Following an article about the spider, which the suburb claimed as its own and named the "Andersons Bay spider", Otago Daily Times readers from throughout the city have described their encounters with the creepy crawly.
While most responses came from Andersons Bay residents, others were received from residents of suburbs such as Brighton and Pine Hill.
Andersons Bay resident Jenny Webb said she had "colonies" of the spiders at her home.
"Their favourite places are wood piles and under stones."
A common size appeared to be about that of an old 50c piece, but "sometimes they are so big, they are staggering".
She said the bite was similar to a wasp sting and "really unpleasant".
One reader said the spiders were "so big you can hear them scampering along wooden floorboards".
University of Otago research assistant Stefan Porter, who came across the spiders while involved in the Dunedin Garden Study, said he was not surprised to hear of people finding the spiders in other Dunedin suburbs.
However, he still believed there was a distinct concentration of them at Andersons Bay.
