Marg,
The huntsmen sounds AWESOME!!!!!! Don't you have one called a mouse something or other? Or is that the funnel web and they eat mice? When I lived in FL, there were housekeeping spiders that were about the size of the palm of my hand. SKinny, but large and aggressive. They could and would catch cockroaches, palmetto bugs (kind word for cockroaches) and geckos, lizards etc. We were told by our bug man to just leave them if they came in the house. Okay so one year I went to get my Christmas decorations down out of the crawlspace over the car port and there she was.....in all her glory ----on the box of decorations and BOY was she big, and aggressive and WOW did she mean business. I figured if I left my stuff for a day or so, she would go away. Nope - came right back after me to the point I had to take a broom and do battle. She was still up in the crawl space, but that was about the most aggressive bugger I've encountered.
Our black widows here? So non-aggressive if you had a mind to you could easily trap them and move them but DF won't. He sprays them which I think is probably wise since I'm allergic to bees etc. but it makes me sad to think they do no harm. They made their homes in the petrified wood I used to have in the yard on the borders of the Liriope (border grass). So After he did that? I moved the rocks to the field, sprayed them off,and I've left them there ever since. If the widows like the holes in the petrified wood rocks - so be it - I won't mess with them any more. If I'd see one now? I wouldn't tell Df about it. Ours got about from the size of a pinky nail to the size of a nickel. Not very big, but lots of color variations. We had black with white spots, black with pink spots....black with the typical red - and one I found a coral colored one - all widows. My favorites should be making their webs soon - The Argiope (St. Andrews Cross spiders) the Garden writers. I love them -if you do find them ? They're harmless, please just leave them, watch them they'll catch bunches of bugs, and then go - they're big may move a time or two but are very cool to take pictures of - and if you want to photograph the web for a really good picture? You can take a spray bottle of pure water - make sure it has NO chemical residue at all - and mist the nest in the early morning - then phototgraph. I have video of one rocking the web trying to scare me. They are incredible creatures.