Spider decision
 

My husband would like us and our children to move into Oz. I've been looking into life in Australia etc and was up for it until I looked into the spiders!! Bloody hell.... I don't love spiders, I'm ok with the UK smaller ones and since I've had children I can remove the large spiders with a glass. We do get large spiders in our house as it's an old house with lots of trees. After looking into spiders in Australia I honestly do not think I could cope with a huntsman in the house - there massive, never mind the other type of spiders. I never thought I had a serious phobia until I started looking into them - please don't send me photos - I honestly can't look at them. So my question is did anyone not move because of the spiders??? My husband thinks I'm nuts say no because of the spiders...

Re: Spider decision
 

Huntsmen don’t hurt you, it’s the redbacks, funnelwebs and whitetails you want to watch out for, although there haven’t been too many spider deaths since the antivenoms got developed.

If you have a real phobia either get yourself desensitised or don’t go, simples. Spiders are pretty ubiquitous, more in bushy type places but it’d be a rare place that doesn’t have reasonably regular visitors. How are you with cockroaches?

My DH suggested I get my fly phobia seen to before we moved to Aus and, had I chosen a less crackpot shrink to work on it with me, I might well have done but as it was I just had to live with the little buggers. At least the spiders eat the flies.

Re: Spider decision
 

We had one huntsman in the house in five years, it ignored us up on the ceiling and we ignored it and after a day or two it wandered off. I saw no more spiders in Australia than in UK. If you can remove one now, then I would presume you do not have a serious phobia, so I really would not worry about it.

Re: Spider decision
 

Would vacuuming them work?

Re: Spider decision
 

Just get pest control in every year to do a spray. Simple. No spiders, cockroaches, and the like.

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Do you get the other types of spiders in the house? I couldn't get beyond the huntsman, I can't look it up as the images freak me out! I might try the hypnosis route. I've no problems with cockroaches, they don't scare me, just annoying.

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I couldn't ignore it, I wouldn't sleep!!

Re: Spider decision
 

Oh I do that here (in UK), problem is empting the vacuum.....

Re: Spider decision
 

On average how much does this cost?

Re: Spider decision
 

There's no point in telling you they're harmless etc because they're big, fast and scary looking. I can't stand em, but you do get used to them.

I had one land on my arm off the sun visor in my ute, I fair shat myself but I'm still here. Don't let a mild phobia of spiders be the reason you don't come, there's bigger and deadlier things here :lol:

Re: Spider decision
 

White tails, yes reasonably often but we were in the bush capital, ditto with huntsmen we got them regularly. Redbacks don’t come inside too much but if you’ve got a wood stove and keep your wood outside then you do need to bang it to knock passengers off before you bring it inside. Funnel webs, more endemic to Sydney, never encountered one in Canberra. If you’re in the habit of keeping shoes/clothing on the verandah or out in the garage like your wellies, gardening gloves etc, then you need to be vigilant about whether something might have crawled inside.

They’re going to be less of an issue in a central metropolitan area than they are in some far flung suburb.

Sure, you can hoover them up if you want but then you need to shove something in the nozzle as they can climb out before you can find someone to empty the hoover. I’m not a great fan of the pest control sprays, especially with kids around. If it kills insects what on Earth is it doing to you?

Don’t go up to PNG, they’re even bigger there.

Re: Spider decision
 

I think the population of Australia is almost 25 million nowadays. Hardly any of those 25 million people would actually LIKE spiders yet most of them manage to live and work here and live happy lives. Spiders are not a big deal.

I'm in the coastal suburbs of Sydney. Lived here for nearly 40 years. We get around one huntsman a year in the house. I've never seen a funnel web. No-one I know has ever seen a funnel-web. Never seen a white-tail and I can count the number of red-backs I've seen in 40 years on two hands. They live outside, anyway. Like most people, I don't particularly like spiders but they truly are a non-issue.

Cockroaches are a different matter. They are everywhere around here. Cannot avoid them.. We get our place professionally sprayed every couple of years - costs around $200? (I think) - but that's to keep the cockroaches away.

Edited to add - our last pest spray cost $269. Lasts a year, in theory but we do it every two years or so.

Re: Spider decision
 

I certainly wouldn't use pest control in the house without dire need to justify the use of some rather strong chemicals.


I have never found spiders a problem and have lived in Country WA. Cannot say I like them. but the main spider found indoors in my experience, is the Daddy Long Legs.
Which is easily disposed off if one is so wanting.


Other spiders have mainly observed in outdoor sheds or outside the house. I have had to dispose of a number of red back spiders on an occasion that decided to colonise an area where stupidly left sheets of tin stacked for a period.

Re: Spider decision
 

Spiders are definitely the most overrated fear factor re Australia.

Snakes a different issue, simply because they don't exist as such in the UK.

The Aussie factor people should be fearing is the Sun. Try explaining that to a potential migrant.

Flys will definitely be the most aggravating thing about Australia.... almost a non-issue in the UK, but they can ruin picnics and the great outdoors on many occasions and make working outside torturous.

Re: Spider decision
 

I only found flies annoying in Western Australia, rarely saw them in Sydney, in fact I almost forgot about them and then I came back to the UK and remembered how annoying they are in summer.

I probably could not live in Western Australia because of the flies though, when we were on holiday there we found we were totally covered in them within a few minutes of getting out of the car.

Re: Spider decision
 

They can be bad in most parts of Victoria at times. Even Melbourne.

Forced us back in the car up at Bright a few years back, even when we got back in the car there were dozens in there with us. We drove back about 20 mins with a veritable swarm in the car then let them clear out in a less prone spot.

Re: Spider decision
 

Lucky to have the choice, most real estate agents in Queensland insist on it when renting. And to be fair, its a good idea here, roaches and ants abound.

At least my new rental has a whole squadron of geckoes in residence so they keep everything else away.

Re: Spider decision
 

I think the last one from memory was about $120. You would do it anyway for cockroaches. Spiders cop it as a by product.

Not a big fan of spiders myself. Huntsmen are the scary one's but harmless (the venom backs a punch but their teeth are useless). Never seen a funnel web, seen a couple of redbacks, and the odd white tip.

Non issue really where I live.

Re: Spider decision
 

[QUOTE=

Non issue really where I live.[/QUOTE]

Do you mind me asking where you live??

Re: Spider decision
 

We had problems in Bright too, many years ago and on the Great Ocean Rd in summer - they forced us back in the car then too, ghastly. The DH had said he’d always wanted to live in Bright but I told him that it would be over my dead body after the flying things in every orifice!

We got loads in Canberra during the last drought. The dung beetles had been doing a good job with them but then the drought knocked off the beetles and the flies came back with a vengeance. Hopefully the beetles have had a chance to regenerate and knocked the fly population again while we’ve been away.

Re: Spider decision
 

Sydney.

Don't get me wrong though. There's enough creepers around, but you have to go looking for them.

Fruit bats are more annoying. Noisy and the poo on the car is not nice.

Re: Spider decision
 

I'm terrified of spiders and always have been and one daughter is the same. We live on acreage where half the land is bush but we have the house sprayed once a year both inside and out and touch wood have had maybe a dozen in the house in the 12+ years we've lived here. I've never seen a red or white back in person and any Huntsmen that do get in or that are seen anywhere close to where I walk get sprayed with half a ton of Mortein.

If I can live a relatively normal life anyone can.:lol:

Re: Spider decision
 

Yeah but do you have drop bears? They are the scariest thing in Aussie :nod:

Re: Spider decision
 

We do. We just don't stand underneath them so it's all good.

Re: Spider decision
 

Bloody hell, im always hearing that in australia the wildlife just wants to kill you, and there does appear to be a little truth in it. I like living where we have big lovely snakes and really scary looking insects, but actually on land, nothing can harm you [the snakes are really colourful boas, we have few flies/cockroaches, but we do have the tailless whip scorpion [as seen in indiana jones films] which if annoyed will spray vinegar on your chips and try to nip your finger softly.

My boas [as i call them] live in my mango trees and like rodents. However they also eat my corned beef if called.

Re: Spider decision
 

Lol drop bears, we have ligaroo - vampires... `There are drop ants! They fall onto your shirt when you are under a tree, wander round for a while then maybe an hour later find some skin and bite you....

Do you have anything like the amazonian centipede? 9 inches of orange fury, they bite hard, it hurts bad for about a month, to the extent that people are advised to go to hospital to get wounds dressed and cleaned, it wont kill you [australian jellyfish eek] but it will hurt a lot.

The australian irukandji jellyfish has to be the nastiest beast - so stealthy it wasnt even known till relatively recently and lethal...

Re: Spider decision
 

NB you can buy a spray called demand cs, you water it into the ground round t=your yard/house every 3 months, it is millions of tiny spheres of synthetic pyrethrum that will stay in / on the ground. It kills most insects, definitely ants termites cockroaches, centipedes and spiders. But it leaves my lizards alone, they still thrive, doest hurt my poison arrow frogs and doesnt get into the water course [well a bit i suspect.]

A texan friend told me about it, he had loads of poisonous spuders where his kids play in his yard.

Not cheap, but excellent stuff. Weird thing - it doesnt hurt the tiny frogs, but seems to kill cane toads, or maybe the cane toads eat insects poisoned and die - anyway - they are history. Im actually sitting on my deck watching a golden tree frog - it has no desire to hurt anyone, but touch it and you might get very hurt, which is i guess why its the amphibian worlds best paint job.

Re: Spider decision
 

Ok. Dead rat on the footpath out the front of house over weekend. Stone dead in the middle of footpath. No wounds, no nothing. Must have had a bad curry or something.

Not even a native animal.

Joys of city living.

Re: Spider decision
 

Soneone left one on top of a roundabout here, 3 months later it was still there - mummified - but in typical local fashion - the lance aux epines roundabout became dead rat roundabout :-)

Unidentified dead rats = rat poison?

Its quite sad really, we had 2 rats wander into our kitchen when a back diir was left open. Fir a week they hid under a freezer - nipping out fir food overnight i suspect. We cleaned up the exposed food, and the first fell onto a peanut butter baited sticky pad and died quietly. Next day we saw the corpse, but the other one was lying dead next to thevpad, we assume it had taken poison earlier somewhere else

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Re: Spider decision
 

What flies do you get?? Where do you live?

Re: Spider decision
 

Thankfully Australia doesn't have the annual wasp plague the UK gets.

Re: Spider decision
 

Havent seen a wasp issue in the uk for many years. No clue why as i do spend summers there. What settles it for me is the spuder vs snake battle videos in australia..,

Re: Spider decision
 

Out of curiosity can those that are fearful of spiders see any beauty in this photo?

Re: Spider decision
 

No. Makes my stomach churn. I can just about look at that pic though, if it was a huntsman on a wall I would freak somewhat. This is where I unsubscribe from the thread because someone will now post such a photo. :eek:

Re: Spider decision
 

You don’t want to see the one in my mailbox then?

Re: Spider decision
 

Beautiful - their webs are just stunning.

European wasps are becoming quite a problem here in Adelaide. Not to UK numbers, but they are definitely increasing in numbers.

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Lovely Picture Rasen :)

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I live in the bush and I see about one snake per year.

They're there, but I don't go looking for them, and they don't go looking for me.

Spiders I see more frequently but they are not going to bother you. We even had a Redback in our house for a while and left it because its web was catching a lot of flies. 2016 was the first time someone was killed by a Redback in Australia since 1955. You're more likely to be killed by a terrorist in London then you are by a spider here.

Re: Spider decision
 

Gosh, I missed that! Were there other reasons why the poor person succumbed? DS was a sick boy for a while after he got bitten by one which was probably just trying to save itself from drowning in the AIS pool - very half hearted effort on the part of the spider but a very long evening in A&E as a result.

Re: Spider decision
 

This thread has given me the willies.... argh!

Saying that, having visited California a lot I have witnessed some big spiders and the well known black widow.

As for snakes, when I was skydiving in California there was a tannoy announcement to be aware where to land because there were rattlesnakes on the landing area haha

Still, the thought of the spiders in Aus terrify me but I'm not letting it put me off :D