Living in Tropicopolis, aka suburban South Florida, we get some pretty exotic looking bugs. Take palmetto bugs. Please. Imagine, if you will, a cockroach the size of a small dog. With wings. But our spiders, for the most part, are pretty tame - maybe because the geckos keep their population down to dull roar. I almost never see one, inside or out.
Now, up in Western New York and by a lake, I saw spiders the size of small tarantulas. Didn't like those guys much. I also saw a couple of Praying Mantises (Manti?). Those things will freak you out. They're about as long as your forearm and look at you with a cocked head like they think they might have met you in the bar the other night but they're not sure.
Wow, that's a great idea you've given me, Barbara! I sometimes fantasize about relocating to upstate New South Wales when I retire, purchase a small rural holding (5 acres?) with a cute little cottage on it, which I will re-name
Cherry Cake Cottage. One of the things that holds me back is the thought of all those mean, nasty ol' spiders in the deep, dark Aussie bush! What an excellent idea it is to introduce a substantial population of cutie-pie little geckos into the area. I love geckos and they would keep those homicidal spiders at bay (not the bird-eating spiders though, but they're mainly in Queensland fortunately!).
You mentioning small tarantulas reminds me - I was driving to work across Sydney Harbour Bridge a couple of weeks ago, doing approx 60kph, in the inside lane, traffic coming straight at me from the other direction, when what should appear from somewhere under the dashboard, but a large
Huntsman Spider!!! God only knows how it got inside my car! Spiders are such devious bastards! This has happened before, and because of my phobia, I always carry a fly-swatter in my car, just incase I need to dispatch a spider in my car!!! This
Huntsman (they look like small tarantulas) was making a bee-line, at speed, for the steering-wheel! I had an immediate phobic reaction,
panic response, and I could have very easily swerved into the oncoming traffic. Somehow I managed to retain some semblance of control, reached for my trusty fly-swatter, and returned that ugly SOB to his Maker!!! Because it was such a frenzied attack on my part (he was splattered gooood!), I laughed later, thinking about what the car behind me must have thought I was doing!!!