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An Australian woman says she was horrified to spot a huge hunstman spider emerging from her rear-view mirror as she was driving at 60mph, saying the fright “almost killed me”.
Monique Fogarty uploaded a photo of the spider to the “Australian spider identification page” Facebook group and asked fellow members about its species.
“Am I right in guessing this is a huntsman that almost killed me by popping out from behind my rear vision mirror while I was going 100km/h?” she wrote.
The Canberra resident stressed in an interview with Newsweek that huntsmen are “very sweet spiders” and she knew “that it wouldn’t do anything until I could pull over safely”.
Though initially shocked, Ms Fogarty said she managed to control herself and avoid an accident on the motorway. Showing remarkable composure, she found some bushland to pull over next to and even found the courage to pick up the spider and gently place it outside.
“… [I] opened my door, cupped it in my hands and popped it on the ground to head into the nearby bushland,” she told Daily Mail Australia. “I’m sure it was just the momentary adrenaline. I definitely wouldn’t normally pick them up.”
Ms Fogarty said she had seen the large spider sitting on the car on previous occasions and that her daughter had spotted in near the front passenger seat window earlier, but that they had just pulled down the window and shooed it away at the time.
Other members of the Facebook community responded to the post by sharing pictures of the spiders they found in their own cars or by commenting on how cute the spider in Ms Fogarty’s photo looked. Some wondered how spiders of such size manage to sneak into cars.
According to the Australian Museum, huntsman spiders are found living under loose bark on trees, in crevices on rock walls and in logs, under rocks and slabs of bark on the ground, and on foliage.
Huntsman spiders of many species sometimes enter houses and cars, and are notorious for being found hiding behind sun visors or running across the dashboard, the museum said.
The spiders are considered very non-threatening and their venom is not believed to represent a health risk to humans. Large adult specimens can bite if defending themselves or their young and the bite can be painful, however.
Last month, an Australian woman mowing her lawn spotted a huge black spider with hundreds of babies in the grass. She also posted pictures of the arachnid to the Facebook group “Australian spider identification page”.
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