Are Australian spiders really that big?

[TehCookie]

I don't think some lysol is going to kill those things. It kills the smaller ones on contact but if I saw one that big I would run screaming like a little girl.

 

[Substitute Troll]

Any spider is too big to exist anywhere near me.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

its not the big ones you need to be afraid of though, they are easy to see and you can just avoid them. its all the little bastards that bite people. sure most dont die but occasionally it does happen

anyway pic is apparently from some guys backyard up near Cairns, yes the spider is eating a bird

In the immortal words of King Arthur: "JESUS CHRIST! RUN AWAY!"

 

[Giest4life]

Unless our Aussie friends have something similar to a second ammendment, or they allow me to carry an assault rifle with me for those spiders, I'm staying well and truly clear of Australia.

 

[Something Amyss]

the coconut crab, is actually a spider:

this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.

Wikipedia disagrees.

Vermont doesn't get many large spiders. But then, I'm not a fan of any spider, so I'm not exactly mourning that.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't think some lysol is going to kill those things. It kills the smaller ones on contact but if I saw one that big I would run screaming like a little girl.

It might. The question is, will the spider *****-slap you before it dies? >.>

 

[Eyclonus]

Unless our Aussie friends have something similar to a second ammendment, or they allow me to carry an assault rifle with me for those spiders, I'm staying well and truly clear of Australia.

Sorry mate, don't do the 2nd amendment here, we, as a voting public, really don't think wide spread ownership of firearms is a good idea.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Oh...Australian spiders have evidently been watching too many crap horror movies, as they have mastered the art of the "murderer disappear". The moment you take your eyes off them, they will vanish.

this.

god damn to hell the other day i took my shorts off to go take a shower, i put em back on and this inch long spider was camouflaging on my pocket, stuck my hand in to grab my phone and the thing took off up my arm, i did a 720 in the air while frantically snapping my arm off in the wierdest directions to hopefully, spontaneously start a fire that the spider would fatally be entrapped in.

but of course, i got it off and i picked up a kleenex off my desk and the damn thing was gone...*shudder*

lighting the whole house on fire seems like a good option as of right now.

 

[tokae]

I'd be more worried about the camel spiders you'd find in the middle east. Granted, they only grow to be 6 inches long, but they can also sprint up to 10 mph (in the sand) and can jump up to 3 feet, not to mention they look like this:

It's just the fact that "Camel Spiders", "Wind Scorpions" or as I prefer, Solifuges aren't real spiders.
And the fact that this order of Arachnida is not venomous at all, except for one species that live in a very remote part of India.

I'll have to agree on the centipede though. Those fuckers are scary, and some of those "giants" are really venomous..

 

[Meight08]

I'd be more worried about the camel spiders you'd find in the middle east. Granted, they only grow to be 6 inches long, but they can also sprint up to 10 mph (in the sand) and can jump up to 3 feet, not to mention they look like this:

Holy!!!!
dude spoiler that shit im an arachnophobe i nearly got a heart attack.

 

[Zeriah]

Don't know about Austrailian spiders, but I think camel spiders are pretty big

Camel Spiders aren't actually spiders but are another species of arachnid altogether.

Anyway yes we do get big spiders, but not the largest in the world (though possibly outside of South America, I know there's one rare species of Huntsman that rival some of the plates sized tarantulas, mainly in leg length though).

Huntsmans are monstrous things that are about a weekly occurrence in most homes near any sort of bushland (i.e everywhere but the desert and the middle of cities). They look like demons and I suit up in full battle armor equipped with a +10 spider slaying broom. There's more than a few other spiders that are very common that can be close to palm sized. One type are the Golden Orb Weavers and these fuckers tend to live in colonies. In my back yard there's a stretch of grass that is corridor like from the trees. These guys get about 20 of their buddies and go nuts spinning a web that basically cocoons the whole area - it is literally Shelobs Lair down there and hasn't been accessed by man in several years. Luckily all these demons are harmless to humans.

The ones you need to be worried about are the Funnel Webs, Red Backs and possibly (though highly debated and possibly not harmful at all) White Tailed spiders. Funnel Web Spiders are modest in size, but have battle armor and harpooned sized fangs, Red Backs are pea-sized and White Tailed Spiders are pretty small too. It sucks though because all three of these spiders live smack bang in some of the most densely populated areas of Australia. I've dealt with probably 20 of these all up in my lifetime, but others have it far worse with 10 or so a year.

The worst part is I am very scared of spiders and even though I am always the one to deal with them in my house (I've gotten rid of countless huntsmans) it has never got any easier. I'm always there visibly shaking with a big ass broom trying to get these things that run so fast they can almost teleport. I've even been ambushed by them (ran under the door) while on the toilet and while driving (the palm sized fucker ran across my dashboard, which nearly made me crash), some of the worst experiences of my life.

Edit: A funny video that literally depicts what I have to deal with every week (though I kill the bastards)

 

[tokae]

its not the big ones you need to be afraid of though, they are easy to see and you can just avoid them. its all the little bastards that bite people. sure most dont die but occasionally it does happen

anyway pic is apparently from some guys backyard up near Cairns, yes the spider is eating a bird

thats a golden orb, as kids we erronously called them bird eating spiders where i was from because we'd see little honey eaters caught by them quite frequently (and spun up)
they have quite strong webs and sometimes average size birds or bats will also get stuck in them

Most orb spiders can get quite large and are scary looking mofos... i've been told that golden orb web can make you blind quite easily if it gets in you eyes, but this could be BS attributed to the yellow colour of their webs...

Yes, It's a golden orb.. I do believe that thing about the nets blinding you is BS too yes.. But they are incredibly strong those webs. And among the Orb spiders there are many nasty looking ones, even to me. But as with many others, they don't have any venom to speak of. Instead they catch their prey in the nets and then proceed to crush it with it's strong webs.. Quite frightening actually, even more so than venom..

 

[Jesse Billingsley]

Don't know about Austrailian spiders, but I think camel spiders are pretty big

Yeah, they are only about the size of a palm.

 

[Irridium]

Yea I'd say they are pretty big.

Oh and I just had to share this, I think I fainted a little.
*image snipped to preserve what little sanity remains*

No, HELL no, fuck that. FUCK that. That shit needs a nice heaping of flamethrower and nuke applied to it. Perhaps an Exterminatus just to be sure.

 

[pyramid head grape]

All I know is, I'm staying far away from them.

 

[Cazza]

I lived in a house with a family of redbacks in my closet. After reading they kill very few people. Im not fussed about spiders. The small ones are the ones that kill you but thats not likily to happen. Big ones you might as well put in a shoe box and place in the backyard. (You want it near by to eat the insects near your house.)

Yes a spider that size is big. Though your more likily to die of a car crash or drowing. So come to Australia it's safe.

 

[ssgt splatter]

But if i'm walking around my house and see a spider the size of my palm, i don't consider that a big spider. But to the non Aussies here, If you saw a spider the size of your palm, would you consider it big or not? what do you consider to be a large spider?

I live on the eastern end of Canada, and have to say that we simply do not have spiders as big as your palm outside of tarantulas in a pet store. The biggest I've probably seen is stuff the size of my thumb, which given the size of my thumbs and my arachnophobia means they're generally enough to freak me the fuck out.

I might be abit biased here but... May I just ask why people have such a problem with spiders? *looks over at my tarantulas*
Sure they are ugly buggers and sure, I grew up around scorpions and spiders ( my father is a zoologist ), but I honestly can't understand what the panic is all about.

I honestly wish I could tell you. Most people who are afraid of spiders probably have a reason, whether that be some traumatic experience with them or sheer ignorance, but I honestly have no idea why I'm afraid of them. I know the majority, especially where I live, can't hurt me. I'm not even afraid of really small ones. But once they're big enough to easily make out their physical features and know what they are from a distance I start to get freaked. Not so badly that I can't squash them (with an appropriately large wad of paper towel or toilet paper), but badly enough that I'll be checking the walls, floors and ceilings of every room I enter frequently for about an hour at least.

There simply is no rational reason for my fear that I know of, which bothers me quite a bit actually. A friend of mine actually commented years ago that it made no sense for me to be afraid of them if I wasn't traumatized because I'm essentially the most rational and logical person he knows.

It's probably some instinct thing from when we were animals...."Big ass spider, evil looking snake, mother in law ;P That shit can kill meeee.

"Well, you see, the human brain is hard-wired to react to things that scuttle so that's why...ok, I'll shut up now." Cookie to those of you who know where this bit of dialouge comes from. Anyway, that's why some people hate spiders even when they never had a bad expirience with one. I've never been bitten but I did have one crawl into my bed while I was playing a videogame...so I guess that would count as a bad expirence.

 

[lRookiel]

All these people putting pics of spiders eating birds has made me even more terrified of the fucking things now, cheers guys....

Im english by the way and I'm petrified of the house spiders here so......Im NEVER GOING TO AUSTRALIA EVER!!!!!!

 

[GrimGrimoire]

Well here in Norway, our biggest spider has about 2cm long bodies.
And I think that is HUGE.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I usually go with the combo of pole and cat to take care of my arachnid problems (I.E Whenever I see one of the fucking things).
If I see a palm sized one then I'm getting the deoderant and a lighter!

the coconut crab, is actually a spider:

this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.

I'm OK with crabs though. Crabs are nice.
Wait...Why are you all giggling back there?