Slashdot Mirror
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."
I live about 200km (~125 miles) from Bowen; in a small city called Townsville, Queensland - population 150,000. Brisbane is the capital city of this state, and maybe more likely to be known by an international audience(?). I could probably travel another 700km north through Cairns to Cooktown and still easily be in the state, although the roads would be getting bad. Australia has a lot of space per capita, so for example we have cattle stations (ie. ranches) larger than Texas. Bird eating spiders have fangs strong enough to penetrate a thumb nail. An old friend of mine from my university days has been telling me about occasionally meeting "whistling spiders" ie. the common name for these spiders because they make a hissing sound when they're agitated. She once met one threatening her poodle through a screen door. They caught and released it at a golf course, and could see this dark spot on the lawn running off into the distance as they drove away.
Huntsman Spider? They're scary looking but totally harmless. Bloody big (bigger than an adult male hand) and hairy (like a tarantula), but BLOODY fast.... like an olympic sprinter... except this one can run really fast on your ceiling. And they have pretty big fangs too (need 'em to tackle the huge cockroaches here). But like I said, totally harmless to people... not poisonous, and run away from you most of the time.
You went to Malaysia and expected less creepy things? That Orb Spider you have there is related to the Orb Spiders here in Aus.... just love the huge Golden Orb Spider in Queensland... maybe the biggest spider in the world?? :)
Nah, over here in Western Australia it's the Redback Spider you have to watch out for.... bloody poisonous and likes to make home in your home and outside in any little cranny it can get.... where you like to put your fingers. I won't even mention the deadly trap-door spider. Oops, I just did :)
Shit, even our cute/cuddly Platypus has a poisonous sting. And the Kangaroos can rip your guts open so they fall out on the ground with just one kick/slash of their feet (they balance on their huge tail and rip you open)... you'd be lucky if they just punched you in the face (which they do).
But even that's a joke compared to the deadly snakes here.
But even the snakes aren't really a problem... it's the Blue-ringed Octopus and the Stonefish which you step on while out in the rocky/reefy sections of the coast. Step on one of those and you're dead within minutes... which is why alot of beachgoers wear the rubber surf-shoes.
And then there's the sharks :)
So, when you coming to visit Australia everyone?
I caught a fly for one once, in one of those little plastic eggs you get from those old fashioned vending machines that have crappy toys in them. Shook it and threw it around a bit so it was nice and dazed.
The huntsman was on the wall a metre or two off the floor (unusually low) so I chucked the fly at the wall a little in front of it. The fly managed to grab on to the wall and started wandering around aimlessly. The spider seemed uninterested for a while, then suddenly came to life. Apparently it didn't have a really good understanding of gravity though, since it decided to pounce on the fly. Perhaps it did know what it was doing; it got the fly and they both fell to the floor, then it scurried back up the wall a bit to enjoy its meal.
The huntsman's primary enemy seems to be wasps - the wasp stings the spider to paralyze it, then drags it into its nest (a hole in the ground generally) and locks it in with its young. When they hatch they eat the still alive but paralysed spider. Wasps are assholes. I watched a huntsman and a wasp having a battle once, the huntsman shot up a tree and jumped off a brunch. It eventually lost. Wasps are such assholes.
My worst huntsman experience was waking up in the middle of the night after feeling something on my face. I instinctively "knew" it was a huntsman, so I sat bolt upright while trying to work out what to do. Fortunately that motion catapulted it off of me and onto the floor. I got the light on and there were actually two of them; pretty sure they were doing the business on the ceiling right above my head and one of them happened to fall. That freaked me out a bit. While sitting on my bed waiting for my nerves to calm down, a fly or something flew right into my ear. That was too much for me. Too many bugs. I went and slept in another room.
Generally we didn't mind the huntsman though. We'd leave them alone if they were somewhere reasonable, but if they were in the way we'd catch them by putting a plastic container over them and sliding a sheet of stiff paper underneath, then carry them outside. I had a friend in school who would just pick them up with his bare hands. I was never game to try that.
Hey, Anonymous Aussie - go fuck yourself. I'm never, ever visiting there, for all of the reasons you listed.
My wife does want to move someplace warmer than Ohio, though, but it ain't gonna happen. I want to move north, where the bugs are smaller, and the spiders die off every year.
Even here, we get big (about 4") shiny, hairless jet black spiders in our house (never have seen one outside), with legs that are neither quite as meaty nor as curled-up as those of a tarantula. They move fast, and seem aggressive toward whatever moves (no matter how big), and don't appear inclined to jump. They have, so far, defied my attempts at identification.
It's not a wolf spider - I'd know, since I've slain my fair share of those here, as well. The shape of the body is totally different. And they don't seem to have as many eyes. *shudder*
Any further south than this, and things just go even further downhill.
I wasn't always afraid of spiders, until one day when I was a kid, and I saw this big pink spider in the garden. It was the biggest spider I'd ever seen, with big tubular legs. It looked almost like a crab, but it wasn't. When it saw me coming, it scurried off, noisily rustling some old leaves as it went. (Who, at age 6, would've thought that a fleeing spider makes noise as its weight crushes the surface it walks on? Honestly? Who?)
That was bad enough. About a year later I saw it (or maybe one just like it) in the living room, running across the floor in front of the TV. Dear mom eventually found it and killed it in a flurry of footfalls (the first couple of which only seemed to piss it off).
And, yeah - that was about it. I'm now very annoyed by little spiders (which must die), and utterly terrified of large spiders (which must also die, preferably if my screams are sufficient to get someone else to do it. If the screams don't work, fire generally does).
Learned phobia? Irrational? You bet. I'm still never going to go to Australia.
In the war against bugs, I prefer a swarm of well-trained and hungry indoor housecats and an assortment of poisons and traps, to any of these huge and twisted looking spiders - any fucking day.
Kid-proof tablet..
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've had a huntsman or two attempt to climb me too :)
The scary thing about huntsman (for people afraid of spiders) that I have found is the further I go north in Australia the bigger they seem to get and the faster they seem to move. Not sure if this is fact or just bad luck on my behalf :)
QLD huntsman seem ungodly fast and large... I just wish they'd stay outside!
Quite a while back I put my foot in a boot whilst wearing no socks only to discover that a large huntsman was under my toes... my instinctive reaction at that moment was to curl my toes up and stomp down.
Spidery crunch. Ugh.
Scared of being bitten and halfway committed ... I pushed down for quite a while to ensure the poor little guy was dead :\
Good times... good times.