The spiders seem bigger this year.

We are sharing our space with all sorts of crawlies! If you dont like it go pour acid on your head and scrub. Leave spidies to have the little houses they choose and be kind. 🙂

It’s true that I read it. Whether it’s accurate or not, who the hell knows?

I once recounted that ‘fact’ in a board room on the 17th floor of a building in Sydney while we were waiting for other meeting participants to arrive. We all discounted the truth of it … and then when the guy hosting the meeting moved the electronic white-board a huntsman ran up the wall. never can be too careful I say.

Oh … while I’m here … have you heard the one about the woman living in a share house in Dickson who woke up to find a large huntsman spider ‘drinking’ from the fluid in the corner of her eye as she slept?

littlevixen said :

I’ve discovered that we’re about to get over-run with lizards

Invasion of reptoids, you say?
Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter…

Tooks said :

Nothing like a huge huntsman sprinting across the inside of your windscreen while your driving at 80k’s.

Oh yeah – been there… Learnt not to leave my car window open at night in Qld.

wantok said :

That’s dwarfed in significance, though, by the not-yet-well-known amazing thing about huntsmen. It’s been discovered very recently (just in the last year or so I believe) that huntsman spiders, specifically in the Canberra region, have something truly bizarre going on genetically… and when I say truly bizarre, I mean it is totally and utterly inexplicable in terms of what we know about genetics in every other species of life. Research still under way at ANU/CSIRO and I think nothing published/announced yet, so I’m not going into details, but I’d go so far as to say that this is potentially one of the giant discoveries in our understanding of the natural world.

I think it was discussed recently on the Science Show, or perhaps The Naked Scientist podcast? Totally different from all other spiders.

Nothing like a huge huntsman sprinting across the inside of your windscreen while your driving at 80k’s.

Spiders always seem to find me, just ask my colleagues. One lowered it’s self down on my desk just the other day. Inside I’ll kill them, but outside I leave them alone. Unless I see a redback, then for the safety of me and my kids I’ll get rid of them.

That really is a fat huntsman!

Clown Killer said :

I was once told that in Australia, no matter where you are, you are never more than 1m from a spider.

I once read that if you added up the weight of all the spiders in the world, they would outweigh the total weight of humans 1000 times over.

It’s true that I read it. Whether it’s accurate or not, who the hell knows?

Clown Killer said :

I was once told that in Australia, no matter where you are, you are never more than 1m from a spider.

As long as it’s no less than a metre too, CK, I’m cool with that

I was once told that in Australia, no matter where you are, you are never more than 1m from a spider.

That’s dwarfed in significance, though, by the not-yet-well-known amazing thing about huntsmen. It’s been discovered very recently (just in the last year or so I believe) that huntsman spiders, specifically in the Canberra region, have something truly bizarre going on genetically… and when I say truly bizarre, I mean it is totally and utterly inexplicable in terms of what we know about genetics in every other species of life. Research still under way at ANU/CSIRO and I think nothing published/announced yet, so I’m not going into details, but I’d go so far as to say that this is potentially one of the giant discoveries in our understanding of the natural world.

It’s obvious then. They are planning to take over the world.

Forward scouts for the impending reptoid invasio…I’ve said too much.

wantok said :

The well known reason is that huntsman spiders are close to the only social spiders on the planet. Take two spiders of pretty much any species and put them in a jar, and within a few minutes you’ll have one spider… except huntsmen. In the wild they live in large complex communities of 500 or more, with a sophisticated social structure which is akin to that of ant or bee colonies… specialist workers, hierarchies, breeding queen, etc.

That is the creepiest thing EVA!

Ew.

I so wish I hadn’t read that :/

Huntsman spiders are pretty handy house pets. Think of them as vaguely like mouser cats – they’ll take care of all kinds of roaches, beetles, other spiders for you.

Huntsmen are truly amazing scientifically… for two reasons, one well known and one not yet well known.

The well known reason is that huntsman spiders are close to the only social spiders on the planet. Take two spiders of pretty much any species and put them in a jar, and within a few minutes you’ll have one spider… except huntsmen. In the wild they live in large complex communities of 500 or more, with a sophisticated social structure which is akin to that of ant or bee colonies… specialist workers, hierarchies, breeding queen, etc.

That’s dwarfed in significance, though, by the not-yet-well-known amazing thing about huntsmen. It’s been discovered very recently (just in the last year or so I believe) that huntsman spiders, specifically in the Canberra region, have something truly bizarre going on genetically… and when I say truly bizarre, I mean it is totally and utterly inexplicable in terms of what we know about genetics in every other species of life. Research still under way at ANU/CSIRO and I think nothing published/announced yet, so I’m not going into details, but I’d go so far as to say that this is potentially one of the giant discoveries in our understanding of the natural world.

Having once gone camping under nothing but plastic in the Snowy Mountains, I got to discover just how many funnelwebs can fit within a single acre of forest, as when it rains enough to raise the river into flood levels and push all the wildlife into the open, they all come out hunting.
As it turns out, the spiders live almost everywhere there’s food available (You know how sometimes when it rains heavily on dry leaves, that it looks like the ground is wriggling with life? Well, it looks like that because it is…), and even if you crush an alpine funnelweb with a boot and break six of its legs, they’ll keep crawling towards you like the robot at the end of Terminator.

Luckily Canberra just has big and hairy spiders that scare easily, not determined vicious ones.
Just let them do their thing, you barely notice them 99% of the time.

ConanOfCooma said :

Did you know that a spider is bleached white when you pour boiling water over it? So pretty.

Meanwhile, if you boil them in oil and cover them in honey, the big ones are literally bursting flavour when you eat them. But little ones just taste like honeyed hair and shell, since they have no meat on them.
(Visit Cambodia and stay in Spider Town. Sure they’re just peasant food, but high in protein and a great photo op if you’re bored)

The redbacks are getting bigger, i washed my BBQ in late October, and had a massive one jump at me from it around half an hour later, managed to hide while i hosed, and then went to seek revenge! also, a massive huntsman in my toilet.
I appreciate that they are interesting little critters, but they gross me out! There is just something icky about the way they walk, and stare you.
My parents lived on a farm, and one night my step dad got logs for the fire, and walked away.
About 5 minutes later, roughly 30 huntsmans, of small to people eating bigger than a dinner plate size spiders started crawling towards us, cue twenty minutes of the girls in the house screeching, and my step dad sitting with a sophisticated eradication method (a giant thong) for half an hour.
I freeze, and can’t go ANYWHERE near them when i see them, i just get sweats and can’t talk.
Horrible
*shudders*

I was bitten by one of those small jumping spiders, I think they are also referred to as ‘money spiders’. Apparently, being bitten by one is good luck and means you’re going to come into money, well that’s baloney!

I can, however confirm that some 30 years later I still occasionally get a small itchy bump appear where it bit me….the little bugger!

georgesgenitals said :

I’m quite curious as to why so many people are scared of spiders. I don’t like them, but they’re hardly something to fear. A lazy old house cat can give you a nastier bite than a spider.

Are you serious? They are evil devil animals that deserve a good shoe to the head. I’ve been bitten by 5 spiders in my time. Some deadly and some not but ALL EVIL! I have no problem killing and throwing their arses outside. The only ones I don’t mind being in the house are daddy long legs. They can stay, they’re good eggs.

For even more funsies, cut and paste the picture and send it to all your friends/family in NZ. Tell them we keep them here as house pets to keep down the flies.

Stops annoying rellie visits in their tracks.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I heard recently (I think it might have been on QI hosted by Stephen Fry) that no one in Australia has died from a spider bite in around 20 years, however a number of people have died in car accidents due to erratic driving following spiders crawling out from the sun visors.

I think it’s the better part of 30yrs – 1980/funnel-web springs to mind – but they have been playing some old QIs recently 🙂

I heard recently (I think it might have been on QI hosted by Stephen Fry) that no one in Australia has died from a spider bite in around 20 years, however a number of people have died in car accidents due to erratic driving following spiders crawling out from the sun visors.

johnboy said :

colourful sydney racing identity said :

DemiGod said :

screaming banshee said :

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

Kill on Sight, those little bastards (can)cary necrotizing fasciitis, as do wolf spiders,
white tails crawl into beds (fucking freeky if you are setting in at night and somthing crawls across you pillow), wolf spiders seem to lose their way and generally walk along your lounge room floor during movie night :p, (daddy long legs kill all in the general vicinity there is alot of mythos about them though)

Crap. There is no evidence that white tail spiders cause necrosis. Just another urban myth.

But they are aggressive bastards. One nearly killled me a few years ago when It ran at me over my desk and I backflipped out of my chair onto my neck.

HAHAHA! That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day!

colourful sydney racing identity said :

DemiGod said :

screaming banshee said :

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

Kill on Sight, those little bastards (can)cary necrotizing fasciitis, as do wolf spiders,
white tails crawl into beds (fucking freeky if you are setting in at night and somthing crawls across you pillow), wolf spiders seem to lose their way and generally walk along your lounge room floor during movie night :p, (daddy long legs kill all in the general vicinity there is alot of mythos about them though)

Crap. There is no evidence that white tail spiders cause necrosis. Just another urban myth.

But they are aggressive bastards. One nearly killled me a few years ago when It ran at me over my desk and I backflipped out of my chair onto my neck.

DemiGod said :

screaming banshee said :

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

Kill on Sight, those little bastards (can)cary necrotizing fasciitis, as do wolf spiders,
white tails crawl into beds (fucking freeky if you are setting in at night and somthing crawls across you pillow), wolf spiders seem to lose their way and generally walk along your lounge room floor during movie night :p, (daddy long legs kill all in the general vicinity there is alot of mythos about them though)

Crap. There is no evidence that white tail spiders cause necrosis. Just another urban myth.

I hear our lovely redbacks have found their ways to New Zealand. About time those scaredy cats got some real critters over there.

A big huntsman scared the jeebus out of me once, when I was driving home. It dropped right onto my lap and ran down my leg. I jumped out of the car and caused what I imagine was a hilarious scene of a big boofy bloke squeeling like a school girl.

So if anyone sees a black spider driving a blue falcon let him know I want it back.

DemiGod said :

screaming banshee said :

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

Kill on Sight, those little bastards (can)cary necrotizing fasciitis

Biggest, most flaunted, modern spider myth ever.

See Isbister GK & Gray, MR. 2003. White-tail spider bite: a prospective study of 130 definite bites by Lampona species. MJA. 179 (4): 199-202

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/179_04_180803/isb10785_fm.html

Huntsman spiders will eat your cockroaches. They are great indoor pets. They should have their babies outside. Keep a couple and see how they go.

screaming banshee said :

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

Kill on Sight, those little bastards (can)cary necrotizing fasciitis, as do wolf spiders,
white tails crawl into beds (fucking freeky if you are setting in at night and somthing crawls across you pillow), wolf spiders seem to lose their way and generally walk along your lounge room floor during movie night :p, (daddy long legs kill all in the general vicinity there is alot of mythos about them though)

why? why did i come into this thread? I’ve discovered that we’re about to get over-run with lizards and that the holes that dot my front (and presumably back) yard are full of potentially pregnant wolf spiders. lovely. just lovely. *shudder*

Yeah, just a fatty huntsman. They’re harmless, but get them outside – There normally isn’t enough food in your house to keep them happy.

The trapdoor/wolfies out the back are really giving me a hard time this year. The normal method of “stick in the hole” isn’t working, the are pushing them out or digging around them.

I’ve had to use the old funnel web method – Boiling water down the hole. Did you know that a spider is bleached white when you pour boiling water over it? So pretty.

cleo said :

I might sound cruel, I actually don’t mind them, but my daughters go hysterical, and I have no choice but to kill them.

you have the choice to educate your children that needlessly destroying wildlife is wrong…

imadefan said :

looks like a shelob to me

How can you tell that it is circumcised from that angle?

Here’s another Spider story, Dad had a 1938 Buick wreck in the backyard of our house, whilst playing in it we disturbed an albino Huntsman spider. Dad measured it with his trusty tape measure, just under 9 inches across the legs. I beieve there is a photo of it somewhere, must dig it out.

Never played in that car again!

georgesgenitals said :

On the topic of spiders, has anyone else seen the ones that make a perfectly round hole in the ground (about as big as a decent sized pencil), but don’t make a trapdoor or web at the top? The spiders are dark brown, and sit in the hole looking out. I’ve found a couple in my front garden, which I sorted with a neat slice of the mattock…

Aah, the Public Servant spider. Pretty common in these parts, sets up camp and waits for work to come to it. The moment there is any movement nearby, it will give the impression it is readying itself for action but is actually hoping that the work will not notice it and move on by.

As for real spiders, well here’s some tales for you arachnaphobicoids, my grandfather (mountain man, sawmiller, giant) would routinely catch huntsman spiders in his hands, rip all the legs off one side and watch them run around in circles. He got quite a kick out of it. We would wake up to large hairy spiders legs scattered all about the floor.
As he was a saw miller/log cutter, he would often disturb nests of spiders when he was cutting up logs and I’ve seen them, dozens and sometimes hundreds of spiders (and we’re talking bush spiders here, bloody biblically huge!!!) everyone else present would be off running and he’d be picking these things up and chasing his grandkids around with a great hairy spider in his fingers or just hoeing into them with the chainsaw.

Happy memories and no doubt the reason I turned out so normal….

I might sound cruel, I actually don’t mind them, but my daughters go hysterical, and I have no choice but to kill them.

Yes it looks like a female huntsmen, ever squashed one? Little babies run everywhere, then you run and get surface spray!

Skidbladnir said :

There’s a reason the spiders are doing well: its a bumper year for insects, and they’re part of a long chain of predators.

Don’t get in the pest people unless its a biblical-scale infestation, you’ll either only get rid of part of the problem (ie: just the spiders, or the spiders/ants and some of the roaches) or you’ll wipe out most of the ecosystem in your backyard (do you really love slaters and earwigs to the exclusion of all else?), or if you set up some kind of defensive perimeter you just shift the problem onto your neighbours.

Let them do their boom and bust cycle like the rest of the insects, lizards, and birds have all been doing since the rains arrived, and they’ll eventually settle into a new local equilibrium. Just keep an eye out for redbacks until the lizards arrive.

+1
I knew a couple of people that wished they’d never started getting treatments because within a year or so things would get out of control again, while neighbours who didn’t get treated seemed to fare better. I prolly wouldn’t have mentioned it if it was one but two in different geographic areas basically coming to the same conclusion, gives pause for thought.

I used to be quite afraid of spiders – especially Huntsman spiders – but after my partner designated me to be the one to remove them from her proximity, I have developed a whole new understanding of, and respect for, them.

Now I have no problem catching them with a glass and a piece of paper – but once I wouldn’t have enjoyed doing that very much at all – in fact I probably wouldn’t have been able to hold the glass still enough to get it over the spider!.

Funny thing is, my partner cannot understand why I would bother spending time catching a Huntsman spider and releasing it into the garden, when she’s quite happy to crush it beneath something hard!

Anyway, Huntsmen are my friends – please don’t kill them…. 🙂

sirocco said :

it’s probably just a bit of a fatty huntsman.

Thanks Sirocco, I checked the link and that certainly looks like the offender…

Bubby huntsman’s everywhere…great….what funsies.

looks like a shelob to me

I seem to be the dedicated spider-remover in my residence.
I don’t have a problem with huntsmen, they can sometimes be skittish – but are harmless.
White tips and red backs are the only ones that get a stomping.

A while ago I came across a male mouse spider. They can be nasty. But he was well far enough away from houses not to worry about.

Having spent the last 5 nights trying to track down a couple of crickets who somehow got into the flat and have been hanging out chirping away and waking me up, roll on the spiders I say. At least they don’t make noise.

braddonboy said :

Not sure about the spider in the photo, but the legs would suggest it’s a very fat huntsman.

The spider that lives in a perfectly round hole in the garden (the one in my garden last summer was the diameter of a 50c piece)is a female Wolf Spider. She hatches her egg sac in there and then spends a few weeks with hundreds of baby spiders on her back both inside during the day and when she’s out and about hunting at night. The burrow is silk lined; sometimes has a lid or is covered with garden mulch to be almost invisible; and sometimes has a little silk and leaf fence around it. They’re not aggressive and will mostly get out of your way very quickly. but like all beasties, they’ll give you a painful bite if cornered and provoked.

oh ffs i’ve noticed a few holes like that behind my house 🙁

Skidbladnir said :

There’s a reason the spiders are doing well: its a bumper year for insects, and they’re part of a long chain of predators.

Don’t get in the pest people unless its a biblical-scale infestation, you’ll either only get rid of part of the problem (ie: just the spiders, or the spiders/ants and some of the roaches) or you’ll wipe out most of the ecosystem in your backyard (do you really love slaters and earwigs to the exclusion of all else?), or if you set up some kind of defensive perimeter you just shift the problem onto your neighbours.

Let them do their boom and bust cycle like the rest of the insects, lizards, and birds have all been doing since the rains arrived, and they’ll eventually settle into a new local equilibrium. Just keep an eye out for redbacks until the lizards arrive.

Its called an insecticide for a reason they dont just get rid of spiders it gets rid of insects. Also it kills it doesnt repell. So if you are happy to have spiders and other insects all over the place dont do nothen but if you are worried call me. Dr Mks pest control.

bd84 said :

They’re more scary when you can hear them walking across the wall..

Or in the middle of the night when you are in bed, brush something off your face and hear it as it thuds against the wall!

Or when you ‘flatback’ one and it’s ninja babies fly all of the room!

ick ick ick

They’re more scary when you can hear them walking across the wall..

Metho and a cigarette lighter – then you’ll see how fast 8 legs can run!

I think the white-tails around our place keep the other spiders away……..that’s good right?

I was once bitten on the funnel by a finger web spider. I think!!

georgesgenitals said :

I’m quite curious as to why so many people are scared of spiders. I don’t like them, but they’re hardly something to fear. A lazy old house cat can give you a nastier bite than a spider.

Who knows?! I wish I didn’t have this reaction to things that I’m sure could care less about me. But as phobias often are – it’s illogical, I don’t know what caused it. Be a whole lot easier (and less embarassing) for me to not be so phobic about them.

Despite being so afeared of the beasties – I really don’t wish bad things to happen to them at all … but the rules are – outside is for spiders, and inside is for humans. I’m happy for anyone to come rescue them gently and usher them outside when I find them in my house ……. please.

Huntsman. Or a spider. Something with lots of legs. 🙂

My favourite was when a huntsman spun a thick and REALLY creepy web, inside of a soup ladle in my kitchen. Not much soup happening around that time.

It was rly rly scary believe me. I thought there was paper in my shoe. I whacked the shoe pretty hard on the step and it came flying out.

And James T Kirk, I agree with you…I would have squished it except hubby (yes JB I’m a girl) is 9/10th greenie so he gently shoed it outside and counselled it not to come back in…..after he held consultation talks with the rest of the insects in the area.

Actually, I’m glad it’s been identified as a huntsman, albeit the fattest one I have ever ever seen….makes me feel an incy wincy bit better.

There’s a reason the spiders are doing well: its a bumper year for insects, and they’re part of a long chain of predators.

Don’t get in the pest people unless its a biblical-scale infestation, you’ll either only get rid of part of the problem (ie: just the spiders, or the spiders/ants and some of the roaches) or you’ll wipe out most of the ecosystem in your backyard (do you really love slaters and earwigs to the exclusion of all else?), or if you set up some kind of defensive perimeter you just shift the problem onto your neighbours.

Let them do their boom and bust cycle like the rest of the insects, lizards, and birds have all been doing since the rains arrived, and they’ll eventually settle into a new local equilibrium. Just keep an eye out for redbacks until the lizards arrive.

Wikipedia says arachnologist, and Wikipedia never lies.

leave spiders alone. they generally do a whole lotta good you never see, and they’re pro’lly scareder of you than you of them… [well, ok, that’s not likely to be true, but let the spiders live!]

and to answer the op: it’s a spider.

sirocco said :

Based on the coloring and shape (cos, let’s face it, that’s all I got, I am no arachidologist – is that even a word?)

as there is indeed a journal of arachnology, i suspect there would be arachnologists..? anyone from csiro can help?

It is indeed a Huntsman that is about to lay a million live baby huntsmans. Bring it on I say.
Dr Maks Pest control thats me if you need some help in this very active spider season. This will be one of the best insect seasons for a long time caused by the large amounts of rain we are recieving and the warmer weather.

I like spiders, they talk to me in the wee small dark hours of the night.

You’re just jealous.

Jivrashia said :

…mine was in the pyjama I was about to wear!!
quote]

Good reason not to wear pyjamas to bed. Just gotta be careful of snakes then…

georgesgenitals said :

On the topic of spiders, has anyone else seen the ones that make a perfectly round hole in the ground (about as big as a decent sized pencil), but don’t make a trapdoor or web at the top? The spiders are dark brown, and sit in the hole looking out. I’ve found a couple in my front garden, which I sorted with a neat slice of the mattock…

Yes, scared the sh!t out of me when I was mowing the lawn. Half a can of Mortein went down that hole and another half for good measure.
The horrible beelzebub spidey curled up and died at his door step.

it’s probably just a bit of a fatty huntsman.

Based on the coloring and shape (cos, let’s face it, that’s all I got, I am no arachidologist – is that even a word?) I would say it is from the Isopeda genus of huntsman

and here’s a pic:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/huntsman/Isopeda_vasta_F3838.jpg

here’s the overall website, you can trawl that and argue the toss with me if you like

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

🙂

Well, it looks big enough to have its own postcode. I’d say ‘huntsman’…………….or a bird eating spider of some type (they are all ‘bird eating spiders of some type’ to me anyway!)

Not sure about the spider in the photo, but the legs would suggest it’s a very fat huntsman.

The spider that lives in a perfectly round hole in the garden (the one in my garden last summer was the diameter of a 50c piece)is a female Wolf Spider. She hatches her egg sac in there and then spends a few weeks with hundreds of baby spiders on her back both inside during the day and when she’s out and about hunting at night. The burrow is silk lined; sometimes has a lid or is covered with garden mulch to be almost invisible; and sometimes has a little silk and leaf fence around it. They’re not aggressive and will mostly get out of your way very quickly. but like all beasties, they’ll give you a painful bite if cornered and provoked.

I didn’t accidentally splatter 30 *big* black spiders around my garden last night – I did it on purpose… A happy spider is a flat spider in my books…

I usually notice a increase in spiders about this time of year. I think it is a combination of a little rain still falling, but the temps coming up a little. With all the rain they seem to be doing better then normal.

On Saturday I unfolded a chair which has spent the winter languishing in my shed, and met the largest redback I’ve seen in a while.

The legs and the hiding location suggest that it’s a Huntsman

I’m quite curious as to why so many people are scared of spiders. I don’t like them, but they’re hardly something to fear. A lazy old house cat can give you a nastier bite than a spider.

Jivrashia said :

Shoe? Bugger that, mine was in the pyjama I was about to wear!!

And believe you me it was at least 1.5 times bigger than the one in the pic! Same type though.

Thats nothing, I went to the toilet this morning and there was a huge one sitting on the seat. To make matters worse I had to wait until he finished and he didnt flush.

I was inclined to say Huntsman but it is not, maybe a type of Orb Weaver?

georgesgenitals said :

We’ve noticed quite a few garden spiders this year. I suspect it’s due to all the extra rainfall over the past few months, which has made everyone’s garden grow like crazy, and thus spawned lots of extra bugs. I (accidentally) splattered quite a large huntsman with my lawnmower the other day, who was crawling through my front lawn.

On the topic of spiders, has anyone else seen the ones that make a perfectly round hole in the ground (about as big as a decent sized pencil), but don’t make a trapdoor or web at the top? The spiders are dark brown, and sit in the hole looking out. I’ve found a couple in my front garden, which I sorted with a neat slice of the mattock…

They may be wolf spiders – I also think some species of trapdoors don’t actually build the door part they just dig the hole – lazy bastards.

Won’t be long and the Asian House Gecko (think cane toad but cute and chatters to you) will have invaded all Australian urban areas (worldwide actually) and your spider (and cockie) problems will be a thing of the past.

You’ll replace that set of problems though, with a new one – gecko crap dropping anywhere anytime, chattering keeping you awake, the wonderful surprise when their little foot pads don’t stick so good and they drop onto your head/dinner/table/anywhere else generating loud pitched scream, the horrible noises (and ethical conundrums) when your cat gets one, and of course the environmental issue of displacing native species from their habitat.

toriness said :

i don’t know but it gives me the bloody heebie-jeebies.

I’m with you – me and spiderys are a faint-inducing mix. Seriously – hot/cold sweats, tears, shakes, full blown-hysterical-unreasonable phobic reaction.

From the bit I saw before I scrambled to scroll with one hand over my eyes and heart beating fast, he looks like Satan would look if he were a spider, and was a human hating Terminator machine as well. Either that or a wolf spider.

A poisinous shoe eating spidey

We’ve noticed quite a few garden spiders this year. I suspect it’s due to all the extra rainfall over the past few months, which has made everyone’s garden grow like crazy, and thus spawned lots of extra bugs. I (accidentally) splattered quite a large huntsman with my lawnmower the other day, who was crawling through my front lawn.

On the topic of spiders, has anyone else seen the ones that make a perfectly round hole in the ground (about as big as a decent sized pencil), but don’t make a trapdoor or web at the top? The spiders are dark brown, and sit in the hole looking out. I’ve found a couple in my front garden, which I sorted with a neat slice of the mattock…

Shoe? Bugger that, mine was in the pyjama I was about to wear!!

And believe you me it was at least 1.5 times bigger than the one in the pic! Same type though.

…and Nanny let my spider out

Possibly some sort of orb weaving spider? They can get pretty big. Although I don’t know what it would be doing in a shoe.

i don’t know but it gives me the bloody heebie-jeebies.