Ceri

Nope dosen't work
I get bitten more than my "hubby" ... I also drink more than him
He gets bitten... the bump goes down in an hour... I get bitten it lasts a week! .. I have a terrible reaction to mozzies!
My theroy is they prefer 'fair people" .. maybe thinner skin or something. My husbands dark skinned , hardly ever gets bitten... All the fair people I know, get bitten heaps. Theory anyway.

I found the best repellent to be "Bushman's" .. but I hate using it long term.
Aloe vera plant also works quite well to soothe , just break a piece of the stem/leaf off.. and spread the sap on... also works for minor burns too.

I've never had a prob with Blow flies... I'm not sure I even know what they look like.
Spiders yes, Huntsmen and redbacks... don't bother me though. I've a few Huntsmen running around the house... they are lovely!
Redbacks I usually get them in the garage and behind the window frames.. I just spray those. (Hairspray works for this too if you haven't got any fly/insect spray handy)

Repellent for snakes.... Buy a mongoose . No probs with them here, but the land I've bought to build on, I've been talking to my soon to be neighbours.. and it seems there are a few snakes around there.. carpet snakes mostly, and the odd brown snake (eek!)

There are no warm and cuddly things ... for heavens sake don't pick up a koala or a possum ... have you seen the claws on them!!! . A man got bitten last year by a koala he picked off the road. And apparently, a full grown Possum is a match for a cat ... the possum wins! (someone told me this.. a full grown possum can kill a cat . I used to feed the possums in my last house, and my cats used to run and hide

cheers

P.s I just tried attaching a photo of "my possum" ... dosen't seem to work.. anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
The size is 4.97 KB and a jpeg...

pommiesheila

Looking forward to seeing the photo of your "possum" Ceri - Pommiesheila's husband...

cazz

waiting for visa's to arrive looking forward to emigrating to oz, never really been bothered by the thought of the creepy crawlies until now!!
I do like a glass of red in the evening, now worried might turn into a bottle or two.

thanks everyone :scared:

colind

My sister in law in Brisbane told us last year about her encounter with a huge hornet flying through the house carrying a Huntsman! Probably had stunned it to lay its eggs in it?

I get bitten far more than my wife (she's Aussie, I'm a Pom...my theory is they go for the Poms! ) I use Aeroguard. Pretty good. The biggest problem I have is FORGETTING to apply it when I have been drinking...so alcohol does not work for me!

dpr21

Ceri

After our little tete a tete over the rugby, you may think I'm pulling the piss out of you (no pun intended) but the following is true.

A little trick we used as kids in Africa and later in the military for bee and other stings was to immediately (i.e. asap) rub urine (your own) onto them. For bee stings it works an absolute treat. I even know people who if left untreated (anti-histamine/adrenaline) for a few minutes would go into anaphylactic shock however if they did it IMMEDIATELY they were often OK. We used to do the same thing for bad mossie bites but with a slightly lower, but still high, success rate. I suspect that this may have been that with mossies there is often a delay between when you get munched and you actually realise that you've been munched. i.e. the times when you don't flatten the mossie whilst it is still draining out your lifeforces so to speak.

DPR

Ceri

You'll be telling me next about.. if you're dying of thirst.. drink it ... I rather get attacked by Mozzies sorry.

Heard about all that sort of stuff from my grandfather who served in Malaya (Malaysia), and my other one... North Africa.

no thanks ... I'll stick to being bitten.
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P.S I'll be damned if I can upload any pic's...I was going to post a possum photo... he's looking through the patio doors at us. I've tried, got my partner to have a go too...still no joy, I go to attach the file, with the browse button, insert the file/photo .. but it's not uploading to my post. Ahrggg !

I've tried BMP, jpeg... made the photo into a really small file... so it isn't that.

I give up.

Ceri

Ants is the other one I have a prob with.. those big black ants.. they sting like hell!

Those hornets are nasty.. I had a hornet nest hanging from the outside of the garage a couple years back.

I don't find spiders a nuisance much... I leave them alone.. they leave me alone.
Saying that.. I'm always bragging I'm not scared of spiders, my husband always jumps when he see's one... so last year there was this huge Huntsman crawling up the patio mesh. "ahh get out the way you wally" I say to my hubby you wuss..... I get a stick to brush him off the mesh door, the spider jumps on my shoulder.... I shoot up into the air ... screaming!! I may not be scared of them.. but I certainly don't want one on my shoulder... this Huntsman was huge.. the size of my hand I recon. I leave well alone now.

Cheers

colind

Spiders are fine, but when they start jumping, that is getting all a bit much. Haven't witnessed this phenomenon yet in Sydney, but my wife tells me it's pretty common in Brisbane!

pommiesheila

I was terrified of spiders before coming to Oz, and wouldn't even touch a money spider - but my son's friend lent me his copy of Arachnaphobia and I was patting myself on the back for sitting through it 5 times with my eyes open for most of the time.... (Son reckoned this was the best "therapy" - and I thought it had worked.

Seen a few Red Backs - didn't flinch
Seen a few White Tails - didn't flinch

So far so good... BUT, was gardening the other day (32deg. in the shade and I still had jeans on tucked into socks, just in case) and this enormous Huntsman ran over my shoes. I bet they could hear my screams in Sydney...It was at least the size of my hand - honestly... it seems the hotter the weather, the more they come out of hiding...

madmancunian

A cowboy walks into a bar in Texas, orders three mugs of brew and sits in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender approaches and tells him, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it so it would taste better if you bought just one at a time." The cowboy replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin and I'm in Texas. When we all left home, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days we were together. So I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself." The bartender admits that this is a nice custom and leaves it there. The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and orders only two mugs! All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss." The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs. "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains....... "It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and obviously I had to quit drinking. Hasn't affected my brothers though."

Ginny

:scared: :scared: :scared:
OMG OMG OMG

Blow flies, maggots, big and little hairy things and what the hell is a white tail?

I was never at my best when it came to spiders, a bit like Ceri's hubby, but I'm truly freaking out now. I think I'm doing well if I don't scream too loud but when we finally get out there I don't think I'll need to phone home, I think they'll hear me alright!!!!!!!!!

Is there anything else that I should know about, and be gentle.

Love and palpatations

Ginny

jeannie

Thanks for the laugh good one !!!!!!!!!

renth

Well, you'd be very unlucky to be harmed by any of these Aussie creatures but here goes:

Saltwater crocodiles
Box jellyfish
Funnel Web Spiders
Brown Snakes
Tiger Snakes
Death Adders
Sea Snakes
Stinging trees
Blue Ringed Octopus
Cone Shells
Sharks - White, Tiger, Bull, Mako etc.........
Dingoes

I'm sure I've missed a few. You' would have to be very unlucky/stupid to get harmed by any of these, but hey, shit happens.

There you go, yet another negatve post....

Ginny

Is there a positive post after all that!

Thanks, I am now feeling very relaxed indeed!

Anymore?

Ginny and her ever increasing palpitations.

Ceri

http://www.geocities.com/cerie666/my_webshite.html



Here goes... I've tried putting a photo into my reply (IMG).. text... having a lot of trouble. I get the pic in my "prieview reply", but when I actully post my message the photo does not show up in my message.. just an X box, where the photo should be.

I've actually got the photo in my preview reply now, as I type, but it probably it won't show up again when I go to post this message. Arrgh!

anyway, I posted the link just in case the photo dosen't work again!... nothing special... I bunged it up in five minutes... it's just a test home page.

I'm just trying to figure out how to post some pic's here with my message.... if I can figure this out.

Oh if you see the photo.. it's of "my possum" looking through the patio doors at my cat .. he's called Nick the Possum

cheers

P.S ... no it's happened again.. no photo, but I get the photo in my preview message.. ahh I give up