Not Scared Of Many Things...

[InCider]

Here is Mr Snakey who lived in my brew shed a few weeks ago. I like carpet pythons (this ones is a coastal variety apparently)
and he was a good lad who just ate lots of bush rats - the same feckers who chewed through a plastic bin to spoil a whole bag of grain!



What really scares me that never used to... is FLYING!

 

[Bongchitis]

..... and kicked off my shoes and socks quicker than i could if i spotted Natalie Portman on all fours.

mmmmmmm sorry for the OT h34r: but she is handy... soft spot for her also 4*.

Redbacks tend to bite and ask questions later as opposed to running and hidding so be carefull. You will be happy to know that very few people have died in recent times from redback bite. Apparently a few have made it to Japan and they have bred up to plague proportions... big news over there.

 

[TidalPete]

Huntsman spiders all over the house up here (harmless) and lots of redbacks (little buggers) that I squash with my foot if nothing else is at hand.
Used to walk up the track to Point Cartright in the sixties (not a house in sight in those days --- pure paradise!) underneath huntsmen as big as dinner plates without any dinner plates of death dropping all over me.
This is Australia brewers. lots of spiders, lots of snakes, lots of vampire sand goannas & other creepy-crawlies. Even if you live in a big city get used to it. They are here to stay.
Only one thing turns me off where I am & that's the bloody geckoes that have bred like wildfire over the past few years & leave shit everywhere & I mean everywhere.

TP
Edit --- forgot to mention the dunes in front of me are full of venomous visitors of which I am VERY careful.

 

[Sydneybrewer]

Ok someone has to say it but mate eat some concrete and harden up! Lol redbacks are actually not that dangerous i was bitten by one on the back of the neck cleaning out the shed a few years back and didnt even give it a second thought, had some swelling the next day but thats about it.

 

[zebba]

On the huntsman front, where I grew up in east gippsland most the huntsmen have some sort of parasitic worm. Step on one and often this pea sized thing will shoot out of it, which then slowly unravels into this worm. Ticks the old man off something shocking, as huntsmen tend to find their way into his horse trough, can't get out, die, then the worms find their way out of the spider and into the trough.

I could harden up, but if they don't kill ya, they rot your leg off, and if they don't rot your leg off they infect you with parasites. Gimme a snake any day, at least you know where you are with them!

 

[mwd]

Don't mind snakes at all, not keen on spiders but bloody cockroaches make my blood run cold. It's those twitching antennas.

 

[schooey]

I don't mind spiders per se... those big hairy huntsmans, I'll pick them up and chuck them out the back door into the garden. The fat arsed spiders that build outside every night this time of the year don't really irk me if I get one on me on the way to the clothes line...

but Funnel Webs.... :huh:

**** them cranky big hairy fuckers... Sorry, man-tickler, but they end up in a greay smear on patch of ground every time. We live next to a vacant block with lots of rainforesty type plants and leaf litter; a perfect habitat for them. Usually I probably find one a month around here. The winter months are good because they are slower, but lately with the humidity and the rain the bastards are everywhere looking to breed and I come across one every week. I really don't want to get the pest guy in to spray because it whacks so much fauna that are innocent bystanders... but sheesh..

 

[TidalPete]

Onya Zebba, really appreciate your input but a quick Google brought up nothing re your post. Happy to be proved wrong here if you can provide any info?
FYI here is a relevant LINK

TP
PS ---- Just saw your post schooey & admit that I've never seen a funnelweb although they're supposed to reside up here as well? Ain't I lucky :beer:
PPS --- Tropical_Brews

but bloody cockroaches make my blood run cold. It's those twitching antennas.

Those bastards are everywhere up here. Just point them to the south & they'll go back where they came from. :lol:

 

[manticle]

No need to apologise Schooey. I'm a fan of live and let live but funnel webs are aggressive and highly venemous (at least a few species) and I do understand arachnaphobia. I still struggle with white tails, despite having read studies that suggest they have been maligned as the cause of necrotising arachnidism (otherwise known as weepy pustulent sores caused by spider bite)

 

[DUANNE]

ive got heaps of white tails around my house and kill them as quick as i can. one bit me on the forehead at night when i was in bed and i have a small chunk out of my skin there now.also got a heap of huntsmans aound but im happy to leave them be on the theory that they wont hurt me but should keep all the mozzies and other bugs under control.

 

[Brewer_010]

My old place was friggen infested with redbacks (I used to spray the suckers all the time but there were far too many to keep on top of), and here is the grandma of all redbacks I've ever seen. Body was as big as a 20c coin, yikes. She's crawling around outside - the brick the bugger is on is a paving brick for scale - before she got stomped on (I've got two small kids and wasn't letting the spider away).

 

[RobB]

On the huntsman front, where I grew up in east gippsland most the huntsmen have some sort of parasitic worm. Step on one and often this pea sized thing will shoot out of it, which then slowly unravels into this worm. Ticks the old man off something shocking, as huntsmen tend to find their way into his horse trough, can't get out, die, then the worms find their way out of the spider and into the trough.

I could harden up, but if they don't kill ya, they rot your leg off, and if they don't rot your leg off they infect you with parasites. Gimme a snake any day, at least you know where you are with them!

The 'worm' could have been a wasp larva. Some species of wasps target spiders to lay their eggs inside them. The egg hatches and the wasp larva munches it way out. Fresh food for the baby, horrible death for the spider.

 

[TidalPete]

The 'worm' could have been a wasp larva. Some species of wasps target spiders to lay their eggs inside them. The egg hatches and the wasp larva munches it way out. Fresh food for the baby, horrible death for the spider.

Good post MC.
On reading this I remember that I often see the hornets up here trundling off with the body of a huntsman in their jaws. Strong buggers those hornets to carry multiple times their bodyweight back to their nests.

TP

 

[Adam Howard]

On seeing all these clear photos of Redbacks they sure are pretty spiders. I don't find many day to day. Do lots of firewood harvesting though so encounter shitloads of different Huntsmans and Funnelwebs where we camp. I'm not an arachnophobe, but Funnelwebs die hard when I come across them due to them being mad kents. Everything else I leave alone unless I think it will climb up inside the leg of my pants while splitting wood!

 

[jyo]

I don't like killing things very much (the occasional brain cell is fair game though) but we had the outside of the house sprayed a few weeks ago for spiders. It was infested with redbacks and whitetails. I'm always dubious before spraying shit around my house but finding a redback in my baby son's rocker right before I put him in helped to move things along.
I was also bitten by a redback on the stomach 6 odd months ago. Small red mark at the site and very minor irritation but other than that...nothing. Maybe my natural insulative properties helped to disperse the venom?

Cheers, John.

 

[zebba]

The 'worm' could have been a wasp larva. Some species of wasps target spiders to lay their eggs inside them. The egg hatches and the wasp larva munches it way out. Fresh food for the baby, horrible death for the spider.

Actually the link TidalPete posted had a perfect example - here's a bigger version. Warning: It's pretty yech! http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Hunts...-worm-parasite/

 

[Zizzle]

Pretty much everyone I have met in the US is piss-scared of even the tiniest spider. I don't even think they have any spiders really worth worrying about... probably the worst is a white tail.

I don't mind spiders. Funnel Webs to be killed on site, but that is just common sense. I kinda like having huntsman around.

I came out to the kitchen to find this visitor on our sliding door. Such a robust and placid spider, so different to the flighty old huntsman.

I played with him a bit and he didn't get aggressive at all. Was happy to keep on his way. He seemed really determined just to roam the yard. Couldn't even get him to show me his fangs.

Apparently it is mating season and the Male Tarantulas wander around looking for a mate.

 

[geoff_tewierik]

On seeing all these clear photos of Redbacks they sure are pretty spiders. I don't find many day to day. Do lots of firewood harvesting though so encounter shitloads of different Huntsmans and Funnelwebs where we camp. I'm not an arachnophobe, but Funnelwebs die hard when I come across them due to them being mad kents. Everything else I leave alone unless I think it will climb up inside the leg of my pants while splitting wood!

You've got a degree in Forestry yet you work as a firewood harvester. Man I hope joining the plod doesn't see you becoming a lollipop lady.

OnT, we've got a shitload of Golden Orbs cluttering up the pathways at the moment, requires judicious use of hand in front of face when walking to catch the webs before the wrap around your face.

Last time I saw a red back it was in the tomatoes and my hand missed it by a bees dick. Hope this years plants haven't been colonised yet.

 

[Zizzle]

These blokes are always fun too...

 

[InCider]

These blokes are always fun too...

I'll be you've wrestled a few of them in your time :lol: