Dangerous discovery at the bottom of Queensland pool: 'Always check'
The species 'should not be handled', according to an expert.
A Queensland woman has shared her rather terrifying find at the bottom of her backyard pool, prompting a warning about the "medically-significant" species.
Brisbane mum Alex Louisa happened to walk by the pool on Thursday when she noticed half a dozen black creatures resting in the depths of the water.
"I wasn’t swimming luckily," she told Yahoo News Australia. "We always check the pool for bees or wasps before we get in."
But this time she noticed six large spiders. "So now we’ll be checking for these too!".
Creatures confirmed as eastern mouse spiders
Sharing her discovery on the Australian Identification Spider Facebook page, the arachnids were confirmed to be eastern mouse spiders, which are a common and "medically significant" species.
"They are known to dry bite (bite without injecting venom) but a bite should still be treated as a medical emergency," an expert and one of the moderators of the page warned in the comments.
"Even though they were found in the pool, they may still have some life left in them and should not be handled."
In true Aussie fashion, Ms Louisa wasn't phased by the dangerous find but rather fascinated to come face-to-face with the species for the first time.
"I was delighted when I saw them and called my boys to come and see right away as we all love insects," she said.
Spiders managed to survive the pool water
Ms Louisa used a pool net to safely scoop the spiders out and somewhat miraculously reported that all six spiders ended up being alive and well.
"I didn’t want to squish them so I used a broom in one hand to stir up the water so they’d rise off the bottom, then used a pool scoop in the other hand" she said.
Mouse spiders normally live in burrows and when reaching adulthood, males will wander looking for females — which are larger in size — and will "often fall into pools," Jeremy Wilson, an arachnologist from the Queensland Museum previously explained to Yahoo News Australia.
Aussies react to pool find
Ms Louisa's post garnered lots of attention online, with many getting the "heebies" from the spiders.
"I would have probably fainted," one person said. "Nope nope nopity nope. I might Google 'Getting pool removed' now," another joked.
So what ended up happening to the spiders? Well to the dismay of some, Ms Louisa just "let them be".
"They crawled under the deck once they were moving again," she told Yahoo. "Spiders don’t bother me, and I’ve told my boys they are absolutely not to handle these ones, and to let me know if they see them again.
"We’re also keeping an eye on our pup to be sure he doesn’t put his nose where he shouldn’t!"
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