Those eight-legged beasties

[Hillbilly]

Well, I go to get ready for bed, decide to put my washing away. So I open the drawer that has my undies in, and after dropping in the clean washing, go to close the drawer and notice a bloody big spider!! I mean Bloody big!! One of the biggest Huntsmans I have ever seen. This "mini-Tarantula" had been in my drawer for who knows how long? I left the drawer slightly ajar for a few nights not bothering to close it properly. Luckily the spider was facing down, and it was a female too. They can get really aggressive.

I killed it with Bagon, as Big Dave can tell you all about. As an insecticide I don't think it would be allowed in NZ. Anyway, this monster stars running all around the bedroom!! I haven't found the bosy, so it or some of it's rellies might come back. They're nocturnal too so they run all around the house while you're asleep! They're related to the Auckland Avondale Spider, but bigger, faster and meaner! Couldn't keep 'em as pets. I tried but the last one in thwe house chased me running along the cieling. I couldn't move without the thing hooning it after me! The sorta shit you see in a B-grade horror flick! "Arachnaphobia" anyone? Below is a picture from a website of one of these Beasties' favourate possies, and that's a real spider:

[Lou Girardin]

It must be spider time, we had a bloody big crawlie fall out of some riding pants on Sat as a woman was trying them on. Apparently they heard the scream in Wellington.

[Colapop]

Is that where that came from?
It's mouse time too

[kro]

That picture is why I will never live in Oz, I'm a 6'4 chap, and not small with it, but one look at one of those, and I would run away screaming like a little girl.

Snakes - fine
Weta's - fine
Praying mantis - fine
spiders - change of undies

[Krayy]

I woke up a few times with a Huntsman hanging on the ceiling above my bed. Makes you get up on time anyways.

I found a dead funnelweb under a girlfriends couch once when we moved her place. Hell, we shagged 2 feet above the most poisonous spider in the world. Gave me the willies (hehe). And once out horse riding just our of Campbelltown a snake shot across the path of my horse and shit, did the equine mount know it. Took off like a mad thing and scared the bejesus out of me.

Great place for all things wild Oz.

P.S. Who here has walked around the back streets of Manly or Bondi at night and has felt the crunch of thousands of Cockroaches being crushed underfoot? :sick:

[Disco Dan]

woah... that is why i wont go back to OZ... hate them!!!!! arrrggghhhh!!!


Get the odd avondale spider on the ceiling and that gives me the shivers... normally shoot it with an entire can of fly spray... to the point of dripping from the ceiling... then i will squish it too, just to make sure...

[Flyingpony]

Earlier this year, MAF did a mail drop in my street since three Huntsman spiders were found in the area. One of them was a female with an egg sack ...

[placidfemme]

*gets the shivers*

*usually ends up spraying a whole can of fly spray on them damn spiders*

[Ixion]

I don't know about the Ozzie ones, but the Avondale spider is completely harmless. Naught wrong with NZ spiders I have a pet one lives in a corner of the bedroom, the latest in a long line of Sids.

[Postie]

theres a bit of meat on that there spider, can you fry them?

[Macktheknife]

I lived in Oz for 6 years and really enjoyed it, apart from the spiders. I was bitten 4 times while there and the first time was by a huntsman, while I was asleep in bed. The last one was by a funnelweb in mating season, 17 hours in hospital with several anti-venine shots. Bastard things!
I don't mind snakes, weta's, and other creatures, but I really hate spiders! apparently they don't like me much either. lol

[The Stranger]

I have a pet one lives in a corner of the bedroom

Tell me it's not called Charlotte!

[Ixion]

Sid. I have no idea whether it's male or female, spider sexing is not one of my areas of expertise.

[Bloody Mad Woman (BMW)]

I moved out of a flat cos it had so many humungous black spiders in it. No amount of spider killer got rid of the problem. I can handle wetas, rats, mice, cockcroaches, but spiders forget it. I have got a little better as I've got older - sometimes I allow the smaller onces to live!!

[McJim]

The South American Natives catch tarantulas by placing a thumb behind the eyes and effectively pinning the spider to the ground. they then tie the legs together behind its back and place it on fire embers and cook it like on a BBQ. They eat the abdomen but I think they leave the legs and head.

Mmmmm....lunchtime.

[SPman]

They deep fry bird eating spiders in a small village in central Vietnam - taste like salty crisps, apparently............


This is second hand from a student I know who was there 2 yrs ago - he tried them just so he could say he had.......:gob:

[Pixie]

Well, I go to get ready for bed, decide to put my washing away. So I open the drawer that has my undies in, and after dropping in the clean washing, go to close the drawer and notice a bloody big spider!! I mean Bloody big!! One of the biggest Huntsmans I have ever seen. This "mini-Tarantula" had been in my drawer for who knows how long? I left the drawer slightly ajar for a few nights not bothering to close it properly. Luckily the spider was facing down, and it was a female too. They can get really aggressive.

I killed it with Bagon, as Big Dave can tell you all about. As an insecticide I don't think it would be allowed in NZ. Anyway, this monster stars running all around the bedroom!! I haven't found the bosy, so it or some of it's rellies might come back. They're nocturnal too so they run all around the house while you're asleep! They're related to the Auckland Avondale Spider, but bigger, faster and meaner! Couldn't keep 'em as pets. I tried but the last one in thwe house chased me running along the cieling. I couldn't move without the thing hooning it after me! The sorta shit you see in a B-grade horror flick! "Arachnaphobia" anyone? Below is a picture from a website of one of these Beasties' favourate possies, and that's a real spider:
The Avondale spiders are huntsmen,having come into the country on timber for the avondale racecourse in the '20s or '30s.They don't grow as big because of environmental differences.
The spiders for the movie Arachnophobia were huntsmen (avondale ) bred by the DSIR in Auckland under contract to the movie producers and shipped to Hollywood.
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biodiversity/invertebratesprog/spiders/avondale.asp

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/huntsman/Huntsman.html

Look, he's crawling up my wall
Black and hairy, very small
Now he's up above my head
Hanging by a little thread

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Now he's dropped on to the floor
Heading for the bedroom door
Maybe he's as scared as me
Where's he gone now, I can't see

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

There he is wrapped in a ball
Doesn't seem to move at all
Perhaps he's dead, I'll just make sure
Pick this book up off the floor

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

He's come to a sticky end
Don't think he will ever mend
Never more will he crawl 'round
He's embedded in the ground

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

[yungatart]

I'd rather have spiders (not that I like them) than the huge disgusting cockroaches you get in HB - some of them make that spider look small!! Mstrs catches them in a serviette or paper towel and throws them down the waste master, followed by copious amount of disinfectant filthy, disease ridden, prehistoric things.
hXc and I hide until the job is done...

[Hillbilly]

I guess you wouldn't like "Joe's Apartment" then? The cockroaches here are huge too. We've just had a massive poulation explosion of cicadas. Like every other bug, there were around 2-3 times bigger than the Kiwi ones. Thousands of them covered the trees. What really surprised me was that they actually mimicked the birds!! Where are the Kookaburra's when you need them.

At night there were no fewer than 38 of these beasties around the front door. When I tried to open it to get in they all went bezerk, started getting really noisy and jumped all over me. Maybe I souln't have killed that huntsman....:confused:

[Flyingpony]

So the Sydney area has these lovely big insects, what about Canberra and Melbourne and Brisbane and Perth? Suspect they'd have them too, right?

Hmm, looks like one of the first things I'd have to buy when going to Aussie is some sort of Cyanide insect spray :mellow:

Got the feeling that catching those insects with an ice cream container like I do here, won't be safe or efficient.