In a Facebook post on the Australian spider identification page, Jake Gray shocked the internet by showing off his family’s roommate for the past year, Charlotte the enormous huntsman spider.
Gray considers the gecko-eating spider “housemate material” and has enjoyed watching her grow since she started showing up at his house 12 months ago.
Here’s a look at their “housemate”…
Photo Credit: Jake Gray
“Huntsman spiders have always been tolerated in our home due to their appetite for cockroaches, and we don’t use toxic kill all chemicals for pests,” Jake said to IFLScience. “Just point and push fly sprays.”
Gray named the spider Charlotte after the book Charlotte’s Web to calm his kids’ fear.
While Gray received many online warning posts, this particular species is not as harmful as its size would suggest.
Banded huntsman or Sydney huntsman spiders prefer to run away rather than bite when threatened, and if they do release venom, its effect is mild. They are mostly safe to keep around the house and can act as pest removal, on critters usually smaller than this possum.
Horrifying Photo Shows A Huntsman Spider Eating A Whole Possumhttps://t.co/z1iuiATDpN pic.twitter.com/Y7NvA528Xv
— IFLScience (@IFLScience) June 19, 2019
If you do come across a huntsman spider, which is fast and can grow as big as 6 inches, the first thing is to stay calm.
“Second, find a take-away container, scoop the spider into the container and release it outside,” behavioral ecologist and spider expert Linda S. Rayor writes in The Conversation.
She added, “Huntsman spiders almost never bite humans since they rely on speed to escape most predators. When they do bite, most bites are quick defensive nips without injecting venom.”
So yeah… now you know!
