Do you have any spiders which have to be kept in a case in a case in a case roper? Or is that just the scorpions?

How are those ones that hunt in groups coming along? Been out and about yet?

Hello DD. I don’t have any spiders with dangerous venom. Some of the tarantulas would give a nasty bite which could need medical treatment but nothing life threatening. Though I do have one T which has such large fangs stitches might be needed after a bite.

I did find this spider in my house

It’s a L.rufescens or European recluse. Related to the brown recluse but with a milder venom. I have read they could still give quite a nip and the bite area should be monitored.

 As far as my community of spiders, they have had some spiderlings 🙂
you can see them here http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-pokies (any excuse to show them off).

skidsareforkids- where do you live?

Spiders in the house are good, they eat the things we don’t like.

RotorStern thats a Golden Orb isn’t it?
I had one that lived in my porch when I lived in Jo’burg.

I always leave them in the house, never put them out or kill them. Sometime I just move them into my flatmates bedroom.

Eurghh – hate em, even if they can’t hurt you!

what do you mean they can’t hurt you? why do they need so many legs then?

I freaked out the first time I saw one of these!!!!

Still waiting for my “first encounter” with a nasty spider. Seen a few big bum Orb Weavers here in Aus but it’s winter so most will be hidden away.

I remember a spider in Oz that frigging jumped up! Forget what they’re called, but we were camping and the damn thing leapt up in the air.

meeting an angry Eastern Brown Snake across the trail..

That’s not the one that you go to ‘choke off’ in the toilet, is it?! 😉

One very good reason that I will not be moving to Oz, or anywhere warm in the States, any time in the near future. The worst I’ve seen here is house centipedes – they just kinda run around and drop legs when you try to grab them

Roper- I live in SW Kansas now… A far stretch from Glasgow! We have lots of creatures out here! Black Widows, Brown Recluses, massive Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas, big Centi/Millipedes, Rattlesnakes, Box Turtles, Antelope, some Bears, Mountain Lions, Skunks… I see something new just about every day!

So what does the spider in my loft eat? There can’t be much passing traffic.

So what does the spider in my loft eat? There can’t be much passing traffic.

He only comes out to eat at night. When you’re asleep.

We have lots of creatures out here! Black Widows, Brown Recluses, massive Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas, big Centi/Millipedes, Rattlesnakes, Box Turtles, Antelope, some Bears, Mountain Lions, Skunks… I see something new just about every day!

And it gives you “great joy” to squirt laquer thinner at spiders ?

Is there a particular reason why, if you feel the need to kill them, you can’t do it by quickly stamping on them on them, or taking some other more normal action ?

skidsareforkids — I’m in New Mexico so we are almost neighbors (grew up in SW Nebraska as well). Plenty of various wildlife running around here as well.
Do you have a lot of tarantulas there in KS? A lot here, but only really see them in the fall.

My Mum moved to Oz and when she came back to visit me and my now wife she brought some pressies (boomerangs and calendars of wallabies, if you’re interested). Of course these were brought in carrier bags from the garage in Sydney, and of course there was Sydney Red Back in one of them. I was going to catch the bastard to take it to the Natural History Museum for confirmation, but with my jam jar only an inch from the little fecker some primal instinct kicked in and I was compelled to stamp the thing flat.

The whole episode led to a few “does your Mum like me?” conversations with Mrs Doubleu!

We have a false widow in the kitchen – it’s blocked off by a cupboard and we can’t see through it. It doesn’t bite (or do anything much – it was months before we noticed it).

Ernie – I’m not super-comfortable around spiders (especially ones that can kill me) so the more space I keep between myself and them the better (especially the nests)! Shudder! You should see how we deal with rattlers! ;P

Busydog – Yes, we’re practically neighbors lol! I moved here from Scotland in Dec ’10 and it took me a while to really understand how huge this country is! I live 17 miles from the Colorado state line and when I first moved here I thought “I will be able to go play in The Rockies all the time!” Well, it’s happened once so far lol! I do love it here though! My wife and I (she is from here) are not sure if we will live here forever or not, but we have a short list so far of Utah, Washington, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky or Oregon… Most of which she has lived at one point or another, and it was such a ball-ache getting my visa in the first place, that we are bound to find one state that suits us both… I have a lot of exploring to do first! 8)
Ps. Yeah, we only really see tarantulas here in the fall when they migrate… I’m told they sometimes swarm in the hundreds, but a little south from here in Oklahoma they are often in the thousands! Yuck

RotorStern thats a Golden Orb isn’t it?
I had one that lived in my porch when I lived in Jo’burg.

It is indeed or sometimes known as a banana spider. There was one living in the middle of a huge web it had made across a whole car port in an empty house a few doors down from where I used to live in Taiwan. Gave me the creeps every time I rode past it. It was twice as big as that one in the picture too. Harmless apparently but I was always too chicken to find out. 😳

You should see how we deal with rattlers!

I heard from someone I was talking to while on a ride on the foothills trails here in Albquerque that a biker was bitten by a rattlesnake here this past weekend, but haven’t seen anything in the news. Supposedly riding through an arroyo and stopped, putting his foot down without looking first and got chomped on the ankle. It true, he obviously didn’t die or that would have been on the news. I shudder watching all the people hiking with little kids running helter-skelter through the rocks and brush, not to mention dogs running off-leash.

Pedant alert! (Sounds klaxon)…
Logical, that terrifying creature is called, I believe, a Camel Spider, but it’s not a spider, it’s a relative of the scorpions, it has ten legs, not eight.
It would still scare the bejayzus out of me, though, truly the stuff of my nightmares! 😯
I’d want a baseball bat or a crowbar to deal with that.
Or napalm…

logical’s picture is not a spider it’s a Solifugae. Wierd creatures similar to spiders but are not venomous, though they can bite. They are also common in S/Europe, though much smaller. They can also play dead for hours so watch yourself 🙂

skidsareforkids it sounds like paradise to me. I have a breeding pair of these, which are from your part of the world

They are quite shy and harmless enough though so keep the thinners away 😉

As far as killing bugs, there is actually a prefered method. You should place it in a container and put it in a freezer. This slows them down to a stop, a bit like putting an animal to sleep.
If you are uncomfortable near spiders like widows and they were indoors then you are best getting rid. They don’t have a tendency to bite unless provoked but can give a very nasty bite.

So what does the spider in my loft eat? There can’t be much passing traffic

Some spiders can go months without food or water, which they get from food. They will probably find the odd silverfish, other spider, wood worm etcetera to eat. If it is a sealed space where they hatched, the young could live some time off each other.

Of course these were brought in carrier bags from the garage in Sydney, and of course there was Sydney Red Back in one of them

Do you still have it? I wouldn’t mind a look 🙂

EDIT
CountZero- they are not scorpions either (Though are often called scorpions or spiders) and do have 8 legs. They have extended chelicerae which look a bit like legs. They do have unusual jaws.

Roper–don’t much about tarantulas, so assuming there are lot’s of different sub-species? The ones here in New Mexico tend to be black and yellow and 2-3 inches across. Don’t seem aggressive, but don’t plan to pick one up just to confirm that.

Do you have Vinagaroons in the UK? Also called whip scorpions I think. Not true scorpions as I understand. My dogs just can’t leave them alone and always get a facefull of the vinegar like spray the use as defense.

Most tarantulas are pretty calm and harmless enough. Even the bad ones aren’t that bad. There might be undescribed species still to catalogue too so keep your eyes peeled 🙂
I’m not sure about Vinagaroons. I think they can be found as far as Asia but suspect they can’t cope colder climates. How long does the spray last? Does it cause any swelling on your dog’s nose?

Roper–the vinegar-like spray doesn’t seem to linger and doesn’t seem to cause any real damage to the dogs other than to make them sneeze and their eyes water. Scary looking though. Easily mistaken for a true scorpion and big buggers–I think they fall into the spider family, but not sure.
They survive our New Mexico winters, which can get below zero on occasion. I think they must burrow into the ground or find shelter under thinks like woodpiles, rockpiles, buildings, etc.—-but come every spring they are back. Not a lot of them, but I see several each summer in the yard–one sometimes makes into the house and they can squeeze under a doorsweep if there is even a little gap. Nocturnal–never seen one in daylight. Scare the crap out of Mrs Busydog.

CountZero- they are not scorpions either (Though are often called scorpions or spiders) and do have 8 legs. They have extended chelicerae which look a bit like legs. They do have unusual jaws.

Cheers, I’m sure it was something I either read, or was on a tv programme somewhere where it was pointed out they were related to scorpions, so I’m only too happy to bow to an expert. 😀

Those camel ‘spiders’ are the stuff of nightmares, there’s a vid on YouTube of one acting aggressive in a room in front of a load of soldiers, halfway through its posturing it stops to eat some unfortunate insect that happened to wander by and then carries on rearing up waving its legs about.

Thanks for the info busydog, all very interesting. All scorpions glow under ultraviolet light, like this

I wonder if they do too? They must be pretty amazing creature to be able to survive in such extreme temperatures too. I always thought they were more tropical

I read somewhere that there is a ‘healthy community’ of scorpions in the UK now – mostly in the south and near the ports, but there all the same.
Any idea of this is true?

There are scorpions in the UK, at least the south. I’m not exactly sure which ones, probably the Euscorpius spp and possibly a few others. All would be harmless to humans unless you have a strong allergy to the sting. THese are tiny too so not much harm from their pincers. You can pick up ultraviolet torches cheaply at amazon if you fancy having a look for some. They will be nocturnal and you might have to turn over the odd rock but worth having a look for.

Roper–next time I see one I will grab an ultraviolet light I have and see if they, too, glow like that. I guess they must be fairly adapted climate-wise, but our multitude of lizards live through the cold winters too, although, you see neither from about early November until about March.

It is indeed or sometimes known as a banana spider. There was one living in the middle of a huge web it had made across a whole car port in an empty house a few doors down from where I used to live in Taiwan. Gave me the creeps every time I rode past it. It was twice as big as that one in the picture too. Harmless apparently but I was always too chicken to find out.

They are harmless.
The one we had living in our porch was a baby when I first saw it. I used to feed it assasin bugs and stuff though. It was huge by the time I moved back to UK.

Our cat had a fascination with the babboon spiders too. Lovely grey spiders. Nasty bite supposedly. I did catch one that Megan had cornered and it bit me but did it gently so as not to peirce the skin. But just seemed to be a warning.

The Camel spiders are horrible though. I’m fine with most big spiders but house spiders and the Camel spiders really freak me out.