What would you do if you found a huge spider in your home? The reaction of most people would be to kill it. But not one Australian family. Instead of removing what many would consider a pest, the family decided to let it stay.
An uninvited guest
Annette Gray and her son, Jake, noticed a large spider had moved into their home one day. Host to a variety of species, giant spiders are common throughout the “land down under.”
They named the spider Charlotte
After all, her gentle nature bears a strong similarity to the famous spider in the classic children’s tale “Charlotte’s Web.”
Jake quickly recognized the spider as a Huntsman spider. And after the large spider “moved in,” Jake decided to research it further to see if the spider posed a risk to him and his mom.
What Jake learned quickly set his mind at ease.
What are Huntsman spiders?
Growing to be extremely large, a Huntsman spider can have a leg span of up 5 inches or more. And while the Huntsman spider is venomous, its venom is hardly enough to incapacitate a human.
They mostly use their bite to paralyze their prey, which consists of insects, small lizards, and frogs.
Making itself at home
Jake was further relieved to discover that Huntsman spiders are not aggressive toward humans. At least the two wouldn’t have to worry about the giant spider viewing them as prey and hunting them down.
With all of this in mind, Annette and her son decided to let Charlotte stay in their home.
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
What the two didn’t expect was for Charlotte to stay as long as she did. They figured that the spider would quickly move on, but that was far from the case.
Charlotte stayed so long, in fact, that the two were able to watch her growth over time- to an amazing six inches wide from leg tip to leg tip.
“We’ve watched [Charlotte] grow over the last year or so,” Jake told The Dodo. “[She] never bothered us. She moves about the house, pops up room to room, eats all the bugs.”
Other tales of spiders
But Annette and Jake aren’t the only people in Australia to encounter one of the many large spiders found there.
Their story is actually quite common in the country, with people from all over reporting their encounters with large arachnids, both outside and inside their homes.
One such encounter happened to Laree Clarke, who found a large Huntsman spider in her home after noticing a shadow on her wall. After shining a light on the critter, she discovered a large Huntsman spider, just like the one encountered by the Grays.
Unlike Annette and Jake, Laree didn’t want to let the arachnid stay in her home and was able to relocate the spider, with the help of someone online, to a tree outside.
Keeping spiders as pets
Believe it or not, there are even some people who keep spiders as pets. But as long as they have plenty of room in the enclosure you keep them in, have plenty of food and water, and are a breed that does well in captivity, you should have no problems.
You could also be like Annette and Jake and simply allow the spider to run around on your walls. Chances are, though, that most people would have a problem with that!
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H/T: The Dodo, Wikipedia, The Dodo, Scout Life
