Had one of those buggy weekends....

We decided as it was a long weekend to take down the shed. So 13 yr old son and I take to the task with gusto... 2 mins later son wants to do something else! The reason for this is on moving the first item we see 2 black widows, which I imediately squash, followed by another with the second item moved..... :scared:

I am one of those women that arrived in California scared of daddy long legs.... !!!!!!!! But have had to learn to squish anything without first doing that high pitched girlie scream...

So after calling son a woose (can't remember how to spell it), we continued to take the shed down killing spiders as they fell....

A total of 9 Black widows mostly female were energetically squished to death, along with the not so scary small bodied and enormously long legged variety I don't know the name of.

shed was packed up for shipping and we thought we were safe...
...... NO!!!
I go out to put the trash out... Bare feet.... moved sons boogie board as I walk to the bin and 2 female black widows start walking towards my BARE FEET!!! There I am holding back on the girlie scream whilst bashing the hell out of them with the edge of the boogie board.. Dam things kept running, I kept missing, but finally I got them... SQUISH..... Trash in the bin and back to the house goose bumps and sicky feeling OMG!! Have to pretend all is wondefull with the world or they all tease me, especially hubby.

I remember a post here from someone who moved back to the UK from OZ. They found spiders in their stuff back in UK...
So now I am thinking...... Black widows in UK!!!

Beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!! Scary. I'm impressed that you overcame the spiders tho without letting out a yelp!

Erm, the person with the spiders in the UK was me....no, it IS e not WAS me. I'm still finding these little things with white tails. Anyway, I got one at the weekend and put it in a jar. My sister is over from Oz this week so I am going to take it to her to look at. I was gonna get it looked at at the zoo but I thought they might thing me a woose!!

your spiders sound a lot bigger and scarier than mine!

Ask Renfield over for a snack!

HP, I had some white tails that stowed away with me too, after one of my holidays down here. Found them in my Brighton flat after I unpacked, and I remember thinking "they're odd, not seen any of those before round here"!!:scared:
Twas only later (after killing them) I found out what they were

EEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel a girlie scream coming on and my skin is crawling!!!!!!!


http://www.desertusa.com/july97/du_bwindow.html


http://www.spiderdotcom.com/siframe.htm

OMG, I was hoping that there was some kind of UK spider that had a whitetail and that it would be impossible for them to hitch a ride with my furniture. But if you had them too......

I've had about 15 or so now - mostly in the lounge so I think they might be under the sofa...I always used to find them crawling over the sofa in Melbourne.

I know what a whitetail looks like cos I had so many in Oz but I keep telling myself "nah, can't be, must be a UK spider...but seems now I'm just in denial. They ARE whitetails.

Oh god, time to tell myself thank goodness they're not black widows (and remind myself never to go to a re-pats BBQ at HoneyMommy's should she ever decide to have one!!)

gross...gross...gross!!

Can you Mortein your sofa quick - or your imported colony might spread?

I thought it was funny when my sister in law (so scared of Aus, I was surprised she visited) told me she planned to unpack in the garden and wash everything regardless of having everything washed here!

I didn't send her home with any mortein - so I am going to print off this post and send it to her in a couple of months and ask her did she check the lining on the suitcase!!!

COOL!!!!! BBQ Black widows.....

Weirdest thing is.... I am more scared of those green dune bug things here. They are completely harmless.. BUT... they seem to like flying straight at my hair. Even when I hit them away they fly right back at me.....
Picture this.......
English woman, handbag a flying in the target carpark, trying to get a dune bug to stay away... I kept hitting it and it would go about 15' on a good wack, then turn round and fly straight back at me!!! I did get a few looks and the kids all thought it was hillarious!!!!!!!!!!
I Still get teased about it 3 yrs on......


So.... Everyone welcome to a BBQ at our black widow infested house in UK....
Hope the future leasing agency doesn't see this post or we may never be able to rent in the UK..... LOL

Spiders back in UK from OZ - THAT WAS MEEEE!!! Removal men came and unloaded container. Patio table emitted 3 (yes, THREE) live redbacks, and the little buggers had been eating what(?) for the six weeks they''d been on the boat for goodness sake???

Children's bikes - found another two of the blighters - still alive...

Still, look on the bright side - if you're in the shower in England, the worst you can expect is an athletic daddy long legs!!!

An ex arachnaphobe (see, Australia has its uses - it cures spider phobias!!!)

The best way to get black widows is with hairspray. Gums em up then just whack them. I only ever kill them if they are a threat to where we will be sitting, otherwise I try to find out where they are and leave them alone. We have had a couple in the house, nesting in the fireplace but got rid of them. Oh the joys of living in AZ.

Love the hairspray idea.... Can just see the kids now, running round with a can each, black widows stuck all over the place.... :scared:
Son had a few plastic bugs he used to leave anywhere.... Scared the poop outta me when I was busy and came face to face with some unknown thingie..... LOL

The mothers will know what I mean.......

A story e.mailed to me by a friend this week, thought it was rather relevent:

A true story and its source was the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service in Adelaide. A bloke and his family were on holidays in the United States and went to Mexico for a week. An avid cactus fan, the man bought a one-metre high, rare and expensive cactus there. On arrival back home Australian Customs said it must be quarantined for 3 months. He finally got his cactus home. Planted it in his backyard, and over time it grew to about 2 metres. One evening while watering his garden after a warm spring day, he gave the cactus a light spray. He was amazed to see the plant shiver all over, he gave it another spray and it shivered again. He was puzzled so he rang the council who put
him on to the state gardens people. After a few transfers he got the state's foremost cactus expert who asked him many questions. How Tall is it? Has it flowered? etc. Finally he asked the most disturbing question. "Is your family in the house?" The bloke answered yes. The cactus expert said get out of the house NOW, get on to the front nature strip and wait for me, I will be there in 20 minutes. Fifteen minutes later, 2 fire trucks, 2 police cars and an ambulance came screaming around the corner. A fireman got out and asked "Are you the bloke with the cactus?"
I am, he said. A guy jumped out of the fire truck wearing what looked like a space suit, a breathing cylinder and mask attached to what looked like a scuba backpack with a large hose attached. He headed for the backyard and turned a flame-thrower on the cactus spraying it up and down. After a few minutes the flame-thrower man stopped, the cactus stood smoking and spitting, half the fence was burnt and parts of the gardens were well and truly scorched. Just then the cactus expert appeared and laid a calming hand on the bloke's shoulder. "What the hell's going on? he says. "Let me show you" says the cactus man.
He went over to the cactus and picked away a crusty bit, the cactus was almost entirely hollow and filled with tiger striped bird-eating tarantula spiders, each about the size of two hand spans.
The story was that this type of spider lays eggs in this type of cactus and they hatch and live in it as they grow to full size. When full size they release themselves. The cactus just explodes and about 150 dinner plate sized hairy spiders are flung from it, dispersing everywhere. They had been ready to pop.
The aftermath was that the house and the adjoining houses had to be vacated and fumigated, police tape was put up outside the whole area and no one was allowed in for two weeks.

And here's what one of the bastards looks like sitting on a full size dinner plate ..... see attached

That story is an urban legend. Check this link out http://hoaxinfo.com/cactus.htm

locally, this week there was a family eating grapes bought from the supermarket, and guess what they found - a black widow.

Not the kind of offer I want. Buy a bunch of grapes get a spider free, and we shop at that supermarket :scared: