gotta ask for the sake of the wife
( she hates spiders )
is it really that bad
if you live in the suburbs what types of spiders are common
i do remember a thread someone was writing of their experience so far and mentioned they had only seen one spider
need to put the wifes mind at rest for her sake and the worries about the kids
cheers
railman

which part of oz are you going to? you'll encounter diff types of spider depending where you are

hopefully melbourne

Been here a year and have seen only one Huntsman, and that was at a friend’s house. Living in a typical leafy suburb north of Sydney. More worried about the termites than the spiders, as they can eat you entire house in a couple of months.

I only used to get whitetails in the house - and even then, only about 4 in a year - they have a nasty bite but not deadly. If you spray your house with barrier spray you can more or less curb the flow of insect coming in. Outside in the garden you may see redbacks - poisonous but I havent found them aggresive. ALso had a couple of big huntsmen in the garage (actually one was in the car but dont tell your wife !)

I used to get more spiders in my house in the UK than in Melbourne - and they ran faster in the UK and were bigger (apart from the huntsmen) so I would say I actually was less stressed in Oz than UK!!

You just have to get in the habit of checking your shoes and shaking your clothes if they've been on the floor

hiya railman,
do a search in the box above using 'spiders' you will get tons of info!!!
just to reassure your wife, the info I got was -
-You can get some sort of gunk to seal up holes that spiders use
-before you move into a house you can spider-bomb every room; tis apparently an ingenious de-spider thingy
-you can surface sparay everything with anti-spider spray
-you can buy an electronic thingy to plug in and scare off the spiders

but!!!
-you will get jumped on by the dont-kill-the-spiders folk
-the spiders in the house keep the ants, cockroaches, other walking/flying beasties down!!!!!

good luck!!

Sue

ps. no offence meant to the dont-kill-em folk, all said with a

Check out some of the threads I found in this search:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/searc...by=&sortorder=

Obviously this topic has been talked about before!

It's a total beat-up. If you live in suburbia you'll see no more spiders here than you see in the UK. I've been here a very long time and they are a non-event. The commonest ones are the plain old daddy-long-legs, just like you get at home.

Just avoid living anywhere bushy or backing onto bushland if you don't like wildlife.

Why are you affraid of spiders? your about 1000 times bigger then they are, if you see one just step on it. l don't think anyones
been killed by a poisoness spider in Australia since 1979 and l
think that person was allergic to the vemon.

Sorry railman but .......


*$#@($#@*($#@!

AUSTRALIA HAS SPIDERS! BRITIAN HAS SPIDERS! Tell her to get over it, shes just as likely to see a spider in the UK as she is here!

Ahhhhh ok, now I feel better!

Sorry, nothing personal, it was a build up, but I feel better now .

Dont put your hands anywhere that you cant see (under flowerpot rims, in gloves etc) without checking first & always wear gloves in the garden. 99% of problems sorted. If you do see a spider, work out what it is & then kill it or use catch & release or leave it where it is depending on spider type & location.

Im not sure about spiders in Melb, but I imagine you would get at least Redback, Huntsman & White tails.

whoops!!! was reading this outloud
thats torn it
she's seen the huntsman on celebrity

If she really has a phobia about spiders then get it treated before you go.
Treatment is available on the NHS.

Good luck

G

think the main problem is not really the spiders it's the fact they bite

Oooerrr!!!!


:scared:


Don't blame her then

G

Very few of them bite, and you'd be (un)lucky to encounter a venomous one in your first 57 years here. I haven't.