Woman Finds A Giant Huntsman Spider Hiding In Her Shower

Have you ever gone into the bathroom and then suddenly gotten the urge to pull back the shower curtain because you have this irrational fear of something hiding behind? It’s probably happened once or twice to all of us.

While none of us will ever find the boogieman hiding in our shower, if you live in Australia you might find a Hunstman spider hiding in there instead – and honestly, that sounds a lot more terrifying.

Cathy Cox, who resides in Perth, Australia, got quite the scare when she found one had taken up residence in her shower. She figured that it was a Huntsman spider, but she still took a photo of it and uploaded the picture to an Australian spider identification page.

Cathy posted, “I have what I believe to be a beautiful huntsman in my shower. She is out of harms way but should I relocate her? FYI heart racing at the thought of the latter.”

Cathy’s post gained attention as users soon began imparting their advice. One user suggested that Cathy should definitely move the spider to avoid the nasty surprise of the arachnid falling from the ceiling mid-shower.

Someone else joked that Cathy shouldn’t move the spider but simply surrender her shower altogether to the giant spider and just “use the hose to wash now.” Someone else commented that the size of the spider made it look capable of operating the shower all on its own.

While Catchy did admit in the comments that she magnified the photos, she confirmed that the spider was about 4 1/2 cm in body length and shared a photo with a better view of its size.

Given its large size, she still wasn’t comfortable moving the spider – she said, “I think I’ll use the other shower for now.” However, she still welcomed all of the advice on how to best remove the giant arachnid from its spot.

The Huntsman spider is quite common throughout Australia. At their largest size, these massive arachnids can get to sizes where their legs span somewhere between 10-12 inches! As scary as they may be, and as common a household pest as they may be, they don’t pose any real threats to humans.

In fact, these big spiders are quite shy, and when threatened, they are more likely to scurry away rather than attack and bite. But, you still wouldn’t want to find one living inside your shower.

And while their first line of defense is to run away, experts still highly discourage trying to directly handle a Huntsman spider. Just because they don’t typically attack doesn’t mean that they’re incapable of biting. In fact, these spiders are equipped with quite a large pair of fangs as well as venom, and if you provoke them, you can end up getting a pretty nasty bite. Of course, most of the pain and discomfort will come from their fangs rather than their venom.

Thankfully, Cathy was able to safely relocate the giant spider to a better location (far from her house). She shared in the comments that after much coaxing and sweet-talking, she was finally able to get the spider safely into a jar. She said, “Jam jar and card did the trick Now safely outside.”

What do you think of Cathy’s discovery? What’s the gnarliest thing you’ve ever found hiding in your shower? Let us know!