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

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..,

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

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.

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

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.

Lovely Picture Rasen

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.

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.

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

Lucky you, carcajou! I lived in the Queensland bush (Darling Downs) for the first 15 years of my life, and we used to see a snake once every three or four weeks on average. Not all were poisonous, but we didn't hang around to find out which were and which weren't.

As for spiders... We always swept with a sheet of old newspaper beneath the wooden seat of the backyard dunny, just in case there was a redback there.

Agreed. This should adequately take care of any of these nasties.