TiddlyPom

Long term exposure to those sorts of chemicals are not good.
You might want to investigate something more natural at some point.

I know there was someone who posts in the Barbie who had hypnotherapy... Perhaps start a thread in there. Sorry, can't remember who.
You could also do a search in the Aus and Barbie forum....

Josie1100

Thanks for your help! We've been scouring the internet, and yes, it is a hard call between the Wolf or Huntsman spider. The abdomen in the earlier pic does look like the Wolf spider, however, looking closer at some other pics, it seems the eyes are two sets of four as opposed to the Wolf spider's three sets of 2, 2 & 4? Also, the thorax seems wider than that of the Wolf spider & similar in shape to the Huntsman?

Here's some more pics (we love the one with the shadow bt the way - it looks like a scene from Scooby-Doo!)...

TiddlyPom

Mmmm...tricky call... but Huntsman probably... the legs are more huntsman and the eyes.
Huntsmen are quite highly patterned when young too so it's hard to tell but I think you're right.

TMRE

I read that huntsman females stay with the eggs until they hatch. Have a big spider and flying phobia that I need to get over pretty quickly, otherwise i will never get to OZ

TiddlyPom

My daughter (spider mad) told me they die.. I took her word for it. But saying that, I've never seen a female huntsman alive near an egg sack... They tend to lay and leave.

Oh if it was simple for us all.

TMRE

If you believe her then I will as well. Now all I have to do is leave the google search alone for 6 months or so, leave it, leave it, leave it .... you don't want to go there

TiddlyPom

She's an 11 year old expert on all insects....




This is her idea of fun....

TMRE

My 12 year old is an expert on makeup and hair products. My 2 year old looks like she is heading the same way as your daughter!. She loves touching spiders, worms, slugs, snails etc . Plus on a flight to Florida she was squealing with delight and asking about everything. Boy did I have fun trying to cover up the fact that I was terrified. One bad emergency landing has scared me for life

TiddlyPom

Good on you for not passing your fears on. Sounds like your 2 year old is going the same way. Mine was exactly the same when she was that age.
I suspect she'll be an entymologist when she's older....

Weasy

Our female huntsman sat on the egg sac until the eggs hatched - don't know where she went then, perhaps that's when they die?



Huntsman nesting



Lots of babies coming out of egg sac

TiddlyPom

Aw bless her! What a good momma.

We've got them in the studio and no momma to be seen...

I'll ask the 11 yr old again.


Great pics!