Australia..spiders

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Scarlet Lady

The Fly
Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
77
Hey,
Im trying to convince my man to move to Australia but he suffers a huge fear of spiders ...i know this place gets the biggest and meanist,but how bad is it to live there around them,is it a problem?he says everything is perfect bout australia bar the spiders :( n ive always wanted to move there
 
after looking at them horrible things i'm glad i live in boring old england where there are pretty much NO deadly spiders to speak of! :wink:
 
I just recieved this in my e mail this morning.

Three women in North Florida, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death.
There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common.
It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant Olive Garden) within days of their deaths.
The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down.
The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.
The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check.
She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom. That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read,drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat.
Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider.
The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was Determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect.
They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.
Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore, before returning home.
He did not visit (Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of
the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock. Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India.
The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India, and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes!
It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders.
It can save your life!
And please pass this on to everyone you care about.


*Thinks this is an Urban Legend ... But I would check if I were you
 
ok this may sound dumb but would living in a highrise prevent funnel webs entering?,i just read they enter ground level from the garden..:huh:
 
I've visited Australia for months at a time and I haven't encountered that many spiders there. Sure, it's a bit of a worry but when you are living in a city I think it's fairly safe.

Now the cockroaches, those are what you should worry about, they're huge!
 
why dont cockroaches and spiders hate each other??

would be such a wonderfull place, you could have tag team wrestling and place bets and who cares who loses


I think i need another pill :blahblah:
 
My favourite is the barking spider:

"The Whistling / Barking spider (Selenocosmia crassipes) makes a sound rather like a thumb nail rubbing across a comb. You can hear it from quite a distance away (over a meter away).

Females live up to 30 years, males up to 8 years.

They are nocturnal burrowers, typically very aggressive. They can eat some pretty amazing stuff - guinea fowl (like chickens), your usual array of invertebrates. One has been seen dragging a 2.5 pound dead fish carcass up from the river bank and across the forest floor to its burrow, where it happily feasted!

Reports about their venom are often conflicting. Some claim that they are dangerous to humans, esp. small children and sick elderly people, and can make an adult feel very unwell (vomiting).

There are substantiated reports that their venom has killed large dogs - Dobermans and German shepherds within 20 minutes of a bite (these dogs are usually the farm dogs which play with things they shouldn't).

They are found in tropical rainforests of Queensland, and as such need warm temperatures and plenty of humidity.

They grow to about palm size, light to dark brown in colour. Males are smaller in body size, but have much longer legs than the females and hence look bigger. Females are quite "sturdy"."

Imagine a spider that can eat a chicken! :uhoh:
 
tell me something about australia, please. if there's only three poisonous varieties, are there still lots of other types? cuz i'm just really arachnophobic. :cries: like i'm talking if i see even a teensy one i run screaming and crying away like you'd think i was being chased by an axe murderer. be honest. :(
 
Moonlit_Angel said:


*Nods* Daddy long legs freak me out like nothing else.


Angela, would it make you feel any better to know that daddy long legs aren't actually spiders?

"Although they resemble spiders, daddy long-legs, more correctly called harvestmen, are neither spiders nor insects. Taxonomically, they are arthropods, in the same class as spiders, Arachnida, but in a different order, Phalangida."

Or is it the case that a daddy long legs by any other name would still be icky?:wink:
 
biff said:
Angela, would it make you feel any better to know that daddy long legs aren't actually spiders?

"Although they resemble spiders, daddy long-legs, more correctly called harvestmen, are neither spiders nor insects. Taxonomically, they are arthropods, in the same class as spiders, Arachnida, but in a different order, Phalangida."

Or is it the case that a daddy long legs by any other name would still be icky?:wink:

Didn't know that about daddy long legs-very interesting info. But regardless, yes, a daddy long legs by any other name is still a creepy as hell thing in my eyes, LOL.

Khanada, I'm the same way. Even a teeny spider gives me the willies. I just really, really don't like those things.

Angela
 
:lmao:

What a thread!!1

There are many poisionous spiders and other insect/animals. Funnel web spiders really only live in New South Wales. We don't have them in the west. But then we have a sea snake that swims between here and Timor and is the most lethal anything on the planet. Not that "most lethal" means anything, lethal is lethal. lol

Seriously, you get used to the spiders. And the spiders eat the flys that are infinitely more annoying.

If you are a bugaphob I wouldn't recommend Australia. I have witnessed many an English person scream themselves hoarse at the site of a rhino roach etc.

Most of the insects are in the warmer places. If you go to Canberra there maybe less. Wheres Choaderboy when we need him? Hes from Tassie, he might have a different tale to tell......

To which city where you planning on moving?
 
Moonlit_Angel said:


:eyebrow:... You can eat them?

Why would you want to?

Also, I gotta agree, the thought of jumping spiders existing doesn't exactly reassure me. Don't think we get those around here, but still...yikes. If one of those ever jumped on me, you can bet I'd scream bloody murder.

Angela

well, its hard to eat the jumping ones, because they, well, jump away

the others you can just wrap in some tin foil and eat :up:

:drool:
 
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