Sydney police responded to what they thought was a domestic violence issue — only to find a flustered man trying to chase a "rather large" spider.

Numerous calls were placed to Harbourside Local Area Command on Saturday from neighbours who reported hearing a woman screaming hysterically and a man yelling "I'm going to kill you, you're dead".

The sounds of furniture being thrown about the unit was also reported.

Officers attended the reported address about 2:00am and were greeted by a man "out of breath and rather flushed".

Police asked the man where his wife or girlfriend was, with the man saying he did not have either and that he lived alone.

The Harbourside LAC posted a rough transcript of the conversation to their Facebook page.

"Come on mate, people clearly heard you yelling you were going to kill her and furniture getting thrown around the unit. Come on mate, what have you done to her," police said.

According to the post, the man became "very sheepish" and replied: "It was a spider."

Police: "Sorry?" Male: "It was a spider, a really big one!" Police: "What about the woman screaming?" Male: "Yeah sorry, that was me. I really, really hate spiders."

The attending police had a quick laugh and look around the unit "to make sure there was no injured party (apart from the spider)" before leaving.

It was not specified which species of spider was involved.