h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

and nearly scared me to death... for those who don't know, I'm a bit of an arachnaphobe (well.. that's putting it mildly - I'm not as bad as Kirk but then not many people are..). A few days ago, I decided to take an early night and recharge for the weekend (party in a place called Bathurst where everyone had to dress in school uniform. And Soccy - no need to comment on that one - we all know what went through my mind when I heard that!!)

When I'd just managed to get to sleep, Kelly (one of my housemates) started screaming big time...(typical) Basically put, there was one big mother of a huntsman spider by the front door. For those of you who don't know what a huntsman is... by god are you lucky. It's like a tarantula with eating problems... this one had a hairy body about the size of an irish pound coin (and a bit more up front) and legs that, when extended, would be about 4-5 inches long... maybe someone can correct me on this - but it was f**king huge with two big fangy things at the front.

Unfortunately, being the only bloke in the house, I had to do something about it, or I'd never get any sleep (due to a subtle combination of their screams and the fear that it'd creep in my room...) so I had to go, buy 2 cans of bug spray (thank god for shops that stay open til midnight!!!) and then Bettina (another one of my housemates) and I fumagated it's ass. By the time we had finished spraying,. both cans were a lot lighter and there was a visible fog in the room. Needless to say this didn't seem to actually hurt the spider but rather make it start moving (to that point it had been quite stationary and just looked menacing. Another point about hunstmen - they have a tendancy to jump big distances so I was a tad nervous about that). Eventually, through subtle persuasion and the rest of the cans being sprayed at it, it ran out of the house. (hopefully it'll stay away and not try and bring any of it's mates with it) Good fun for the family, I think you'll agree.

In retrospect I wish I could have got a pic of it to post on the site... anything to scare Kirk.

You need one big mother-f****r (well spiders you see are usually female) of a broom, with a long handle so you don't get too close and a wide flat top part so that you cover that angle as well.....