Is it the hot weather that brings them out?
Keep finding white tips in our house and clothes :68:

...and just had to evict a resident huntsman off Dave's car!!!

Mandy

:68: :68: :68:

OMG mandy

you still getting the white tips?

as you know we had some when we first moved in.... but remember i said jon sprayed all around the house, in all the little holes etc and as i speak we haven't had any more.... except of course for the one that appeared in the envelope on my breakfast bar!!!!!

see ya soon

happy new year!

lorraine

Hope you don`t leave clothes , pillows etc on the floor, its a no no, I move all my furniture from the wall once everyweek you might think this being a paranoid, but if I see black specs on the floor ( I have tiles in all rooms) or on the walls, I know I have spiders and they don`t last long, bedside tables if I find them underneath they are sprayed with surface spray, it lasts a fair while, you`ll find if you leave your furniture and never move it, you`ll find lots of dead bodies, and nasties


Sheila

Yes the hot weather brings them out. It's always good to check the eaves above the front door on warm nights before you open it! And they love hanging off the guttering too. Scary stuff.

Yes this warm weather seems to be to blame.

I went out for a walk under my veranda - and saw 5 spiders - one of which was a red back! :68:

So I killed him with my spray and left the other 4 black ones alone - until my Aussie neighbour told me that the female redbacks are red - but the male ones are all black and still poisonous - :help: I nearly died when she told me that - I wish I had sprayed all of them.

I will just spray outside tomorrow again!

Ann

OMG am i doing the right thing as i have little ones that poke anything......how do you all live i would live in fear every day........and i would carry the spray as a side arm.......
geary and family destin for Adelaide Jan 2006

Hi Ann
Male redbacks are only a couple of millimetres across though, so they wouldn't be able to bite you if they wanted to :lol:

I have heard that not all females have the red stripe.

I don't have small kids - and I'm quite happy to leave my redbacks in residence if they're out of the way, or give them a lift up the garden if they are somewhere I don't want them.

Gizmo alerted us to this one yesterday.

Spiderwasp dragging a huntsman

Desiree
:D :D

We have a 2 1/2 year old and I was extremely paranoid when we first got over here about the spiders. 8 weeks on and i've realised that they don't rush out to bite you but would rather avoid you so as long as you keep an eye on the kids outside you should be fine.

I have to admit that keeping a spray can of Baygon handy does calm the nerves though ;), although it went against all of our principles before coming here. I personally want to make sure my son is safe and not in ICU having been bitten. I haven't seen many in the house so far - 3 white tips I think and a couple of house spiders. Soon disposed of them tho!

You do get your head round it eventualy honest :)

these spider v hysterical pom threads amuse me no end.

good picture of the wasp and the huntsman though.

Me too Sean :lol:

I bet most people who have been here even just a few months will agree that there's no need for paranoia. I can imagine being a bit more careful with youngsters around, but the redbacks especially rush away and hide as soon as anyone comes near, you'd have to try pretty hard (or be VERY unlucky) to get bitten.

A lot that is said about spiders in Australia is just exaggerated. Male red back fangs can't penetrate the skin so don't have to worry about those. As for the females lots of the bites don't even require medical assistance, just add an ice pack and elevate the bite and keep an eye on the person. There hasn't been a death from a red back since about 1955 so your probably more likely to die from a wasp sting and who gives those to much of a thought (apart from allergic people) I'm the biggest wimp about when it comes to spiders and I'm not to worried about them, they can't hurt you once they've been put under your boot or sucked up by the vacumm!!

I went into my shed today to get my drill tool box, saw a very small spider in top so thought id be brave and brush it of, I felt like id done my bit for the Australian wildlife :D

took the case in doors, put some rubbish in the bin, walked to the kitchen table put the case down on the table.

Then a sound come out my mouth that can only be decribed as a demented gibbon :happy45:











I SH*T myself laugh.gif and no sean I wasnt amused , what is it??

Looks like a small hunstman to me Vince, what do you reckon Sean?

I have visions of Vinnie up on a chair!!!!!!!!! :happy45:

I think the bum was way tooo big for a huntsman and huntsman usually lay quite flat , this one was very 3D


Still not amused :D

I still reckon it's a huntsman myself... but then I'm no expert. Maye it's pregnant if it's got a big belly :P

looks like a Huntsman to me too, but as for the big bum... well maybe it's anally retentive!!! try giving it a saucer of prune juice and see what happens!

My 13yr old daughter was off to bed the other night and let out a scream, went rushing in and out of the window sitting on the fence was a spider that looked just like the one in you photo Delboy.

Tried to reassure her that it was outside and could not get her, but I don't think she had an easy nights sleep :ph43r:

As other posts have said they do tend to stay out of the way, but its shoes on and eyes open.

[QUOTE=Elaine,Dec 31 2005, 02:00 PM][QUOTE=sean,Dec 31 2005, 12:17 PM] these spider v hysterical pom threads amuse me no end.

Me too Sean :lol:

I bet most people who have been here even just a few months will agree that there's no need for paranoia. [/QUOTE]


Yes, I agree with both of you. Most spiders here in Oz are not venomous. I read somewhere that the UK has also 600 different species of spiders so I would assume that most new expats have seen one or two before.

Anyways here is a link that will help with identification and details of what you might see around the place. I feel sure Elaine has posted this one in the past, or have I missed it. Perhaps it could be pinned or put into the FAQ section as these spider questions do come up on the forum on a regular basis.

http://www.termite.com/spiders/Huntsman-Spider.shtml

it does look like a huntsman, the position of the legs is quite familiar.
it is rather tubby though.

I've just put that link over in Adelaide Living - not one I'd seen before either so must have been posted by someone else! Good site though.

article in the advertiser recently, talking about the current plague of flies, and an increase in the number of spiders to eat em all

Hi there,
my 12 year old daughter has just read the stuff on spiders and saw the picture of the huntsman by Delboy and is now refusing point blank on coming with us in March. Cheers guys!!!
Cookie

Vince have to agree with others and say that one is pregnant. I have an excellent book called Spider Watch by bert Brunet and it shows all the Aussie spiders including when they are pregnant and that one is just like a phot in this book :o

I agree with you Elaine after only a short time here it was surprising how quickly fear turns into "oh there's another one". After only a few days of being here the girls came across a red back but it is true they don't come running and looking for you to bite you in fact the kids had been poking it with a stick for ages before they told us they had found a red back :o :o :o the poor thing had in fact crawled into a ball and played dead until it thought it was safe and started to scurry away. This was outside a factory unit on an industrial estate and was the only red back I have since seen.

They do freak me out when it comes to the size but I have found a tap of a broom close by sends them running especially the huntsmen spiders. The golden orb spider was the best though and so beautiful especially the web.

Sasha :)

Male Redback spiders do NOT bite..only females....typical! :)

Tony

just read post dont want to sound silly but what are white tips ? i have been reading up on creepy things and have never come across them .after reading this thread and seeing that picture i am s**ting myself i cry at a worms over here


thanks lisa

Lisa they are a spider with a white tip on their bum hence the name white tip. They tend to like to crawl into people's beds and then get stuck and frightened only to bite people when they then get into bed to go to sleep. Now I've never seen a white tip and on here I can only recall one person having one crawl into their bed so it's not a big thing.

They do have a bad reputation that if they bite you then the bite will turn into a ulcer and they can cause some serious skin infections yet this has been argued against after a test proved white tips weren't to blame for the majority of the bites they were being blamed for.....so the jury is still out on them!!!!

Here's a website that lists most of the spiders and snakes that you have to worry about.....

http://www.avru.unimelb.edu.au/avruweb/creatable.html

Sasha :)

The warm weather is also bringing out those HUGE orange poisonous centipedes as well. My friend had a beauty at her house the other day!

ooooo nice WW. I'm finding our place is full of ants as it is meant to be hitting the wet season up here so everything is tryign to get indoors :o I have been told if you see the ants walking up backwards then beware as it means there is a flood :D

Sasha :)

The spider you are referring to is called a White Tail Spider, if you try putting that into a search engine you should come up with some information.

As Sasha says they can cause a nasty bite. I was once bitten and the remaining scar does get inflamed from time to time and has never disappeared.

Since this happened to me I have been an advocate of the Spider Bomb (Flea Bomb) treatments, yes they work and the treatment is only needed twice yearly. It's a product by Mortein and is very effective on all creepy crawlies.

Jet :)

We let one of those off in the caravan after we moved out to kill off all the ants and on our return we found a dead cockroach lying in the middle fo the floor :o :o I just hate to think where that was hiding :huh:

Sasha :)

Thanks Snappy

that web site was good but i am more shi*ing it then ever now!! But i will have to put up with it if i want to live in such a lovely place .i suppose when you r over there you get use to the different sort of things that move about .

cheers
lisax :sign68:

I have found (I think) 3 white tips in the last couple of months, they tend to go in washing that is lying around, with me usually my ever huge ironing pile!

They are very obvious spider with a earwig shaped body and quite chunky looking, I always thought they were little things til I saw one, and the white tip can be quite small.



Nikki
xx

You know Nikki that looks just like one that I got David to bash over the head (none of this humane spider catching in our house).

I thought that I had got use to the spiders and it was just the creepy crawlies that were bothering me, but this fella must of been about 2 inches across and he was goading me, so he had to go. I am sure that he came out of the "room of many boxes" so now nothing will get unpacked as there is no way I am going in there!!!

Clare :P

Errrrr NO :68:
































The men can be real creeps when they want to be over here :lol: Seriously to me everything is deadly and can kill me even the little flying bugs so armed with a fly squat and few odd dances around the place I get by very very nicely. I am improving though and managed to recognise the fact that some things are good i.e GIANT orb weaving spider that eats the mozzies so I can leave some of them knowing they don't kill kill kill kill kill..........buy some good books though once you get over here as they will be very handy to you as even if you can't find the bug you are looking for at least you can use the book to squash it ;)

Sasha :)

One bit of good news......

No Sydney Funnel Webs waiting under toilet seats to bite your bum! (reckon, that's a myth anyway) :)

Desiree
:D :D

Desiree at a caravan park up this way we met a guy who travelled round Oz from a Melbourne Zoo showing kids all different creatures...in fact it was a bizarre conversation with a young lad who we thought was full of cr!p but turned out in the back of his van he had a hoard of creatures including a crocodile, several snakes, spiders and various lizards etc etc

Anyway the one creature he picked up in a box and turned round to us all (by this time a crowd had gathered as he was showing us his animals) was a funnel web spider and he said this was the one thing he didn't want to get bitten by as he would most likely die due to no need for the anti venom up where we were.......he then handed me the box and asked me to told it :o :o :o

Whilst helping him put his creatures away he knocked over a few boxes....and yes the funnel web was one of them, needless to say we all ran in the opposite direction and he managed to scoop it up in the dark without getting bitten but CRIKEY what a nutter :D and yes they are really horrible looking spiders with evil stamped on each fang!

Sasha :)

LOL!

Perfect description Sasha - I did encounter a few of them when we lived in Sydney (but never under any toilet seats)

Which might explain my benevolent attitude to the Huntsman. :lol:

Desiree
:D :D

Yet to find anything under the toilet seat....I did get a large jumping spider on the toilet wall today though but he was still tiny compared to the good old huntsman.

Never want to get too close to a funnel web again though as it was evil.....

Sasha :)

Didn't notice anyone had posted similar but when we moved into our house i had the entire indoor and outdoor areas treated from pest control and we have had no problems from spiders or anything else in our house. It cost $150 and it was worth every penny.

It was done 4 months ago and it's guaranteed for at least 3, i did however come across 1 spider in the bathroom the other day but touch wood nothing else. If they do start appearing then i will just get the place treated again.

It is also very rare that i see anything in the garden or round the pool since the treatment. I can sleep easy at night...............bliss !!!

Sam
:)