Anyone heard of a Housekeeper?

[Amanda]

The girl who cuts my hair was talking about these enormous spiders around her house here in Florida called housekeepers. She described them as fat-bodied with a 4"-5" legspan. I've never seen them, but she says they're very common around her house and when she was growing up. I searched the web for housekeeper spiders and came up empty. I know it's just some random common name, so I'm wondering if anyone here knows what she's talking about.

 

[jarrell]

Heteropoda venatoria or the huntsman spider, is the spider your probally talking about. there called housekeepers cuase they prey on insects and spiders, so people decided to keep them for there usefullness. there pretty tropical so alot of people here would be intreseted in them.

 

[Amanda]

I suspected that when she said that its body was fat (not a daddy longlegs), but she said that it didn't look hairy at all, and huntsmen do, as far as I know. We definitely have huntsman spiders around here, although I've never had the privilege to find one. If you're right, I may just trade her a rosea sling for one of her "housekeepers."