Giant Huntsman spider found in Scottish shipping container

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Toxi said:
Huntsmen are venomous, their venom just isn't a big deal to us humans. Almost all spiders are venomous, but the vast majority are harmless.


Funnel web spiders use their venom to catch prey, like most spiders. They are more aggressive than most spiders, but they're not gonna "chase you down", they just bite with less provocation.

Since Australia got anti-venin, there hasn't been a single recorded death from a funnel web bite.
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Yeah, you would say that.

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Kill it. Its not native to the country. Keeping it alive when its a female that could have been pregnant in that crate is insane.
 
Ban Puncher said:
Huntsman spiders are scary looking but pretty harmless.

The Sydney Funnel Web spider however is pure nightmare fuel

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From Wikipedia:

"While some very venomous spiders do not always inject venom when they bite, these spiders most often do . . . During an attack, the funnel-web spider generally maintains a tight grip on its victim and bites repeatedly, making it an especially traumatic experience and increasing the risk of severe envenomation."

FUCK. THAT.
 
Fun fact about the Sydney Funnel Web, to make you love them more: The males can kill human beings with their venom.
 
Sulik2 said:
Kill it. Its not native to the country. Keeping it alive when its a female that could have been pregnant in that crate is insane.
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They're not releasing it into the wild.

Also, while one should always be careful about not introducing invasive species, Huntsman spiders probably aren't gonna invade Scotland if they haven't already.
 
Hahaha this is my town! Was all over Facebook last week

Currently living in fear, every door and window in my house is locked
 
Ban Puncher said:
TThe Funnel Web is one of the deadliest spiders in the world (it's venom only affects humans too) and it is highly aggressive so it will chase you down. It also bites repeatedly. Anti-venom is mandatory if bit and it is in short supply.
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Wait...why would a spider evolve a venom targeted only at humans? We're not it's prey...yet. Maybe this is the 1st or 2nd stage of it's evolution before the final human killing evolution.
 
Lorcain said:
Wait...why would a spider evolve a venom targeted only at humans? We're not it's prey...yet. Maybe this is the 1st or 2nd stage of it's evolution before the final human killing evolution.
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It doesn't only affect humans. Like most spiders, the primary use of venom is killing prey, with defense as a secondary use.

The venom might have more of an effect on humans than other large animals, but that's not an evolutionary adaptation, that's just bad luck.
 
I see everyone else made the exact same mistake I did by entering the thread that had the words GIANT and SPIDER in the title.
 
When I worked at a grocery store we use to get shipments of bananas from the tropics and there sometimes be big dead spiders or other tropical insects in the shipment. They were never alive though but I would screech if I saw one of those alive in a batch of bananas.
 
so do huntsman spiders kill those funnel web spiders
where are the funnel web spiders not located
why does australia have so many deadly critters compared to other places
 
Nothus said:
With your what?!?
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You read that rightly. Several of them met their untimely end on my cheekbones (to be exact) as I toweled my face after washing it. It felt gritty. It was not grit.

Come to Australia, they said. It's lovely, they said. No one told me I'd be drying my face on the chitinous backs of baby spiders... -_-
 
H.Protagonist said:
You read that rightly. Several of them met their untimely end on my cheekbones (to be exact) as I toweled my face after washing it. It felt gritty. It was not grit.

Come to Australia, they said. It's lovely, they said. No one told me I'd be drying my face on the chitinous backs of baby spiders... -_-
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Basically you exfoliated your cheeks with spider face creme courtesy of thousands of baby spider parts and guts.

I've lost track of how many times I've walked face first into spider webs going through the woods early in the morning or at night, usually picking up the web spinner in the process. That's not quite as bad as rubbing spider guts on my face.
 
criesofthepast said:
Stupid question: Can spiders breed with other different species of spiders? If there was only one Huntsman would there really be any danger of it getting loose and creating some sort of cross-breed of Huntsman?

If there was a box full of them I'd be more worried about them breeding and spreading into a new country where they don't exist.
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If you want the answer to that question please watch

Trailer
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Toxi said:
Huntsmen are venomous, their venom just isn't a big deal to us humans. Almost all spiders are venomous, but the vast majority are harmless.


Funnel web spiders use their venom to catch prey, like most spiders. They are more aggressive than most spiders, but they're not gonna "chase you down", they just bite with less provocation.

Since Australia got anti-venin, there hasn't been a single recorded death from a funnel web bite.
Click to expand...

Toxi said:
Probably some can (like some other species), but spider species are often distinguished by distinct genitalia structures that provide a physical barrier to cross-breeding.
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Toxi said:
What a silly thing to imply a spider would be using a computer! Only giant fleshy human people can use computers! I can guarantee we are all trustworthy human people who only wish to help other human people friends!
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Stormhammer said:
so do huntsman spiders kill those funnel web spiders
where are the funnel web spiders not located
why does Australia have so many deadly critters compared to other places
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As to a Huntsman killing a Funnel-web, it would depend on situation. A Huntsman walking past a Funnel-web hole would be ambushed and killed but one coming across a wandering Funnel-web would be much faster and could probably take it, if it was going to bother at all.
Funnel-webs are basically east coast, the most common is the Sydney variety, which is in NSW. There are similar spiders like Mouse Spiders and Trapdoor Spiders elsewhere.

Australia has deadly critters for a couple of reasons, much of it is harsh terrain, a predator has to kill fast to avoid losing prey. Marsupials have much slower metabolisms than rodents so snake venom has to be much more potent. Also it's somewhat cut off and undisturbed ecologically so primitive species like Funnelwebs could compete with modern species without massive changes in ecology occurring they couldn't deal with. All this is conjecture to be honest, it may just be bad luck.

We get Funnel-webs in the back garden, just don't let the kids out without shoes and they're rubbish climbers so as we have stairs to every entrance I don't worry too much about them getting in. They spend 90% of their time in a hole, only going out to find a mate or if they get flooded.

Here's one my son is commenting on that the neighbour found in his garden. This one went off for venom milking, you can drop them at any local public hospital.
 
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