Boris The Spider

[any fans of the The Who in the house?]

So...I'm I think what a mental health professional would classify as an arachnophobe. My fear of spiders is primal, and completely irrational. When I see footage of someone letting a big hairy spider crawl on themselves, I'm uncomfortable, and if someone ever put one on me, I'm afraid I would inadvertently kill it in my spastic response.

So imagine my surprise today when I opened Joely's drapes and noticed a Very Large Spider curled up outside in her window sill.

It looked dead, and upon further inspection (done via timid poking with an extended tape measure), this was verified to be true. So, I called Joely and we had a spider fear desensitization session.


When I found him he was all curled up, as he is on the standard letter page in the photo above. Still don't think he's fairly big? OK, take a look at the "legs spread out" version, with the scale inserted:


Easily the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of a museum or zoo.

I'm pretty sure this is a Huntsman spider, which according to this is not a spider to be concerned about (!!) as its bite only will cause pain and localized swelling. In fact, the above article goes on to say that many Australians will "relocate" these spiders from their house or vehicles to the garden.

Not this temporary Australian. I'm not sure what I'll do, but I very highly doubt it will involve "relocation". Maybe "relocation" of me, or my boot to on top of the spider, but I don't think if I'm on the loo and one of these guys scoots across the floor he will live to tell about it.

Apparently the only spider to be concerned about here in Perth is the redback, a relative of the black widow. I haven't seen one yet, but that's not a bad thing.

They say the huntsman moves very fast and can "pop into" your car if you leave your windows open.

I'm going outside now to make sure ours are closed.