Mr Mojo’s "pet" tunnelweb

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   There is a rockwall in our backyard which is the perfect habitat for tunnel webs.  Recently we counted about 7 webs although I haven't seen an actual tunnel web spider for several weeks.
When we moved here a couple of years ago there was a huge tunnel web spider living in one of the webs and DH, who is fascinated by spiders like me, adopted it.  He would check up on it daily and tried coralling bugs towards the web so we could watch it hunt and feed.

TBH we were a bit disappointed that we don't have wasps because apparently the wasps are the natural enemy of the tunnel web.  They poison the spider then lay their eggs inside their abdomens and the baby wasps (once hatched) eat their way out .....while the spider is still alive - how cool is that!
To give you an idea of just how big this spider was here's a couple of comparison pics of our spider next to leaves.

This spider was DH's "pet" for a few months but he got a bit iffy on it when he found out that they tend to come inside and make homes in warm damp rooms (like bathrooms) during winter months (he didn't like the idea of greeting it in the shower in the morning).  

DH had also been under the impression that, being a tunnel web, it would stay in it's tunnel but he found it one day sunning itself on the path that our then 2yo daughter frequently uses.  Daddy instincts then took over and he decided it was time to get rid of the spider.
Not wanting to get too close he decided the best method would be to poison it.  Firstly he mixed up a bucket of boiling water, bleach, dish liquid and handy andy.  He poured it on top of the spider, washing it down the steps, and then got rid of its web. A day later the spider had come back and the web was rebuilt.  
Next he sprayed it with half a can of insect spray, here's the pic.

The insect spray didn't work either, it didn't even slow it down (infact it made it angry and the spider went into attack mode) so finally DH grabbed a rock and in the age old battle of man vs beast, DH won (although he did drop the camera with fright, breaking it, when the dead tunnel webs body started convulsing).  
I made him leave the dead carcass on the path for a couple of days to ensure the spider didn't resurrect again.