Giant Venomous Spiders Invade Aussie Town

[Tech Team FTW!]

I live in Australia and this is the first I have heard of this.
Damn you traditional media! How dare you focus on swine flu instead of the real issue of giant spiders!!!

A similar situation exists in Tasmania (I think) where residents of a town are terrorised by large, extremely resilient ants that can kill if you have an allergy to their venom, an allergy which is very common.

Come to Australia!
We have the greatest wildlife in the world!

This post made me laugh, damn traditional media!
How long does it take for that ant venom to kill you if you've got the allergy?

Well, about as fast as any other serious allergy.

What is interresting in this case is that repeated bites from the ants builds the allergy rather than the immunity, resulting in people who were not at all allergic becoming sensitive enough for a bite to be fatal.

 

[GT69]

Am I the only one that felt a tingly sensation run up the spine at seeing that pic?
Freaking scary bastards. I hate how spiders move.
Also thank you australia for giving us the bastard white tail spiders.

Now now, theres nothing wrong with the humble white tail spider. I had one living in my keyboard over christmas

 

[Koeryn]

Hooo-whee, y'all have got an invasion on your hands...and it's mostly humanity's fault.

Only dangerous things up here are bears, wolves, lynxes, mountain cats, cougars (awww ye-no, I can't go through with it), Brown Recluse spiders, various hornets and wasps, certain fungus...yeah, that's it.

Anyway, hopefully this won't cause a major shift in the ecosystem there.

Various snakes such as the cotton mouth (Less lethal than ridiculously painful) various pit vipers (Rattle snakes and the like), coral snakes, scorpions (Once again, the less deadly, more painful), and fire ants what were imported.

 

[GT69]

I was watching tele one afternoon in the back room, could see this big black thing walking across the floor out of the corner of my eye, finally looked over to find a dirty black funnel web standing in the middle of the floor, about 1 metre away from me, just looking at me. It had been raining so i could understand the spiders want to be out of the weather, I scooped it up and put it in a jar, when the weather finally cleared i let it go in the garden again. Beautiful animals.

I have a huntsman in my work ute, i work dawn till dark. Huntsmen are night creatures, they'll hide during the day. Unfortunately this means my 3 hours of travel for work per day (1 1/2 hours morning and night) are spent with a very active huntsmen who seems to get enjoyment running around the cab of my ute just above my head.

Theres the ute

And heres the spider

And heres a king brown i saw on a job site, was painting a soffit in some scrubby area and must have woken him up

Spiders are scary because they move so quickly, especially white tails. I have no problem with any animal if i no where it is.

 

[acer840]

Why am I still living in Australia? When I moved here the first thing my family told me was; "When you go to put your shoes on, make sure there are no spiders in them. They LOVE sleeping in them! They can kill you too."

"THANKS, I wasn't nervouse from the snakes, box jellyfish, stonefish, bluering octopus... the neighbours"

 

[Aussiboy]

a lovly little song that says it all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEeq5qGh8I

 

[Booze Zombie]

"Why would you go to Austalia? Everything there's designed to kill or maim you in some way.
Sharks, crocodiles, swimming knifes, they're all there."

 

[ix_tab]

Never heard of an Emu hurting people....

It seems almost fitting that the only non-lethal animal Australia has ever produced is now extinct, but was one of the cutest things ever. Damn you Rabbits!

Emus can disembowel a human being with one kick! DDDDDDD:

I've gone blank! Which of our adorable extinct animals did you mean?

This
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/03/09/ani_bilby_gallery__519x313.jpg

!!!!!

NO!

Oh my god, I didn't know bilbies had been made extinct, I still thought they were endangered!

Oh man. Aha, I actually teared up at that.

Jesus christ, but that's depressing. I hate when we lose weird little creatures like that.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

WE should tame them, then grow them bigger! Then ride around on them! I would call my spider Barney.

That is the most awesome idea EVER!
Can i say i love you without sounding gay?
I'd call mine Susie.

 

[RetiarySword]

WE should tame them, then grow them bigger! Then ride around on them! I would call my spider Barney.

That is the most awesome idea EVER!
Can i say i love you without sounding gay?
I'd call mine Susie.

Oh yea, and we can ride around on our battlespiders!

 

[Beefcakes]

I'll put my hand up for being Aussie...
Wrestling croc's its a right of manhood, and I eat those spiders for brunch!
In a manly way!
Grr!

Nah, but i'm fairly good around spiders...
Even after being told red-backs live in your toilet waiting for you to sit down...
I still check, you know

 

[Kogarian]

Oh god. I would move out of that town faster than you could say "Massive Spider Army".

I'm moving in there with plenty of lighters and aerosol cans. Plus a shotgun just for fun. I might never do anything useful, but those citizens can sleep at night knowing I'm out there, defending their gardens.

 

[timmytom1]

To paraphrase comedian Dylan Moran "Australia`s wildlife is filled with things designed almost ecxlusivly to kill you sharks,jellyfish,swimming knives their all there"

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

WE should tame them, then grow them bigger! Then ride around on them! I would call my spider Barney.

That is the most awesome idea EVER!
Can i say i love you without sounding gay?
I'd call mine Susie.

Oh yea, and we can ride around on our battlespiders!

With our golden locks flowing in the wind and the evil battle fly riders cowering beneath our...many feet

 

[timmytom1]

Oh god. I would move out of that town faster than you could say "Massive Spider Army".

I'm moving in there with plenty of lighters and aerosol cans. Plus a shotgun just for fun. I might never do anything useful, but those citizens can sleep at night knowing I'm out there, defending their gardens.

Or most likely burning their gardens (and houses) to ash, only way to be sure.