No, huntsman spiders aren't crawling across our faces while we sleep. "It's pretty unlikely to ever happen," says an insect expert.
Huntsman spiders are out searching for food and mates at this time of the year. While they may bite, they are not harmful to humans. A spider expert says the best way to remove them from your house is to use a container with a piece of cardboard.
Huntsman spiders can live for up to two years. As they can move very quickly, instead of using a broom or an object they can run along to move them, try to slowly and gently place a container over them and push a piece of paper underneath. You can now carry them safely outside to release them.
Despite their often large and hairy appearance, huntsman spiders are not considered to be dangerous spiders. As with most spiders, they do possess venom, and a bite may cause some ill effects. However, they are quite reluctant to bite, and will usually try to run away rather than be aggressive.
As their name suggests they are hunting spiders, coming out at night to search for prey. They will eat a wide range of animals, mainly insects (including cockroaches!)
If you try to catch a huntsman and it runs towards you, it isn't attacking. It is trying to get to a safe place, away from the giant human thing looming over it. Given they have poor eyesight, sometimes they get it a little wrong and head towards us instead of away from us.
"It's pretty unlikely to ever happen," says an insect expert. PHEW. A chill of arachnophobia trickled across Australia this week after a NSW spider expert claimed it's "very likely" huntsman spiders have crawled across your face while you slept.
Is It Safe To Handle A Huntsman Spider? It is not advised to handle any wild or unknown spider. You should not pick them up or trample on them with your bare feet. If you threaten them by picking them up or treading on them, they will bite you.
A Huntsman spider is not dangerous to adults. Typically, they are more likely to run away if they have an exit route. These are spiders that do not weave a web but hunt their prey by roaming the area, which often puts them in close proximity to people in their homes.
However, you don't actually need to kill them! Huntsmen are quite beneficial spiders in many ways. Apart from being mainly harmless to humans, they're very fond of eating other creepy crawlies that we don't like having around the house – such as cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies.
Simon Lockrey, industrial design research fellow and former vacuum cleaner design engineer: It certainly could, depending on the vacuum cleaner. If there is a clear way out, the huntsman could make its escape when the vacuum is turned off.
Spiders will leave typically leave you alone – that also means they won't bite you in your sleep. Spiders can tell the difference between a person and something they want to eat. Plus, movements, noise and other disruptions throughout the night will typically keep spiders away from you.
In the bush these spiders are found living among loose bark on the ground or on trees. In homes – or even cars – they'll hide away in dark corners during the day and appear from dusk onwards as night-time insects emerge.
Bark and rocks – which offer protection during the day and a safe place to hide their egg sac. Cockroaches – huntsmans are carnivorous and will feed on all sorts of insects but these are some of their favourites.
Sound production in mating rituals
Males of Heteropoda venatoria, one of the huntsman spiders that seems to easily find its way around the world, have recently been found to deliberately make a substrate-borne sound when they detect a chemical (pheromone) left by a nearby female of their species.
Huntsman spiders, like all spiders, moult in order to grow and often their old skin may be mistaken for the original spider when seen suspended on bark or in the house. The lifespan of most Huntsman species is about two years or more. Discover more about spider survival.
Although they may be looking for potential prey, huntsman spiders will often find their way into your home during the warmer months to get away from the summer heat. Squeezing into gaps under doors and windows is natural behaviour and so makes them feel right at home.
"Spiders go looking for milder environments in terms of heat and humidity. So inside a house it's usually good. There's usually some water around and they'll gravitate to that," he said.
If you're the sensitive type who finds scented insect sprays a little heavy on the nose, Mortein Kill & Protect Odourless Crawling Insect Killer will do the trick.
Second, they are very smart. While the different species of huntsman spiders run at different speeds, the fastest among them run at rates comparable to Olympic sprinters, while the slower among them still run at speeds similar to a reasonably fit human's running speed.
Spiders love to hide in the dark, debris-filled cracks away from humans. Be sure to give the space under your bed a lot of attention while you're cleaning. Since it tends to be dark and dusty under beds, they're an ideal place for spiders to hide away. The garbage from your kitchen may also attract spiders.
First the good news. Huntsmen spiders do not – repeat NOT – have any inclination whatsoever to creep their spidery, eight-legged crawl across your face while you're sleeping.
The relationship between spiders and LED lights is simple: spiders like to eat bugs and insects. So, if your LED light is of a spectrum that attracts things spiders like to eat, you're going to attract spiders with it.
The color that spiders tend to hate is light blue. People don't just paint their porches light blue for the aesthetic. Painting your porch ceiling in this shade is a pretty effective way of keeping spiders away. The color is also known to repel wasps.