It was a tame one in captivity. I think its name was Suzy. I called it Bitch.
Don’t you have poisonous butterflies down there?
Not as far as I know - I think they’re busy developing a spider bigger than your head that spits poison into your coffee - but I’ll raise it at the next meeting and see what we can do.
We might have to prioritise it ahead of the development of the toxic bunny rabbit.
Really why do you think it is so sparsely populated? Most of the Aussies have been killed by the critters.
I was rearranging my clothes and a huge spider had taken up residence, including a web, in my polar-fleece.
I am no entomologist, but I think it was just a house spider, so it wasn’t even slightly dangerous. Just creepy and crawly.
And now dead.
Someone should go and find that blasted butterfly that’s causing all the hurricanes. Don’t tell that 's down to Australia as well.
Iput on my shoe one morning and a damn huntsman spider had crawled in it during the night. I don’t know who got a bigger surprise.
My bet’s the squished spider.
whimper
Want to hear of an emotionally scarring tale? In the house where I grew up our post box was behind a brick wall, so that the post box entrance faced the street, but to actually get the letters, you had to reach around to a heavily treed area that you couldn’t see, flip the lock, open the tin box and then put your hand inside to get the mail. It was impossible to see back there so you just had to trust your sense of touch. I don’t know how many times my hand came back with a big fat huntsman sitting on my wrist, but it was often enough. 
Uh… after the first time I’d be checking the mail with a can of Raid and a long pair of tongs!
Funnel-web fangs are also incredibly strong, and have been known to go through the sole of workboots. Don’t try to tread on them. Their response is to try to bite the shoe as it’s approaching them, and you can be agreeing to mutually assured destruction. Slightly more assured for the spider, but if you want to take one out, take the shoe off first.
When I first read Gleena’s post about killing a funnel-web by spraying it with half a can of bug spray (post 43) I thought, why didn’t you just step on it? And then I read the Wiki page and shuddered.
Btw Gleena, what did you do with the creature’s body?
I’ve never thought of Australia’s wildlife as being any more dangerous than in any other warm place…? And I am a big animal/bug nerd. I’m not scared of spiders, bugs, snakes, etc - to the contrary I would love to see giant bugs in person - although I have a healthy desire to prevent injury and death, of course.
However I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on international vacations. Sorry!
Well, I’ve heard the toenail and shoe thing about funnel-web spiders for years, but you notice that statement on Wiki is uncited. Sounds like Mythbusters needs to take a trip down yonder.
There was a woman on Sydney’s North Shore in… 2008? Could have been 2007.
Nevertheless, she was cleaning up her daughter’s room and was picking up her daughter’s fuzzy hair scrunchies before she found that one of the scrunchies that she’d just grabbed wasn’t.
There was also a guy a few years ago who was working in his garage and managed to get bitten on his foot by an Eastern brown snake. As he was finding a phone to call the zambucks, he stood on a funnel-web, which bit him through the sole of his shoe.
Somehow, he still managed to survive.
pouts Not again! Everytime I finally think we’re gonna get the toxic bunnies into production you guys do this to me. :mad:
Guess I won’t bring my designs for the vampire dormouse to the meeting after all.
Standard spider removal - move quickly before the arachnaphobe gets home, get a dustpan and broom, sweep up, dump in outside trash. No big deal. I don’t touch them, though. Ugh.
Sounds like a black house spider - the larger version, Badumna insignis. They will occasionally build in clothes and other material if it’s left undisturbed. These are my favourite spiders of all - I have about 100 of them (both species) in the webs along the back veranda and and all the window frames, which are protected arachnid zone. I have been keeping records about them for a good few years now. I even run a Spiderbloggers web site for people who want to blog their spider observations. There are almost no behavioural studies done on black house spiders. Our arachnologists are still trying to classify all our species - they estimate they’re about 30% done! So behaviour studies are pretty rare.
Black house spiders aren’t deadly, and tend to be pretty shy, but if push comes to shove, they have a really painful bite. The one time they can be a risk is when it is really hot and they have built their webs against the tin roof. They will come out of the webs to escape the heat, and can drop on people if they get dehydrated. I watch mine come out on very hot days, but don’t walk underneath. I have seen a few fall. I confess that I once tried to revive one with gentle sprays of water, but failed. If they get in between clothes, say by dropping down a collar, then they will bite. i do know of some cases. I am not going to tell you any of this though, because I am the Great Defender of the Spiders! The fact that you rarely hear of this is because it rarely happens.
Must go - I haven’t been out to check my spiders yet tonight.
Our beaches are closed due to shark sightings.