Are Australian spiders really that big?

[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?

 

[Orks da best]

Yes, yes they are. That one was trying to hitch-hike with me. It's a baby, by the way.

That's a baby???

I am never going there!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!

"runs away while screaming like a little girl..."

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

The big spiders are the bird-eating tarantulas, which we do have, though they're not as big as South America, I think.

I'm pretty sure they aren't as big as continent, yes. That would present quite a problem... =P

 

[Zeriah]

Not really, the only large spiders I ever find in my house are Huntsman spiders. Other than that the rest are small. Of course there are other large spiders in Australia, but Hunstman are the only semi-common ones I've encountered.

Please tell me how a spider that large manages to get through windows/doors without you noticing.

I can't figure out how...

A quote from the Australian Museum Website:

Many huntsman spiders, especially Delena (the flattest), and including Isopeda, Isopedella and Holconia, have rather flattened bodies adapted for living in narrow spaces under loose bark or rock crevices. This is aided by their legs which, instead of bending vertically in relation to the body, have the joints twisted so that they spread out forwards and laterally in crab-like fashion ('giant crab spiders')

Basically they are the contortionists in the spider world, they can basically get into anywhere they want, nowhere is safe.

 

[Kelz0r]

The biggest spiders I've seen living naturally around here are hobo spiders and wolf spiders. I have no idea how big they are, but to give you some idea, I usually try to trap them under water glasses and I run the risk of cutting off their legs when I do that, if I'm not really careful.

If I saw a bigger spider than that in my house, I would probably abandon my house.

 

[ultimateownage]

If I saw a spider that big I would literally shit myself and cry.
It's not funny, I just breakdown when I'm near a spider bigger than half a centimetre large. Even below that they're enough to put me on edge. I'd never touch any of them, so killing them is pretty much out of the question.

 

[dave1004]

Spider? Longer than half a centimeter? Sorry, nope.

I will now be cowering under my blankets, waiting for the fear to go away! ^_^

oll het apescsti si ayg

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

[This is odd. I'm actually petrified of crabs (and if anyone does reply with an image, I'm reporting you. *evil smile*),

"With an image".

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Eh, you are much more likely to get hit by a car, and nobody seems to be that frightened of them.

Well, except for cars driven by spiders, perhaps.

And the occasional spider pretending to be a car... excellent fuel efficiency on them, though. Feed them an old age pensioner and they're good for a week.

 

[Flabbagazta]

Honestly we haven't had any spider deaths since 1981. Redbacks and Funnel Webs are the only ones potent enough to be lethal but I tend to be more worried about White Tails, not venomous but their bite will cause necrosis (decaying/rotting of the flesh) around the wound, they tend to hang out in your pants and shoes and can be fairly aggressive (though probably not as aggressive as the Funnel Web).

 

[ACman]

the coconut crab, is actually a spider:

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

Not true. Coconut crabs are more closely related to hermit crabs. Sure they and arachnids are in the same phylum but completely different subphylums.

Crabs are crustasceans and spiders are arachnids but along with the insects and centipedes they make up the....

ARTHROPODEA!!!!

OT: Australian spiders aren't all that big. There's a few really, really venomous ones however. If you ever go to Queensland be sure to watch out for these bad boys:

Joke: An Australian said to an Englishman "Mate, I'm really afraid of spiders."

The Englishman responded, "Oh, me too old chap."

The Australian continued, "Coz back in oz there's spiders whose venom can cause you to die, what do your spiders do?

The Englishman paused, "Make,.. webs?"

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Just to add Camel Spiders are NOT Spiders.

Not to mention most of the pics of 'huge' ones are just using perspective tricks to make them look big.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

If I see a palm sized one then I'm getting the deoderant and a lighter!

Awesome. There's very little in the world that can't be improved by introducing a large, flaming and very pissed off spider.

 

[ACman]

Not really, the only large spiders I ever find in my house are Huntsman spiders. Other than that the rest are small. Of course there are other large spiders in Australia, but Hunstman are the only semi-common ones I've encountered.

Please tell me how a spider that large manages to get through windows/doors without you noticing.

I can't figure out how...

They do start out quite small.