Last night at our house, the numbers for Jelena Dokovic’s televised match against Dinara Safina in the Australian Open, swelled to hundreds.

It was a balmy evening and scores of insects – mostly flying ants – crawled over the window pane while those small enough to slip through gaps in the flyscreens made a bee-line for the light globe in the lamp. Some were frizzled on impact while others legged it around the table for a short while before going to God.

Others dived into my partner’s glass of wine, like tiny kamikazes, and I had to cover my chamomile tea with a saucer. The thought of drinking boiled flying ants wasn’t at all appealing.

This morning the table was covered with small corpses, as well as those of a few blowflies that had been buzzing around since late yesterday afternoon. I removed the light bulb – one of those energy-efficient types – and found another pile of bodies lodged inside its crevice.

But getting back to last night: a lone huntsman spider appeared and soon scattered the crowd on the window pane. 

Huntsman spiders, while frightening in appearance, always skitter away from humans. You can be unlucky, though, and sustain a nasty bite if one that’s been sheltering in an unworn item of clothing is suddenly confronted by one of your body parts. It’s a good idea to shake clothes in Summer, before putting them on, especially if you’ve hung them up on the floor or over chairs.

Because I’m basically still a city-slicker, huntsman spiders give me the creeps. I do appreciate, though, their role in keeping insect populations in check and they are quite amazing creatures… in a large, many-eyed and hairy way.

Luckily my partner doesn’t share my squeamishness and is adept at catching them with a plastic container and a piece of paper. After we’ve had a good look at them, he releases them outside.

One day, while I’m tending the garden, I just know I’m going to get a nasty fright.