.....but how often do you actually come across spiders & stuff in the house in Oz?

We fly out to Perth next weekend for our initial entry. We are staying with friends & they asked if our kids would be ok sleeping on a double airbed on the floor. Fine I said, probably safest place for them as our youngest has only just moved to a proper bed & not to far for him to fall. But I'm now concerned about spiders & stuff being floor level. My daughter is petrified of spiders & creepy crawlies so I have no doubt that she would scream the house/street/neighbourhood down if she spotted one. I know people bring up kids in Oz with no problems & have been doing so for years but my son is really inquisitive with insects & as much as I've be trying to deter him for picking stuff up he can't help but poke things & it's beginning to concern me a little.

I'm sure I probably flapping about nothing but it's about the only thing that's really bothering me about the whole moving to Oz thing (other than leaving my family behind of course). It's even got to the point where if I'm watching something on television about Oz I'm checking to see if people have shoes on or are wandering around bare footed. Silly I'm sure

Alison x

We have spiders in our house and they don't bite us. Personally spiders are good here in Aus because they eat the mossies, flies etc. I understand that some people have phobias about them but just like people, insects like spiders and insects like warm climates. However they don't cause any problems and I have only been bitten once in over thirty years here. Same with snakes they avoid us. Snakes are protected here and we are not allowed to kill them. We have had one in the garden that I have seen a long long time ago and we live on acreage. They avoid us like we avoid them.

Its highly likely and you should ask but a lot of people have their houses sprayed once a year so that spiders keep away. I am not a fan of sprays as i believe if the spray kills spiders its no good for me.

I absolutely hate spiders. I did even in the UK.

We have our house sprayed once a year, and I have an electronic gadget that seems to keep spiders at bay.

If I see a spider I tend to walk the other way, but I have no real problems here. I did however see one a couple of months ago, in the living room. I got the fly spray out and drowned it with spray, it was about the size of a money spider, and probably totally harmless, but as I said "I absolutely hate spiders".

I always expected to be checking shoes all the time, but I never actually bother, and often walk bare foot in the house.

Depends where you live.

If you're rural, up north, near to bushland or are just in a generally leafy area with lots of trees you'll find far more than if you live in typical suburbia.

I've lived in beachside Sydney for nearly 30 years and we would see a huntsman inside the house once every couple of years. Never seen a white-tail EVER. Never seen a funnel-web EVER. Never seen a redback inside EVER. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of red-backs I've seen fullstop.

We don't spray for spiders or do anything particular. I guess they just don't live around here...

I live in Perth and the spiders i get tend to live outside, not in the house. I occasionally see one crawling around inside, but i have 2 cats and they eat them.
Cockroaches are the ones i HATE!!!urghhhhhhh, i scream the house down when i see one, not much, but once or twice is enough.

Not a daft question at all! it was something I really worried about before we arrived. we are SOR and in the 3 and a bit years we have been here I have seen 1 huntsman (outside) and 1 white tail - in the laundry-think it got in cos kids left the screen open.
Red backs arent generally found indoors anyway, I'd be very surprised to hear of them inside your house. We just keep our screens closed and have never sprayed the house- my friend did it last year and vowed not to do it again as she said for over a week afterwards she said she had half dead and dying creatures falling out of the roof space outside.
I have been very surprised at the LACK of spiders I have seen since I got here, try to reassure yourself and your kids to not worry

Almost feral then?

I made a point to add "in the house" on to my comment

Glad I did

You probably get more spiders in your house in the UK.


Your kids will be absolutely fine on the floor. Contrary to belief, there are not spiders everywhere here and the big ones aren't really dangerous anyway.
I just looked in on my daughter this morning and I see that our big huntsman spider is above her bed on the wall. She's welcome to be there... lots of tasty things flew around our house for her to eat yesterday. She's big, timid and won't bother us... They're totally unlikely to bite. I can't even get one to crawl on my hand if I put it nearby. They always move away.

You'll be absolutely fine. So will your kids. Don't worry about it. After you've been here a couple of months, you'll relax. The only thing is if you leave your shoes outside overnight, just shake them out in the morning. I would consider that to even be a touch paranoid, but you never really know.
Most spider bites happen to people when they're not wearing gloves when gardening and they put their fingers where they can't see... so don't put them where you can't see and you'll be fine.
Most spiders are territorial too. So you shove one out and kill it and another will move in nearby. Better to know what you've got and avoid rather than not know what you've got.
I live quite happily with spiders. I clear out the white tails though because they're a bit bitey. Your spider sense will become stronger as you work out what's what.
Have fun in Perth!

Thanks for the replies & thanks Karen for your message (now go find your log in details woman )

I'm not so worried about me but more so the kids stepping on or in my sons case touching something that will hurt him but you've all put my mind at rest a bit there. Hubby is for ever telling me off for picking up spiders in my hands to put outside & says I need to get out of the habit of doing that & not to encourage the kids to look to closely at stuff. But they love looking at things like caterpillars & my son who is 2 has just discovered the joys of spiders webs but obviously it's not an issue here. I think we've watched to many of those Worlds Deadliest programmes

Alison x

we also get the house sprayed, had it done last week actually, like ABC says its lasts a year and provides a barrier to stop insects coming in

Oh no... you mustn't discourage your kids from looking... that's how they get savvy.
Tuppaware container and lid or piece of card over the top will shift most of them outside... (the spiders, not the kids )
My kids look up close with spiders and all sorts of things. We get cicadas, funnel web spiders, wolf spiders, mantids (those are fun - praying mantis) stick insects, the odd red back spider (about 2 in two years), lots of litttle lizards... it's great!
Watch out for hairy caterpillars though... they can be a bit stingy.

My son loves sitting in plastic tubs

I have to say that other than spiders my daughter who is 3 & 1/2 is fascinated with insects & birds at the moment & after spotting something she's not seen before we have to search online so she knows what it is. Butterflies are her favourite at the moment & if a different bird settles on the garage roof she's straight off to get her book to look it up.

We've been going out to Cyprus for some years now & have a place out there. We never really gave the wildlife a thought there until we spotted a snake in the garden & then a praying mantis landed on the patio table whilst we were sat around it one evening. The next door neighbours also found a triantular (spelling?) in their garden. I guess it's just what you're use to isn't it & stories of spiders & snakes seem to go hand in hand with Oz.

Alison x

Sounds like Cyprus is pretty much like here then. Sure you'll love it.

Oh Alison coming from Bedfordshire don't you also get the Hertfordshire spider - the big ones that are faster than Cathy Freeman when they run!! I've been here 12 yrs (from Hertfordshire), had one dead snake on the door step yeah lots of spiders mainly outside!!! The odd cockroach and frogs (that’s my phobia!!!) But if you keep things clean and clear not leaving too much junk around you won’t have a problem - we have white tails in the house the kids have just been told to tell us or put a pot over it until we can get there. They don't hunt you down (nor do frogs but I still can't stand them). Also the national Geographic shops sell a great spider friendly catcher on a long handle well worth buying. Buy your kids a bug catcher and teach them the correct way in dealing with these little insects they really are amazing and above all it's a small price to pay for all the other weird and wonderful wild life we are so lucky to have in Australia! - Good Luck