cheri-pie

Eeerrrrmmmm....................Completely :scared:

iPom

They hang out in the bush mainly, but back gardens. They try to make a web from the rafters of your house sometimes but they're easy to spot because of the shape.


As with all things Australian you learn to adjust.... they come in when it's been raining sometimes. My mother in law just sweeps them outside with a broom.

We panic too much here... It's really sad. Lived in Aus before and the spiders and I hardly ever met. Time to get over it all .... move to the country, expect cows. Move to Aus, expect spiders.

iPom

If you spray that often you're in danger of affecting your health big time. Pesticide poisoning is unpleasant and in most cases, completely irreversable. You really don't want to do that to yourself or your kids. I would hope that no-one in their right mind would do it for you either, but there are always people out there looking for easy money.

It's sad that you're so scared of these creatures. My brotherin law used to flick them off the stairs when he came across one (when he was little). It's just a spider. They're like snakes... they like being alive and don't particularly want to bite anything.... but they will if you provoke them... in much the same way a horse will kick you if you go at it with a stick.

iPom

I had one drop on me from a wall. It lost it's grip when it was walking. i freaked but hey, it was only a small hunstsman and I think I scared it more.


A friend, when we were backpacking in Darwin, had one land on her naked chest. I think it was a mouse spider which can bite quite nastily or maybe something else - It was a long time ago... Anyway, she's naked to the waist when I wake her up in the morning with the news that she has to keep very still.....
The hostel manager rang some people and they came to knock it out (with some gas) and remove it from her chest.

You should have seen the crowds at the door whilst this was all goiing on.

iPom

Man, I'm talking to myself on this thread. How'd that happen?

Ceri

ipom, Pressure immobilisation ( or compression technique if you want ) is really only recommended for the Funnel web - it's the one spider you treat like you would treat a venomous snake bite. It is not really recommended to use this technique for most other spiders.

The only two spiders you should worry about if bitten is the funnel web ( including some of the other funnel-webs not just the Sydney one) and then the redback - Pressure immobilisation is not recommended for the redback as the venom is very slow acting- pressure immobilisation is not recommended for white tails as they are not life threatening neither are they recommended for the harmless huntsman

No deaths from spider bites have been recorded since 1979 because of antivenom and not because of pressure immobilisation


It totally depends where you live - been here just over 9 years and I have lost count on how many redbacks, Huntsmen and wolf spiders I have had around my homes (I'm backing onto bushland) - I have never been bitten, and I do regularly have them on my walls and my floor . They tend to get out of my way.
I can put your hand next to a huntsman and it will move away - they are not aggressive, unless you really provoke one . I've even tried to get a huntsman to walk over the back of my hand , but she kept moving away from my hand - she wasn't haven't any of it.

Most spiders will bite if you squash them - ie they bite in defence ( bar the funnel web which is apparently a little aggressive sod and takes no provocation to bite - I've never seen one myself)

Redbacks are a pain as I always used to find them where I put my hands - inside door runners outside, inside our garage door where I put my hands to lift the door etc etc . I haven't had any at all in or around my current house - they do tend to be more suburban and not as many in bushland. This is the only spider I do kill, just because I was always in danger of putting my hands on top of them when I wasn't looking. All others I let them be , or put a glass over the top of them, and slide a paper underneath to lift them and chuck them outside

spray - you may find that you have a different sort of pest problem - spiders keep down bugs and cockroaches ( I never get cockroaches in my home) .
bird life such as the kookaburra , frogmouth , and lizards, etc etc eat spiders - they are part of the chain of nature

I agree with - "I'd more worried about the Pesticides than the spiders" - true.

I also agree with "leave them alone and they will leave you alone". They are part of the furniture in our home in the summer months, they really don't bother us at all - so why kill them?

If you don't want a lot of spiders around you live in the suburbs/ built up estates like a lot of People do.
If you love spiders live next to bushland - you'll have plenty of the little chaps around you unless you kill them all by spraying .
cheers

Bix da Boss

No you're not m8 - but def know how you feel

Found your post really funny - poor girl though - hope she cld laugh about it after?

Gill

Bix da Boss

Talking of walls, in the UK, while Bix and I were waiting for a taxi in a small village in Cornwall called Lostwithiel, we were standing outside by the wall of a very, very old church and suddenly, in the corner of my eye I saw something moving - it was bloody spiders crawing in and out of the old stone walls - freaked me out m8! Course cld not help but watch them and boy it was a weird site - now you see them now you dont - Gives me the creeps justing thinking abt it again :scared: Like something from a horror movie I can tell you!

Right, thats enough abt spiders for me today - bye bye

Gill

Welshie

On our first week in our rental my son came into my bedroom at 7am and said..mummy, there is a spider on my curtain and it's REALLY BIG! I went in and to my horror was the biggest, ugliest spider I had ever seen. I must say, I nearly had a fricking coronary. It was 'only' a huntsman but it was SO BIG... bigger than my hand. i sprayed it, felt guilty about killing it and flushed it down the loo. My ozzie neighbour thinks it sooo funny ...and he says...they won't hurt ya woman...he aparently encourages them to stay in his house so they get rid of the mozzies??????

We had the house bug bombed before we moved in so i didn't think i'd find one, but we have found out that when we open our windows half way..there is a gap between the actual window and the fly screen so it must of crawled in that way. Needless to say my windows are either always open fully so there is no gap or shut tight!

I still have nightmares now about sitting on the loo and the thing comes alive and crawls up the toilet and attacks me!!

After three months I am slowly coming to terms with the nature here.... Next time I see a huntsman indoors I won't be so quick to kill it..they're not too bad after all!

iPom

I've seen a number of funnel webs. They come in after the rain and sit under the stairs. They actually rear up at you with no provocation, and they're hairy black evil looking buggers. No-one in their right mind would go near one.

I found one last time I was in Aus and it had fallen from a tree into a jam jar that was sitting on a windowsill, unbelievably! What a shot! I took it to my hub (who's lived there all his life) and my brother in law (who's lived there all his life) and neither of them really knew what it was for sure because they'd never really seen a funnel web!

I figured if two Aussie blokes had never seen one on the very bush property they'd grown up on, we were pretty safe for the future.

Jez & Lorraine

I guess we will slowly come to terms with them. I don't kill any spiders here. I usually catch them and put them outside. But UK spiders don't bite !!!! Having said that if I have seen a spider somewhere (wolf spiders are the worst here) I have to catch it and put it out (thats if the dog does not get to it first). I couldn't sit in the same room as a spider in case it ran over me. Guess I've got to toughen up for Australia. What happens with pets. Do dogs attack spiders and if so are they OK or do they get bitten and suffer the same consequences as us ?

Welshie

I've never actualy thought about the dog with spiders. I guess if they get bitten it's gonna be the same as if we get bitten? Wonder if they have anti-venom and stuff for the doggies? Would you actually know if he got bitten, I am sure there would be the same symptoms?? wow...I'll keep the vet busy with my questions!

Bella Donna

I've wondered this. Our one cat has always loved pulling the legs off spiders. I'm not sure Oz ones would sit still for that!

DollyDaydream

D D

Louise M