A 30-cm Giant Spider in the House... A Surprising Twist Behind Its Fierce Look

[Anchor]

There is a species of spider known as a natural predator of cockroaches that has recently drawn a lot of attention. While its large body and long legs often spark reactions of disgust, the huntsman spider actually plays a hidden role.

[Reporter]

A video recently went viral on social media.

It initially looked like a somewhat creepy, ordinary situation of catching a giant spider with a vacuum cleaner, but—

[Oh my goodness, capturing such a precious huntsman spider...]

[You guys just captured Admiral Yi Sun-sin.]

[It worked hard for us for several years, but it disappeared during the monsoon season. Please come back.]

The star of this attention is none other than the huntsman spider.

With a brownish body color, it is a large spider measuring over 10 centimeters in total length.

Strictly speaking, "huntsman spider" is not an individual species, but a classification at the family level. Therefore, the exact names of the huntsman spiders we encounter in daily life include about 12 species, such as the Korean huntsman spider and the Jirisan huntsman spider.

Among actual eyewitness accounts, the giant body size is most frequently mentioned.

A flat body and long legs are key characteristics of the huntsman spider.

Because they move fast enough to hunt without spinning webs, their English name is also the huntsman spider.

[Han Young-sik, Head of the Hansup Insect Ecology Research Institute: There are huntsman spiders in Australia. There are test results for those huntsman spiders, and they travel nearly 4 meters in the blink of an eye at 3.59 meters per second. Extremely fast, right? Cockroaches—looking at data on American cockroaches, they go about 1.5 meters per second, so huntsman spiders can easily catch them at more than double that speed. Because they eat various pests around them, they can be seen as beneficial species. And those spiders are eaten by birds. Because they connect all the links in the ecosystem's food chain, spiders play a major role in maintaining biodiversity, which is talked about a lot these days. So their biggest feature is that they can also move sideways. Like a flower crab, right? They are named with meanings like 'giant crab spider.' Because they can change directions freely, they can climb walls very well, and their capabilities are bound to be much superior. If we model creatures like huntsman spiders well, we can build robots. Their adhesive ability, for example. Because those capabilities are so exceptional, they are all used in biomimetic science and technology.]

Special exploration robots navigate freely through narrow gaps and cliffs at disaster sites.

When building cutting-edge robots that climb walls in space or remote areas, huntsman spiders are also serving as a model.

Contrary to their fierce appearance, they are quick to run away or hide when they see a person. While they might seem like they carry fatal venom, they only use it when hunting other prey.

Overseas, huntsman spiders are already well-known as beneficial insects.

Even in Australia, where huntsman spiders inhabit the most, the reaction is mostly, "Let's just leave the huntsman spiders alone."

[Han Young-sik, Head of the Hansup Insect Ecology Research Institute: Where do spiders live a lot? They live a lot in spaces where people rarely go. What happens when a place is left undisturbed for a long time? It becomes a great place for spiders to move in and live. (So if you want to live without ever seeing them, you just need to keep things clean and well-maintained?) You have to live seeing them. Spiders need to be around. Humans are the problem, rather. Spiders need to be there. Even though Korea produced Spider-Man, the aversion to spiders is too big. We shouldn't foster aversion. As I keep saying, spiders are beneficial creatures in the ecosystem. They are beneficial creatures in the natural ecosystem. And if there are many spiders around, it means that "the ecosystem around us is healthy," and that's how you should think about it. If one happens to pass by, you can just greet it and say, "Oh, you're here? Hey, go eat just 10 cockroaches here before you leave," and that's all it takes.]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.