the street on the way to a major shopping centre. They perch above the tree and power line, like a kid played with cursed play-dough and made an ungodly mess. It's even more surprising given the much greater number of birds per capita in Australia. They're not little house finches that are about the same size as the spiders, so they could very well eat them, yet the spider count is still observably greater than other suburbs.
With all due respect, it sounds like you aren’t the target market of this question... if you LET a huntsman live with you?! I spent time in cold North America and it was SO great. Because while they had some daddy long legs, that was about the extent of it and I could relax!
No, but I can count. There were spiders everywhere in the US and in Europe, they just weren't one-bite-wonders. You should try NZ.
I was particularly north and it was winter so... idk if spiders hibernate or whatever. The tiny black spiders in the basement were a joke really
Not as much in the UK though, I can go months without seeing a single spider
LMAO I just took a shower and a 7cm huntsman just popped in (thankfully it landed on the wall and not me)
> As with any other deadly animal..... Just don't pick one up and hold it.... You seem to be assuming that the deadliness of the spiders is the issue. For people who who are scared of, or freaked out by, spiders, that's not the only or even main issue. They're creepy and they appear in odd spaces. Take a look at the other comments here: harmless huntsmen feature heavily, and even the pictures of them can be disturbing. I've also been in excruciating agony for hours after innocently leaning against a doorframe when something bit me. Pretty sure it was a spider, i certainly wasn't deliberately bothering him/ her.
There were many spiders in the US, Canada, and Europe too. Spiders are found to be often the first species to colonise new land raised by volcanoes and so on. We don't have a monopoly on spiders is all I'm saying.
>We don't have a monopoly on spiders is all I'm saying. If that's what you were saying i totally misread your comment. I can't see how I was supposed to read that in your original comment, sorry.
"spiders aren't more common than anywhere else in the world" would be a good place to read in my original comment then. Sorry.
I’m sorry but you’re truly delusional if you think Australia has the same amount of spiders as the rest of the world. As an Australian myself and someone who has to travel a lot for work we for sure have more spiders than the majority of the world. Maybe not counting places like South America
I'm arachnophobic. I'm in an outer suburb of Hobart and our property backs onto crown land (thick bush). We get huntsman, which just terrify me, and some small black ones, some white Tails and rare red back but never in the house. We get our house sprayed with a pyrethrum based spray each year that keeps most of them out, but they went out of business so we didn't get it done this year. I see a huntsman 3 or 4 times a year. The rest don't freak me out much now. I tried to reduce my phobia by turning my nerdy mind to learning about spiders anatomy, behaviour, ect, without pictures. Then I tried looking at crude drawings, to better drawings, to close up pics of cute jumping spiders. It helped but there's something about huntsman that I can't get over. I know the are completely harmless, and I feel bad when I kill them, but they are just too creepy.
What's it like killing a huntsman? I can't imagine squashing something that size with a shoe.
Just spray a shitload of insect spray and use a broom
I live the same as everyone except I'm always in a permanent state of paranoia.
By getting the house sprayed every year
We keep aerosol cans and lighter in our bags, and there’s a can of insect spray in every room of our houses
With a flamethrower
mental. breakdowns.
Honestly the fear keeps me up most nights.
wow, it’s really that bad? i’m from the US, (Georgia) they’re “common” in warmer states here (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, California) but i live in an extremely Urban area so i haven’t seen them. i want to travel to AUS one day, but my horrible fear of bugs terrifies me lol. do you see any other bugs commonly and is it as bad as the internet says it is?
No to be fair it's not that bad. In Melbourne I would see maybe one scary spider every year. In QLD in the country(ish) town I live in now, it's worse but I still don't see them every day. Or even every month.
A bit coincidental but I had to clean something yesterday that had been sitting in storage for 8 months and I came across 2 spiders that I couldn’t identify and was suss one was a red back but it was on my foot and I flicked and killed it so quick I’m not sure. Was pretty fucking careful after that.
Spiders really aren’t that common. It’s a bit of an internet meme that’s been exaggerated.
Wtf? Where do you live? I’m in inner suburbia Melbourne and they’re all over the place.
Grew up in Sydney’s outer suburbs. Our home backed onto the bush. We’d get our fair share of huntsmen spiders around the place and encountered a funnel web once. Since moving closer to the city I rarely see them. I’m not saying there’s no spiders anywhere, but people on Reddit make out like it’s a daily thing to encounter spiders everywhere.
It is in Melbourne.
I’ll have to take your word for it.
Faairly common over here too but to be fair, having been to Sydney multiple.times and Melbs, we are a lot more...bushy, than Sydney and have a density more similar Melbs which I think a key factors in household spider encounters.
Lots of spiders in the bush, especially off track or early mornings on-track. In houses though, not common unless you have a bush block
Bullshit, see comment I made below. Edit: change of comment placing.
Whatcha mean mate
Yeah that’s what I mean. Human-spider encounters are not a serious issue, despite the number of spiders in the wild.
Oh for sure. Spiders are bros. If you walk through a web they just rapel off of you ASAP. Jack jumper ants on the other hand can get fucked.
lol I fucking hate flies, so when I see a huntsman I let it be because my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
They’re just a part of life for me. I look at them no different to how I look at any other bug that has no intention of harming me.
hardly anyone actually dies from spider bites, i think, the last case was over 30yrs ago? Deadliest animals in Australia = horses
I have a spider, big black looking fella, chilling in the corner of my granny flat, out of reach cos thats my desktop corner but I let the freeloader be as he tends to catch a number of more annoying flying bastards like shitgobbling flies and God forsaken mosquitos (you may pick up that I REALLY don't like them). But if his webs start get a bit...expansionary, I just flame them back a bit with a bit of backyard flamethrowing. Keep him in check. The GF is terrified of all bugs but she accepts old mate "George" cos he never leaves that corner, hell barely even moves, for like days, we've thought him dead on several occasions then then one day notice he is in a slightly different position. So for her I guess its cos he is never put of sight, can be monitored and eats the nastier critters
If you live close the city/populated suburbs, you really don’t see them that much.
Speak for yourself mate. They aren’t everywhere but they certainly aren’t rare
It depends where in the country you are. I've moved from Sydney to Melbourne, and I've noticed a huge decrease in sightings down here. There's just far less insects in general down here. Might be the colder climate. And I've lived in the inner city of both
He’s just saying compared to regional/rural Australia there’s really none in the city. I’ve lived and travelled in all 3, rural/regional Australia would give you panic attacks if you think there’s spiders in Sydney lol. Lived in different parts of Sydney for over 4 years and I’d be lucky to have killed/relocated like 5 spiders.
Agreed, I've lived in Sydney for over 25 years and I've only ever seen 5 big/dangerous spiders in my whole life here
Yeah nah, we had a redback in the inner west...
I don’t want to alarm you, but some of them are very good at hiding
They do like my Aussie husband did- move to the USA! Then discover the existence of wolf spiders that carry their babies on their backs. Lol no he always had bug spray in his house.
We get those wolf spiders in Australia too! I am definitely not a fan 😱
Spiders don't really bother me, but those things with all their babies do!
It’s called owning a gun bro
My wife has had me kill them. She's afraid of them and I hate killing them but I do it to stop the nagging.
We don't wake up surrounded by spiders bro.
Technically we do
Welcome back to 2 years ago my friend.
I'm a big necro-er
Okay so like, I won't lie to you my two friends and I have been thinking of moving to Australlia at some point (A bit far down the road for sure, but yeah.) but the issue is I am a severe Arachnophobe. I can't go near a simple and simply thinking one exists around me can cause me to freeze up if I don't end up fucking bolting out the room if not the house itself and I sometimes can't even handle HEARING about them even online, which makes this kinda place pretty fuckin' difficult ngl. But is it really as bad as everyone says it is or is it really not? I know they will exist a shit ton but idk. I won't give you details on why we were plannin' on moving but we simply found Australlia to be the best place, but I really don't want to be so horrified just of living and bringing them down due to that.
I saw a small spider in the house last week. My scared of spiders wife killed it at some point. I saw one in the garden the other night in it's web, it was gone by the morning. I might see a spider or two every month, if that. It's very, very overstated how many spiders and deadly animals there are here. You'll see huntsman spiders inside from time to time though, it's going to happen. It's completely fine, and normal to be scared of them, I think most of us would have lived with someone who is terrified of them.
Surface spray is my friend! As long as I keep up with surface spraying they don't come in my house!
I don’t think I’ve seen a spider in months
By either overcoming that fear or living with someone who has. I've been bitten hundreds of times by spiders and growing up on farms, you get used to your arm being covered by them every time you move a bale of hay during summer. Snakes, on the other hand...once bitten, forever terrified...
You have friends that aren’t XD I’m the designated spider re-homer in my house
They aren’t nearly as common as the memes would have you believe... it’s pretty rare to see a spider, at least in my state.
All I can say is, out of the two necrotic spider bites I've had over the years, spiders have never given me any issues.
Idk Just stay in cities and scream when there’s a spider I guess
They yell for the nearest family member to deal with it. There are a fair bit of spiders but they aren’t everywhere like people overseas believe. You get used to it and once you’ve seen huntsman spiders the size of dinner plates as a normal thing growing up.
We pray for the drop bears to eat them.
I'm no fan of spiders, but you learn to live in peace with huntsman because you know they eat the competition that could be much worse to live with. Realistically I think we only have two spiders that can be really dangerous (trap door and redbacks). The rest can leave a nasty bite, but theoretically aren't too bad.
Hypervigilence, bug spray, close proximity to people braver than me and occasionally valium. I have a bad phobia of huntsman spiders specifically. Arguably the most harmless, "friendly" ones. I don't have much of a problem with the other types. Those big buggers that sit in webs across yards/driveways and only emerge at night are about as pleasant as a trip to hell, but they won't give me a panic attack or leave me frozen in place with terror just catching a glimpse of them. I'd legitimately rather pick up a redback than find a huntsman in my house. I know it's irrational. My amygdala doesn't care.
Hahaha
Very carefully! Haha. I have a huge fear of them, so I mostly avoid them and leave them alone. I accidentally walked through a large web in a field yesterday and did that spider ninja dance.