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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."
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.
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 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!?
That's because it's been blown out of proportion - http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/qld-news/web-of-lies-uk-press-plays-up-queensland-spider-invasion-20090508-ax58.html
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.
When the rain settles down they'll go away. Like they normally would. Don't see how this got to be news... We have more poisonous things that creep, crawl or slither than I'd care to name, but it's just part of the backdrop of where we live. Who cares? Certainly not news...
sudo mount --milk --sugar
Dropbears.
Dropbears are pretty damn dangerous. You can walk around, minding your own business, and then suddenly.
POW.
Another dropbear victim. They disappear as fast as they appear. Nobody is safe.
Nobody.
Or flame throwers, napalm, etc.
But seriously, tarantulas may be annoying, but they aren't what most people would call poisonous. This particular one is among the worst, as it can cause several hours of vomiting in humans; it won't kill you, but you might wish you were dead. :-) And they can kill pets. Fortunately, they are also not particularly aggressive towards people. You have to really, really piss off a tarantula to get bitten. We used to pick up tarantulas (not this particular species) and let them crawl around on us as kids. They look scary, but in general if you don't bother them, they won't bother you.
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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!
Here's the real story... http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/web-of-lies-uk-press-plays-up-spider-invasion-20090508-axgx.html