spiders and snakes
 

were thinking of moving to australia but i have a real fear of snakes and spiders will i come into contact on a every day basis?

Re: spiders and snakes
 

Noooooooooooooooo, Every second day only.

Take no notice! A fiend of mine went for three weeks to Western Australia and she only saw 1 spider and that was dead.
If you have lots of bush around you I would think you may see more.Its the roaches that will bother me if anything.Take a look at some of the previous threads on this subject you will find it interesting.Cheers Dreamaway:)

Re: spiders and snakes
 

on a serious note will i see any as my hole family are fine about this but this could stop me i no it sounds mad but a real issue for me Helen

Re: spiders and snakes
 

Well it depends where you are going to live. Tropical jungle or urban jungle? :D

Re: spiders and snakes
 

hi there:(
we all went to perth last october for a fact finding mission:eek:

spiders were the main thing hubby had a fear of so he was the same as you:D


im the one at home who kindley picks them up and shows them the back door ,and they are not deadly.:scared:


anyway to cut along story short

:scared: yes we did see RED BACKS every day out side and in the garage dead or alive

but they did us no harm as long as you leave them aloan:)

we stayed in the northern suberds in perth

you must always keep your screens shut

and hopefully they wont bother you

SNAKES yes we saw one dead black one on the last day at night on the freeway to the airport

COCKROACHES yes three in arow crawling over the remains of tea


LIZARDS yes one on my kitchin floor
because was swimming out side lots of water on pavement

followed my water trail into kitchen

i had left screen open

now i am the mother of two + one big kid who i love and worry about there safety very much

BUT i HONESTLY can say i did not really think spiders snakes

its common sense to be on guard thou

no worries:cool:

Re: spiders and snakes
 

It depends on where you live, If you are going to live in a capital city the only place you are likely to see a snake is in the zoo, although spiders are relatively common, it is highly unlikely you will ever be bitten, you are much more likely to be bitten by a wasp or bee, no one has been killed by a spider in OZ since 1980,
you are probably more likely to be struck by lightning.
l live in the bush and in the last 30 years l have only seen 3 snakes, in each case they quickly slithered off when they heard me coming. Snakes will only attack you in self defence and almost all the people who are bitten have either tried to pick up the snake or kill it. 3 people a year are killed by snakes in OZ, probably more people are killed by bee stings in the UK.
( actually 4 people are killed by bee stings per year in the UK)

Re: spiders and snakes
 

Beware the one-eyed trouser snake.

Re: spiders and snakes
 

they are not bad, not encountered any snakes at the house, just at steve irwins crocodile park, have run into a few spiders, pretty horrible looking but dont touch u, its the small ones u have to look out for. u get used to it. dont let that stop u from coming to oz

bamboy:cool:

Re: spiders and snakes
 

In Australia there are about 3,000 snake bites per year, of which 200 to 500 receive antivenom; on average one or two will prove fatal. About half the deaths are due to bites from the brown snake; the rest mostly from tiger snake, taipan and death adder. Some deaths are sudden, however in fact it is uncommon to die within four hours of a snake bite.

I've been in Australia for 14 years out of the last 20 years, and never been close enough to a snake to notice it.
But, I was bitten by a snake once, an Adder, (Yes I know, I shouldn't have picked it up !!), and spent one week in hospital because of it. That was in Truro Hospital SW England. I can't recall the name of the cove on the coast that I found it, but I was only 11 at the time.

Spiders and Snakes? No big deal, don't worry about them :)

Re: spiders and snakes
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by delboy
hi there:(

but they did us no harm as long as you leave them aloan:)

How much do you need to give them??:D

I've been here almost 5 months now and I have yet to see a snake anywhere but the zoo and I've seen 2 redbacks. One at the clubhouse of hubby's cricket oval and one in the house (quickly smooshed by my 10 yr old step-son)

I don't find they are a big deal and most fall below my radar, which is impressive because I'm an arachnaphobe as well.
My spider denial thing is more because I figured there would be more and have yet to be really confronted with a big hairy scary (with the exception of one in my pool fence that I barely saw before hubby sent him flying.)

Over all, it really seems no different than anywhere else. :D

Siren

I live in a small country town & had redbacks, whitetails & huntsmans (HMs) in the bedroom & shower & outside house :scared:
Have seen snakes occasionally on the side of the road, dead (red-bellied blacks), a copperhead basking on a rock in the Snowy Mountains & a brown snake crossing the road!

I am a complete arachnaphobe &, crazy tho it is, I am more terrified of HMs than redbacks cos the HMs can be massive, although generally harmless, whilst the redbacks & whitetails are pretty tiny.
My solution was to have our house sprayed against spiders, costs about $150 (our landlady paid). It is guaranteed for 12 months & after 6 months following spraying have not seen one either in or outside house, & believe me I look for them!

It's not an eco friendly option but it is the only way I can cope with my phobia. Many people say they get used to the spiders but I just got worse!

I am house sitting at the moment at a friend's house that backs onto bush & I haven't yet seen one (hoorah!) yet I expected to see loads. I have seen a few wallabies though which is magic. :)

Re: spiders and snakes
 

depends where you live , and where you go , ie into over grown bush, scrub and creek areas ( been in Brisbane for about 6 years and I've seen quite a few over the years , newcastle over a year.. never saw any there, I wasn't looking hard enough- I mostly see the poor dead ones I may add.. not as many live ones)

I've had a brown snake in my compost heap/grass clippings (which I was clearing up to move house) my previous house in redcliffe. he escaped to my pervet of my then next door neighbour .. so I let him keep it.. thought it would be a nice surprise for him.

I've encountered a few dead snakes on the road around Brisbane , north and south Brisbane.. they are there if people would only go looking for them.

a green tree snake southside a few years back ( tiny little skinny thing he was., about a foot to two foot long if that.. don't know didn't measure him . my cat chased it up a tree.)

one dead brown snake by Bulimba creek a few years back .. don't know how that he died, it was not on, or near a road.. and there was no marks on him - I picked this one up.. as I was going to try to taxidermy him
I've encountered a couple crossing the road ( and I did not say " And how are you today" to them :D One was a brown snake by coochin creek not too long ago.. few months ago , last summer, actually drove over him .. must have missed him with the wheels.. stopped the car to see if I had hit him, but he moved that fast, he had already crossed the road into the bush the otherside.. his tracks were all that I could find . I tried to look for him, with camera in hand .. but couldn't find him (perhaps he was camera shy) , the other time it was big carpet python.. the python was not too far from where I'm living now ... it was crossing the road too) .. I'm not lucky enough to see them often .But certainly in the past 7 years in Aus.. I'd say I've personally seen maybe 20 to 30 that includes dead .. dead account for the majority of them.

My mate keeps chickens up in Morayfield.. he's always having snakes around and in the coop during the summer.. had a couple of brown snakes last summer.. which he killed with an axe ( snakes are actually protected by law.. all native wildlife is, which includes snakes.. so don't kill the pretty snakes please) .

Oh and my nearest neighbour told me she had a big black snake in her garden about two years ago, she called the snake catcher ( don't know why.. she's also backing onto the bush.. it would have gone back to where it came from).. time he came out it was gone... well really, silly sod isn't she, I could have told her that had I been livng here at the time ..lol .. you ought to see where we live..lol the reserve is basically our back garden ... our land runs into the bush

Spiders - I'm over run with them in the summer ( I'm not kidding you) I usually have a few huntsmen in the house sitting on the walls which I leave be .. nothing wrong with them... their" luvely" and cuddly :) .. they keep the pests down.
I also seem to get heaps of wolf spiders who run in across the floor at night - now I always chuck these out (unharmed) because they are linked to necrosis. ... but my house is next to a reserve.. I have never had wolf spiders in any of my previous homes before now , Huntsmen yes.. every house in Brisbane I've had them. Redbacks I haven't had any in my new house ( been in it for a year) .. which is funny... all my previous homes I've had them in the garage on the metal door and sometimes outside in-between the sliding door and the house.. redbacks are the only spider I kill, simply for the reason they and their webs always seem to be where I may put my hands and can't see them- and get bitten. just usually spray them, or if I haven't got any pesticide spray I use hairspray.

At the moment I'm spiderless .. because it's winter and I don't get them in the winter in the house, except for those longlegs ... but my little friends will soon come back in a few months :D.. oh tell a lie I have orb spiders who keep bleeding making their webs across parts of my house outside ... and ooh tell another lie.. I did see a wolf over the weekend .. but he was in the bush under leaf litter.. I was collecting things and he was sitting there among the leaf litter, and scuttled back down his hole.

nothing to be scared of, don't know why people panic about spiders.. they don't run after you , you know .. you're bigger than them :D Snakes ok fair enough.. but they won't bother you if you happen to see one .. just leave it alone and it will soon move on, or if it's in your garden and you want rid of it .. call a wildlife /.snake catcher - most people who get bitten by snakes are actually attacking the snake, think the figure is something like 90 odd percent or close to it . The minority is by stepping on one in the bush if you like to go walking through the bush a lot , and also the odd very young child picking one up.

And going from some of these responses, no some people don't seem to be as lucky as I am in seeing these snakes and having my spider mates in my home in the summer months - perhaps they are not looking hard enough, perhaps they are not livng in the right areas. I can't believe how many people are scared of spiders and snakes.. have you tried hypnosis... apparently that works for some people - that may be worth a try if you're that frightened of snakes and spiders.

cheers:)

P.s I have an article some where on this computer taken from the deadcliffe quest a while back, it's on snakes caught in redcliffe and Pine .. I posted it on this forum ages ago.. I'll see if I can find it.

Pah you lot are not looking hard enough for these snakes you know.

Re: spiders and snakes
 

I'm not coming up your way !! :D