We are hoping to go to Australia next year but unfortunately i do have a dreadful fear of those horrible eight legged ba$tards. I don't know why I am scared of them I just am. I did go to Oz in 98 for a year but managed to avoid any really nasty frightening incidents.

Can you get by without them bothering you or do they pop up everywhere (in your shoes, in the eaves / rafters, in bushes in the garden?)

Any advice appreciated

Me too, however it won't stop me going, to answer your question I suppose it depends where you live and what the weather is like etc.....I presume and this is only a presumption that if you live in the city you are less likely to get the big nasties in your house etc...

Try hypnotherapy I did it with my son and he is no where near as bad as he was. In QLD you find them all over but they don't jump out and bite you if you leave them alone... .

Don't worry you dont actually see them very often. I imagined I would see them everywhere as I had this image of Oz being fullof them things and I REALLY HAte creepy crawlies but I have rarely seen them in our house and although there are a few in the garden I dont walk through bushes so avoid them. Its not as bad as you may envision.

Last time I was in Aus, I stayed for about a year and only saw three spiders the entire time I was there.

Wouldn't worry about it.

Spiders aren't gross, but leaches are pretty vile... They stand up on end and twirl around looking for your feet. Then they crawl through into your boots, bite and inject anesthetic and anticoagulant and drink your blood. The time you know you've got one on you is when you squash it in your walking boot and there's blood EVERYWHERE.


See, now spiders are the least of your worries.

I can honestly say that I see them less here than the UK. You don't get house spiders so much here. However......you do get the occiasional huntsman inside and......well......they are rather large!!!!

I think because we have poisonous spiders here they get talked about a lot more, but really and truly it's not a big deal.

From and ex spider phobic who had help (seriously!!!)

Rudi

Like anything in life, you just get used to it.

Trust me, you'll find the ants more annoying than the spiders. You'll look back 12 months after arriving and laugh about how worried you were about spiders.

Relax

GLR

have only seen 4 spiders since i arrived here in january....


one was tiny, 2 were orb weavers in the garden, 1 huntsman ( i think!) which scutted across the carport roof.



was v v v v v worried bout this before coming over here but i've hardly given it a 2nd thought!

Where do you all live!!! there's loads where I am all around the house and in the house, different varieties, your houses must have been sprayed if you are not seeing them.

We have seen at least 10 different sorts in our house and garden alone.

Do apologise if you are doing the don't worry you won't see them routine to calm people down but reality in my house is they are here.

Are they BIG? Do you think there are more in Queensland than other states ? Is there any particular area of Oz that would have a low reading on a spiderometer???? What about Wollongong? Mandurah?
:scared:

Well, like Ann, we have a lot in our garden, and quite a few in the house. I've only been able to identify the redback, the whitetails and the black house spiders, and I think we may have had a garden orb (?) as well. Loads of black house spiders in the garden, but they seem very shy. If you go to try and take a picture of them, they scuttle off again. You don't bother them, they don't bother you. When we see spiders inside we try and always put them outside, because our one cat loves pulling the legs off spiders, and we don't want her bitten.

On the bright side, you don't get funnel webs here in Perth. Well, not yet, anyway. My first aid trainer said last week that funnel webs are now in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, so they'll probably arrive here sometime. But funnel webs are the only ones that will allegedly attack without provocation. Mate of my husband's who lives in Sydney had one living at the bottom of his pool for a couple of days. Apparently they can survive in water for a while.

Size hasn't got a lot to do with toxicity. Some of the toxic ones are small, while the larger ones are mostly innocuous. According to St. John's, the only bites that they actually *do* something about are the funnel web - even redback bites only attract ice packs nowadays.Statistically you are more at risk from wasp and bee stings here than you are spider bites. So don't worry!!

Sue

I know it sounds silly but I am scared of the actual creature itself rather than whether or not it can harm me. I think if you gave me a tiny spider that was toxic and a massive mother that was harmless I would choose the small one anyday. I think I must get therapy. These ones that are in your house, are they big or just UK size spiders? Starting to wish I hadn't posted this. I guess I have just got visions of big chunky spiders everywhere. Stomachs going all funny just thinking of them!!!!

[QUOTE=

Can you get by without them bothering you or do they pop up everywhere (in your shoes, in the eaves / rafters, in bushes in the garden?)

Any advice appreciated [/QUOTE]

Even in your sleep, statistics say we all eat so many spiders in our lifetime when we are asleep! Hope I dont swallow anything poisonous!

Hehe!
Paul

I really wish I had not opened this thread :scared:

I really wish you hadn't too!!! Good god my skins crawling !!!!