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| Lion, Tigers and Spiders - oh my! | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 27 2010, 11:57:24 PM (1,882 Views) | |
| AmbroseChick | Apr 27 2010, 11:57:24 PM Post #1 |
True Blue Mate
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The US vs. Aussie school discussion was getting diverted into a spider conversation and I am interested in hearing what people have to say about it plus as you may notice, I always have a story to tell... so I thought I'd start a new topic to help that one stay on track to its original purpose. I have seen my share of spiders in Australia during previous visits and I have a friend who lives near Ballarat who was bitten and got a very nasty infection from a spider bite - although she lives in the country. I had another dear friend who lives in St. Ives who had a big huge huntsman plop itself down on her sleeping baby in the back of her car while her 5 year old sitting next to the baby was so afraid that she forgot to breath. So I'm not going to join the "oh its not that bad" band wagon. I hate spiders with a passion. The first thing I bought for my new house was a can of Morten's spider spray. I've now been here 5 months with no signs of the creepy crawlies however I do a quick check of my car if I park under a tree with the windows open. I'm okay with being called paranoid. I'd prefer to be on the defensive then get caught out by one of those things. But I do think that Bryson was a bit overly dramatic but he's like that in all of his books. Any Australian spider and/or animal stories to share? |
| Check it out! Facebook page: Americans Living in Queensland | |
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| crapola | Apr 28 2010, 12:58:38 AM Post #2 |
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True Blue Mate
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my daughter has a morbid fear of spiders (she's 23), and quite often i'll be called into her room to kill one of the beasts. the other night, i almost had to get out the magnifying glass to see the spider that was freaking her out!! i've been bitten by a huntsman. it fell from the doorframe one morning after a storm and landed on my shoulder. i didnt realise it was there until i was running a bath for my daughter (who was about 5 at the time), and she screamed the house down. of course, once i realised the spider was on my shoulder, the bloody thing bit, so for its punishment, it was squashed. my mother used to breed redbacks for a man who would put them in gearstick knobs and keyrings... |
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| pastrycook-136 | Apr 28 2010, 01:41:14 AM Post #3 |
True Blue Mate
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I've found 2 white tail spiders in my apartment. The first one was running up my coffee table leg towards where my feet were propped while watching tv. I caught him in some toilet paper and got the Australian spider chart that I was given at a home show just a few days before. I matched him to the photo and read "bites readily and repetedly" from the chart in one hand while holding the spider in the paper in the other hand. He was promptly flushed. The second one ran in my kitchen window while I was cooking dinner. He was quickly shushed out again. I have yet to see a redback spider after living here 2 years. |
| "If you want to gather honey don't kick over the beehive!" | |
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| koalamama | Apr 28 2010, 08:55:11 AM Post #4 |
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True Blue Mate
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This is the first year I have actually seen redbacks around.. I guess because of the cooler summer. I have heard lots of huntsman stories about them dropping on people.. like when you flip down the visor in your car! When we moved into this house it had those passive circular vents in the ceiling (if you know what I mean). They were over the showers in the bathrooms as well as in the kitchen.. a girl at work had to tell me how one dropped on her from one of those while she was in the shower - AAAAAHH! I would totally freak out if one ever was on me, especially if I was naked !! |
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| CheekyOne | Apr 28 2010, 11:06:30 AM Post #5 |
True Blue Mate
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We've had several huntsman and a total of 6 (that i've seen and killed anyway) redbacks in our house.They were coming in from the cirular vents in the ceiling.I finally got pest control out here and the guy said it was really common for redbacks to live up in the roof. |
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| AmbroseChick | Apr 28 2010, 11:37:23 AM Post #6 |
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True Blue Mate
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Thats my fear (hence the car check) is that I'll be driving along and I'll put down my visor and have one of those wicked spiders drop into my lap and promptly total my car from the heart attack that will ensue... We actually haven't seen any spiders in our house yet - thank God. My other thing that I hate with a passion are the monster sized cockroaches. Funny story just happened about an hour ago... my son is having a cross country sport day at his school so I went to cheer him on. The parents were all standing underneath the trees that line the oval. All of the sudden I feel something fall hard smack on my shoulder. Of course my first thought is what the hell was that and is it still on me. So I frantically smacked my shoulder while turning around in circles and promptly tripped over the twig that had the ever loving nerve to scare the wits out of me. Luckily anyone who noticed had the grace not to laugh hysterically at my expense. hehe gawd I'm pathetic sometimes. Edited by AmbroseChick, Apr 28 2010, 11:37:51 AM.
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| Check it out! Facebook page: Americans Living in Queensland | |
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| CheekyOne | Apr 28 2010, 12:50:43 PM Post #7 |
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True Blue Mate
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LOl that sounds like something I would do.  Yeah I hear ya on the roaches.Thankfully I havn't seen any in this place we are currently living but everywhere else i've lived in QLD has had alot of them.The ones that fly send me into hysterics.I got this whole idea of what would happen if one flew in my hair and caught up in it.The thought of that really freaks me out.I forgot to mention that while I havn't seen a snake myself,they are around.Our next door neighbor came over awhile back and let me know that he had seen a brown snake in his yard. 
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| koalamama | Apr 28 2010, 01:04:05 PM Post #8 |
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True Blue Mate
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OMG, I never experienced the flying ones until our recent vacation in Hawaii. DISLIKE!! |
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| shylady | Apr 28 2010, 01:12:34 PM Post #9 |
oldYank
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oh yeah  Those huge flying honkers, I had one smack me in the face, YUCK!!!  On any given day I can find you a couple Redbacks in our back yard. There's no end to them, here.... Thankfully they don't stalk you or anything! 
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"I could’ve turned a different corner, I could’ve gone another place... " ku,'09 | |
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| tasosmama | Apr 28 2010, 02:05:11 PM Post #10 |
True Blue Mate
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5 redbacks since the beginning of summer.... 2 in my garage, 3 right outsie my glass doors on/near my plants. Hubby says that's more than he's seen in his entire lifetime. I swear I feel like we're under attack. I've picked up 20 millipedes from inside the house just this morning. They're coming to get us!!!!!!
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Missy | |
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| AmbroseChick | Apr 28 2010, 04:37:52 PM Post #11 |
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True Blue Mate
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Nice photo Missy! NOT! hehe Ok its good to know that I'm not the only paranoid one in the expat family! I'm not obsessed but I have to say that its very funny that when I spoke to my American friends about moving to Australia it was always the first thing they asked about... I think its Animal Planet's fault!
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| Check it out! Facebook page: Americans Living in Queensland | |
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| Sheryll | May 1 2010, 06:29:23 PM Post #12 |
Yacker
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In Canberra we would regularly find redbacks under the tops of the concrete stairs and under the horizontal bars of the fence. In the spring we would have to check over the sandpit toys and inside the handlebars of any kids' bikes. After the pest control man had come, you would see their dead carcasses on the stairs. My daughter still remembers her terrified screaming when she saw a spider on the car window when I was driving the kids home. I had to turn off the main road and deal with it. I recall sitting up one night breastfeeding my son to sleep and watching a white-tailed spider crawling relentlessly towards me. The dilemma was whether I should stop breastfeeding and kill it, or hang in there till my son went back to sleep. I would kill most spiders in the house, but my rule with huntsmans was to take them outside with a straw broom and tell them to never darken my doorstep again. One broke this rule when I found it the next evening on our delivered milk carton! Scared the heck out of me and it was promptly squashed.I used to give the spiders female names, and that caught on with my kids who would ask me to take Jemima, etc outside. One reason my husband imported me to the US was to deal with the (very harmless looking) spiders here in Oregon. |
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| AmbroseChick | May 2 2010, 02:35:00 PM Post #13 |
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True Blue Mate
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Great stories Sheryll! Yes the spiders in the US are very harmless but every so often a brown recluse comes out and causes havoc. |
| Check it out! Facebook page: Americans Living in Queensland | |
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| CynicalCountess | May 2 2010, 05:30:04 PM Post #14 |
True Blue Mate
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I wonder if my partner is willing to move to Ireland. The scariest thing there is a... badger. |
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| blarg | May 2 2010, 11:27:11 PM Post #15 |
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True Blue Mate
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Because brown recluses are a barrel of kittens... 
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| chocopaws | May 3 2010, 02:24:12 AM Post #16 |
True Blue Mate
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Jed - I haven't seen any spiders in my apartment yet. But now you've got me all paranoid, seeing as we're only a few streets away from each other! Interestingly enough, the scariest spider story I have is from my most recent visit back to Hawaii. Hubby and I were out with some friends at the mall and stopped to get some food. I put my purse down on the counter and started to peruse the laminated menu they had on the counter. I saw something brown out of the corner of my eye and thought, "How did a dead leaf get there?" I turned to fully look at the thing and it was a gigantic fuzzy brown spider between me and my purse. It's body was about the size of a computer mouse, never mind the legs. I screamed so loud I'm sure the entire mall could hear me. The creepiest thing is that I think it hitched a ride on my purse. We had just come from a friend's house at the base of the mountains - where all the big creepy crawlies reside. So it totally gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking that it was probably sitting next to me in the backseat of the car for at least 20 minutes, and then hanging on for dear life as I brought him into the mall with me. |
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| blarg | May 3 2010, 02:54:47 AM Post #17 |
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True Blue Mate
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We had a resident huntsman in the office for a few weeks named Harry. He had a particular penchant for hanging on the underside of a particular door jam and then dropping near you when you walked through it. Once he landed in the back of our poor receptionist's dress. It was quite entertaining for the rest of us at least. |
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| AmbroseChick | May 3 2010, 09:00:21 AM Post #18 |
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True Blue Mate
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Thats what I hate about those stupid Huntsman spiders! They just drop out of nowhere to terrify a person. Does anyone else think its ironic that this page is being sponsored by a pest control company with a pic of a HUGE spider or does this forum automatically figure out ways to creep you out? LOL |
| Check it out! Facebook page: Americans Living in Queensland | |
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| blarg | May 3 2010, 01:14:37 PM Post #19 |
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True Blue Mate
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They just want a cuddle...
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| CynicalCountess | May 3 2010, 02:00:39 PM Post #20 |
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True Blue Mate
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I'm torn between laughing and hiding under the rug. |
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