Forever etched fear in our mind.

[history-buff1944]

I found this little fella in my bathroom when I was still living in Brisbane...

Attachment 441970

Hint: its no good spraying these buggers with the fly-spray, they just run after you! Best bet is a shoe or rolled up newspaper. I did try a broom on one once but it jumped onto the brush and ran up the handle towards me, so I bravely dropped my weapon and fled the field of battle.

Reminds me a bit of a short but deadly battle i had with a Banjo Spider earlier this year. My cat wa jumping around in a corner when i was watching a DvD late one night. I turned the light on to go see what she was pissing off-and grabber her out of the way tossing her onto the sofa, I grabbed a wad of snot-soaked paper-towels-wadded them up and went to squash the fast little bastard and the thing was so quick it almost got my hand forcing me to drop the ball of snot rags and I reached for the nearest of anything which was a can of Lysol disinfectant spray-spraying the ship out of it and made it curl into a ball. It was then I noticed it was a Banjo Spider and proceeded to take a large show and hit it several times till it was not recognizable as anything but a gut-puddle.

It SHOULD be allowed by law-that Civilians like ourselves--should be able to keep a flamethrower in their possession. >:-))

[history-buff1944]

Yes, but you do get 8 drumsticks instead of 2...

Ill now start eating Rattlesnake meat after the annual Freer Rattlesnake Roundup--------NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Panzer 3]

Hi,
i dont mind spiders at all, i have some tarantulas and my son mike breeds them, he also has bird eaters,
Im not to keen on those buggers but like to look at them. nice pics by the way.
Dave.

[Larry C]

Having grown up in the bush as a kid, I still to this day turn my boots upside down and give them a thump before putting them on. You'll find everyone that has lived in the bush does the same thing. It's a habit you just don't grow out of.

As far as red backs go, the reality is that the last person to die from a redbacks bite was in 1950 so if you die from one then you probably deserve it! I've been bitten twice by them and I'm still here. If anyone wants to see a spider really worth being concerned about, google Sydney funnel web, those buggers will chase you across a room at the right time of year and they are lethal. They've claimed many lives.

I did just that and googled it..just look at the armor on that thing

[sandgroper]

Yes Larry, that's one of the little darlings!

[Glenn66]

I forgot the golden rule once. Pulled my Steel Blues off one day after work and put them on the floor and sat down to have a beer and watch TV. After about 2 minutes something caught my eye and I saw the biggest, most evil looking huntsman I have ever seen crawl out of my left boot. He'd been in there for over eight hours.

Walking across the carpark into work one day I felt what I thought was a leaf in my shoe as it was tickling my toes so I was kind of playing with it, trying to push it out of the way when a sudden pain like a needle going into my big toe convinced me that was no leaf!

I did a kind of crazy dance kicking my right foot into the ground toe-first then whipped off my shoe and a dead huntsman fell out...mongrel thing had left two little puncture marks in my toe. I also adhered to the shoe inspection routine after that, especially after I tried to put a shoe on with a green tree frog in it, those things sure make a noise when you squeeze them into a toe cap!

[sandgroper]

I had a mate hospitalized after a huntsman s bite, he got a bad infection from it. He was another tour guide and was showing off to a bunch of tourists by waving his hand over the top of the spider and getting it to rear up, he made one pass too low and the spider latched onto a passing finger! He gradually began getting sick over a couple of days and was hospitalized on the third day. He doesn't tease spiders now.

[lithgow]

Funnel webs were a particular problem-the poison is deadly to primates (incl people) but only slightly affects other mammals-making an antivenin was very difficult-the bastards are very aggressive and have a 'party trick' of floating in pools looking dead but still being very much alive...

[tempelhof]

with lifestyle changes still ongoing, i have so far cancelled any future plans for travel to Australia.

[history-buff1944]

I had a mate hospitalized after a huntsman s bite, he got a bad infection from it. He was another tour guide and was showing off to a bunch of tourists by waving his hand over the top of the spider and getting it to rear up, he made one pass too low and the spider latched onto a passing finger! He gradually began getting sick over a couple of days and was hospitalized on the third day. He doesn't tease spiders now.

I don't tease them, just kill em. ;-))