Killer Funnel-Web Spiders Invade Sydney Australia (bite can kill you in 2 hours)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Killer Funnel-Web Spiders Invade Sydney

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/killer-funnel-web-spiders_n_431121.html





Kathy Marks, The Independent

Forget sharks and crocodiles: the real menace at this time of year, at least for suburban Sydneysiders, is a backyard spider whose bite can kill you in the space of two hours.

Insect experts have warned that the city is being invaded by funnel-webs, considered one of the world's most aggressive and poisonous spiders. A reptile park north of Sydney where people can drop off captured specimens, and where they are milked of their venom to make antidote, has received more than 40 males in recent weeks. Males are deadlier than females.

Continue reading at The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/killer-funnelweb-spiders-invade-sydney-1874230.html

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. .

:scared: :hide:

[earth mom]

2. Maybe I don't want to go to Australia after all.

:yoiks:

[librechik]

9. I'm going on Saturday--but I'm told no one has died in 15 years from a spider bite in Oz

nevertheless, hope they don't invade Melbourne too!

[earth mom]

12. Hope you have a fun and spiderless trip!

:hi:

[Violet_Crumble]

25. Melbourne? I'd be more worried about the weather...

I don't know how to turn this into fahrenheit for you or whether you've already got the forecasts for when yr here, but just in case you don't

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/vic/melbourne/melbourne

[kevinbgoode]

42. wow..96.8 fahrenheit for the high. . .

around 60 fahrenheit for the lows. Mid-summer heat.

[Warpy]

3. Here in the US, I give spiders the benefit of the doubt

and either tolerate them or scoop them up and put them outside. They eat worse stuff.

Were I in Oz, I'd mush them. No question. The funnel spider is the worst, but there are other ugly varieties there.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. And here are just a few

St Andrew's cross



Spiny



Mouse or primitive



Redback



Wolf



Black house

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Spidaus.html

[Blue_Tires]

20. Kill THEM with fire, too, plzkthxbye

[Edweird]

21. We have the spiny and wolf spiders here in South Florida.

[hobbit709]

4. Everything in Australia is deadly

Killer bugs and spiders, jellyfish, sharks, crocodiles and 7 out of the top 10 deadliest snakes.
And let's not forget the male platypus.

[Warpy]

11. Here in the desert southwest, just about everything has spines,

fangs and/or venom. I still have reached detente with spiders including the trap door spider who waves her forelegs at me when I go into the back yard. I wave back, it's the friendly thing to do.

Oz has been drier for longer, so it's developed even more prickliness than things here have.

[hobbit709]

17. Used to be some grafifiti at the Texas Chili Parlor

"Everything in Texas either bites, stings, burns, or breaks your heart."

[Rebubula]

18. Yup

All my Ex's live in Texas....


lol

[timtom]

33. Wow. Austin.

Ever go to Spellman's?

[hobbit709]

34. Several of my friends used to play there.

[timtom]

35. I used to manage the place.

1978-1980

Who were your friends? (You can pm me if you wish)

[Number23]

40. You're exactly right. Between the heat, lack of rain (in some areas) floods (in others)

poisonous spiders (that FREELY come into people's homes and gardens), brown snakes, sharks, and brush fires this place is like hell on earth sometimes.

But the people are quite lovely sometimes. :)

[Metric System]

5. Yep, this is definitely going to show up in a future nightmare!

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Right?

:scared:

[Tailormyst]

6. Ack- I wish I hadn't clicked

That guy would give me nightmares.

[freethought]

8. Not anything really new for Australians

It's breeding season for Funnel Web Spiders right now and the males are roaming about seeking females. The females usually don't leave their webs at all, and it's the males that you have to watch out for.
If your a resident of Sydney this is really nothing new, this happens every year. I guess they just learn to live with it. This isn't the only thing that Sydney residents have to deal with, they also have to worry about Redback Spiders, highly venomous brown snakes, and stinging jackjumper ants.

Wouldn't you just love to live in Australia??

[Hawaii Hiker]

43. Yeah, I've heard the males are EXTREMELY aggressive

though they can't jump, they can move very fast...They often fall into people's swimming pools when they're on their quest to find a mate...

That's one thing about Hawaii, very few dangerous creatures like Australia..

[begin_within]

13. Is it payback for Europeans stealing Australia from the indigenous people?

[DavidDvorkin]

16. In that case, almost every place in the world should be deadly

Almost every place was stolen at least once from earlier inhabitants.

[Lucy Goosey]

14. One thing I've always liked about my homeland of Canada...

is the general lack of insects, arachnids, snakes, jellyfish, etc., that can kill humans. Sure the weather frequently sucks, we have a real douche for a Prime Minister, and there's that pesky national inferiority complex, but really, better all that than killer funnel-web spiders. That shit looks terrifying. :D

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. ...and you have POUTINE!

:toast:

[Lucy Goosey]

30. I suppose poutine can kill people...

But at least you don't drop dead in two hours like with the spider.

:toast:

[Blue_Tires]

19. KILL IT WITH FIRE

lots of fire

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

22. The female of the species is NOT more deadly than the male

Take that Rudyard Kipling!

[Ignis]

23. Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I'm heading to Sydney in a few weeks.

Just shoot me.

[Violet_Crumble]

24. They're not a big deal...

Just make sure you shake out yr shoes before you put them on, coz funnel-webs like taking up residence in shoes.

http://www.anaes.med.usyd.edu.au/venom/spiders.html



Anyway, I'm pretty sure that getting stuck in a rip at the beach is much more dangerous to tourists than the local creepy crawlies...

[Ignis]

26. I do that already here in the Bay Area.

Lots of spiders and earwigs here that love to crawl into shoes. Fortunately, none of the ones that come into houses are poisonous. But I do still watch out for the odd black widow when rummaging through the wood pile. :)

[glitch]

28. That's why I leave daddy-long-legs be. They kill and eat black widows.

So, we're friends.

[Fla_Democrat]

27. They just don't make a can of Raid

big enough for me.

Add to it, this oldie but goodie......

Spider eats bird

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/10/23/11601_local-news.html

THESE amazing images of a mammoth spider devouring a bird were taken in the backyard of an Atherton property, west of Cairns.

And the images, which are being cirulated via email worldwide, are real, according to wildlife experts.

The photos, believed to have been taken earlier this week, show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park, told ninemsn that the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.


......... :wow:

[Lucy Goosey]

31. Wow

Just...wow. I've never been interested in owning a gun, but if I lived in an area where a spider like that could show up, I might consider it. One would definitely need something stronger than Raid and a fly swatter.

[Ignis]

41. ...

[AwakeAtLast]

45. Mr. AAL has video

of a camel spider munching on a rat in Iraq. A pretty disgusting thing to watch, IMO. :puke:

[Eyerish]

29. Why did I click this thread??

Stupid...stupid...stupid... :banghead: :scared:

[eppur_se_muova]

32. "Insect experts" ? ... nt

[flvegan]

36. Sharks AND spiders? Screw THAT! Sorry, Australia, won't be visiting.

[Ignis]

39. Even though I'm finding a lot of vegan-friendly places?

Well, in Sydney at least. Probably not as many in Darwin. ;)

[flvegan]

44. When the sharks and killer spiders go vegan, I'll think about it.

:rofl:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

37. Ahem!

From the article:

"Males are deadlier than females."

What's with you guys anyways?

And don't give me this, "Well you females have the Black Widow!" stuff.

At least we give you sex before we kill you.

:evilgrin:

[Shell Beau]

38. And I get annoyed because I find brown recluses and black widows

in my house and garage. I am not a spider hater. I used to let them go if I knew it wasn't the widow or recluse. But now that I have a curious toddler roaming around, I kill them when I see them (if catching and releasing isn't an option). Even if they aren't very poisonous, many do still have nasty bites. But the last one I accidentally killed was a mama to be, and when I brushed her aside, hundreds of tiny tiny baby spiders went EVERYWHERE!!!! It was freaky. And yes, most of them had to die. The ones I could stomp on in time anyway.