Woman Finds A Giant Spider Hiding In The Handle Of Her Car Door

One woman from Australia was horrified to discover a massive spider hiding in her car door handle.

The woman, Christine Jones from Armidale, New South Wales, noticed the spider right before she was about to grab the handle to open the door.

Jones shared her terrifying discovery to a Facebook group for spider identification, the Australian spider Identification page. She said, “Thought it was hairy caterpillars at first. Haven’t used my car for a week.”

In the comments, someone asked her if she touched the spider or saw it first. She replied that she “Saw it at the last moment.”

Her post included two photos of the arachnid, cozied up in her door’s handle. People were horrified, and her post quickly amassed over 5,000 shares.

One person commented, “Sorry but its not ‘my’ car now, it’s the spiders.” Another said, “OMG…. I would have had a heart attack!!!”

Several people were perplexed by the photos. When posted together, it appears that one human-sized spider was sitting in the driver’s seat of the car.

One person posted a photo of what she saw on her timeline, saying, “Oh God I hurt my brain trying to work out what the f I’m looking at Didn’t realise it was 2 pictures”

Many people joined in. One person wrote, “HOW SMALL IS YOUR CAR? OR, HOW BIG IS THE SPIDER?!” Another said, “ i JUST realised its in the car handle i thought it was in the car all filled in the drivers seat.” Some people even thought it was photoshopped.

But, the very real spider happened to be a banded huntsman, one of the largest spiders in the world. Users in the identification group suspected it was a male, and some people shared similar experiences. One person wrote, “I went to get the groceries out the back of my car today and there was one hiding where the door fits into the frame. I promptly closed it and went around the other side.”

Apparently, this isn’t the first time that this happened to Jones, either. She commented about finding a different spider in her car, sharing that the spider “Kept popping up on passengers side every couple of days for a couple of weeks.” She was just as horrified then, writing there was “Too much screaming on my side of the car.”

Though huntsman spiders aren’t known to be aggressive, they have large, hairy bodies and long legs. They can grow to be the size of a dinner plate, which can be quite intimidating.

However, they’re not actually considered dangerous. They are venomous, but their venom is only a pest to humans – not lethal, just painful. Beyond that, huntsman spiders won’t usually bite unless they feel threatened. They’re more prone to run away or hide.

Huntsman spiders can generally be found hiding in rocks or logs, under leaves, or in cracks on tree bark. However, they occasionally make their way into human territories, like car handles. As someone shared in the comments of the post, “Poor thing might have been burning on the metal of the car and seeking shade… or something a bit cooler and got stuck there waiting it out after that heat over the weekend.”

If you encounter a giant, non-aggressive spider up close and personal, like a huntsman, it’s advised to try and relocate it to a safe place, away from human activity.