myrtle1

Hi - I'm still new to all this. We are about to post off hubby's skills assessment to the ACS and have recently returned from a reccie around Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

I have to admit to being a bit spooked by the recent pics of the redback spider!

One of the main reasons for our recent reccie was to suss out the spider situation as I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to the crawly variety! Typically, there was nothing when we were there - no spiders, mozzies - was only pounced on by the Christmas beetle

So for a gal who is hopefully aiming to (eventually) live in Ashgrove - can I get the real honest truth? I have read up on all the info and my husband is trying to get me to keep things in perspective - so hands-on advice as to how you generally live alongside these critters would be fab!!

steve`o

sending the kids to school
family day out
and a local barbeque

myrtle1

Ha - cheers for that
Now where can I get one ???

steve`o

http://qualitybeekeepingsupplies.com...d=35&Itemid=30

TiddlyPom

Most of the common critters are interesting... little lizards, nice parrots, the odd big huntsman spider. Seen about two red backs in nearly three years.
At first you're worried about them, but give yourself a few weeks here and they just become part of life and you relax a bit.
I'm sitting here in my lounge with my female huntsman above me in the corner who's sitting on her egg sack, and when I first arrived I couldn't handle having one in the house even.
You'll be fine. Your hub's right...and your reccie trip sounds like it was how we live normally. Not much happening. It's just perspective but you'll get that by living here.

spartacus

What Tiddly says.

Been in Brisbane 18 months, two huntsman and a couple of redbacks. Huntsman are great, as the name suggests they're at the top of the creepy crawlie food pyramid so dispatch all the other nastie that you might otherwise worry about. Not sure whether I could do the whole web thing like Charlotte, sorry, Tiddly. "Bomb' the loft periodically and keep the outside of the house and the underside of any patio furniture clean, and Redbacks shouldn't be an issue.

Mozzies on the other hand are a pain in the proverbial, but you even get used to being bitten.

dejags

It's a sub-tropical climate - creepy crawlies are just a fact of life. You can expect to see lots of bugs but the only ones we regularly see in the house are cockroaches and ants (which I obviously exterminate and remove asap).

More problematic are the mozzies - which, quite frankly are doing my head in!!! We have invested in 2 x yard guards to try and combat the problem. I am thinking that the beekeeper suit is looking like a very good option at the moment.

Seriously though, I quite calmly swatted a HUGE cockroach from the top of my DD's buggy when out and about last Friday night - proof that you do get used to the bugs and get on with things (I was TERRIFIED of cockies when we first arrived 6 months ago).

Grayling

The worst things are the mossies.

I live not far from Ashgrove and we find it impossible to sit out after dark without being covered in bites.

the recent wet weather makes the mossie situation worse.

the western suburbs also have lots of Eastern Brown snakes but I have only encountered one so far.....plenty of huntsman spiders but they don't bother us.

A bigger problem than bugs is the constant humidity at present.....you can't escape that.

G

spartacus

Man I love getting sweaty!

dejags

Seriously, what can be done about the mozzies? Has anybody come up with a reasonable solution that doesn't involve poisoning the kids, animals or the planet in general?

We are also Northside and it's insane at the moment. The mozzies are totally out of control

Grayling

Wierdo

DadAgain

Redbacks are no problem whatsoever, they dont move (obviously they must from time to time, otherwise they'd starve - but you dont see it)

We have redbacks all round our patio, pool, clothesline etc etc and its really no problem at all you get used to them VERY quickly. The only precaution we really make is to give our clothes a thorough shake when we take them off the line (after finding a redback sitting comfortably in the seat of a pair of boxer shorts - *that* could have ended really badly! )

You can try spraying all over the house every now and then to kill them off, but its only temporary and in my opinion more trouble than its worth (particularly if you end up in a typical Ashgrove wooden 'queenslander' house with lots of nooks and crannies for redbacks to live in.


More concerning than spider is, as spartacus points out, mosquitos (which can be kept at bay indoors with the aid of plug-in mossie repellent) and ants which will eat you alive if you ever feel tempted to sit down on almost ANY grassy area in Brisbane!

Never seen a 'brown' (or any other venomous snake) in 10 years in The Gap (more bushy than Ashgrove) - but have had a couple of friendly resident 7ft pythons

Grayling

We simply stay inside with the windows closed......not easy to do if you have no aircon....ours has not been fitted yet and we do not yet have insect screens

G

spartacus

Covering up, and plenty of those coil burners seems to be the only thing that works. Not sure whether those blue yardguard things actually work for mossies.

spartacus