andrew63

Andres63's other half here,

Now while I love Brisbane and have done from day one I am still not able to get used to the uninvited guests in the house......

We got the pest guy in to spray the house the other day, all went well he said we had no problems except for a couple of cockroaches and he had gotten rid of them. Lovely I thought, now I wont meet anything unusual at night nor will I have to worry about uninvited guests in the house.........wrong.

First night, now where it is not unusal for us to have two legged creatures wake us in the night (ie Hannah and Jack) they usually stand at the side of the bed and scare the living daylights out of you. I awoke at 2am to hear a paper bag (which I had receipts in) rustle. Woke Andrew who was his usual cheerful self (not) to get him to investigate. He looked in the bag, folded it over and put it in the bathroom saying it was a moth.......we will deal with it in the morning. (moth it was not - tell you later).

Anyhow, got up went to Hannahs swimming lessons and when we got back I ironed for 2 hours, I was baked, so got myself and Hannah ready to get in for a swim, lovely I thought, swimming down to the end of the pool at eye level there is like a decking, under which I spot a web with 'red back' spiders.......yikes out I jump even though they will not attack you they are dangerous for small children. Got the spray and half a can later they are still alive, ring Andrew and the ozzies in the office say 'just get a shoe and bash them'.....sure. So I ring the pest people and tell them they will have to come back - no worries, next Tuesday.

Decided that going shopping would be less traumatic so went into the bathroom to get ready, and yep opened the paper bag to get rid of the moth, nothing there.....ah wll the little moth probably escased. Brushing my teeth and felt something brush my foot. The 'moth' was a lizard. No probs the are cute ish, so close the door and get a plastic cup and a card to catch it, Hannah chases it towards me and first attempt I got him, slid the card under - bingo, just then the intercom rang. Left Hannah with orders not to move the glass and I would be back in a sec. It was a friend. Disposed of the Lizard - he was happy to get out.

Showed Irene the redbacks, she said she had never seen them so big (thanks Irene) so we get more spray and some shoes and kill them all - very proud of myself. Australians deal with that all the time. Went to the school the other mums say it is the time of year for these things......no one even blinks about it.

Went to 'Garden City' to meet Andrew, the kids went to the cinema, on the way home I dropped Alex (14) to meet a friend and Andrew got home before me, Jack called him into the kitchen and there were two much larger lizards sitting on the wall, (mum and dad looking for the small one I got). He got them out with two pyrex jugs they were that big......I got home and he told me, help 'get me out of here' did not sleep well had dreams all night of creatures. then at 4am the dawn chorus starts......

Now the dawn chorus here is like the symphony bloody orchestra.....a kuckaburra which sounds like a bag of monkeys....all very nice if your nerves are not in shreds. No sleep and everything that moves makes me jump.
Decided to get up watch some TV (no wildlife programs) and write this.

Still love Australia though........today will be different.....I hope I have not put anyone off visiting.......

Will not be leaving any doors open today. Andrew has been telling us over and over not to leave doors open. So I admit defeat - he was right.

Since all of this we find our flyscreens and doors are on incorrectly and there are gaps for the visitors to get in.....

Another lizard in the kitchen (caught him and put him out) our Australian friends say to leave the lizards in the houe to eat the other insects, I ask if they ever heard of fly killer as it is easier to find and you do not have to chase it.....

Met a huntsmans in the hallway last night.....big enough to plead for his life !!! so we chased him back out.....

Need a stiff drink. Any survival tips.......still love Australia

Noeleen

Mel Gibson

Lizards and spiders don't bother me . Lizards are totally harmless and although a few varieties of spiders have venom its extreamly unlikely that you are going to be bitten unless you pick one up and even if you are bitten
spider venom is designed to kill other insects not large animals like humans,
no one has been killed by one since the 1950's, your much more likely to be killed by a bee sting.
Its flies that piss me off not lizards and spiders.

wombat42

Most Aussies are'nt anywhere as near as bothered by spiders and other insects in the house as Poms are . l think the Pest extermination workers are thankful for British immigration to Australia otherwise most of them would be out of work.

bondipom

The women I work with jump a mile at any sign of an insect. The old office was on the ground floor next to a garden to roaches and rats used to crawl in. Now we are higher up and not in Auburn things are better.

wombat42

Women tend to be alot more affraid of creepy crawlies then men are
even ones that are totally harmless like mice. :scared:
Even the tough Feminist types run screaming for help to the nearist man at the first sight of a rat or mouse.

scotvness

You forgot to mention the Toads/Frogs! My hypothesis as to why we dont have the same fly problem here in Qsld is simply due to the fact that there are so many being eaten by the plauge of these ugly little buggers! Oh and my solution to the dawn chorus - Go to bed Early afer a few

ABCDiamond

I think you could be about right there.

A few months ago we had what i would call a plague of little flies, (well, it seemed like it to me) and it lasted a few weeks. I found out the other day that the local water had a blue green algae growing which killed of the fish, and it was the fish that would have been eating the eggs of these flies. But as the fish had died all these eggs hatched into little flies. !!

Apparently though, once the council found out about it, they came over and sprayed the hatching area, the fish came back and the flies died out

Mercedes

I've seen a few Ozzie men back off from a spider. Huntsmen I got used to by thinking as a small animal so didnt have a problem in removing them, out of all the spiders they were the only ones I didn't kill, usually I checked them for their markings before deciding on their fate. Mice who can be afraid of those cuties lol, I use a mouse trap that catches them, then let them out up the road, usually picking them up by their tale. So not all women are big wimps.

JackTheLad

Do you not like the people up the road then?

Cheers,
JTL

G'Day

Oh, well, what can I say - welcome to oz? I'm not afraid of bugs either, but it's a little disconcerting to wake up in the morning and find a Huntsman as big as your hand just above you on the ceiling. Nearly wet my pants as I snuck out from under his drop zone and made a dash for a bottle big enough to contain it. Can't seem to catch the buggers without their legs falling off!

Mercedes

Its a field

Mercedes

The White Tip spider can cause problems for people with bad circulation, diabetes etc if bitten and no cure. In some people it causes bad ulceration. There were a couple of bad cases when I was there a few years back. It basically looks like your skin is rotting after you have been bitten. Since it doesnt have antidote, if was one that I kept an eye out for just in case.

http://www.betterhealthchannel.com.a...ed_spider?open