Quote: "Where I am, we regularly get Wolf spiders as large as the palm of your hand, and Huntsman spiders even bigger."
Are you in vic? I used to live in vic and yeah, the wolf spiders were huge, and really zippy.
And Vic seems to be infested with giant huntsmans, where we used to live there were heaps. I would never pick one up, they seem to know how scary they are and really play up to the giant scary spider role. I remember trying to squash one with a shovel once only to have it actually attack the blade so ferociously I could only stop and think, "man, what a psycho spider!"
I also remember wood chopping duty, and wacking a big piece of wood with the splitting axe only to find out that it was huntsman nursery, A volcanic eruption of huntsmans of all sizes spewing out of the cracks in the stump, too many to logically fit in there, I ran away and wouldn't chop the wood, and neither would any one else. It was a bit cold that night
here in southeast Queensland there are still huntsmans but not many, I have had only one in my house in 3 years, and have only seen about 2 or 3.
hodgey: on orbs, yeah, we get them at our place, they like to build their webs over the entryway garden path. so long as you know to duck and do robot chops while you walk at night its ok. I leave Them be because theyre pretty chilled and they look cool, I like seeing how big they can get before a bird gets them, I guess there is a point where they can get the bird after all.
hands up if you have ever done a mad jump away upon finding a blue tongue tail sticking out of something!
I've never had a problem with snakes, I've always been lucky enough see them far enough away to stop and let them get away, but I am amazed we were never bitten as kids, running through the ungrazed paddocks barefoot on 30 degree summer days doesn't seem as good an idea as it used to.
I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
