Thread: Spiders!

I got bit on the thigh by a brown recluse when visiting relatives in Texas. While I don't have a divot in my leg, there is a nice scar. Prompt medical treatment helped too. Needless to say, anything with eight legs inside or outside that crosses my path gets squashed.

"Here Mr. Mantis" ...

Originally Posted by xman

"Here Mr. Mantis" ...

What the hell is that X??

Spiders are very useful animals. Next time you kill one just spare a thought for the fact that it may have killed hundreds of mosquitos, flies, plant lice etc. A spider is pest control on 8 legs. If you catch it instead of killing it and release it outside it will continue doing its useful job.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

You guys who love spiders all need to come down under for a "Spider Tour". We've got some good ones. My two favourites are the Redback and the Sydney funnel web.

Female Redback guarding egg sack:
Attachment 11408

Sydney Funnel Web - apparently this guy's venom is bad. Not the most venomous in the world, but bad nevertheless:
Attachment 11409


James.

Hey James, can you give me an idea of the size of these bad boys?

James, I think the "red back" is what we call the "black widow", if not, it sure looks a lot like a widow.

I kill brown recluses, no questions asked (have three friends who've been bitten, one almost died). But most others I try to save.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

James, I think the "red back" is what we call the "black widow", if not, it sure looks a lot like a widow.

.

It does look like a black widow, except the red mark on the black widow is on the belly and not the back. Also, the shape of the spot looks like an hour glass on the black widow!

Originally Posted by JMS

Hey James, can you give me an idea of the size of these bad boys?

The female Red-back is about 1 centimeter and can kill you if you do not get treatment, in any case a bite will ruin your day.

The funnel-web is about the size of your palm and can seriously kill you. Also it is found in other areas, not just Sydney.

Redback spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Australasian funnel-web spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, for more fun you may want to look up:

Blue Ring Octopus
Stone Fish
Box Jellyfish
Blue Bottle (Portuguese Man O' War)

Australia, beautiful one day, deadly the next

Cheers,
Ash.
Promoting tourism to our fine shores.

Originally Posted by JMS

I have always been fascinated by spiders, especially wolf spiders. more so when I was little than now.
Most wolf spiders that I have seen have generally, at the largest, been about the size of my thumb nail, maybe a little larger with their legs extended! I let the little ones have the run of the house, but the bigger ones I catch and let go outside! Well, this morning my middle child comes to me and says "Dad! There is a giant spider in the bathroom!! Come and see." I figure he is exaggerating, but went to see anyways. What greets me in the bathroom is a wolf spider with legs that could span the top of my morning coffee cup from rim to rim! From stem to stern, not including legs, this spider was easily an inch and a half long! He looked like a small tarantula! I caught him and set him free outside. If he survives, I would like to see his size in another year or two!
Her is a picture of a male wolf spider:

If you're that fascinated, move to Oklahoma. During the summer, it's hard not to come across at least one of those big ones per day- no exaggeration! All the spiders are big and nasty here, and more often than not carry some bad venom you don't want. Gotta hate the jumpers too

Originally Posted by Ashley

The female Red-back is about 1 centimeter and can kill you if you do not get treatment, in any case a bite will ruin your day.

The funnel-web is about the size of your palm and can seriously kill you. Also it is found in other areas, not just Sydney.

Redback spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Australasian funnel-web spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, for more fun you may want to look up:

Blue Ring Octopus
Stone Fish
Box Jellyfish
Blue Bottle (Portuguese Man O' War)

Australia, beautiful one day, deadly the next

Cheers,
Ash.
Promoting tourism to our fine shores.

Yeah - what Ashley said!

I'm fairly sure that the redback is not the same thing as the black widow, although I guess they may be related. It's always been a well-known spider in Australia, but was made "popular" by a song in the early 1970s by Slim Newton called "The Redback on the Toilet Seat". Makes reference to a time when a lot of toilets in Australia were outside "dunnies" and women were real "sheilas"! In fact, that song also has a reference to straight razors in it funnily enough - here's the first couple of stanzas (check out what his wife wants to do to him...):

There was a redback on the toilet seat
When I was there last night.
I didn't see him in the dark,
But boy I felt his bite.

I jumped high up into the air
And when I hit the ground,
That crafty redback spider
Wasn't nowhere to be found.

I rushed into the missus,
Told her just where I'd been bit.
She grabbed a cut-throat razor-blade
And I nearly took a fit.

I said, "Just forget what's on your mind
And call a doctor please,
'Cause I got a feeling that your cure
Is worse than the disease." ...

James.