Japanese Huntsman Spiders (can I just stay in the UK now, please...?)

[elspethelf]

Help! To those on my f'list who is living or have lived in Japan, how common are these fucking huge monsters spiders found in the city?

It is less than two weeks before I leave for Japan, and I was feeling reasonably pleased with the way preparation was going, and all geared up for the year ahead ... that is until I happened to visit the JET forum

Comments

[anotherfmafan]

*Laughs* Well, I'm afraid anybody who tries to tell you that you don't find enormous spiders on a regular basis in Japan is lying. There is a huge population of them. I actually took it upon myself to photograph many of them (I'll show you the pictures if you want XD), and yeah, they're big. The ones I most frequently saw were about the size of my palm. I only saw one huntsman spider while I was there. In my area mostly I saw the ones with bright green stripes and the ones with the fat butt like a bumblebee.
I definitely have my own horror stories which I will spare you, but just beware of cockroaches. In fact, you might want to buy some traps and set them out in your room first thing just as a better-safe-than-sorry type deal.
Good luck!

[elspethelf]

Oh dear, I was hoping someone would reply me and tell me it's all a big fat lie and that they only appear in the country side. *sigh*
I heard people talk about the brightly striped ones too, I don't know which one sounds worse, to be honest!
Yeah, I'll definitely be getting some of those Gokiburi Hoihoi traps (I love the name!) that people mentioned. If I can keep their numbers to a minimum, hopefully the spiders won't come either!

[caitie]

HOLY SHIT. I'm currently on vacation and was feeling sorry for myself about having to deal with little spiders, since this house isn't used regularly. If I saw anything like that, I'd be out the door. WITHOUT my stuff.

[elspethelf]

The spiders I have to deal with in the UK are positively cute compared to those monsters! I'm so freaked out :(((

[geri]

You are very good if you still go!

I read that article on the fight with these gigantic spiders and i'm in a panic.

I freak out if i see a little spider so if i see something that big looking at me i would have ran for the nearest exit.

Me and spiders don't get along. I've had to ask my kids to go into what ever part of my apartment i'm in to kill the spider(s).

So if you see one of those types of spiders run for the nearest exits!!!!!!!!!!!

[elspethelf]

The article made me laugh a lot... then panic when I realised that it'll soon be me in that situation!
Aah, tell me about it, spiders and me are just not born to live on the same planet. I've had the worst of luck with them as well (e.g. waking up to find one sitting on my face!), if that happened with a huntsman spider I think I may die of heart attack.

[star54kar]

You are a brave soul!

That is seriously creepy. Little normal sized spiders scare the hell out of me, and I ever came across a spider like that I would totally freak out!

[elspethelf]

It's more that I'd feel a complete failure if I dropped out of the program for something like this :P
But it IS a significant factor that's making me sweat!! Aah, normal sized spiders freak me out too, and they are positively cute compared to the huntsman spider! *shivers*

[_profiterole_]

Oh, God! *shivers*

[elspethelf]

Tell me about it!! *panics*