No-one has died from a spider bite since about 1980. Do you worry about bees? They really do kill people in the UK.

They'd be pushed to bite you through clothing. Big ants can sting through one layer of fabric, but then so can bees in the UK. I've been stung by lots of ants and they can hurt - so I've learnt to avoid them, it doesn't take long!

You'll just get used to what you look out for. Don't worry

good point I worry more about Bees than spiders in this Country.

However bees don't creep in the house!!!

the spiders in Sydney are not that plentiful but they are there the funnel webs we used to catch and deliver to the hospital to be milked for venom all else was put outside (my OH is the brave one) get the spider chart but tell your kids to avoid the spiders and check shoes etc are empty before putting on

we used barrier spray to stop them coming in but we got more cockroaches than spiders any day

the thing that really freaked me out was the terrestrial leeches both in our garden and the rainforest if you go walking after rain take gaiters with you.
dont burn or salt leeches it makes them vomit into your bloodstream just hook them off with your fingernail and apply tea tree to stop the itching.

The only time I checked a bed was when we stayed at a friend's place in a bed that had been made up a fair while in advance. And that was only because I'd been at a party the night before with someone who reckoned they'd been bitten once by a whitetip in a pile of sheets.

I used to check the sun shades (what are they called? Can't think of the right term) in my car for spiders, yes, not because I was scared of being bitten by something behind them but I know that if something large appeared while I was driving I would have been a danger to myself and others on the road. There was never anything behind them though.

I deliberately didn't put the lights on in the middle of the night on the basis that I didn't want to know what was around . We had two huntsmen in/around the bathroom of our reno project, only times I ever saw them inside. Other times were on the cars, hence me checking sun shades.

We lived in a townhouse for our last year in Melbourne and we never saw anything, big or small. In our reno project there was the huntsmen as above and various big dead spiders that my cat had caught. OH saw redbacks in besser blocks that were piled up in the garden. Other than that, the odd small spider inside. Honestly, it sounds much worse when you're not living there, it really does.

Spiders and snakes are definitely something you have to be aware of in Australia, most people dont see them but doesnt mean they arent there. Because they dont kill you doesnt mean they arent dangerous. It really depends exactly where you are in Australia of course. You just have to be aware all the time especially when gardening or rummaging around in sheds etc.

Everytime I come back to this thread I feel all itchy and nervous looking around me.

I'm terrified of spiders, but you don't see that Manu. Had a wolf spider in the apartment the other day, was big! But got someone to throw somthing on it and then jump up and down to kill the thing.

I also check the sun shade in the car for the same reason, if I was driving and flipped it down and a spider (of any size) landed in my lap I would probably end up in an accident.

Also bang my shoes and shake them to death before putting my feet in.

I got one of those! It had got inside my welly and attached itself through my sock so I only found out something was wrong when I took my sock off and there was a lot of blood, but no trace of any attacker. It didn't hurt, just very itchy afterwards. The little leech turned up making its way down the hall several hours later. Thank goodness for lightly coloured floors.

Apparantly more people have been injured in car crashes caused by spiders appearing from behind sun visors than have ever been injured by being bitten by one.

It must be true because Stephen Fry said so on QI.