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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.
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.
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 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!?
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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...
These puny specimens are not worthy of overlordship, especially when compared to the giant spider currently attacking Tokyo.
-- Joren
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 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.
.
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.
How do you live like this? Serious question. I mean you are at continuous risk of dangerous insect attack? Say you are watching TV or something and just happen to stick your finger into a spider instead of the popcorn. Whoops, then you're dead or at least off to hospital. Doesn't it wear you down psychologically?
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
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.
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..
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 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.
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!
Ever seen how many baby spiders come out of a spider egg?
Yes, only one baby spider comes out of a spider egg. But there maybe hundreds of eggs in an egg sac.
But like I said, totally harmless to people... not poisonous[...]
Slight clarification: No spiders are poisonous. All spiders are venomous (well, technically there are a couple of species without venom glands, but the other 99.9% do have them). Of course, the number of species that are actually dangerous is something like 0.05% of the entire population (one-twentieth of one percent).
Apologies for pedantry.