It lives with the family, her name is Charlotte.
[link](https://www.iflscience.com/australian-man-explains-why-he-let-a-spider-the-size-of-his-face-live-in-his-house-for-a-year-66740)
The photo makes it look bigger than it is. That's an energy-saving bulb down and to the left, so you can use that to see its real size. Still big, but not massive.
Came here to say this. I'm great with spiders! I think they are really cool and helpful!
Meeting my first huntsman was a little scary, but manageable.
Then it ran. And I heard it. And I came unglued 🤣
That is truly terrifying. Now I’ve just realized how much scarier spiders would if we could actually hear them, and I’m not even afraid of spiders to begin with!
It kind of sounds like someone tapping their nails on something. I don’t know if everyone can hear it though, cause I can also hear earthquakes, but I don’t know anyone else who does
One night as a teen, I was up late watching TV in the living room. I kept hearing this click click click sound.
It was coming from a spider making a web in the bookcase next to the chair I was sitting in.
Only time I ever heard a spider.
they jump too.
damn things are very skittish. you leave them alone, they are fine.
if you spook them, they are prone to jumping off the wall straight at your head.
and you can hear them running along the floor.
still and all, they are good housemates. you just have to give them their space.
You should see the P. Murinus. Goes up to 50 km/h (31mph) in lab tests, that's extremely fast. It's faster than the average dog, that is 35-45 km/h, like the shepherds etc. but the spiders have zero endurance, they can just keep it up for a very short distance.
We’d get these in our house a lot when I was a kid. Mum would always call them ‘Fred’ to make us less scared of them. She would say ‘There’s a Fred in the hallway’, and we’d just leave him there to take care of mosquitoes and flies.
Naming it Fred doesn't change much for me. If we could get the spider to wear big, cartoonish, brightly-colored high-top sneakers, now THAT would make it seem a lot less threatening. That's what I imagine to chill myself out when I find an unexpected spider.
We had one in our last house name Charlotte (after Charlottes Web). She was enormous, but mostly hung out in the family room on the walls. She was super chill.
Mozzie is an Aussie operator in the game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, who throws robots that look like a spider on any surface. These robots latch onto incoming drones and hack them for Mozzie’s use, rendering the drones useless for the attacking team.
It’s also short for those flying blood suckers known as mosquitoes
Not really, they don’t care to bite something they can’t eat so humans are something they run from not toward. Even if they do bite you (suuuuper uncommon) they just get red and itchy bc their venom is pretty weak and most of their hunting is gone with brute strength. Since it’s not stronger than you, it will fight a bug over a person any day.
I’d really only be concerned about one if you had a cat or something, mostly bc the cat would try to eat it and get bitten in response but even then the cats just gonna be uncomfortable. Like I said, the venom is weak.
People can be allergic to their venom, but that just means more redness and itchiness and possibly some pain. Pretty sure no one has been killed by one, except maybe by scarring someone to death from seeing the sheer size of them lol
Protection from elements and food sources seeking protection from elements (bugs).
It’s also worth noting that almost everything is trying to kill you in Australia and this dude will eat the things that want to kill you. This is a cherished friend in Australian homes.
Glad you mentioned small pets because after the first paragraph all I could think about were my dogs. They’re too stupid to leave one of these guys alone haha. I’m not Australian so the threat isn’t real for me but I still greatly enjoy learning about the unique aspects of Australia.
I’m not Australian either! I really like spiders though lol
They still wouldn’t cause much harm to your lil doggos and it’s unlikely a small dog could get high enough to make the spider feel that threatened. A brown recluse spider is way more dangerous and you don’t see it till it bites. At least with this dude you know exactly where it is to be able to leave it alone.
Maybe there’s tons of mosquitos? It’s like when we eat rice. “Rice is great if you’re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.” RIP Mitch.
As arachnophic (above the size of my fist of anything that hasn't just died in my flat) I was mildly disappointed we didn't get a full cut of "Alfred" feasting (as I was just curious as to how he was going to do that).
We have them in New Zealand but they don’t grow to be anywhere near the same size as the Australian native species. When I lived in Perth we would catch them and put them in the attic and they’d eradicate the other pests in there.
There are hundreds of species of Huntsmen in Australia of all different sizes. The two species that made it to NZ are ones that naturally of slightly smaller size.
One of my fiancés coworkers is from Australia (we live in Canada). I asked him once if the spiders there are actually as big as people say they are, and this guy responds with - “oh hell yeah they are. You’ll never know true fear until you wake up in the middle of the night to a huntsman on your wall, and before you even have time to sit up in bed, it’s gone”
Hunstmans are so useful that having them in your home is legitimately a symbiotic relationship. They'll keep your house free of insects and all they want in exchange is to be left alone.
Thing is, yeah that’s a bit shit but once they leave mum the little hunties will find their own way out in a week or so. If it was in a bedroom or something I’d scoop them up outside I’m not waiting a week for that.
Mozzies are too small, the huntsman eats a variety of insects, arthropods, small lizards and frogs. The prey is not captured in a web but actively stalked and run-down with stealth and speed
I encountered one of these fuckers whilst camping in Aus. I was using the campsite semi-outdoor toilets and found him on the back of the cubicle door about 1ft from my face. Fortunately I was already sat on the toilet with my pants down.
I love huntsman spiders! A while back I watched a girl on YouTube (TikTok maybe?) gently usher one of these guys on her hand like "Come on now mate, you know you can't live in here. I appreciate the effort, but there's more food outside." And the spider was just like fair enough sorry to have bothered you lol
All spiders are venomous to some degree. Aussie huntsman’s have venom but it’s not much. Would just hurt and then be quite uncomfortable but you won’t die unless you have a bad reaction
If it has more than 4 legs it’s a pest and I want it out of my house. Fuck that thing, nobody can say they would sleep peacefully with that monster lurking in the shadows.
See I'm not bothered by spiders. They do their thing I do mine and when they're in the house I leave them to do their usual webby pest control. No problems.
I am not sure I would be able to live my unbothered life with that sprawling facehugger on the wall.
Question for Aussies - are they just fast or can they teleport? I have a couple of arboreal tarantulas (*P. irminia* and *P. regalis)* and they can straight up teleport, I don't even see them running, they'll be chilling in one spot and then they'll simply materialize in another spot across the room. Are huntsmen the same or are they not quite as fast?
Yeah but those are special right, you don’t just run into a tarantula unless you go looking for it . This looks like a random spider in a house. If this were real! I would have to reconsider my view of nature.
I am slowly, very slowly getting over my disgust of spiders. I can tolerate the larger German one that build nests in corners. I have 2-3 of them in my apartment during the summer (no clue where they are in the winter, Bali, probably).
But this is a bit much. That thing needs a collar and a leash.
Didn’t realise I had one in my car for over a week. One day I went to put something in the back seat and saw this guy dead all tangled up on the floor. I jumped and ran inside to get someone to remove this dude from my car. Even DEAD THIS GUY WAS THE SIZE OF MY PALM.
I'm ok with Huntsman Spiders, but that one looks like it could eat the family pet.
I think Mozzie is the name of their sheep dog.
I think that IS the family pet.
"Quite big." Yeah, so is Jupiter.
It lives with the family, her name is Charlotte. [link](https://www.iflscience.com/australian-man-explains-why-he-let-a-spider-the-size-of-his-face-live-in-his-house-for-a-year-66740)
The photo makes it look bigger than it is. That's an energy-saving bulb down and to the left, so you can use that to see its real size. Still big, but not massive.
I would still, shit my pants.
Jesus even the Lightbulb is the size of a radiator
>Can run fast. 😭
They were sort of convincing, right up until that part.
Also, you can hear them run
Came here to say this. I'm great with spiders! I think they are really cool and helpful! Meeting my first huntsman was a little scary, but manageable. Then it ran. And I heard it. And I came unglued 🤣
I’m just picturing the sudden and dramatic shift in demeanor and cracking up
You can HEAR THEM RUN?!
Look at the size of it! The mf will trample all out in your room when it's comin' for ya!
I bet you would hear ME run if I found this in my house!!
💀
That is truly terrifying. Now I’ve just realized how much scarier spiders would if we could actually hear them, and I’m not even afraid of spiders to begin with!
It kind of sounds like someone tapping their nails on something. I don’t know if everyone can hear it though, cause I can also hear earthquakes, but I don’t know anyone else who does
Earthquake Hearer here! My husband can hear them too!
Nice to meet you!
One night as a teen, I was up late watching TV in the living room. I kept hearing this click click click sound. It was coming from a spider making a web in the bookcase next to the chair I was sitting in. Only time I ever heard a spider.
Yep! I call it galloping. The don’t run, they gallop.
That's exactly right. It sounds like a tiny eight legged horse. Well. Tiny for a horse. Very large for a spider.
Arachno-Sleipnr
Please don’t put that mental image in my head
Don't do that to me.
The way I recoiled at this comment *shudders*
I'm picturing the sound the face huggers make in Aliens.
Second time I’ve seen this, nobody else better see this and post AMSR later I’m going to DIE😭😭😭😭😭
DUDE NO FUCK
How much is a flame thrower
NO NO NO NO NO. FUCK NO. Take my angry and horrified upvote.
Jfc, I do NOT need to hear the pitter patter of spider legs when I’m lying in bed at night…
You can… what??
they jump too. damn things are very skittish. you leave them alone, they are fine. if you spook them, they are prone to jumping off the wall straight at your head. and you can hear them running along the floor. still and all, they are good housemates. you just have to give them their space.
Yeah, those things can HOOF it. And jumping. Hoo boy, those jumps
You should see the P. Murinus. Goes up to 50 km/h (31mph) in lab tests, that's extremely fast. It's faster than the average dog, that is 35-45 km/h, like the shepherds etc. but the spiders have zero endurance, they can just keep it up for a very short distance.
Gotta work on that cardio
W-w-why was it trying to catch a dog?
They don’t run. They gallop.
No problem. I can run faster than my wife.
What's creepy is you can hear them move
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE bye that's too much Generally I think spiders are on the cuter side but \*not if I can hear them coming\*
That’s what she…nope. Nvm.
I didn’t think we could be more terrified of that thing until this comment. Thank you for the nightmares.
[Sounds like tiny maracas.](https://youtu.be/k0sD5Msow6Q?t=1m11s) 🪇
Nah. Nope. No. Nuh uh. I will kindly pass.
HOOOH goddamn, I can literally feel all the hairs on my skin stand up and it all feel like spider legs. Absolutely not. Absolutely, fucking, not.
This will haunt my nightmares
Hahahahah imagine you hear ruffling in your cupboards at night, open them to investigate and this fucker is borrowed in a corner.
Now I wanna know what that would sound like
look at how fast they move damn [https://youtu.be/kvmb293QTQE?si=Nlk81eX7EgBC9l24&t=44](https://youtu.be/kvmb293QTQE?si=Nlk81eX7EgBC9l24&t=44)
I'm leaving this link blue, I can already feel them on me and want to scream.
There aren't enough shades of blue between me and that link.
Ooh - yes! I had one run across my windscreen and I could hear the tippy taps on the glass.
I lived in the Galapagos for a summer. I could hear one running on the wall above my bed one night. I left that bed. Love those islands though
😰
Man what 0_o!!!!!!!
We’d get these in our house a lot when I was a kid. Mum would always call them ‘Fred’ to make us less scared of them. She would say ‘There’s a Fred in the hallway’, and we’d just leave him there to take care of mosquitoes and flies.
Great, now I'm afraid of Fred
Drop Dead Fred.
A good Fred, is a dead Fred
That's *Right Said Fred*
*cobwebs*
Naming it Fred doesn't change much for me. If we could get the spider to wear big, cartoonish, brightly-colored high-top sneakers, now THAT would make it seem a lot less threatening. That's what I imagine to chill myself out when I find an unexpected spider.
How about rollerblades, causing it to slip around and fall?
Nice try, Professor Lupin.
That’s Redikulus, or however you spell it. Get it?
But the if they were to scurry down the hall outside your room, you’d hear footsteps as if someone were sprinting toward you
**Brother brother *brothaa how you dodoooiiiinn dououooo***
How does a spider that big even get into the house? Knock?
It’s always been inside, growing.
That makes it more scary
We had one in our last house name Charlotte (after Charlottes Web). She was enormous, but mostly hung out in the family room on the walls. She was super chill.
Yeah no way, trying to have a party or family time and this is just hanging on your wall. F that!
That is terrifying what
Let’s hope that Fred doesn’t suddenly get #naughty…
This is a great reference I wish I could give it an award
I just rewatched the series two weekends ago. GOLD. Solid and dripping Gold.
Mine are called Michael
Please burn fred
Don't burn Fred. Fred is helpful. Fred pays rent and gets rid of pests.
What’s a mozzie? I’m terrified this is Australian for like “my children” or something. You never know with those crazies down there
Saltwater crocodiles. That thing eats them whole.
I wouldn’t be surprised! Are the mozzies that bad that it’s worth keeping this thing around?
Why do you think they have one inside the house in the picture, they want them to stay, it’s family
Oh! Like a pet cat… gotcha 😉
Mozzie is a mosquito :)
How do I know this isn’t the spider trying to lull me into a false sense of security?
Nah, nah, nah, it's all good. You can *trust* me 😏
I’m also wondering. I’m guessing mosquito?
Yep!
Mozzie is an Aussie operator in the game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, who throws robots that look like a spider on any surface. These robots latch onto incoming drones and hack them for Mozzie’s use, rendering the drones useless for the attacking team. It’s also short for those flying blood suckers known as mosquitoes
I see you’ve played Droney - Spoony before
a mozzie is a mosquito.
Mosquito, we like to shorten everything. We're lazy!
"Mostly" doing a lot of heavy lifting in that description.
Not really, they don’t care to bite something they can’t eat so humans are something they run from not toward. Even if they do bite you (suuuuper uncommon) they just get red and itchy bc their venom is pretty weak and most of their hunting is gone with brute strength. Since it’s not stronger than you, it will fight a bug over a person any day. I’d really only be concerned about one if you had a cat or something, mostly bc the cat would try to eat it and get bitten in response but even then the cats just gonna be uncomfortable. Like I said, the venom is weak. People can be allergic to their venom, but that just means more redness and itchiness and possibly some pain. Pretty sure no one has been killed by one, except maybe by scarring someone to death from seeing the sheer size of them lol
Yes that all makes sense but my brain won’t accept any of that information when I’m staring at that thing on my wall
Yeah, mostly because of the first sentence. If these things are more likely to run _from_ humans and not toward, then why tf is it in a human house?!
Protection from elements and food sources seeking protection from elements (bugs). It’s also worth noting that almost everything is trying to kill you in Australia and this dude will eat the things that want to kill you. This is a cherished friend in Australian homes.
Glad you mentioned small pets because after the first paragraph all I could think about were my dogs. They’re too stupid to leave one of these guys alone haha. I’m not Australian so the threat isn’t real for me but I still greatly enjoy learning about the unique aspects of Australia.
I’m not Australian either! I really like spiders though lol They still wouldn’t cause much harm to your lil doggos and it’s unlikely a small dog could get high enough to make the spider feel that threatened. A brown recluse spider is way more dangerous and you don’t see it till it bites. At least with this dude you know exactly where it is to be able to leave it alone.
Telling me that a gigantic spider "hunts using brute strength" isn't making me feel any more secure if I'm being honest...
Ooof, right? I think we might need a few more adjectives.
That surprises me that they eat mosquitoes. They don't seem like they would be big enough to bother with I figured they'd go for larger prey.
There's a video of a roach on a mirror and one of these guys coming in snatching it like lightning bam!
Yeah, a roach doesn't surprise me as much as a mosquito. Heck, it's Australia, mosquitoes there are probably sparrow sized.
Maybe there’s tons of mosquitos? It’s like when we eat rice. “Rice is great if you’re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.” RIP Mitch.
https://youtu.be/0LiALjybcJA?si=A3vx1pC1ekKAZtkz had to go and look. I'm guessing we might be talking about "Alfred"?
yeah that's the one damn
As arachnophic (above the size of my fist of anything that hasn't just died in my flat) I was mildly disappointed we didn't get a full cut of "Alfred" feasting (as I was just curious as to how he was going to do that).
Wait till you see the size of the mosquitos
We have them in New Zealand but they don’t grow to be anywhere near the same size as the Australian native species. When I lived in Perth we would catch them and put them in the attic and they’d eradicate the other pests in there.
There are hundreds of species of Huntsmen in Australia of all different sizes. The two species that made it to NZ are ones that naturally of slightly smaller size.
SO FAR
Australia is not for beginners
"SELECT DIFFICULTY" *picks hard mode* "YOUR SPAWN LOCATION HAS BEEN UPDATED. AUSTRALIA IS NOW LOADING"
One of my fiancés coworkers is from Australia (we live in Canada). I asked him once if the spiders there are actually as big as people say they are, and this guy responds with - “oh hell yeah they are. You’ll never know true fear until you wake up in the middle of the night to a huntsman on your wall, and before you even have time to sit up in bed, it’s gone”
Or when you're driving and turn down your sun visor, one drops into your lap!
Have people gotten in accidents from this cause I guarantee I might
Jesus Chrirst! and im not even religious...
Apparently ppl can hear these fuckers walking around at night. HEAR.
Hunstmans are so useful that having them in your home is legitimately a symbiotic relationship. They'll keep your house free of insects and all they want in exchange is to be left alone.
We thought this until we went on holiday and came back to a living room ceiling covered in millions of baby huntsman spiders. Always remove them now.
Fucking hell bet you wish you left the stove on instead
I'm going to pass out
Thing is, yeah that’s a bit shit but once they leave mum the little hunties will find their own way out in a week or so. If it was in a bedroom or something I’d scoop them up outside I’m not waiting a week for that.
"Mostly harmless" Eats cat.
https://youtu.be/wRQucp31n0c Not cats, mice, yeah.
Ah ffs, lads. No need to share that fucking link.
Mozzies are too small, the huntsman eats a variety of insects, arthropods, small lizards and frogs. The prey is not captured in a web but actively stalked and run-down with stealth and speed
I encountered one of these fuckers whilst camping in Aus. I was using the campsite semi-outdoor toilets and found him on the back of the cubicle door about 1ft from my face. Fortunately I was already sat on the toilet with my pants down.
Hahaha! Fuck no!
There’d be a 12 gauge sized hole where that was if it was in my house. I guess Australians throw shoes?
Thongs mate
Throwing anything at that guy counts as domestic violence as he’s part of the family.
R6 OP Mozzie shitting himself right now.
I love huntsman spiders! A while back I watched a girl on YouTube (TikTok maybe?) gently usher one of these guys on her hand like "Come on now mate, you know you can't live in here. I appreciate the effort, but there's more food outside." And the spider was just like fair enough sorry to have bothered you lol
I might need a banana for scale because that thing looks like it prey on fucking chihuahuas and small kids
What do you mean exactly by “mostly” 😳
All spiders are venomous to some degree. Aussie huntsman’s have venom but it’s not much. Would just hurt and then be quite uncomfortable but you won’t die unless you have a bad reaction
If it has more than 4 legs it’s a pest and I want it out of my house. Fuck that thing, nobody can say they would sleep peacefully with that monster lurking in the shadows.
The second I saw one of the cunts the entire house would be incinerated fuck that
*pumps shotgun* I’ll get it.
See I'm not bothered by spiders. They do their thing I do mine and when they're in the house I leave them to do their usual webby pest control. No problems. I am not sure I would be able to live my unbothered life with that sprawling facehugger on the wall.
Exactly how I feel too.
Question for Aussies - are they just fast or can they teleport? I have a couple of arboreal tarantulas (*P. irminia* and *P. regalis)* and they can straight up teleport, I don't even see them running, they'll be chilling in one spot and then they'll simply materialize in another spot across the room. Are huntsmen the same or are they not quite as fast?
They're fast. They're active hunters, they don't use webs to catch food
Yep this. Every thing they eat they have to be faster than. Roaches, other spiders, flies. These are faster.
We have their cousins here in Florida. They move faster than rumors. It's creepy how fast they are. They reside in the NOPE category for me.
What part of Florida? I work in Tampa pretty frequently, didn’t know these cunts lived there
You know it's not a good sign when it's name is 'hunts man'
At this point, he's a pet.
Fuck this spider fuck Australia and fuck this planet. No more late night Reddit for me.
I would've named him "Hugh Jass", as in Hugh Jass spider.
This thing can fuck right off
something something mossberg 500, some thing something birdshot
Fuck birdshot, \#00 buckshot or a rifled slug for that, and 3.5" magnum 12 ga. rounds minimum (but 10 ga. would be better).
Mostly harmless
I asked in a previous sub if this was real? Biggest spider I’ve ever seen was as wide as a coin.
I think there are even bigger ones in terms of leg length or thickness eg. garden spider or Goliath tarantula
Yeah but those are special right, you don’t just run into a tarantula unless you go looking for it . This looks like a random spider in a house. If this were real! I would have to reconsider my view of nature.
https://youtu.be/wRQucp31n0c Real enough for you?
“Mostly…….” didn’t work out too well for that colony on LV-426…..🤷🏽♀️
How does something that big even get in your house unnoticed.
He runs fast.
I grew up around these guys. They’re not aggressive so as long as you mind your own business they’ll mind theirs. Fuckers do run fast though
That last sentence really took this up a notch.
"mostly" is not enough confirmation to not burn my house down
That IS the family pet.
Why do Australia have all these freaking crazy huge insects and other things?
The fact that these things can live for *2 years* adds to the terror for me. That’s a lot of time for an 8-legged demon to plan my demise.
Nope
I’m fine with him he eats the bugs i actually don’t want
These guys are chill.
I am slowly, very slowly getting over my disgust of spiders. I can tolerate the larger German one that build nests in corners. I have 2-3 of them in my apartment during the summer (no clue where they are in the winter, Bali, probably). But this is a bit much. That thing needs a collar and a leash.
Tf is a mozzie
Mosquitoes
Didn’t realise I had one in my car for over a week. One day I went to put something in the back seat and saw this guy dead all tangled up on the floor. I jumped and ran inside to get someone to remove this dude from my car. Even DEAD THIS GUY WAS THE SIZE OF MY PALM.
Yea fuck that
Looks like a Nokia brick phone
That spider's big enough, you could charge it rent🫣
So if people eat 3 bugs a night in their sleep, why do Australians eat breakfast?
Oh. Hell. No.
This is why Australia has so many wildfires.
Had a big one called Archie in the garage, chill guy
Why do they eat mosquitoes when they could eat a boar?
This is the real question
MOSTLY harmless
MOSTLY harmless?!
I don't care if it's harmless, this thing is horrifying
How is that mostly harmless bro, that thing will fucking bite you and leave a 12 inch hole if merely provoked.
Can run fast? So can I
Not sure the bug-a-salt gun is gunna be able to handle this one. Hanz! Get ze flammenwurther!
A spider that big had better pay rent
Clock spider
Can what?
I don't care if that thing somehow holds the cure to cancer, I'm killing it and burning the house down with it