Woman refused to kill a spider for a house guest - and people were supportive

An Australian woman refused to kill a spider to accommodate a house guest - and people were supportive of her decision.

In a post uploaded to the sub-Reddit Am I The A**hole, the woman said that she nicknamed a huntsman spider 'Simon' after he appeared in the corner of her living room ceiling for a couple of weeks.

"He's hard to reach for me to trap and put outside, and honestly, he doesn't bother me. He can chill there for as long as he wants so long as he keeps eating smaller bugs and so long as I can see him," she wrote.

Some weeks later, the woman said that her friend Ben and his girlfriend Shay (from Wales) were travelling around Australia and asked if they could spend a couple of nights with her, and she was happy to do it.

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However, she informed them that she had a huntsman spider and her living room since she knows that people that aren't from the area might be frightened by them.

"Anyway, Shay and Ben got here, and we were all having dinner/watching tv, etc., when Shay noticed Simon chilling in the corner. She freaks out and says I need to kill it. I said, 'no, I'm not comfortable killing spiders, and he's not hurting you,'" the woman wrote.

She went on to say that it seemed that her friend Ben didn't explain to Shay how big huntsman spiders are and that Shay kept telling them "to kill it."

"I said I didn't want to, huntsmans are harmless and timid, and they actually eat mosquitoes and other bugs you would rather not have in here."

When she asked Shay if she was scared of spiders, she told her that she wasn't, but she thought having one inside of a home is "f***** up."

"I got kind of mad at that because I'm doing her a favour letting her stay for free, cooking for her, etc. and she's calling me fucked up for not killing a harmless creature, so I said, 'I doubt he's the only spider, he's just the only one you can see'. This pissed her off even more (which I obviously understand, so I get I may be the asshole for that)," the woman added.

To resolve the issue, the woman and her friend Ben "ended up getting a step ladder, trapping him and putting him outside," which still bothered Shay because she believed that the spider should have been killed before being put outside.

At the end of the post, the woman said that Ben and Shay left early to stay at a "clean hotel," according to Shay's terms.

"This again rubbed me the wrong way because my house is clean; it just had a spider in it (ones that clean by eating bugs and not making webs!)," she continued.

People in the comments section of the post thought that although the spiders can be scary-looking, they didn't think the woman was wrong because she let her guests know about the spider ahead of time.

"I have a spider phobia (I'm working on it) and wouldn't have stayed there after you'd told me about Simon. She didn't care enough to look up what the spider was after an Australian of all people gave her a warning it was there. When an Australian speaks about spiders, I listen. That's on her. Also, Simon sounds cute. I'm glad you didn't hurt him/her," one wrote.

"I just looked up huntsman spiders……holy s***. You Australians are built different. If I discovered one of those in my room, I'd take golems advice and 'leave now and never come back.' Having said that, I think not the a**hole. I can understand how freaked out your friend's girlfriend [was]. But you did warn them, and it's your house," another added.

A third wrote: "She was rude for someone who doesn't have a spider phobia. You were hospitable to her, and she was a brat."

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