Tourist shocked as baby spiders flood her Australian rental: ‘I would have cried’

A tourist currently living and working in Australia has shared a video that could well be the nightmare of any would-be traveler considering a trip to the West Indies. The disturbing video, which has been viewed more than 24 million times, shows dozens of baby spiders flooding her bathroom. But despite the overwhelming temptation to get rid of them, one expert says they will most likely disappear on their own.

Marta, a Polish woman who currently lives in Sydney, captioned the video “just Australian stuff” and sparked a flurry of comments from other foreign travelers who say the footage has put them off visiting Australia .

The clip shows hundreds of tiny spiders crawling all over the woman’s shower and bath after apparently emerging from small crevices in the walls.

So is this really normal for Australia?

Dieter Hochuli, a professor and ecologist at the University of Sydney, told Yahoo News Australia that the spiders in the video are most likely harmless hunters, native to Australia, due to their large legs. He added that it was actually quite common to see this type of cluster in Australia – and that the mother spider was not necessarily present once her eggs had hatched.

“A lot of these spiders lay a sac with 200 to 300 eggs in it, and they hatch pretty synchronously, so it’s a massive hatch,” Hochuli explained. “But the reality is that they will die pretty quickly, because they will be eaten by something else or by one of their siblings, or they will just die. The mother spider focuses less on maternal care and more on producing lots of babies…basically, your job is done once you hatch.

He noted that Marta would likely see fewer and fewer spiders in her bathroom each day until they either disappeared or became bigger hunters and retreated to the nooks and crannies of the house.

“If you wait, they will disperse pretty quickly within a day or two,” he said. “Their game is to hang out in the open until they find a crevice and a few small insects. »

However, Hochuli said arachnophobes wanting to get rid of the bugs can also humanely move them by placing them in a pot with a piece of paper underneath and throwing them outside.

Internet users terrified by huge influx of spiders

Many people online had strong reactions to the video, with one saying they “would have cried” in Marta’s place, while another joked: “I had a little meltdown heart after watching this.”

“I would actually scratch my skin,” said another.

Several of Marta’s followers abroad even claimed that the video canceled any travel plans they had planned. “Australia is the one place I would never visit,” one person wrote. “I don’t care if the whole trip is free. No thanks.”

“I don’t care how much I love the Irwins, I will never set foot in Australia,” another person commented.

But a handful of patriotic Australians were quick to respond to the negative comments, explaining that it wasn’t exactly a common occurrence. “I’m Australian and grew up in the bush. This is, I repeat, NOT the norm in my country,” one person wrote. “Stop scaring people.”

Where is the mother spider?

Dr Helen Smith, technical manager of the Australian Museum’s department of arachnology, said the mother laid her eggs in a packet surrounded by a silk covering called an egg sac and remained there until that the spiders are “ready to disperse”.

“It’s probably under the house, the bath or in the wall cavity and wouldn’t be able to fit through the space where the spiders came out,” Smith told Yahoo News.

“Huntsman mothers guard the egg sac and open it when the young need to go out. They will then stay nearby for a few days before dispersing.

“Hunter spiders will disperse within a few days and most will die from dehydration, starvation or predation (long-legged spiders feed well if there are any nearby). They will disappear under the house or outside or wherever they can get out through cracks and crevices.

“If a human wants to try to help him, then use a water mister to give him a drink (but that freaks him out too, so be prepared to drop some).

“You can also try gently sweeping a group of them onto a crumpled cloth with a soft brush and carrying them outside. Some will be injured but others may escape. There are usually too many to save individually.”

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