Australian Man Films Horrifyingly Large Huntsman Spider Carrying Dead Mouse Up the Fridge

(Illustration - Shutterstock)

The huntsman spider, which can grow up to 12 inches in leg span and sometimes gets described as being the “size of a dinner plate,” is a little too common in Australia for comfort.

While most people would simply assume a spider that size is nothing more than the stuff of nightmares, though, one Australian man got to witness the massive arachnid doing more than just crawling around corners and making people shriek.

In October 2016, Jason Womal, of Coppabella, Queensland, was preparing to leave for work one day when a neighbor invited him over to see something cool.

Intrigued, he went into the neighbor’s home and immediately took out his phone to film what he saw—because a massive huntsman spider was busy crawling up the man’s wall carrying a dead, fully sized mouse.

“We proceed[ed] to his place and he shows me this. Huntsman trying to eat a mouse,” Womal wrote on Facebook as he shared the video.

Illustration - Shutterstock | torook

In the video, an absolutely enormous huntsman is crawling up a mini fridge in the neighbor’s house, dragging a good-sized mouse corpse behind it. The spider, nearly the size of the mouse itself, seems to be having absolutely no difficulty pulling the rodent up along the door as it hauls the prize away to the amazement of Womal and his neighbor.

Jokingly, the Australian tradesman said that the community has adopted the spider and named it Hermie.

“Ok guys so just letting you all know that the spider is fine. We have named him Hermie, we have adopted him and he is now running his own extermination business out of our town Coppabella. Oh and he is now paying rent. Lol.”

Huntsman spiders are surprisingly fairly harmless to humans—not because they lack a venomous bite but because they tend to be skittish and lack the aggression necessary to be considered a major threat. They’re more likely to retreat when a human approaches than attack, so these terrifying-looking bugs aren’t actually all that bad to have around.

That being said, this isn’t the first time that a species of huntsman has caught a vertebrate, according to regional scientists.

“This is the first time I’ve seen one catch a mouse, but I have seen huntsmen catch geckos. I’ve seen a redback spider catch a snake in its web, I’ve seen a golden orb spider catch birds,” said Graham Milledge, who runs the Australian Museum’s arachnology department, in an interview with The Guardian. And although a colleague suggested that the mouse was likely dead when Hermie stumbled across it, making it a little less exciting than a live catch, it’s still impressive to see the spider backing up with like triple its weight in mouse dangling from its pincers.

The reactions on social media were more than a little hilarious, as people showed off just how deeply horrified they were by the sight of a spider the size of a small chihuahua dragging a mouse along.

“I'd rather have a cat, thank you!” one person joked.

“Never going to Australia!” said another.

One thing is certain: if this eight-limbed huntsman wants the mouse from our house, he’s more than welcome to have it if it means he'll be on his merry way!