A friend of mine in Sydney just walked into her daughter’s room and found this Australian tweeter Peta Rogers wrote on 27 January. Rogers’s acquaintance sent him the photos and a video of the room where she found her new tenants after her teenage daughter tipped her off of the occupation. It’s not that bad maybe there are 50 or 60 she is heard saying in the video just before turning the camera to another corner and revealing at least twice as many spider pups on the wall.
They are hunting spiders, belonging to the Sparassidae family and very widespread in Australia and other places with hot climates. The giant hunting spider Heteropoda maxima which lives in Asia measures up to 30 centimeters per leg and 8 per body holding the record for the largest spider in the world by diameter in addition to being a highly poisonous spider. But most hunting spiders have a length of about 13 centimeters per leg and one centimeter of body, so they are much less spectacular.
Gaaaahhhhhhhh, a friend of mine in Sydney just walked into her daughter's room and found this: pic.twitter.com/3UKMEHtGHt
— ???? Petie R ???????????????????????????? (@PrinPeta) January 27, 2021
During the summer in Australia hunter populations increase and it is not unusual for spiders to take shelter in people’s homes. In fact, many Sydney residents had reported hunter infestations that week, according to local media.
The cause seems to be in a low-pressure front that brought rain and humidity that arrived after several days of high temperatures in the southern hemisphere right now it is summer. Hunting spiders often seek refuge in human homes when the heat and humidity are too intense because they provide many safe nooks and crannies where spiders can hide, and where females can lay their eggs explained arachnologist Robert Raven, Director of Terrestrial Biodiversity of the Museum of Queensland, according to Sciencealert. However, this type of climate also allows the eggs to hatch. Low pressure is one of the triggers for this process Raven said. An egg sac can hold hundreds of hatchlings, which is why Sydney’s pictures are explained.
The warm and humid air is ideal for spider hatchlings, which due to their fine skin dehydrate quickly when conditions are too dry. Although these dense groups do not remain long, since the spiders are very cannibals and begin to eat each other after a day or two, as explained by the arachnologist Lizzie Lowe, from the University of Australia. An ephemeral plague of shocking images, no doubt.
