sunlight7
Confident
That’s probably a silly question above ^^^. I’ve just been really curious so I thought, why not ask 
Ask a foreigner
- Thread starter Teasel
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Sideways
Moderator
Not a silly question.
Yes, they’re common. But it kind of depends on your lifestyle. They love trees and undergrowth.
One of my work colleagues has never seen one in the 4 years she’s been living with Australia, which blew my mind. But if you live in an apartment in the city and only travel to hotels, then you may get lucky and never see them.
Any place that sprays regularly for webbing spiders and cockroaches is unlikely to have a lot of huntsmen. They aren’t a webbing spider (thank fk!), but they don’t tend to cross those spray barriers, and the consequent lack of bugs to eat that comes with insecticide keeps them under control.
On the other hand, if you live on a leafy block and never spray? You’ll see them. Probably fairly frequently.
The worst ones I’ve come across were the one that got into my coffee maker and crawled up my arm (screamed!), and the one that bit me on the lip overnight then sat on the wall above my bed to gloat (cost him his life).
I’m fine with most spiders, even big ones. But I’m phobic of huntsman spiders. They like to get in places like behind your rear vision mirror or run down your windscreen while you’re driving.
Some species bite readily, some don’t. But they’re routinely big mofos. I feel for the folks who have one breed in their house (yeah, search for huntsman nest for a real horror show) and wake up to find them swarming on the wall.
They do help control cockroach numbers. Frankly, there are better ways to control cockroaches. Other fun facts - they don’t sleep. Like sharks, they simply switch off half their brain at a time, so they’re always aware of their environment. Creepy as fk. And because they have 8 legs, instead of an awkward 2 or 4, they can stop dead at any moment, even at their fastest run, without losing balance.
sunlight7
Confident
My stomach dropped just reading that sentence!! lol! The only spider that doesn’t freak me (I’m not gonna lie. It probably would give me a jump scare though) is a daddy long leg spider they eat other bugs, so I consider them allies.
That’s good! I wish I was better with bugs I mean I even hate flies, but I think that’s more due to them like when they fly around your head and you hear them buzzing your ear. It’s startles me every time and I jump. Oh that’s definitely not fun, so they like to be surprises.
I googled it and now my dreams will be riddled with nightmares of a huntsman’s nest.
Just kidding but I’ll never be able to unsee it but I’m a thrill seeker I looked at my own risk!I’ve read a little bit about the ecosystem in Australia. My initial interest started when I found out dogs that come from other countries they have to get quarantined , I don’t know exactly how long one place I read 10 days another place I’ve read three months and I know it varies from country to country. It got me going down the rabbit hole of looking up more interesting facts and the history about Australia’s ecosystem.
Freida
MyPTSD Pro
Note to self -- time to take austraila off the must-visit list. 
enough
MyPTSD Pro
I made my peace with our local spiders when I was the young guy on the construction and remodeling and fire repair crews. I was the guy up in the attic, in the mud under the floor, wherever anyone with a day more seniority didn't want to go.
Thats here in the US pacific northwest where a fiddle back (brown recluse) is the worst you will encounter, maybe a black widow but if the space is exposed to weather at all it is very unlikely and I have never seen one on my turf. I got a bite from a recluse but it was on a very calloused part of my thumb so the venom dose was very small, my antibodies kicked in and my thumb was swollen and I was ill. Nasty, a full dose can kill flesh that has to be removed.
When I see doc's about wildlife and insects in other parts of our globe, I feel pretty good about living where I do. Personal stories like @Sideways share above just drive the point home. I have it good, not many animals around that could eat me, and the ones that could would rather eat a large rodent or grubs and berries. I have to cross a state line to get to where there are really big and unpredictable predators like a grizzly bear, but even there you can avoid them with a pretty high degree of certainty. Every local brown bear I have ever seen saw me first and was less than interested in seeing me much longer. Except through binoculars, and then I got to make that choice. Our mountain lions are to be feared, but same thing, they have always moved away unless I saw them from a great distance with glasses. It's the ones that get close to humans to find food that are to be feared, they are just trying to make a living and I am just trying to take out the trash and DING DING DING we have a winner! Doesn't happen very often, even in places where their tracks are seen regularly, they will beat it quick as soon as the back door opens. Usually.
We have it good here and are so complacent that the reintroduction of wolves and grizzlies to the mix gets a lot of support from people that have never been in the mix with them but like the idea. Seen wolves, bears, mountain lions, coyotes and poisonous snakes at close range, I fear the people more, just like they all do.
A local joke. When in bear country, it is advised to wear small bells in your shoe laces so the bears can hear you coming, have a whistle with you and use it occasionally for the bears that arent close enough to hear the bells yet, and to be able to tell the difference between the more docile brown bears crap piles and those of the more dangerous grizzlies so you can steer clear of their territory when you see grizzly crap. Whats that? You don't know how to tell the difference? The grizzly bear crap piles have all the bells and whistles.
Thats here in the US pacific northwest where a fiddle back (brown recluse) is the worst you will encounter, maybe a black widow but if the space is exposed to weather at all it is very unlikely and I have never seen one on my turf. I got a bite from a recluse but it was on a very calloused part of my thumb so the venom dose was very small, my antibodies kicked in and my thumb was swollen and I was ill. Nasty, a full dose can kill flesh that has to be removed.
When I see doc's about wildlife and insects in other parts of our globe, I feel pretty good about living where I do. Personal stories like @Sideways share above just drive the point home. I have it good, not many animals around that could eat me, and the ones that could would rather eat a large rodent or grubs and berries. I have to cross a state line to get to where there are really big and unpredictable predators like a grizzly bear, but even there you can avoid them with a pretty high degree of certainty. Every local brown bear I have ever seen saw me first and was less than interested in seeing me much longer. Except through binoculars, and then I got to make that choice. Our mountain lions are to be feared, but same thing, they have always moved away unless I saw them from a great distance with glasses. It's the ones that get close to humans to find food that are to be feared, they are just trying to make a living and I am just trying to take out the trash and DING DING DING we have a winner! Doesn't happen very often, even in places where their tracks are seen regularly, they will beat it quick as soon as the back door opens. Usually.
We have it good here and are so complacent that the reintroduction of wolves and grizzlies to the mix gets a lot of support from people that have never been in the mix with them but like the idea. Seen wolves, bears, mountain lions, coyotes and poisonous snakes at close range, I fear the people more, just like they all do.
A local joke. When in bear country, it is advised to wear small bells in your shoe laces so the bears can hear you coming, have a whistle with you and use it occasionally for the bears that arent close enough to hear the bells yet, and to be able to tell the difference between the more docile brown bears crap piles and those of the more dangerous grizzlies so you can steer clear of their territory when you see grizzly crap. Whats that? You don't know how to tell the difference? The grizzly bear crap piles have all the bells and whistles.
Charbella
Sponsor
Okay this is to all outside the US. My T will say see you next Thursday, today is Tuesday, to me next Thursday is a week from this Thursday. How many countries say it this way? To me it would be see you this Thursday.
Freddyt
MyPTSD Pro
I gotta have a date to put in my calendar or I'm lost.....this, next, a week after whatever
That is how we would say it though. This Thursday would be this week next Thursday would be next week.
AngelKeeperJ
Sponsor
EXACTLY! And I have 3 calendarsI gotta have a date to put in my calendar or I'm lost.....this, next, a week after whatever
Charbella
Sponsor
I have a calendar and I get reminders so I am not confused just wondering how many countries use this way of communicating. My T is from the UK. Honestly he brings up the next appointment when he’s trying to get me out of dissociation. I think it’s his ask a question she’s likely to answer and if I don’t give him any response he knows just how far gone I am.
barefoot
MyPTSD Pro
I’m in the UK and I would say this Thursday. I don’t know anyone who would say next Thursday in that context so it’s not, in general, a UK thing.
No More
MyPTSD Pro
Conversely and just to add confusion, I’m also from the UK and would take that to mean a week on Thursday. This Thursday would be the same week, next Thursday would be the week after. Definitely used a fair bit round my way
