It's a brave scientist who makes a career out of gluing tracking devices to the heads of the world's most venomous spider.
But University of NSW researcher Caitlin Creak grew up near bushland, surrounded by spiders.
Plus, she gasses them to be safe.
The UNSW PhD candidate is investigating the behaviour of the male Sydney funnel-web to learn how to predict seasonal variations in the funnel-web population, and identify when they are high risk to humans.
She is tracking the nocturnal spiders to see how far they will travel in a season, and if weather or the environment impacts their movement.
To do this she has to fix a telemetry tracking device to the top of the spider's body using some superglue and a sponge shaped like a doughnut to hold down its legs.
"I am very cautious with them. I never handle them with my hands, ever. I always use 30-centimetre long forceps and thick plastic containers when interacting with them."
The funnel-web is left "rather unimpressed" by the ordeal but recovers before being released into the wild the next day.
Ms Creak and her team of volunteers will spend four to six hours locating all eight spiders and taking measurements.
The telemetry tracker relays beeps to a receiver using radio frequency as the researcher gets closer to the spider.
She then uses measuring tape to record the distance the spider travelled overnight and mark its location using GPS coordinates.
"Funnel-webs have zero concern about accessibility, so there's often a lot of bush-bashing and steep areas we have to navigate," she said.
The Sydney funnel-web spider starts appearing in early November through to late April, Ms Creak said.
"I have learnt so far that our males are visiting multiple burrows per season, the females are mating multiple times and that the boys in Lane Cove National Park don't need to go far to find a mate," she said.
"Great news for them and us."
AAP/ABC
