KatieTheKat

I woke up this morning to find that I had a new hairy friend sharing my bedroom.
Here is a picture of one of his friends (unfortunately my camera batteries were nearly dead so I didn't get a good shot of him myself):




I decided that I did not really like the idea of Harry here making himself too much at home while I was at work, so I captured him in a takeaway container and sent him out to the balcony. Luckily, he didn't jump off the wall when I tried to catch him, which I agree would be rather disconcerting.

Here are some more facts about huntsman spiders, which I can confirm are rather common about this country - I still remember my first encounter with one in an outhouse somewhere along the Princes Highway.

UPDATE
My friend came back this evening to say goodnight. Now that my camera batteries had been charged, I grabbed a few pictures before unceremoniously throwing him off the balcony. The thing that is a little worrisome is that both this morning and this evening, I threw out a spider with 7 legs, and the same 7 legs. And there are 2 legs on my windowsill. I suspect it is the same spider, but I wouldn't imagine he started with 9 legs...