If you want to keep huntsman from entering your house alive, close all windows and doors after 7pm, spray surface spray all around your house where your animals cannot get near (aka, walls, ceilings, around trees - but never on surfaces walked on or which enter drains, for obvious reasons. Do this every week or two with one to two cans of surface spray, and you're set for "death to spiders".

Shuddering a bit right now, and paranoid. Partly because two mornings ago I awoke to C laying in my arms shaking his leg, then me feeling something crawling on me. To save my cat from something, I flicked whatever it was off me - but could not find what that thing was for the next two hours. I hope it wasn't the perpetrator indicated below.

Had my shower at 1.30am tonight as usual, but I hadn't checked whether or not the cat door was open in the laundry, which leads up the stairs into my bedroom. When I was finished, and about to go to bed, I walked past the washing machine to walk up the stairs to my room, the light was off and I squinted to look at whether the cat door was still open - I usually kick it closed at night. This time, I saw something bizarre that I thought was either a huntsman or a bunch of grass on the ground in front of the cat door: both a possibility. I turned the light on, and yep, it was a huntsman - but a sad looking huntsman balled up on its back. A very long-legged huntsman which had grey hair on it, leading me to believe it was an old one. Looks like it had dragged its way through the cat door after encountering the 20 lines of surface spray I sprayed around the outside of the cat run, the tree out back, the water tank and my outside walls this afternoon, which it then would have noticed the ultrasonic pest plug in I have, which made it dopey, thus it had no chance of living.

I don't like killing living creatures - I have that plug in to turn huntsmen and mice around before they come inside - the unlucky few tend to curl up and go into a coma. Luckily, living in the bush which gets very windy (flying huntsman, anyone?), I'm not a spider-screamer, because it was huge. Then again, huntsman spiders are /not/ wolf spiders, so less worried. I put on some clothes, grabbed a pair of tongs, picked it up, took a number of photos and tossed the sad thing out of my front door. I then had to soap the tongs - there was huntsman juice all over it. I didn't mean to squeeze the thing!

Anyway, lack of being a screamer or no - knowing huntsman spiders travel in pairs, I had to look all around the laundry and stairs for another one. And in my bed. I will likely encounter its mate in a couple of days, as that usually happens. Ugh. Glad it wasn't a wolf spider or trap door, though - they're dangerous. Had one wander through my parents' house the other night around 1am. 1.30-2.30am tends to be the "spidering" hour.

I may not scream about huntsman when I'm alone, but it doesn't mean they don't freak me out. I've stripped off in public before when opening my letter box in Sydney, and having one crawl up my arm.

Tasmania is hellishly windy, especially in October. Flying huntsman spiders are a massive possibility - one I've witnessed far too often. I also don't want them in my house, in my car, living in the tree in my back yard, nor in the little shed I've just tidied out, fumigated with 5 cans of surface spray over a 1 month period, and packed boxes into. I also fumigate the garage where most of my stuff sits.

I don't like killing any creature - and thus, the thousands of huntsman we recently encountered in a big pile of building wood down in the trees of the property were left alone. Thousands of little huntsman spiders. I had to jump back to avoid being the unfortunate cast member of a horror flick - you know, the one that gets covered in tarantula type spiders.

Labels: fumigation, huntsman, huntsman spider, mating pair, mouse spider, spider encounter, surface spray, Tasmanian fauna, trapdoor spider, ultrasonic pest exit, unwanted houseguest., wolf spider, xit pest