Hey,

This is embarrassing seeing as I'm a 28-year-old man, but I am physically squirming at the thought of encountering big spiders. Other bugs don't faze me at all, hell, I woke up on a beach in Thailand with a scorpion sat on my chest!

In spite of my research, can anybody offer any positive assurances on the actual likelihood of meeting such things, I'm especially concerned about finding a funnel-web in the immediate vicinity during my 3 months in Australia next Feb-Apr.

Thanks. And also sorry.

Hud x

You might have heard about the drop bears and if one of them drops on ya, well it can be like splat!! but you don't even feel the siders until the morning of course!!

The larger spiders do night drops or more like a glide as what they kinda do is make themselves a para web and as they glide through the night near invisible to the untrained eye, their para web collects all the evenings eaties, bugs in the glide path.

Whereas funnel webs, you keep a lookout for during the day and don't go putting your hands in strange places well that applies even more so at night when you will find it harder to keep a lookout.

The droppies as we call them here are something else though and the reason why aussies have learnt to sleep with their mouths either closed or open depending on yer affliction. Either way, you'll know whether you have had an encounter with a droppy when you awaken (if you do) as you know how sometimes after a night out it can be rather hard to get the eyes open and the taste in your mouth is like errr yuksville, well it can be even harder to get theeyes open after droppy has lacquered your face with the para web.

If you're a mouth open sleeper guy, then that's another sensation as you'll have this vile feeling in yer mouth, bit like how you feel after having captured a fly there but then somefold - and if you have never got a fly in the mouth, well that's another experience in store for you.

There are precautions though, and like how in some places in Thailand you saw those mossie nets, well here in Oz you can buy head versions, and so on arrival, go ask for a head cover - there's various models.
If by chance you get dropped in on whilst not wearing a cover, other than the mouth having been open you have to get a facial quality nail polish remover and that will get the web lacquer off you, but do make sure the dropped in guest still ain't there as they get a mite angry from the remover.

Other than that, the larger ones are relatively harmless and there are some like Golden Orbs that have a certain beauty about them.

Funnel webs look for mates on hot humid nights so watch out then. You would have to be unlucky to have a problem.

I travelled australia for a year and left without encountering a single funnel web. I did, however, get stung by many a bluebottle.
I think you will be ok.
have fun.

i've lived in Australia for may a year, including lots of camping and stays in dodgy outback houses. Don't worry about spiders, it's only when you do something silly like poke your hand into a wood pile or something that you need to be worried. Another danger area is plants; don't shake the banana bush basically.
so:
a) don't stick your limbs in dark holes or mysterious bushes,
b) if you do see a spider, think how beautiful it is from afar, there are some dangerous species and some that don't need to be worried about, but don't get too close.
c)if you do get bitten, get medical help immediatly, not that you'll get bitten.
just excercise caution, but you most likely won't come into contact with any spiders.
Good luck, you'll be fine.

quote:

a) don't stick your limbs in dark holes or mysterious bushes

This could also start off a new topic thread about how not to catch an STD while travelling....
:-)

I grew up in area that was infested with Funnel Webs and I'm still here to tell the tail. We found them in our shoes, in our beds, in our taps, sitting on the bottom of the pool, in the lounge, on the verandah, in my school bag. My mate's father drove half way to work, only to feel something crawling up the inside of his leg, he drove back home and slowly took his trousers off. It was a funnel web. If I can live through it, you can live through it. No one has died from a funnel web in the past 20 years because the antedote we have down here will fix you right up. Just read up about how to deal with a spider bite.

Be more worried about crossing the road, it's about 100 times more dangerous that any spider!

All in all, I've been in Australia around 20 months now - and it actually took a friend of mine collecting some red backs for me in order for me to encounter some. I'm not excactely keen on spiders, but hei...you leave them alone and the likelihood that you'll have a problem is rather slim.
Snakes, on the other hand....we (our van while we were sitting inside, respecitvely) got attacked by a black-headed python. Now, that was rather scary. We saw it on the side of the road and stopped the car - only for it to start taking leaps at the van.



So, don't worry about the spiders! There are enough other animals around to scare the shit out of you in Oz.

Adrian didn't want to scare you too much by showing the other five metres of that snake in the pic.

But to bone up on all things beginning with S,looky here

Enjoy a safe trip in Australia.

Low and behold, on the subject of snakes, a guy picked up a snake thinking it was a lizard in Sydney's north west overnight. This resulted in the silly bastard being bitten 5 times by a Death Adder. Now he's fighting for his life.

Checkout: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bite-victim-mistook...3/1160246291336.html

Moral of the story, if it ain't got legs, chances are it ain't a bloody lizard!

Here's is an interesting article related to the story above from todays paper:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/we-save-300-bite-vi...3/1160246303399.html

I’m in the same kettle, where as I much rather encounter a snake then a spider. Had the shock of my life, after collecting and carrying around firewood, only to have this massive bird spider creep out from under the bark of a branch I had been carrying. Snakes only need respect and caution. Stepped on two snakes accidentally so far...lol. Have been lucky and never had a snake attack, and encountered many, so it’s very rare.

Arachnophobia is overated. Just take some basic precautions, like bashing your boots out if they have been left out (centipedes -_-), don’t go placing your fingers in small protected areas (had red backs hiding under the seat of my car). Many of the big ugly ones are harmless. Most spiders do such a good job of trying to protect themselves from you, that you’ll never know they’re there. And they would like to keep it that way.

I suppose I should say, you shouldn’t worry about them so much when coming into this country. From someone who probably dislikes spiders as much as you, I’ve learnt to live with them.

I use to have many pets growing up in the North Queensland sugar towns. Pet dogs, budgerigars, fish…but there was always one reluctant pet, who was always around, weather I like it or not. And nearly all the times, I didn’t enjoy having my pet huntsman spider around. They’re common big spiders, which thrived in the protected conditions of houses.

I hated killing spiders, when they curve and wrap themselves up, it’s so sad. So I had to go on a chase with plastic Tupperware container to catch the huntsman spider alive, and quickly slip the lid before the spider sped out and rushed up my arm….arrrrg! Then I would go up the road for hundreds of metres and release the huntsman spider in some cane fields or rainforest (good place for them ). Usually in a week or two, another one would simply take its place…so I learnt to live with a large spider in my bedroom. It was unsettling…thankfully they preferred the walls rather then the floor.

Other times, been stomping merrily in the bush, and suddenly walk face first into a golden orb’s web, to see a quick silhouette of a large spider rushing up over my head. These guys are harmless as well. Makes my skin crawl writing this! However, Hudweiser, don’t allow your spider fear ruin enjoying Australia. It depends where you’re going, but there is a good chance you’ll never see one. Spiders aren’t worth the stress.

One or three things I was told while in Aus...

The bigger the spider the safer it is. Not that such information is much comfort if you have a spider phobia. Try not to do what a friend of mine did in Sydney's Botanical gardens and walk straight into a huge web.

Someone had said that once a redback makes a web it never leaves it. I subsequently spent a few nights in Alice Springs sharing a room with four of them.

If you're in a public toilet then check the thing out before use and let a tap run for a couple of seconds before putting your hands under the water, sometimes little bitey things will hide up there.

A few posts up, i hope the guy that got bitten by a death adder turns out ok but how the hell does a bastard great snake ( I'm not a big snake fan) look anything like a lizard?!?! If it slithers and hisses leave it well alone, or do what i'll prob do on encountering any snakes which is run a mile and maybe even scream in quite a camp way.