Steve Irwin would be proud of this one.

[Azza]

Just been doing a bit of work in the back yard and came across this little beauty.
http://www.trackchat.com.au/media/data/500/medium/Red_Back_Spider.JPG
Thought I'd share it with the forum as this is the biggest I have found, the abdomen is as big as a pea.
Needless to say I'm not one who suffers from arachnophobia.

Do the hospitals still seek spiders for milking to make anti-venom?

Azza.
Danger danger danger!:D

[Stevie_D]

I found a few that size in my garage cleaning it out just a few days a go.

One of the many benefits of living close to bushland :)

[Febs]

Nice find Azza.

Around this time of year I usually find a few Whitetails around the place. Unfortunately "around the place" is usually "on my desk", or "on the floor crawling near my feet". :eek:

Nasty little things they are...one of the worst spiders you can be bitten by from what I've been told.

Not much we can do really (we've done the whole bug-bomb thing in the past)...it's part of living across the road from bush.

Cheers,
- Febs.

[BOMI]

Dangerrrr Dangerrrr Dangerrrr!!!

Man thats a nasty lil bugger right there. Lucky they arent to dangerous. Very painfull only in most cases.

I hate spiders, hate. the only ones I cant stand are Daddy long legs and the little tiny "Money" spider.

Eeeeeek :eek: Spiders :lmao:


Troy :)

[Hethro87]

Dangerrrr Dangerrrr Dangerrrr!!!

Man thats a nasty lil bugger right there. Lucky they arent to dangerous. Very painfull only in most cases.

I hate spiders, hate. the only ones I cant stand are Daddy long legs and the little tiny "Money" spider.

Eeeeeek :eek: Spiders :lmao:

Troy :)

Troy you big baby! :stick: Hahah i understand your fear and everyone elses - im ok with them, but snakes man snakes are some scary sh*t!

My mum was bitten by a Sydney Funnel Web a few years back, was not a nice experience i tell you what!

What did you end up doing with the sucker?

Hethro

[35R]

I agree with Troy, can't stand spiders. I would gladly pick up a snake, but spiders give me the heebee geebee's

[tigs]

Febs - do you have any pictures of those white tail buggers?

I hear alot about how dangerous they are, but have no idea what they look like. It'd be good to know.....

cheers
tigs

[Azza]

Troy you big baby! :stick: Hahah i understand your fear and everyone elses - im ok with them, but snakes man snakes are some scary sh*t!

My mum was bitten by a Sydney Funnel Web a few years back, was not a nice experience i tell you what!

What did you end up doing with the sucker?

Hethro

The Red Back has taken up residence in my desk draw in the jar with a few bits of barks, sticks and rocks to make it a bit more homey for it. Gunna see how big I can grow this sucker:up2sum:

Always had a interest for things that are creepy crawly, next door neighbour has three snakes so I'm always handling them.:D

[BOMI]

:lmao: What are you going to feed it man?

Troy :)

[Gilly]

Spiders....EEEEKK!

I hate the lil suckers. We have a delightful book at work with pictures of every species of spider in it. I can barely pick the bugger up and certainly don't like looking at the open pages!!! Sends shivers up and down my spine!

Tigs, I'll put my fears to one side and try and get a picture of a white tail from it to post up for your benefit!

Speaking of Redbacks, we had a young boy who represented to the ED this morning after possibly being bitten by a redback the night before. The poor kids was screaming in pain. The Anti-venom worked a treat tho. First time I've ever come across anything like that and it was amazing to see it working so quickly!!

[Black VESSV]

Febs - do you have any pictures of those white tail buggers?

I hear alot about how dangerous they are, but have no idea what they look like. It'd be good to know.....

cheers
tigs

http://trackchat.com.au/media/data/500/white_tailed_spider.jpg

Friendly little creatures.

[Febs]

Febs - do you have any pictures of those white tail buggers?

I hear alot about how dangerous they are, but have no idea what they look like. It'd be good to know.....

Here are a few I dug up tigs...definitely something to stay away from:
http://www.termite.com/images/whitetailspider150.gif
http://static.flickr.com/7/10586627_6d9b9a2826_m.jpg

Mind you, they're usually pretty small. The ones we get around here are max 20mm long.

Cheers,
- Febs.

PS: Love snakes! Awesome creatures.

[NickS]

Stay away from the white tails ... my Dad was bitten by a spider 2 years ago and they reckon it was one of these. His leg blew up like a balloon and they reckon if he had left it another day before going to hospital he might have lost his leg entirely. He was on a drip at home for about 2 weeks from memory ... evil little buggers. Had one drop on my hand earlier this week, needless to say a quick flick onto the floor and my shoe made short work of him.

I have a saying ... the only good spider is a dead one ... I usually drown them in about half a can of Mortein, Buffy always wants to save them and put them in the garden but I usually kill 'em before she can. I figure if they got in once they can get in again. Hate, hate, hate Spiders ... Snakes aren't any better either.

Geez ... I'm such a girl. :lol:

[Febs]

Nick - Whitetail on your hand... :eek: No thanks!

If you're a spider in my house, the only way you'll live is if you're a Hunstman (catch and release :)), or a daddy longlegs (and you're not in my way). Otherwise it's squashing time. :D

Cheers,
- Febs.

[highlander_69r]

i had a few of similar size in my shed, 1 came out of my trolley jack while i was under the ss :eek:

needles to say i hate spiders, and i sprayed enough chemicals in the house to kill a small country.:mgun:

the termite guy that came around recently said the chemicals the use kills spiders rather rapidly indeed, but more to the point he had a run in with a redback and his foot was swolen to a large extent.

[RedVYIISS]

there's a lot of myth about the white tail spider, do an internet search or have a look on snopes. Nick, in your dad's case, it could have been any one of a dozen diff spiders and the bite got infected.

Living on the Central Coast, surrounded by bush, we've heaps of spiders about. I could go outside and collect a dozen funnel webs in 5 minutes, they're very active this time of year. I guess we accept that we live with them. Denise (being a Pom) is not so accepting, but I've got her out of the habit of killing every spider that she sees!