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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.
I just found a new use for "adblock image". Assholes.
How we know is more important than what we know.
This piece of news sounds more like Galaxy News Radio material than slashdot. Does the Lone Wanderer know about the situation?
In a perfect world, this would start with media hype, and then some how turn into a real, full-blown spider epidemic.
Perfect excuse for an Arachnid Whacking Day if ever I heard one.
I have wolf spiders > 10 cm running around and often through my home.
Giant Wolf-Eating Spiders, More Than Twice The Size of Bird-Eating Spiders, Invade Area Resident's Home! :)
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
A small Australian town has been over run by first level adventurers who came to farm easy XP.
That shit's creepy, man... I'm going to wally world tonight and buying some .22 ratshot in case those things make it to the US... they freak the hell out of me.
And if the ratshot won't do it, 30 rounds of .223 will. I hope.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
Oh BTW despite calling them bird-eating spiders it's rare for them to eat birds.
As in "scores of 'bird-eating humans' descended upon a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet..."
I am anarch of all I survey.
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.
I left Australia to get away from the spiders, huntsman spiders in particular. (You'll have to google it yourself, I sure ain't doing it!) So I get to Asia only to find they have these harmless little orb spiders that hang from the trees with leg spans of about 20 cm. Then they have a replacement kind of huntsman, I have no idea what it's called, but these things are not docile like a huntsman, you spray them and they jump, like two feet high, towards you. Pricks. Who the hell invented these little bastards.
I have wolf spiders > 10 cm running around and often through my home.
Remind me to never spend the night at your place.
The Chronic *WHAT* les of Narnia!
According to wiki, the only power you get is vomiting, and it only lasts for six hours. Hardly seems worth it.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
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...
They're only 6 inches
CENTIMETERS!!!!
They are 6 CENTIMETERS! We Australians were one of the first to convert to metric and that's a metric ruler in the article.
You call that a ruler? *whips out yardstick* THIS is a ruler!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
They're only 6 inches across which means they're relatively small tarantulas
Thanks mate, now I know that even tarantulas consider 6 inches small...
so insecure..
These puny specimens are not worthy of overlordship, especially when compared to the giant spider currently attacking Tokyo.
-- Joren
Australian English really is different. What they call a "broom", we call a "bazooka".
Holy crap you're like Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee all rolled into one super-badass.
I'd scream like a 13 year old girl if I saw one of those damned things in my home.
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.
Of course it took an entire can of BUGspray! It was yelling, I'm an arachnid, moron! Bring it ON! Bring it ON! Bring it O--
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
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.