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Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town
youth68 writes "Australia is known around the world for its large and deadly creepy crawlies, but even locals have been shocked by the size of the giant venomous spiders that have invaded an Outback town in Queensland. Scores of eastern tarantulas, which are known as 'bird-eating spiders' and can grow larger than the palm of a man's hand, have begun crawling out from gardens and venturing into public spaces in Bowen, a coastal town about 700 miles northwest of Brisbane."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Legged_Freaks
I didn't know this was based on a true story.
EXPERIENCE!
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
...say g'day to our new tarantula overlords.
According to the article, these things can kill a dog in a single bite. Even given that venomous spiders the size of an adult male's fist aren't really photogenic, (won't have some "humane solution" protesters) what can the town do about them? Poison all the possible breeding areas? Make a civil patrol with bug zappers? Should be interesting to see how it works out.
Signatures are the new names.
Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed.
I just found a new use for "adblock image". Assholes.
How we know is more important than what we know.
They're only 6 inches across which means they're relatively small tarantulas, and they're not venomous enough to kill you, which by Australian standards is a blessing. And there aren't even that many---the article talks about people finding individual spiders. "It's not plague proportions but a number have been spotted around the district," according to Mr Geiszler. This is a non-story.
Asked what he would do with the giant spider he caught this week, Mr Geiszler said: âoeI think Iâ(TM)m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big it is. Itâ(TM)ll make a great paperweight.â
Giant shiny spider paperweight!
Maybe the spider ate your baby just doesn't have the same ring to it as
Maybe the dingo ate your baby.
. . . coming soon, to a neighborhood near you? Hopefully, Tamiflu will be able cure that as well . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
DON'T FUCKING post the picture. Are you mad?
I hope the ruler in the photo is in centimeters and not inches. Otherwise we'll need to make room for all those Australian refugees. Scary shit!
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
chance for Shatner to redo Kingdom of the Spiders..... but, in ESPERANTO...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
This piece of news sounds more like Galaxy News Radio material than slashdot. Does the Lone Wanderer know about the situation?
Story sounds like typical Media hype and exaggeration: Tarantulas are venomous in the way all spiders are venomous (and Bee's too! Venomous Bees == normal Bees.) This type of spider venom isn't harmful to humans and they're not aggressive spiders. This is why they let them crawl over kids at Wildlife parks. Oh BTW despite calling them bird-eating spiders it's rare for them to eat birds. Plus if you did into the article you'll see the unlabeled scale of that photo is centimeters and not inches. 5 centmetres. I have wolf spiders > 10 cm running around and often through my home. They're shy of people, never even came close to being bitten and they eat cockroaches.
If they're having a "spider plague" in Bowen then there must be lots of roaches, locusts or other insects. Let them be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula
This shock story will get web hits and the reporter will get a pat on the back. But ll note the COUGH COUGH journalist didn't even bother talking to anyone from the local University; Just the local "Pest Controller" who is trying to whip up business. They're probably Wolf spiders anyway, not "Bird Eaters". The media should stop trying to whip this up and go back to what they do best: Reporting false wiki quotes by Jean-Michel Jarre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider
...I saw the movie and its numerous remakes and the weird twisted version that involved mutant sheep.
Pest Controller in Australia has to rate right down there ...
licet differant, aequabitur
I see these spiders all the time, i use a broom to get them out of the house. You don't see me writing a fucking article in the local rag about it. Somehow it then got written up in the UK times (the Brits seem to love us Aussies) and then finally it got written up as a news storey on Slashdot.
WHAT THE HELL!?
Since no one else seems to have gotten to it in so many words, may I be the first to say:
Bleeechhuuggh
It's a Giant Spider Invasion of Savings at Menards! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762893/
That's actually a pretty normal size for a tarantula. I had one as a pet when I was a kid.
We used to see lots of them in Arkansas 40 years ago, but they are very rare now. Instead we have armadillos :-(
In a perfect world, this would start with media hype, and then some how turn into a real, full-blown spider epidemic.
Reminds me of when my home town hosted a political convention.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Perfect excuse for an Arachnid Whacking Day if ever I heard one.
It's the only way to be sure...
A small Australian town has been over run by first level adventurers who came to farm easy XP.
Spiders are related to crabs and lobsters, so I want to find some that are big enough to make a decent burger, or at least a crab-cake equivalent.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
America's spider basher.
local shoe stores have seen a 300% increase in sales since last week.
http://www.angryflower.com/crisis.html
Climbing walls, spinning webs, that sort of thing?
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
HEY! I take offense to that!
im not THAT deadly.
Austrailian spiders spin their webs in the counter-clockwise direction, the complete opposite of the clockwise webs American spiders spin.
...but I can't find it on imdb?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
This is a giant spider!
http://shaide.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/giant-spider.jpg
Not all that venomous and generally leave people alone. Now if they were funnel web spiders, that would be interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_funnel-web_spider.
I've seen someone post before that all samzenpus does is put up shit articles.
Since then I've been paying a little more attention, and have come to the conclusion that he was right.
All his submissions are at best idle material, and that's being generous.
The Great Media Conspiracy would have us believe that the Australian Eastern Tarantulas are thriving. I would like to draw your attention to the grim reality that is being hidden from the public!
1. The Eastern Tarantulas, instead of being referred to by their proper Phlogius crassipes name, have been given a bunch of condescending prejudicial nick-names like Barking spiders, Bird-eating spiders and Whistling spiders.
Thats right - Bird-eating, not Allegedly Bird-eating!
2. I also find it appalling that there is little to no mention of the plight of the male spiders. The fact that the females live up to thirty years, and the males only up to eight years is completely glossed over by The Media!
I don't know about the rest of you, but I think its about time for some RESPONSIBLE journalism!
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
spiders invade my home every day, who hasn't crushed a brown recluse or two?
there not deadly, not hard to see(unlike brown recluse's), i mean christ there bigger than my hand...if you DON'T see one of these and just step on it(with a shoe on...) then you have more problems than a big spider...
-Noc
Maybe the Austrailian authorities should import something like a giant Cane Toad to eat all the spiders? What could be the harm in that? Oh wait... they already tried that. Maybe the spiders will eat the cane toads...
It may be *a* bird eating spider, but not the one most often referred to in the press. That would be the "Golden Orb Weaver" spider. I offer the following as proof:
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bird-eating-spiders-australias-giant-golden-orb-weaver
Wow...that's a pretty creepy picture. I can really see how it can make people's skin crawl.
In fact...you feel that little something something on your leg right now? Nah...don't worry. It's just the air. There's no need to look. You would most definitely be able to tell if it was a spider...
These puny specimens are not worthy of overlordship, especially when compared to the giant spider currently attacking Tokyo.
-- Joren
...I woulda called dem, "Chazzwazzers."
Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
Warning: the below may creep you the hell out http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
I do think that mostly it's a learned behaviour.
Another story from up north:
Years ago when my family first moved there, we were driving through town on a Saturday morning to do the usual get groceries and it was really busy. Not a car space to be found in the main street. That is until, we came across what looked like perfect car parks. Under the shade of a massive tree were three parks either side of what I think was a mango tree. Beautiful. Dad thought he was shit hot and pulled our little honda hatch back (we were pretty poor in those days ... good memories) underneath.
Anyhow, we left the windows down cause this is country Queensland, no body locks anything and it is hot and humid, and went shopping.
About an hour later we came back and as we were approaching, there was this yellow panel van parked next to ours and it had this great artwork on the side of the door. I mean, this artwork of this spider was about half the size of the door ... an easy thirty centimetres across. As we got closer we thought, damn, that artwork is really good; great 3D effect. That is, until a leg moved.
After giving the van a wide berth, getting into the backseat with my brother, we drove off. About a minute into the trip, I shit you not, this massive unholy muthafucka of a spider ran across the back of the driver's seat, along the back door, and across my chest. I shit myself (being about 14). I panicked and threw the spider across to my brother (16) who also shit himself and freaked out, threw it back to me. I'll never know how long this went on until eventually it was thrown out the window. We amazingly never crashed the car.
Days later, we went into the newsagency in front of the car parks and told them what happened. He was pretty unsympathetic. "Yeah, that'll happen if you park there".
So, yeah. I think it is largely a learned behaviour.
.
Passersby were amazed by the unusually large ...
amount of blood. Passersby were amazed by the
unusually large amount of blood.
Passersby were amazed by the unusually large
amount of blood. Passersby were amazed by the
unusually large amount of blood.
My bicyles
Goddamn you, Slashdot. Not 10 minutes ago, a spider literally jumped onto me and then jumped away under the desk before I could catch the thing. And then you post a story like this right before I go to bed.
Goddamn you, Slashdot.
It's funny. Looks like an scary movie :))
So in a battle of Big Ass Spiders and Big Ass Cane Toads, who wins? Both have poison...
We Australians were one of the first to convert to metric and that's a metric ruler in the article.
According to this map Australia was one of the last countries converting to metric.
Dropbears are pretty damn dangerous. You can walk around, minding your own business, and then suddenly.
POW.
Here is some supporting evidence.
This is almost completely off topic but I visited Magnetic Island once which is the same general area as Bowen and one afternoon I saw a sign advertising a Kangaroo & Wild Animal Sanctuary which, bored of the beach, I decided to visit hoping to learn something about Kangaroos and other native Australian creatures.
The sanctuary was at the end of a dusty track and turned out to be a collection of dilapidated shacks and some worn out fencing surrounded by trees. Having rung the bell at the turnstile to summon an attendant my friend and I were already having our doubts about the place which were only heightened by the appearance of a jolly old crone who told us she was the owner of the sanctuary and would be happy to show us around.
The smaller kangeroos were in cages and shacks dotted around the property with a couple of paddocks with groups of kangeroos in them.
"What sort of Kangeroos are these ?" we asked
"Ah, you know the sort that lives around here" she replied
"Right ?"
"Yeah, I mean really there's lots of kangeroos round here you might have seen some running around on your way up. All I do when I'm running out in the sanctuary is go out and trap a few and put them in the paddock so I don't go for any particular sort just whatever's about but you can see I've got the big ones in there and then the smaller ones in the sheds so you can get up close to them."
She also had a talking parrot in a cage she wanted us to meet and her annoying little yapping dog which had been following us around was also told to come and see the parrot because apparently they got on like a house on fire.
"He usually talks" she said banging on the side of his cage "Go on you bugger say something !"
The parrot was just staring out the dog which had stopped yapping and was beginning to look nervous.
Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! "Ah well the buggers staying quiet today alright but listen I need to get back to the TV but you blokes just have a look round and let yourselves out OK"
Once the crone had left the Parrot sideled up to the dog and said
"Fuck off bugger" and the dog started yapping at it so the parrot started laughing at it and then gnashed it's beak and said "Come here bugger I'll have you !". The dog whimpered and ran off and the parrot told us to "Fuck Off !" so we did.
I want to find some that are big enough to make a decent burger
How about a quarter-pounder? A single goliath bird-eating spider can exceed 4 ounces. Just add a bun and some garnish.
"The goliath bird eater is something of a delicacy among certain Native American tribes" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_birdeater
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
why is this score 5 informative? dropbears are 1) fictional creatures 2) some band
I visited Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth WA, and was happily wandering about when I saw what looked like a spiders web. It was pretty big, maybe 10 feet across, stretched between 2 bushes. So I went over to have a closer look. Imagine my surprise when I found the resident. ...
This bugger was about 18 inches across (leg span) and pretty mean looking. I would have put my hand in the photo for scale, but, well you know
So 6 cm (< 2.5 inches) is not a big spider.
I live in Brisvegas and the first time I hear about this is on an international tech site? Isn't that beautiful!!!
Spiders in Australia are so big that they have health bars
They breathe through their skin via osmosis and not via lungs.
Sorry to be pedantic, but spiders do not breathe by osmosis! Osmosis is a mechanism (normally involving liquids) where salts can pass through a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, to achieve equelibrium.
Spiders (and insects etc) actually breathe through small holes in their sides called spiracles. These lead to small air-tubes (brachia?) which run throughout the body. The air is moved around the body by the normal movements of the animal. If you watch a spider or insect at rest you can see it 'pulsing' slightly. It is this action which allows it to respirate.
Smivs on the intertubes!
These lead to small air-tubes (brachia?)
I'm being pedantic about myself now...for 'Brachia' please read 'Trachea'. Brachia are arms. Doh!
Smivs on the intertubes!
Shelob's spawn.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
where you wrangle the croc out of the swimming pool with your bare hands.
Tie me kangaroo down, mate, indeed.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The biggest question is do they taste like Chicken?
... and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
http://blogostuff.blogspot.com/
From the comments on TFA: "I slammed on the brakes, jumped out of the car and wouldn't get back in until I killed it 30 mins later!"
Must have been quite a spider! Resisting a human for 30 minutes!
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
Giant spiders, drop bears, and hoop snakes. Yep, Australia's got it bad alright. Here in Minnesota, all we have to deal with are squadrons and squadrons of our state bird.
Now, you might think that mosquitoes aren't anything to get excited about. That's only because you haven't seen a swarm of our larger ones carrying off a small child before. One time, and I swear to you that I heard this from my cousin, who heard it from his best friend, who heard it from his brother in law, who heard it from /his/ best friend, who heard it from his uncle (so you know it's true), a swarm of our more vicious mosquitoes made off with a pregnant Holstein. When they found the cow, it had been drained dry and the newborn calf had developed a strange and disturbing taste for blood.
God, and I thought finding evidence of a few bed bugs in my apartment was bad. Suddenly I don't feel quite so freaked out.
You mean he sticks a finger up the spider's ass?
Dude. It's Australia. EVERYTHING'S giant and poisonous in Australia. The fucking COWS are poisonous in Australia.
No, really. I was in Australia once and the guy said "Don't go in there mate, there's giant poisonous cows in there." And there were!
Unless that wasn't Australia. Maybe it was the peyote. Now that I think of it, it might have been the peyote.
You know it's bad when even the drop bears are leaving town, saying: "Well, that's it then, you're on your own, mate."
I used to work for NetQoS. I no longer do, but want to keep the excellent karma attached to this account.
where the irak deployed soldiers posted about some giant spiders?
Funny storry though, them spiders what you photo graphed tend to hide out on the underside of a large soft leafs during the day. If your taking a crap out in the bush and wiping with follage... that is the spider that always greats you.
Anyway there are so many more interesting and dangerous animals on rotto if you know where to look.
I'm not doing well today, am I?
A/C 1 and 2, yes you're both right (this is me being contrite) that osmosis is the passage of water, not the salt. I am in my 50s, so I haven't covered this stuff for some 30 years since I was at school, and of course at my age I'm probably going Gaga anyway!
Chuk is also correct about the book lungs which most spiders have. From the Wikipedia page:-
A book lung is a type of respiration organ used for atmospheric gas exchange and is found in arachnids, such as scorpions and spiders. Each of these organs is found inside a ventral abdominal cavity and connects with the surroundings through a small opening. Book lungs are not related to the lungs of modern land-dwelling vertebrates. Their name describes their structure. Stacks of alternating air pockets and hemolymph-filled tissue gives them an appearance similar to a "folded" book. Their number varies from just one pair in most spiders to four pairs in scorpions. Sometimes the book lungs can be absent and the gas exchange is performed by the thin walls inside the cavity instead, with its surface area increased by branching into the body as thin tubes called tracheae. It is possible that the tracheae have evolved directly from the book lungs, because in some spiders the tracheae have a small number of greatly elongated chambers.
Smivs on the intertubes!
I'm sorry, but there's no choice. Giant spiders live and breed there.
All kidding aside, the nuclear option should be on the table.
Are these criminal spiders that the British shipped over? :)
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
> The wikipedia link you posted says Wolf Spiders don't grow to more than 3cm... so either those aren't Wolf Spiders running around your house or you're rather prone to exaggeration yourself.
Give me your address and I'll mail you one! The 3cm Wikipedia quotes is *BODY SIZE*. I'm talking toe-to-toe. When someone asks your height, unless you're an amputee you *do* count your legs don't you? "I'm 4 foot. Oh LOL. You mean with my legs too? I always forget those." And BTW as other posters note wolf spiders can get much bigger than 10 cm anyway. Mine do, but you ever tried to measure one? The good news is being Australia I'll accept a years supply of beer as an apology.
Update: The very same papers which carried the stories is now pleading "Web of lies: UK press plays up Queensland spider 'invasion'"
> Mr Geiszler laughed off the coverage this morning, telling brisbanetimes.com.au it had been "blown out of all proportion and massively sensationalised." "There have been no more than 10 sightings of these spiders here," Mr Geiszler said. "There is definitely not an invasion or a plague or anything like that.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/qld-news/web-of-lies-uk-press-plays-up-queensland-spider-invasion-20090508-ax58.html
Good thing we don't trust the main stream media for anything important, like when to go to war... Yes, I'm looking at you, Rupert.
Bowen is on the Pacific coast. "Outback" means the Australian *interior*.
Ross.
I'm wondering how the "coastal" town of Bowen right on the Whitsunday islands could be referred to as Outback? :)