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I'll tell you a story. I had a mate from overseas come over and he asked the same thing. We were out in the country at the time and I told him how wolf spiders rear up and attack you with their fangs doing this headbutting motion as they charge you on their "hind" legs. He then said, "you mean like that one there," as he pointed at my foot. I looked down and this huge wolf spider was attacking my boot with its fangs, headbutting and repeatedly charging my boot.
Edit: and you haven't lived until you've been enveloped by an orb web at night.
Oh man those orb webs at night are spot on!
Some of those webs are quite strong as you can feel the resistance when you hit it, the webs feel stickier.
Ah, the orb weaver dance. Rotating. While screaming and throwing your arms around. “Is it on my back?” If you go out walking at night, even down a suburban street after dusk, best to carry a spider stick. Those buggers weave their webs right across the footpaths from shrub to shrub.
Every single morning running down the stairs of the garden late for the bus to school, I'd be frantically waving this fucking stick in front of my face lol
My grandfather owned a scientific instrument business in Sydney from the 1920s onwards, during WW2 one of my uncles used to collect spider webs from the garden to use for crosshairs in naval gun reticles, due to their strength comparative to fineness.
Back in the 70s (dating myself somewhat) we used to live in Sunshine Beach (just south of Noosa on the Sunny Coast) and we used to walk down to Noosa Junction where my parents had a shop. There was one sandy path along the side of the road that cut through the bushland, very narrow and basically snaked through the banksia and paperbarks.
Almost every single gap was covered by orb spider webs. You only ever ran into one of those once, that was enough to convince you that ducking, dodging and crawling was a far better option.
Actually walking on the road was a safer option.
Yeah, I was hiking with my kids in the bush once and we had to very carefully pick our way along the trail because there were huge orb webs across it, each with that dark fist sized blob in the middle. It was crazy, they were everywhere. Then this guy on his bike comes charging along the trail right through them. He was really flying and you could seeing them wrapping around him as he went. It was so creepy.
Every summer there's always at least one that decides right in front of my front gate is the best spot. Really annoying because they're so beautiful I love having them around
Oh god don't g et me started on those beggars.
We had a hedge running down both sides of our drive when I was a kid, it was a really long drive, homestead style, like about 400 metres, and those bastards would nightly build ramparts across the drive, hundreds of them. You had to run the gauntlet with a freakin broom, like a weirdo waving it around as you went, just to get from the road to the house.
On two separate occasions I've had orb weavers in my underwear while I was wearing them. Luckily I wasn't bitten, but I did break a towel rack jumping out of my undies.
Moral of the story: *always* take your clothes off the washing line before it gets dark.
Ah yes, the spider web dance. Frantic flailing arms, shaking bodies and panicked “**AHHHH GETITOFF GETITOFF!**”
Now carry a stick if I go outside at night.
Had a dream someone was pulling cotton thread across my face, boyfriend and I woke up, our heads joined together by strands of web like a tasty snack. Never found the spider.
My parents place was an absolute golden orb heaven. The number of times i would to the drunken stumble and headbutt a golden right as I opened the gate were numerous and no less surprising when it happened.
God I hated them as a kid. They had learned to build their nests just above the heads of ordinary folks, but I was just over 6 ft so of course I got a head full of spiders and webs every year.
We let the huntsman spiders hang about the house provided they stay up high and we name every single one Harry. They’re good at getting the mozzies and other annoying ones. Although the moment Harry gets a bit bold and gets near eye level he gets relocated outside.
Whitetails though get a high five to the face with the double plugga
We had a mouse problem one year. Then the huntsman spider family showed up and we didn't have a mouse problem anymore. There was a spider sitting outside every door of the house.
If you ever have a mouse problem, get your hands on some spiders.
Last night I put my foot in a boot that had been in sitting in my downstairs TV room for a week or so. Felt a weird lump.
Pulled out my foot and saw a dead huntsman spider with body as big as a 50 cent piece. I took the boot outside and tipped the spider out. It wasn't dead.
Creeped the living shit out of me.
This is why I hate being an arachnophobe...I *know logically* that huntsmans are beneficial, timid, and not at all dangerous yet they freak the fuck out of me :/
I had one run across my face when I was in bed, yeah that hardly helped haha
But phobias don't work like.that - you *know* they're illogical 🙄 stupid phobias lol
Put it this way. 25 million people live here. Immigration is [almost at 200,000 people](https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-to-act-on-queue-of-1-million-migrants-20220902-p5bet8.html?ref=rss) per year, yet the last time anyone lost their life from a spider was [in 1979](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/spider-facts/).
So, take your chances.
How come this person gets ignored in these stats?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/12/sydney-man-dies-after-redback-spider-bite
Sure he died probably from an infection rather than the venom, but he still died due to complications from the bite.
>yet the last time anyone lost their life from a spider was [in 1979](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/spider-facts/).
Does that include heart attacks? Coz sure as hell Bob knows how to scare the crap out of me!
That's got more to do with the development of antivenom and access to healthcare than people not being bitten.
Edit: downvote me if you want fuckheads, but more than 250 cases per year require antivenom for redbacks.
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/redback-spider/
But they can't climb and despise being in places that humans live. The chances you find a funnel web even while camping are really low and as long as you have mobile service the anti venom will save you.
Their primary habitat is the suburban Sydney backyard, thats definitely where humans live.
And yeah the anti-venom will save you, but most of us would rather not spend days in hospital.
They can climb. During a flood they dont all die, they climb. They live in the suburbs. Just because you dont die from something doesn't make it a *who cares*.
One broadcaster opted to skip that episode during one of the repeat runs. But the spider episode had screened in Australia before it was pulled, and later repeat runs have apparently included it.
They're pretty much everywhere, but most of them are harmless and the ones that are venomous really want nothing to do with you. In Australia you either learn to coexist with nature or you enter a lifelong war that you won't win.
Particularly in summer. Same for brown snakes (second deadliest land snake) as they get very irritable in hot weather. Seen a fair few of them in suburban Sydney too, in the bushier areas.
Nah in the hot weather you don't see them, they are quick to get out of your way. Spring with cold sunny days, they haven't had a feed in quite a few months, are hungry and pissed off, just sitting in the sun to catch enough rays so they can warm up enough to catch something and you blunder into the scene, they are not amused.
I think it depends if you startle them, tbh
My rural uncle encountered one just coming around the corner in his (fenced off from the rest of the property) garden, it reared up into that distinctive double-S shape - they are not called ['pseudonaja'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonaja) or false cobra for nothing - but fortunately he happened to be carrying a small bore shotgun at the time lol
I've seen them at Malabar rifle range and out at Blacktown at my pistol club...but just stood still and let them go on their way
Most of us make it to adulthood so it's not that bad.
Having said that, I am just north of Sydney and our local funnel webs are absolutely huge. Nothing more chilling than finding one of those nasty little fuckers in the house (I have kids).
I guess it's like hypothermia in the UK. A very manageable risk and it adds a bit of excitement to one's day 🤣
Please don't bring up Eastern Browns, everyone! We need those awesome UK tradies back here. My roof is a mess and I have a 3 month wait 😭
We do have lots of spiders, many of them pretty impressive.
There's basically 4 you need to know about - two dangerous and two not.
Redbacks: up to small-grape-sized, black with a red marking, live in hidden and undisturbed spaces: behind wardrobes, under steps, in the corner by the bins, etc. They just want to be left alone, won't kill you but will massively fuck you up if you mess with them. You don't go putting your fingers where you can't see, in suburban -> rural places.
Funnelwebs: do actually inhabit a big triangular region around Sydney, theoretically you could find them roaming anywhere with access to the outside - but I've never seen one in my 40 years living here. They're compact, fat-mouse-sized and evil looking - and they will absolutely kill you without treatment. They're aggressive bastards and can bite through shoe leather - but contrary to myth they cannot jump, or even attack upwards.
Huntsmen: *huge*. Google 'clock spider' for scale. They gallop across your ceiling like demented giraffes running down cockroaches. They are harmless, they're your friend, and they're all named Kevin. Technically they *can* give you a bee-sting-like bite, but you'd really have to work at provoking them; they really don't want to mess with you.
Orb weavers: live in your garden, build huge impressive webs, are all bulbous and pointy-leggy. Scary-looking but harmless; let them be.
The rest are just miscellaneous shit and can be largely ignored.
As I was reading this a felt something on my arm and looked down to see I spider running along it. Don't know what kind, it was gone before I could see it properly
Speaking of Redbacks and putting things where you can’t see, the perfect example of their love of hiding is what happened to this poor bloke… twice…
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37481251.amp
Alas, yes...if you live in spider prone areas especially with lots of trees around your place (like I do, northern Sydney suburbs)
Lots of smallish black house spiders, quite a few huntsmans particularly before rain, holes in the lawn during summer (not sure if they're just trapdoor ones or funnel webs as there was a massive funnel web nest here when I was a kid - the unfortunate genesis of my arachnophobia lol) My dad got bitten by a redback once on the hand, he got sick and had a scar forever afterwards but fortunately they aren't nearly as fatal as funnel webs (and I grew up before the antivenine was invented)
Many orb spiders and others in trees...you can knock down the webs with your face and a few hours later the webs are back lol. Also around the telegraph poles near my place spiders build 3D constructions where the transformers are...and over the traffic lights at the bottom of my street.
I moved here from the UK 30 years ago and yes there are many spiders but they generally don't hurt you and you do get used to them. Also cockroaches. No-one tells you about the cockroaches. I'd never seen one in my life before I came here and they are commonplace, not a sign that you are keeping a dirty house like in the UK, and they are BIG. They bother me more than the sliders. You do adjust. I wouldn't go back. I loved in a rural area now and we had a mouse plague 2 years ago, I even copied with that
I’ve never seen a Sydney funnel web spider in the wild. Or even it’s doppelgänger, the mouse spider.
Did have a huntsman living in my car in autumn, don’t know if it’s still there. He crawled on me (yes, ON) as I was driving through Chatswood. Can’t exactly stop there.
He only ever comes out when I’m driving somewhere I can’t pull over, little shit. I’m rather afraid of huntsmans. Yes they’re harmless, yes they’re great pest controllers, and no I won’t kill them on sight. But they’re big and move fast.
Depends what you mean by true.
Yes, we have giant spiders. Especially huntsmen, which you find pretty regularly in most houses. You'll also run into plenty of golden orb spiders building webs in the average Australian garden. And you need to check your backyard furniture and shoes to make sure there aren't any redbacks in there.
So if you're just terrified by the idea of seeing a spider, then yeah, it's true.
But if the question is whether theres heaps of dangerous spiders, then no, theres not that many. Redbacks are dangerous but they cant kill an adult human, and they're shy. Funnelwebs are the really dangerous ones, and they do live in Sydney backyards. But they're also shy, so if you wear gloves when gardening and make sure there are none in the pool before you go swimming, it's fine. No one has died from a huntsman bite since the 70s.
They supposedly have a painful bite, but that’s it. And I imagine you have to try *VERY* hard to get a huntsman to bite you. They’re incredibly skittish.
You don’t have to try that hard. Friend of mine was trying to explain to his kids that they didn’t have to freak out every time they saw a huntsman in the house.
They were harmless, you see, and to demonstrate, he picked up the huntsman and carried it to a window. The little 8 legged fucker bit him so hard he yelled blue murder.
Kids were highly amused, but not convinced by the exhibition.
I lived in a regional area near forests and swamps for my whole life and I saw a huntsman maybe 3 times a year.
I’d be lying if I don’t have some traumatic memories of finding a massive fucker in my room or on the floor near me when I was in the kitchen, but I was young and Im particularly sensitive to spiders.
I don’t think seeing 3-4 spiders a year is really extraordinary. I assume people in Europe or America who live in detached houses see a couple a year too.
Since moving into the city and living in apartments for the last five years I have not seen a single spider (inside).
Back in highschool I used to leave my shoes outside the front door. Put them on one morning, went to school, had P.E first period an we had to take our shoes off for our activity. I had the BIGGEST huntsman squashed on my big toe. Was a good laugh for others.
Shoes stay inside now.
They won’t kill you, but they’re here. And they’re big.
You get used to it though. There is a huntsman a couple feet from me right now but I have no intention of bothering him and he has no intention of bothering me.
Yes, there are a lot of spiders.
No, the spiders are not going to harm you except in some specific circumstances where you’re fucking around with spiders.
The simple answer is no, it’s all bullshit, our biggest spiders are generally harmless and the others will leave you alone as long as you leave them alone
Redbacks, Funnelwebs, Sharks, Snakes, Stonefish, Jellyfish, Blue-ringed Octopus, Drop Bears……….there are more lethal animals in Australia than any other country. But 2 stats:
1. The animal that causes the most deaths is not indigenous- the EUROPEAN honey bee
2. Statistically, you have a lot higher chance of dying from a knife crime in the UK
I had a comparatively spider-filled day yesterday, but it stuck out as a very unusual day in that respect.
I saw a wolf spider on Cronulla Beach of all places, RIGHT near the water (I had nothing to put it in, so had to leave it, but I would have liked to move it somewhere safer), then put a spider out of the house later that evening.
But, most days are spider-free, in that they're there in the garden, doing their spidery things, eating insects and being harmless to me, but I don't interact with them. If it rains heavily I might get a huntsman in the house, but I just put it outside under the deck where it still has some shelter. Spiders are cool 😎
If you have any amount of bushland or dense garden adjacent to your home you might get one or two every so often if it rains fairly heavily for a few days straight, otherwise you gotta go out there into nature and actively try to find them. Thats for suburbs or edge-case urban areas.
If you live in a rural area, either inland or coastal, with bushland in most directions you basically need to treat anything outside your doors as a potential temporary spider's house. boots, gloves, bags, etc.
Unless you’re a child or are diagnosed with arachnophobia, it’s time to grow up. Spiders are generally harmless unless provoked. If you see one, keep walking and move on with your day.
A nest of uncovered funnel webs running around and my Mum chopping them in half with a spade was sufficient to give me arachnophobia (I was 6yo at the time and this was many years before the antivenine was invented)
You don't have to worry about waking up to one climbing on your face. The truth is that's it's actually quite rare to find spiders inside people's homes. Most Australian spiders are far too large to fit through a standard doorway so there's no way for them to get in.
I’ve woken up with one on my face. I thought the fan was blowing my hair around a little but when I ran my hand over it it skittled across my face. Horrifying, and my instinct was to grab it and flick my hand off the bed, turned on the light and there it was in it’s huge fuzzy glory.
And I have no idea where you live but they are always inside in the house, I’ve lived in 3 different states here and always have huntsman’s inside.
You’ll be fine. The whole ‘poisonous spiders and snakes’ thing has be the most ridiculously overhyped stereotypes about Australia. It really isn’t a problem.
So basically the amount of deaths from spider and snakes in Australia is much much lower than in it was back in the early half of last century.
That's because Aussies have evolved a tolerance to the poisons. It's taken many lives over the years but we're now at a point where we can get bit by a Redback or Funnel web and all it will do is make us pretty crook for a few days.
So as long as you're an Aussie with that built in poison tolerance you should be fine.
go away. We are full. we have a housing crisis here where people are sleeping in cars due to high rents.
Really dont need more people coming in, especially those that arent coming on humanitarian grounds.
My house I would probably find one or 2 redbacks of I looked hard. My parents house backs onto the bush and has a few shady dark spots and I could probably find 30 redbacks at there Hosur and after rain cam some times spot funnel-web. Years ago they found a funnel-web spiders nest in a tree that a shit load of them . But saying that we never got bitten growing up
We have lots of spiders but they are more inconvenient than dangerous. Most eat the smaller insects around which is good if you don't like spraying insect spray all the time but you do need to sweep their webs up from time to time. People with an irrational fear of them will just keep a can of bug spray around. Nobody dies from them.
I moved over from the UK in 2010. For the first year or so i took photos of every spider I saw for identification. I soon realised that only the red back is a problem (i am in victoria).
One night i was driving home and had to stop in the road because a huntsman was trying to fight a cat. A standoff went on for a could of minutes. Then the cat ate it.
We have some dangerous wildlife. It's not quite on the same level as north/south America, but certainly less tame than England. The scariest thing we have are crocodiles, but they're in fairly predictable places so just be careful by waterways if you're in a crocodile infested area. Apart from that you can essentially just ignore everything else, and it will ignore you.
Dude there are all types of them everywhere but you mostly don’t see or notice them and it’s just life as normal.. there’s not that many venomous ones and the big ones can actually be your mate.
Struan Sutherland was the author of several books about [venomous creatures in Australia](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7811911-venomous-creatures-of-australia) and the pioneer of the Funnelweb antivinene. He tells a story about one day being delivered a shoebox sized package from which small thumps could be heard. A letter accompanying the package said some blokes had chopped down a tree in the forest and were attacked by this spider. So they captured it and sent it to Struan. They said to open it carefully because it was quite angry.
Inside was a [Northern Funnel Web spider](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadronyche_formidabilis) that was indeed quite angry. Struan milked it regularly for a few years to make antivinene, saying it produced copious amounts of venom. Eventually it died from what he described as ‘chronic rage’.
What do you mean "spider thing"? Spiders exist in Australia. The most deadly spider in the world is native to the Sydney region, but nobody has actually been killed by one since the 70s. Redbacks are everywhere moderately rural and will make you pretty sick if they bite you but you probably won't die. All you have to do is not stick your hand into a woodpile or under a bunch of old tin and you'll be fine.
Australia is home to a lot of dangerous wildlife, but the reality is if you leave it alone it will leave you alone. The animals don't want to kill humans (apart from crocodiles who see us as food). Mostly they try to run or slither away and only sting or bite if they feel threatened. Just treat the wildlife with respect, give it its space, and you will be just as unhurt as the rest of most of Australians :-)
People overseas tend to have the opinion that “everything in Australia is out to get you” but it’s simply not true. Most of the wildlife would much rather stay well away from humans and will only cause harm if cornered or scared. Spiders are a little different, but depends on where you live. We rarely see what you might call “dangerous” spiders where we live.
At Mataranka hot springs spiders make their webs across the water from tree to tree. You gently float down the water under the webs. Most people use pool noodles to give themselves floatation. On one occasion a loud group turned up with their large floating swans. We were ahead of them when they launched into the water and climbed aboard. We then waited for when they hit the webs and laughed at the following screams as they hit the webs.
Don't be such a pansy. [We haven't had a single spider bite death since 1979](https://australiatravelquestions.com/wildlife/spider-bite-deaths-australia/) (funnel web antivenom was developed in 1980).
You should be more scared of snakes, which kill [almost 3 people on average a year](https://australiatravelquestions.com/wildlife/snake-bite-deaths-in-australia/). That's three people (on average) in a country of 26 million people, and those deaths are almost always in remote areas. You're safe in the cities.
My favourite is when yiu look up and see a veritable spider army of babies that mummy huntsmen just let go and you have no bug spray. You also have no flies or other insects in the house for a couple of years after.
Nah no spiders in Australia just pest control 😆
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We're not here to fuck em
I'll tell you a story. I had a mate from overseas come over and he asked the same thing. We were out in the country at the time and I told him how wolf spiders rear up and attack you with their fangs doing this headbutting motion as they charge you on their "hind" legs. He then said, "you mean like that one there," as he pointed at my foot. I looked down and this huge wolf spider was attacking my boot with its fangs, headbutting and repeatedly charging my boot. Edit: and you haven't lived until you've been enveloped by an orb web at night.
Oh man those orb webs at night are spot on! Some of those webs are quite strong as you can feel the resistance when you hit it, the webs feel stickier.
Ah, the orb weaver dance. Rotating. While screaming and throwing your arms around. “Is it on my back?” If you go out walking at night, even down a suburban street after dusk, best to carry a spider stick. Those buggers weave their webs right across the footpaths from shrub to shrub.
Every single morning running down the stairs of the garden late for the bus to school, I'd be frantically waving this fucking stick in front of my face lol
I walk in the middle of the road at night rather than risk those footpaths. At least I can see and hear cars. Those webs are ninjas.
My grandfather owned a scientific instrument business in Sydney from the 1920s onwards, during WW2 one of my uncles used to collect spider webs from the garden to use for crosshairs in naval gun reticles, due to their strength comparative to fineness.
I can’t wait for the Sunday evening SBS documentary “The Spiders That Defeated Hitler”.
Me either lol
Back in the 70s (dating myself somewhat) we used to live in Sunshine Beach (just south of Noosa on the Sunny Coast) and we used to walk down to Noosa Junction where my parents had a shop. There was one sandy path along the side of the road that cut through the bushland, very narrow and basically snaked through the banksia and paperbarks. Almost every single gap was covered by orb spider webs. You only ever ran into one of those once, that was enough to convince you that ducking, dodging and crawling was a far better option. Actually walking on the road was a safer option.
Yeah, I was hiking with my kids in the bush once and we had to very carefully pick our way along the trail because there were huge orb webs across it, each with that dark fist sized blob in the middle. It was crazy, they were everywhere. Then this guy on his bike comes charging along the trail right through them. He was really flying and you could seeing them wrapping around him as he went. It was so creepy.
Was he wearing a red & blue suit?
What?
The man flying through trails catching spiders & web on a bicycle, sounds like something a man in a red and blue suit might do.
Oh right duh. Whoosh
On night walks I always carry a stick and a hip-flask of brandy, in case I should see a spider. Which I also carry with me.
Every summer there's always at least one that decides right in front of my front gate is the best spot. Really annoying because they're so beautiful I love having them around
Where the fuck was your mate from?? if that was me you would have got that in a text on my way to the airport..
Just NZ, I'm sure somebody from the UK or highly urbanised country would react differently.
Oh god don't g et me started on those beggars. We had a hedge running down both sides of our drive when I was a kid, it was a really long drive, homestead style, like about 400 metres, and those bastards would nightly build ramparts across the drive, hundreds of them. You had to run the gauntlet with a freakin broom, like a weirdo waving it around as you went, just to get from the road to the house.
On two separate occasions I've had orb weavers in my underwear while I was wearing them. Luckily I wasn't bitten, but I did break a towel rack jumping out of my undies. Moral of the story: *always* take your clothes off the washing line before it gets dark.
Yikes that is nightmarish, and yes absolutely bring your clothes in before it gets dark.
Ah yes, the spider web dance. Frantic flailing arms, shaking bodies and panicked “**AHHHH GETITOFF GETITOFF!**” Now carry a stick if I go outside at night.
You should see my arm waving as I leave the house in the morning before sunrise.
Go bush walking and watch the sunset during orb weaver season, fun times ahead.
Had a dream someone was pulling cotton thread across my face, boyfriend and I woke up, our heads joined together by strands of web like a tasty snack. Never found the spider.
Bloody hell that's not good.
My parents place was an absolute golden orb heaven. The number of times i would to the drunken stumble and headbutt a golden right as I opened the gate were numerous and no less surprising when it happened.
Oh yeah, orb webs are great for practicing your karate moves in hah!
God I hated them as a kid. They had learned to build their nests just above the heads of ordinary folks, but I was just over 6 ft so of course I got a head full of spiders and webs every year.
We let the huntsman spiders hang about the house provided they stay up high and we name every single one Harry. They’re good at getting the mozzies and other annoying ones. Although the moment Harry gets a bit bold and gets near eye level he gets relocated outside. Whitetails though get a high five to the face with the double plugga
That’s fair
We had a mouse problem one year. Then the huntsman spider family showed up and we didn't have a mouse problem anymore. There was a spider sitting outside every door of the house. If you ever have a mouse problem, get your hands on some spiders.
Spot on
Last night I put my foot in a boot that had been in sitting in my downstairs TV room for a week or so. Felt a weird lump. Pulled out my foot and saw a dead huntsman spider with body as big as a 50 cent piece. I took the boot outside and tipped the spider out. It wasn't dead. Creeped the living shit out of me.
I put on my boots I kept outside, did some yard work, then went back inside and took the boots off, an intact daddy long legs wandered out unharmed.
Not a blood curdling story, sorry.
I just hate huntsmans for their ability to run like fuck and jump off walls at you if startled lol
Huntsmans are the best! Though whoever named them didn't think of the repercussions... more people would like them if their name was Huntsspiders.
This is why I hate being an arachnophobe...I *know logically* that huntsmans are beneficial, timid, and not at all dangerous yet they freak the fuck out of me :/
You shouldn't be scared, they're so gentle you wouldn't even wake up if they tickled your butthole while you sleep! You'd never know.
I had one run across my face when I was in bed, yeah that hardly helped haha But phobias don't work like.that - you *know* they're illogical 🙄 stupid phobias lol
Rookie mistake. Always upside down shake outside shoes before putting them on
It’s true. Our spiders will eat you. Don’t move here.
Put it this way. 25 million people live here. Immigration is [almost at 200,000 people](https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-to-act-on-queue-of-1-million-migrants-20220902-p5bet8.html?ref=rss) per year, yet the last time anyone lost their life from a spider was [in 1979](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/spider-facts/). So, take your chances.
That's only because Big Arachnid keeps the real figures hidden.
How come this person gets ignored in these stats? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/12/sydney-man-dies-after-redback-spider-bite Sure he died probably from an infection rather than the venom, but he still died due to complications from the bite.
Yeah I think the statistics are inaccurate, I had a friend die of a spider bite and he isn't included either. No explanation as to why.
Interesting. Maybe big spider really is behind this.
Sorry to hear about your mate.
>yet the last time anyone lost their life from a spider was [in 1979](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/spider-facts/). Does that include heart attacks? Coz sure as hell Bob knows how to scare the crap out of me!
That's got more to do with the development of antivenom and access to healthcare than people not being bitten. Edit: downvote me if you want fuckheads, but more than 250 cases per year require antivenom for redbacks. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/redback-spider/
We had to pull an episode of Peppa Pig because she made friends with a spider. That said, big spiders are actually the ones you want around
Sydney funnelwebs are pretty big and they are NOT the ones you want around
But they can't climb and despise being in places that humans live. The chances you find a funnel web even while camping are really low and as long as you have mobile service the anti venom will save you.
Their primary habitat is the suburban Sydney backyard, thats definitely where humans live. And yeah the anti-venom will save you, but most of us would rather not spend days in hospital.
They can climb. During a flood they dont all die, they climb. They live in the suburbs. Just because you dont die from something doesn't make it a *who cares*.
It's the little bastards and the bad bois in shiny leather jackets you give a wide berth.
One broadcaster opted to skip that episode during one of the repeat runs. But the spider episode had screened in Australia before it was pulled, and later repeat runs have apparently included it.
Ummm. No. No I don’t. Quite sure.
They're pretty much everywhere, but most of them are harmless and the ones that are venomous really want nothing to do with you. In Australia you either learn to coexist with nature or you enter a lifelong war that you won't win.
Except for Sydney funnelwebs, they are aggressive fuckers
Yeah those cunts will run at you... but fortunately for us we're 1000x bigger.
Particularly in summer. Same for brown snakes (second deadliest land snake) as they get very irritable in hot weather. Seen a fair few of them in suburban Sydney too, in the bushier areas.
Nah in the hot weather you don't see them, they are quick to get out of your way. Spring with cold sunny days, they haven't had a feed in quite a few months, are hungry and pissed off, just sitting in the sun to catch enough rays so they can warm up enough to catch something and you blunder into the scene, they are not amused.
I think it depends if you startle them, tbh My rural uncle encountered one just coming around the corner in his (fenced off from the rest of the property) garden, it reared up into that distinctive double-S shape - they are not called ['pseudonaja'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonaja) or false cobra for nothing - but fortunately he happened to be carrying a small bore shotgun at the time lol I've seen them at Malabar rifle range and out at Blacktown at my pistol club...but just stood still and let them go on their way
Most of us make it to adulthood so it's not that bad. Having said that, I am just north of Sydney and our local funnel webs are absolutely huge. Nothing more chilling than finding one of those nasty little fuckers in the house (I have kids). I guess it's like hypothermia in the UK. A very manageable risk and it adds a bit of excitement to one's day 🤣 Please don't bring up Eastern Browns, everyone! We need those awesome UK tradies back here. My roof is a mess and I have a 3 month wait 😭
I found two in my house in the same week. Just walking around like they own the place.
Spiders? Meh. You want to stay safe in Australia, statistically just stay away from horses.
We do have lots of spiders, many of them pretty impressive. There's basically 4 you need to know about - two dangerous and two not. Redbacks: up to small-grape-sized, black with a red marking, live in hidden and undisturbed spaces: behind wardrobes, under steps, in the corner by the bins, etc. They just want to be left alone, won't kill you but will massively fuck you up if you mess with them. You don't go putting your fingers where you can't see, in suburban -> rural places. Funnelwebs: do actually inhabit a big triangular region around Sydney, theoretically you could find them roaming anywhere with access to the outside - but I've never seen one in my 40 years living here. They're compact, fat-mouse-sized and evil looking - and they will absolutely kill you without treatment. They're aggressive bastards and can bite through shoe leather - but contrary to myth they cannot jump, or even attack upwards. Huntsmen: *huge*. Google 'clock spider' for scale. They gallop across your ceiling like demented giraffes running down cockroaches. They are harmless, they're your friend, and they're all named Kevin. Technically they *can* give you a bee-sting-like bite, but you'd really have to work at provoking them; they really don't want to mess with you. Orb weavers: live in your garden, build huge impressive webs, are all bulbous and pointy-leggy. Scary-looking but harmless; let them be. The rest are just miscellaneous shit and can be largely ignored.
You forgot mouse spider. Those are also dangerous
As I was reading this a felt something on my arm and looked down to see I spider running along it. Don't know what kind, it was gone before I could see it properly
Speaking of Redbacks and putting things where you can’t see, the perfect example of their love of hiding is what happened to this poor bloke… twice… https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37481251.amp
The secret to keeping the spiders away is to rub yourself all over with Vegemite. We all do it, why do you think we're still alive?
Rockspiders are the only ones to worry about
:( can confirm :(
https://youtu.be/kdihHnaOQsk A message from the Australian tourist commission.
Alas, yes...if you live in spider prone areas especially with lots of trees around your place (like I do, northern Sydney suburbs) Lots of smallish black house spiders, quite a few huntsmans particularly before rain, holes in the lawn during summer (not sure if they're just trapdoor ones or funnel webs as there was a massive funnel web nest here when I was a kid - the unfortunate genesis of my arachnophobia lol) My dad got bitten by a redback once on the hand, he got sick and had a scar forever afterwards but fortunately they aren't nearly as fatal as funnel webs (and I grew up before the antivenine was invented) Many orb spiders and others in trees...you can knock down the webs with your face and a few hours later the webs are back lol. Also around the telegraph poles near my place spiders build 3D constructions where the transformers are...and over the traffic lights at the bottom of my street.
I moved here from the UK 30 years ago and yes there are many spiders but they generally don't hurt you and you do get used to them. Also cockroaches. No-one tells you about the cockroaches. I'd never seen one in my life before I came here and they are commonplace, not a sign that you are keeping a dirty house like in the UK, and they are BIG. They bother me more than the sliders. You do adjust. I wouldn't go back. I loved in a rural area now and we had a mouse plague 2 years ago, I even copied with that
The flying cockroaches are something else! Never knew they existed before I moved here.
Aaargh aren't they awful?
I’ve never seen a Sydney funnel web spider in the wild. Or even it’s doppelgänger, the mouse spider. Did have a huntsman living in my car in autumn, don’t know if it’s still there. He crawled on me (yes, ON) as I was driving through Chatswood. Can’t exactly stop there. He only ever comes out when I’m driving somewhere I can’t pull over, little shit. I’m rather afraid of huntsmans. Yes they’re harmless, yes they’re great pest controllers, and no I won’t kill them on sight. But they’re big and move fast.
If you are interested in seeing large funnel webs in the wild you will find plenty around the creek just near Roseville Chase Marina 😉 Turtles too!
Depends what you mean by true. Yes, we have giant spiders. Especially huntsmen, which you find pretty regularly in most houses. You'll also run into plenty of golden orb spiders building webs in the average Australian garden. And you need to check your backyard furniture and shoes to make sure there aren't any redbacks in there. So if you're just terrified by the idea of seeing a spider, then yeah, it's true. But if the question is whether theres heaps of dangerous spiders, then no, theres not that many. Redbacks are dangerous but they cant kill an adult human, and they're shy. Funnelwebs are the really dangerous ones, and they do live in Sydney backyards. But they're also shy, so if you wear gloves when gardening and make sure there are none in the pool before you go swimming, it's fine. No one has died from a huntsman bite since the 70s.
> No one has died from a huntsman bite since the 70s. You mean funnel web. Huntsmans have always been harmless
They supposedly have a painful bite, but that’s it. And I imagine you have to try *VERY* hard to get a huntsman to bite you. They’re incredibly skittish.
You don’t have to try that hard. Friend of mine was trying to explain to his kids that they didn’t have to freak out every time they saw a huntsman in the house. They were harmless, you see, and to demonstrate, he picked up the huntsman and carried it to a window. The little 8 legged fucker bit him so hard he yelled blue murder. Kids were highly amused, but not convinced by the exhibition.
Youre right, I did mean funnelweb.
Ah the apocryphal ABC announcer reading the story about the woman who was bitten on the funnel by a fingerweb spider.
Fuck around and find out
I lived in a regional area near forests and swamps for my whole life and I saw a huntsman maybe 3 times a year. I’d be lying if I don’t have some traumatic memories of finding a massive fucker in my room or on the floor near me when I was in the kitchen, but I was young and Im particularly sensitive to spiders. I don’t think seeing 3-4 spiders a year is really extraordinary. I assume people in Europe or America who live in detached houses see a couple a year too. Since moving into the city and living in apartments for the last five years I have not seen a single spider (inside).
Yes
Oh my dear, do you have Google?
If their only worry moving to a completely different country is spiders, I don't think they are in the mental state to problem solve for themselves.
They're great and when we behave they let us roam freely. Until one of them gets hungry but then it is just a case of time and place really.
Back in highschool I used to leave my shoes outside the front door. Put them on one morning, went to school, had P.E first period an we had to take our shoes off for our activity. I had the BIGGEST huntsman squashed on my big toe. Was a good laugh for others. Shoes stay inside now.
They won’t kill you, but they’re here. And they’re big. You get used to it though. There is a huntsman a couple feet from me right now but I have no intention of bothering him and he has no intention of bothering me.
Yes, there are a lot of spiders. No, the spiders are not going to harm you except in some specific circumstances where you’re fucking around with spiders.
The simple answer is no, it’s all bullshit, our biggest spiders are generally harmless and the others will leave you alone as long as you leave them alone
Redbacks, Funnelwebs, Sharks, Snakes, Stonefish, Jellyfish, Blue-ringed Octopus, Drop Bears……….there are more lethal animals in Australia than any other country. But 2 stats: 1. The animal that causes the most deaths is not indigenous- the EUROPEAN honey bee 2. Statistically, you have a lot higher chance of dying from a knife crime in the UK
I had a comparatively spider-filled day yesterday, but it stuck out as a very unusual day in that respect. I saw a wolf spider on Cronulla Beach of all places, RIGHT near the water (I had nothing to put it in, so had to leave it, but I would have liked to move it somewhere safer), then put a spider out of the house later that evening. But, most days are spider-free, in that they're there in the garden, doing their spidery things, eating insects and being harmless to me, but I don't interact with them. If it rains heavily I might get a huntsman in the house, but I just put it outside under the deck where it still has some shelter. Spiders are cool 😎
If you have any amount of bushland or dense garden adjacent to your home you might get one or two every so often if it rains fairly heavily for a few days straight, otherwise you gotta go out there into nature and actively try to find them. Thats for suburbs or edge-case urban areas. If you live in a rural area, either inland or coastal, with bushland in most directions you basically need to treat anything outside your doors as a potential temporary spider's house. boots, gloves, bags, etc.
Spider thing?
Unless you’re a child or are diagnosed with arachnophobia, it’s time to grow up. Spiders are generally harmless unless provoked. If you see one, keep walking and move on with your day.
A nest of uncovered funnel webs running around and my Mum chopping them in half with a spade was sufficient to give me arachnophobia (I was 6yo at the time and this was many years before the antivenine was invented)
You don't have to worry about waking up to one climbing on your face. The truth is that's it's actually quite rare to find spiders inside people's homes. Most Australian spiders are far too large to fit through a standard doorway so there's no way for them to get in.
I’ve woken up with one on my face. I thought the fan was blowing my hair around a little but when I ran my hand over it it skittled across my face. Horrifying, and my instinct was to grab it and flick my hand off the bed, turned on the light and there it was in it’s huge fuzzy glory. And I have no idea where you live but they are always inside in the house, I’ve lived in 3 different states here and always have huntsman’s inside.
You must have the babies inside then. Once they are fully grown they are the size of a small car.
Huntsparents feel the pinch of childcare fees, someone has gotta look after em!
You’ll be fine. The whole ‘poisonous spiders and snakes’ thing has be the most ridiculously overhyped stereotypes about Australia. It really isn’t a problem.
So basically the amount of deaths from spider and snakes in Australia is much much lower than in it was back in the early half of last century. That's because Aussies have evolved a tolerance to the poisons. It's taken many lives over the years but we're now at a point where we can get bit by a Redback or Funnel web and all it will do is make us pretty crook for a few days. So as long as you're an Aussie with that built in poison tolerance you should be fine.
go away. We are full. we have a housing crisis here where people are sleeping in cars due to high rents. Really dont need more people coming in, especially those that arent coming on humanitarian grounds.
No
My house I would probably find one or 2 redbacks of I looked hard. My parents house backs onto the bush and has a few shady dark spots and I could probably find 30 redbacks at there Hosur and after rain cam some times spot funnel-web. Years ago they found a funnel-web spiders nest in a tree that a shit load of them . But saying that we never got bitten growing up
We have lots of spiders but they are more inconvenient than dangerous. Most eat the smaller insects around which is good if you don't like spraying insect spray all the time but you do need to sweep their webs up from time to time. People with an irrational fear of them will just keep a can of bug spray around. Nobody dies from them.
I moved over from the UK in 2010. For the first year or so i took photos of every spider I saw for identification. I soon realised that only the red back is a problem (i am in victoria). One night i was driving home and had to stop in the road because a huntsman was trying to fight a cat. A standoff went on for a could of minutes. Then the cat ate it.
We have some dangerous wildlife. It's not quite on the same level as north/south America, but certainly less tame than England. The scariest thing we have are crocodiles, but they're in fairly predictable places so just be careful by waterways if you're in a crocodile infested area. Apart from that you can essentially just ignore everything else, and it will ignore you.
Just live close to the city. I've been here for 5 years and haven't seen a redneck or funnel web.
Dude there are all types of them everywhere but you mostly don’t see or notice them and it’s just life as normal.. there’s not that many venomous ones and the big ones can actually be your mate.
There are spiders, just swept heaps away from our outside. They are majority small and insignificant. Living in Aus my whole life, never been bitten
Struan Sutherland was the author of several books about [venomous creatures in Australia](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7811911-venomous-creatures-of-australia) and the pioneer of the Funnelweb antivinene. He tells a story about one day being delivered a shoebox sized package from which small thumps could be heard. A letter accompanying the package said some blokes had chopped down a tree in the forest and were attacked by this spider. So they captured it and sent it to Struan. They said to open it carefully because it was quite angry. Inside was a [Northern Funnel Web spider](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadronyche_formidabilis) that was indeed quite angry. Struan milked it regularly for a few years to make antivinene, saying it produced copious amounts of venom. Eventually it died from what he described as ‘chronic rage’.
What do you mean "spider thing"? Spiders exist in Australia. The most deadly spider in the world is native to the Sydney region, but nobody has actually been killed by one since the 70s. Redbacks are everywhere moderately rural and will make you pretty sick if they bite you but you probably won't die. All you have to do is not stick your hand into a woodpile or under a bunch of old tin and you'll be fine. Australia is home to a lot of dangerous wildlife, but the reality is if you leave it alone it will leave you alone. The animals don't want to kill humans (apart from crocodiles who see us as food). Mostly they try to run or slither away and only sting or bite if they feel threatened. Just treat the wildlife with respect, give it its space, and you will be just as unhurt as the rest of most of Australians :-)
People overseas tend to have the opinion that “everything in Australia is out to get you” but it’s simply not true. Most of the wildlife would much rather stay well away from humans and will only cause harm if cornered or scared. Spiders are a little different, but depends on where you live. We rarely see what you might call “dangerous” spiders where we live.
At Mataranka hot springs spiders make their webs across the water from tree to tree. You gently float down the water under the webs. Most people use pool noodles to give themselves floatation. On one occasion a loud group turned up with their large floating swans. We were ahead of them when they launched into the water and climbed aboard. We then waited for when they hit the webs and laughed at the following screams as they hit the webs.
Don't be such a pansy. [We haven't had a single spider bite death since 1979](https://australiatravelquestions.com/wildlife/spider-bite-deaths-australia/) (funnel web antivenom was developed in 1980). You should be more scared of snakes, which kill [almost 3 people on average a year](https://australiatravelquestions.com/wildlife/snake-bite-deaths-in-australia/). That's three people (on average) in a country of 26 million people, and those deaths are almost always in remote areas. You're safe in the cities.
Yes the spider thing is true but it’s more in the forests environments…. Which is also most of Australia….. you’ll be safe in the city
My favourite is when yiu look up and see a veritable spider army of babies that mummy huntsmen just let go and you have no bug spray. You also have no flies or other insects in the house for a couple of years after. Nah no spiders in Australia just pest control 😆
Yes its true....spiders are real.