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I like spiders.
My ex doesn't.
When we lived in a big old house, I'd get home from work to find a dozen glasses strategically placed around the house, each keeping a spider captive.
I would always take them outside and set them "free", which led to my ex thinking that it was the same spiders that kept coming back 🙂
@ loddrik
Nice cats. We only have 1 (a bengal) but can also say I've not seen many spiders since we got her!
Roper & Hadge...
What's the deal with the hairs? I've heard they're often worse than the bite, high levels of discomfort / itching that lasts for ages.
As far as my worst experience goes: Driving in game viewing vehicle in South Africa and went through a Golden Orb web that was stretched across a fairly wide dirt road. I broke the web with my body, but never did see/find the spider. One of the more disturbing childhood memories!
Spiders are cool but moults are ****ing horrific 😯
These little beauties about 5" across. Huntsman, and they can jump big distances. Near where I lived in North Queensland. All spiders are house spiders there. 🙂
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But it's not all bad, they keep the house snakes down.
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😯 kids no longer want to go to Australia!
Obelix,
The hairs are called urticating hairs, but are really more like a barbed hollow glass tube. Some plants like nettles have them. They are also found on some caterpillars. Tarantulas have four main different types.
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Most new world tarantulas use their urticating hairs as a defence strategy. Not only would they be difficult to eat, if they feel threatened they rub their abdomen with their back legs which releases these hairs into the air. This then becomes an irritant affecting the eyes or respiratory system of the attacker.
The large tarantula in Hadge and my photos have the worse type of hairs. Any contact the skin can leave at least an itchy rash for several days. As the tubes break apart when itched, and so embed further in the skin, the best way to remove them is with sellotape laying sticky side down and lifting directly up. If the hairs get in your eyes you are in trouble.
I have only breathed a small amount of the hairs in, but they gave me hayfever, cold like symptoms.
Some of the old world tarantulas, like those from Africa don't use the urticating hair defence. These tend to have stronger venom instead and will either run away or bite.
Interesting stuff Roper. Always had a morbid curiosity in spiders, never had the balls to get myself some.
Found this in our utility room this evening.
I don't want to know what it is / if it's venomous...
Thing was ****ing huge and fast.
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I'm guessing that's a standard male house spider. They come inside around this time of year looking for a mate, iirc
I don't like the look of that one. A house spider shouldn't be pumped - that just exudes malevolence 😈
john_drummer
I'm guessing that's a standard male house spider. They come inside around this time of year looking for a mate, iirc
They can forget it, even Binners has higher standards than getting jiggy with a large gay spider....... 😉
[url= http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-a-new-red-fanged-funnel-web-spider-has-been-discovered?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1 ]Good news! A new funnel web spider :)[/url]
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I don't think it's a standard house spider. Forgot to say I live in Thailand, and by huge, I mean its span was a good 20cm ... and it was hairy.
They're large tiles, not the smaller bathroom ones.
Apologies for the Facebook link, but here is a video entitled [b][i]"Dripping Spiders"[/i][/b] that seems quite relevant to this thread:
😯
(Harvestmen - so not [i]actually[/i] spiders but still 😯 )
The comments are quite amusing too.
Makecoldplayhistory,I can't tell what type of spider it is but if it native to Thailand and has that body shape I would keep my distance. The front legs suggest a huntsman of some sort.
The video above reminds me of a story a friend told me. They were hiking at night and decided to light a fire in a cave. Once the smoke hit the ceiling it rained bugs on them.
Also that funnel web is stunning, one of my favourite types of spider. I'm pretty sure the Japanese funnel web also has red pigmentation but just around the mouth parts.
roper - Member
...Also that funnel web is stunning...
Brilliant little beasts, but I've heard that "stunning" may be an understatement from someone who was on the wrong end of one. 🙂
One evening, snoozing outside in a hammock in the Blue Mountains, someone showed me a Funnelweb in a jar that was recently caught at that site. Then they told me about being able to bite through shoes. My snoozing wa replaced by an acute sense of eyes-peeledness.
A few days later I was strolling along a path in the vicinity. "Ooh, look at that web" say I, "it's impressive, rising a little between the grass stems". *bends down, puts face close to inspect* " gosh, look, it's like a little tornado, there's the funnel and....".
*stands up*
*retreats*
My sister lives in Canberra, I've passed her the link to the new spider. I'm sure she'll be thrilled 🙂
Lived in Brisbane for a year, the suburbs are quite green and the amount of massive orb spiders in the phone lines and above the pavements in Auchenflower was truly outstanding, literally thousands everywhere. Miss Scandal refused to walk anywhere but on the road.
The house was a big old Queenslander villa and the huntsment were ****ing huge, moving some boxes one day and one ran up my leg, I still squirm thinking about it.
Back in blighty and yesterday walking the dog through the fields and I managed to walk through a freshly spun golden orb web, the thing was large and surprisingly fast as it ran down my t-shirt.
Please tell me everyone posting here with pictures of obviously non-pet big spiders lives somewhere other than the UK...
I'm never moving to australia...
[url= http://www.sciencealert.com/a-flood-plain-in-australia-is-crawling-with-25-000-tarantulas?utm_source=Article&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=InArticleReadMore ]Pond with 25K diving tarantulas in it![/url]
We accidentally brought a Huntsman back to the UK from Australia.
It somehow managed to stow away in our baggage and survive the flight and airport pest control!
First we knew of it was when it appeared on the bedroom wall above our bags.
Felt a bit guilty killing it but it didn't seem like a good idea to set it free. 🙁
My wife is terrified of spiders and we had a huge one last night on the curtains right next to the sofa. It was bloody quick but I managed to dispatch it by beating it with a draught excluder LOL!
My boat is officially overun by false widow spiders, I found the nest!
There's so many of the ****ers I've considered taking it out to sea and scuttling it.
This a European funnel web saying Hola.
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and a female popping out of her web
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false widow spiders can be very useful at keeping other pests down. We have a continuous cupboard share with some. They keep other insects off our biscuits and we provide them with a nice quiet home.
It wold be good to see more house spider photos if anyone has some 😀
On a recent trip to the Snowy Mountains - in the Australian 'Alps'...
Woken by my wife in the wee-small hours, whilst she was feeding our sleepless youngest. A HUGE huntsman spider was ambling across the ceiling, right above the bed containing herself and sleepless offspring.
It was so large that every time it moved it made an audible sound with its footfalls. It would then stop and suck the ends of its legs/feet/whatever-it-has.
My wife isn't much bothered by spiders, but this had her wigged out.
Squashing it never occurred to us. Just as squashing a mouse doesn't seem like the way forward either.
Having previously caught spiders in an upturned glass and then slid a sheet of paper underneath, I usually set them outside. But in this case only the fruit bowl had a sufficient diameter. And there was only A4 paper to hand. I had to tape two together. The catching was easy, but the paper gaped when I carried the bowl to the door - and the bowl, paper, spider and my good humour were flung outside into the night with a crash.
Wife and offspring were quickly asleep once the 'danger' had passed. I lay in bed for a very long time, totally pumped up and unable to sleep. Yay. Holidays out in the long-grassed darkness!
We had a 'small' huntsman living in the pop top of our campervan for a few weeks around Byron bay. You could hear it scuttling around on the roof at night, they eat mozzies so we were happy for it to cadge a lift.
The other morning I was half asleep when my wife casually said there's a spider on your pillow. It was one of those spiders that like a wingless daddy long legs which don't bother me but it was huge, especially when a inch from my face.
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Found one of [url= https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segestria_florentina ]these[/url] strolling up my door on the second floor. I was impressed, but put her outside in the local woodland.
That is a Daddy Long Legs cheers_drive the one with wings that most people call a Daddy Long Legs is a Crane Fly.
Makecoldplayhistory,I can't tell what type of spider it is but if it native to Thailand and has that body shape I would keep my distance. The front legs suggest a huntsman of some sort.
I decided that I couldn't have it around with an inquisitive 1 year old and 3 1/2 year old in the house. I tried to get it into a bucket with a brush but it was too quick/fast/scary.
I then went out, with regret, with a hoe but after breaking the bucket, cracking a tile and screaming swearwords, it escaped down the (now ductaped) drain in the corner of the room.
I like to think my screams scared it away from the house...
Not huge but definately hairy. They can really run at speed.
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not huge Bubs?? its the size of a bloody dalmatian!!! 😆
Caught a huntsman in the house when living in Sale, Victoria and used to have a few redbacks under rocks in the garden. I don't remember meeting anyone who'd been bitten by a spider but I knew a good few who'd had chunks taken out of them because of sun damage. It's funny when people don't get so jittery when the sun comes out.