Most Aussies have a designated member of the household to deal with the spiders that crawl into their homes, but what happens if the unwelcome arachnid is too big even for that person?
A far-too-relatable video of a group of women who found themselves in such a predicament while trying to remove a huge spider from a wardrobe has gone viral, leaving viewers in hysterics.
In the clip, TikToker Chloe Baradinsky is seen holding common spider-removing tools — a bowl and a book — and was trying to work up the courage to catch the hairy intruder crawling on a wall in her Sydney home.
“God it’s f**king big. It’s really big,” Ms Baradinsky said while looking at the spider in distress.
“The good thing about these ones is I don’t think they’re that mean,” replied one of her supportive friends, from a safe distance away.
Removal doesn’t go according to plan
Throughout most of the video, Ms Baradinsky anxiously tries to work up the courage to get closer to the spider, but in the end, the creature gets the better of her.
At one point, as most would, she tries to dodge the task by questioning why she was the chosen catcher and asking if anyone else nearby is “good at spiders”.
After her pleas fall on deaf ears, she finally moves in with the bowl, but the spider makes a break for it and scurries towards her. She screams in terror and runs away, spider-less.
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What type of spider is it?
Most Aussies could guess the spider is a huntsman, which Mark Elgar, Professor in Evolutionary Biology and Animal Behaviour at the University of Sydney, confirmed after watching the video. “Generally speaking those big dinner plate sized spiders are referred to as huntsmans, I’d say it is one,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
Huntsman actually refers to a group of species of spiders, with Australia having around 94 known species, Professor Elgar explained.
Huntsman spiders do bite, though some species are more likely to do so than others. “Generally it would be less painful than a bee sting,” said Professor Elgar. “Spiders are all venomous to varying degrees, that’s how they subdue their prey. But most just want to get out of the way.”
Best way to remove a spider
Huntsman spiders are important for our ecosystem and can help control numbers of flies, mosquitoes and other insects, therefore many people don’t wish to kill them. Ms Baradinsky actually had the right tools for removing a spider without harming it, though Professor Elgar thinks her bowl may have been too big. “She would have been better off with a large jar or a smaller bowl; with a bigger container it’s more difficult,” he advised.
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