Look Out California Randy Tarantulas Are On The Move

If they're anything like our funnel webs, the males will go for cover once the sun come up to avoid the heat.
They may shelter in boots and shoes or under clothing dropped on the floor or ground.

Campers need to exercise caution and shake out shoes and clothing very carefully. The same goes for laundry if accessible to small crawly creatures.
 
There's something I miss up here, no Sydney Funnel Webs. aawwww.

We used to call Huntsmen spiders Tarantulas, similar looking spiders, similar danger level too apparently, not really venomous. I had a new one in the house cleaning up the Daddy-long-legs for a week or so but it's vanished, suppose the dog got it. Siiiigh.

 

When i lived south west of Wodonga Vic in a town called Howlong hubby was digging in the veg patch and found a nest of relatives of the Funnel web they looked exactly the same but a little browner and had the same fighting fangs coming at you, we made enquiries about them and found out they were a funnel webb but not as poisonous as the black one, hate spiders

Di they are up here just ask my daughter, a guy she used to date had them in his place at mating time every year, luckily for you your ground is too hard to dig up to see them haha
 
Jillaroo said:
When i lived south west of Wodonga Vic in a town called Howlong hubby was digging in the veg patch and found a nest of relatives of the Funnel web they looked exactly the same but a little browner and had the same fighting fangs coming at you, we made enquiries about them and found out they were a funnel webb but not as poisonous as the black one, hate spiders
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The most venomous of all funnel webs are the tree funnel webs that are found in the Blue Mountains.

http://www.findaspider.org.au/find/spiders/207.htm

Any spider that rears up at me is not my friend.
 
Unfortunately, those love-lorn tarantulas can be consumed just once and they're done. I, on other hand, have been consumed three times by hungry females, and am still here.

Lucky for me, I found a fourth female who was looking for more than a free meal, and took me in... 23 years ago!
 
Di they are up here just ask my daughter, a guy she used to date had them in his place at mating time every year, luckily for you your ground is too hard to dig up to see them haha
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I'd better stop whinging about the soil then eh? They might be a different kind, on the 'wildlife' map the Sydney Funnel Web isn't found much north of Newcastle. But it could have been an old map.
Redbacks (Black Widows in the US) rule around here, they're everywhere, laundry, garage, doorways, steps, pot plants, in and under every damned thing.
I try and get 'em all before they reach breeding size but there's always a few get missed. That's why I like to see a Huntsman move in around the house, they only eat other spiders and keep the numbers down. Saves me time, energy and bug spray.

The ones that make me most nervous are the White Tails. I saw what one did to a neighbour's hand in Sydney. He nearly lost it. It was still twice normal size and vaguely purple after he got out of hospital! They're not particularly venomous, but a percentage of them carry an extremely toxic flesh eating bacteria, like MRSA, and the infection gets you if you're unlucky to be bitten by a carrier.
Be wary of them among your pot plants. They don't build webs either, they're hunters not trappers and move around a lot and the infected ones don't carry signs. Luckily there's not many of them.

Just to creep you out more... I've only ever seen three, all in houses.
One in a small closed craft case of paint brushes, that was a surrrrprise.
One floating contentedly in half a cup of water on the kitchen sink.
And one in my cousin's house that she called me over to see. She'd sprayed it and when it died all these tiny black worms came out of it.
They were still coming out when I got there. She'd put a small glass over it so they couldn't get away and the pile of them seemed bigger than the spider they'd come from!
I can never unsee that!
It had obviously been parasited by something and I don't even want to wonder by what.

Oh, sorry, scared of spideys? ... bwaahahahaha :devilish:
 
I had a lot of Whitetails in the house in the Nth East, i have found them on my bed, couch and every night they always appeared on the cornice of a room so always had to check, with the deadliness of them it depends on what soil they have been in and as they like to eat Daddy long legs who are the most poisonous of the lot but their fangs are too small, the venom they pick up from them will make the bite worse, some people can be bitten and it's sore for a while and others if the spider has eaten DLL will have a worse wound with a lot of ulceration etc and every year it will flare up again. I have killed many that have been over an inch long, and i believe it was because i had a lot of shrubs up against the house.
 
tarantul.jpg
 
When I lived in S. Florida we had little spiders in the house. We used to try to get them to walk on a piece of stiff paper and then carry them outside. They weren't hurting anything, tho. We just didn't want our cat to eat them. Spiders that aren't venomous are kind of cool!
 
I think so too Snaarl, they're a fairly efficient insect control, and very quiet. I only kill Redbacks before they try to kill me, and DLLs because they are so damned webby. The rest get swept or shaken out or the dog 'pops' them. She doesn't eat them though.
 
basefare said:
Now i wont sleep a wink. I wish i hadn't read all. That spider stuff .
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Another link I can't look at. Any spider terrifies me, but the bigger they are, the wilder my dreams. You couldn't pay me to look at one. Saw one in my bedroom the size of a quarter awhile back and set off a extermination bomb the same day. Probably didn't kill the spider, but made me feel better. I've posted before my daughter thinks I need professional help on my fear of Palmetto Bugs/roaches and big spiders are even worse for me.

This is the same woman who is totally fascinated by exotic snakes -- AS LONG AS THEY'RE IN A CAGE! And never have had a bad dream from looking at them....and the bigger, the better, especially love documentaries on Anacondas. Wouldn't touch or handle one, but find them very interesting. How weird am I? LOL
 
Katybug, it is possible to get over this fear, which in a milder form is probably innate. However, we pick up the feeling that is more akin to terror from people around us more than we do from real experiences.

I used to feel really frightened of spiders until I became a science teacher and they became part of the biology curriculum. As I learned more about different kinds of spiders and as the students started bringing in specimens in jars I began to be more interested than frightened.

I'm not silly. I don't handle them but I can go to sleep with a large huntsman on the ceiling above my bed.





The trick is to give them a name. Mine are usually called Cedric.
 
WARRIGAL..... I have to go to the first post to reply to you. OMG, I barely saw what was at the bottom of your reply to my post and that was enough for me. I can't scroll down further and I don't know what my fright of them is, but I'm too old to try to figure it out or deal with it. And I will promise you my 3rd born (what a joke!) if you will never post another spider picture. I am outta this thread. Whew!
 
Thank you, my friend. It's bedtime here and I almost freaked out when I caught the slightest glimpse of the pix. It's just not anything I want to deal with at bedtime (or anytime) and thank you for taking the time to respond to me. You are a very special lady.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week.
 
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