Big spiders in Mauritius

hi bepster!

to be honest, i try to keep my interactions with spiders to a strict minimum. i always defer to my Dad or brothers in the event one manages to crawl its way into my room and my role in the whole sorry affair, is to stand by and shout out words of encouragement to the brave soul chasing it out.

my first encounter with the spider you mention was when i was 12 and funnily enough, i never thought of finding out more about them. that's more my brother's thing. lol. it was a traumatic experience, i mean, when Dad tried to chase it out, it actually released all its baby spiders. terrible stuff really. lol.

but here you go, i did a little (lots actually! lol) research for you and have managed to narrow it down to one species:

The Brown Huntsman Spider, also known as heteropoda venatoria and if i'm not mistaken, also referred to as olios leucosius.

i might be wrong but here's the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteropoda_venatoria

maybe you can confirm if it's the same creature?

warmest regards, nerolife

Wow..i had so many encounters with these spiders...i usually call my husbund when i see them around but i can call myself proud when sometimes alone i had to deal with them ..being scared to death of spiders an encounter with them makes my adrenaline jump so high!

I had an experience with the tiny spiders coming out of the white bag too...ohhh i had to call all my family to the rescue!!

I check each corner of the house everyday for them, they usually hide in dark places ...behind sofas, forniture or inside curtains too.
My maid always tells me not to kill them if i found one she comes with a hand towel , she takes it and throw it outside but me....i have my spray always full near me ah!

Good luck

Spot on nerolife, that's the one!

Thank you so much for your research. Now it will be easier to find out more info about the little creatures

Thank you both for your spider stories. I like spiders since they keep the house clean of other, more unpleasant creatures of the night (roaches etc), but I have not yet managed to convince my better half

AHH!

I did not need to see that photo of the spider!! shouldn't have opened I guess. I have a love hate relationship with Spiders..If I can see them up on the wall in the kitchen I don't mind..but if there is one in my bedroom I will not be able to sleep until if is taken out!

Bepster..if you really want to find out more go to La Vanille Crocodile park on the South Coast.

There they have the largest private collection of insects in the world! and the man who owns the collection and has written books about it is there most days and will answer all your arachnoid questions!

Ah, La Vanille sounds great. Never been there but I definitely have to look that one up and go on some arachnoid adventures. Thanks for the tip!

@Bepster: you're most welcome! it was actually a fun and interesting piece of research, i got to see pictures of lots of different species. good luck with convincing your better half ... though ... i don't think that's ever gonna happen! lol

@ Veruska: good on you for facing them on your own! i'm just glad there aren't any creepy crawlies where i live in London. roaches are my worst nightmare! rofl

@Irish Beach Girl: ouuuh sorrrry, i should've given a little warning there along with the link yeah, spider in the bedroom is just a huge no-no for me too.

out of curiosity, who is the writer you are referring to? i did find a little info about the spiders in a book written by Allister Macmillan.

oh sorry don't know his name..but the may have info on their website?

lavanille-reserve.com

great place to visit..just wear lots of mozzie sray!!

My wife and I visited for our honeymoon and saw only one big spider, are these the same ones?  Blog post about spider  (At the bottom of the post)

We were also curious about what they were called, we were kind of surprised to see it.  Usually I don't like spiders, but it was neat to see it in the wild. 

I'd also like to know if anybody knows what they're called, we've tried looking it up but haven't found much about them.

(Edit: I think Nerolife has the same spider, maybe ours wasn't fully grown.)

Welcome to Expat-Blog!

It does not look like a huntsman to me, but again, I am no arachnologist, so perhaps I should just keep my mouth shut

I couldn't help notice the line "It's a green and nice island overall but you won't find monkeys on the trees or lots of tropical fruit all over." in your blog post.

There are around 30,000-40,000 wild monkeys living in their natural habitat in Mauritius - and papaya, mango, lime, guava and many other tropical fruits grow in the wild all over the island. I can't believe that you managed to miss that, and I almost feel sorry for you

For others still on the island, Grand Bassin is a good spot for monkey spotting, but now I'm a little bit off topic ...

Huntsmen spiders are completely harmless to humans. They are very common in Australia. They definately will give you a fright if they catch you off guard! i had one run over my face in the middle of the night while i was sleeping. you have never seen somebody move so fast as i did that night!

bepster wrote:

Welcome to Expat-Blog!


I couldn't help notice the line "It's a green and nice island overall but you won't find monkeys on the trees or lots of tropical fruit all over." in your blog post.

There are around 30,000-40,000 wild monkeys living in their natural habitat in Mauritius - and papaya, mango, lime, guava and many other tropical fruits grow in the wild all over the island. I can't believe that you managed to miss that, and I almost feel sorry for you

For others still on the island, Grand Bassin is a good spot for monkey spotting, but now I'm a little bit off topic ...

Yeah, we missed the monkeys although we did read some about them, I really wish we had seen some!  We did actually see fruit, we'll have to change that part, thanks for the info!