Unwanted guests

[jimbur]

As kids we - my three brothers and I - had little fear of Redbacks. We had calloused hands from doing the sorts of things feral boys do.

A favourite trick was to get two fat female Redbacks, go up to a new lady teacher and say "Look miss". spiders were then tipped onto the palmsand the two spiders stirred to attack each other. Great fun!!

Redbacks are not actually native to Australia. They are a localized mutant of the Black Widow from North America. Some cousins, the Brown Widows have also reached our shores andcross bred with the Redback. The resultant cross is apparently even more toxic than the parents.

I've been told that the harmless black English house spider has developed venom across here.
cheers,
Jim

[Grumpy John]

Found another one today .

Attachment 128011 Attachment 128012

The shed's starting to creep me out, I hate spiders

[watson]

Got many flies in the shed John??

[wheelinround]

Mortein & Aerogard - Products - Mortein Professional Indoor Surface Spray

[jimbur]

Wheelin Just cleared a friend's shed for him, leading the way with mortein surface spray.
Cheers,
Jim.

[RedShirtGuy]

Poisons...bah. You need some of this action

[artme]

I swat Redbacks but the rest can do their thing.

[jimbur]

I swat Redbacks but the rest can do their thing.

Normally I'm with you Art. However, this shed hadn't been used for two years. Anything hung up was festooned with webs as were the wall, doors and machinery. I kept expecting a bandaged mummy to appear or at the very least Miss Haversham.
Every rung on the step and extension ladder had its own redback.
When you're brushing solid clumps of web off you like to be sure that something isn't going to run down the handle of the brush.
Anyway, all was safely gathered in including tools I could use
Cheers,
Jim

[edblysard]

Looks like a Wolf Spider to me also…if you want to keep arachnids and exoskeleton critters out of a place, buy some powdered boric acid and sprinkle it around the base boards and walls…no effects to pets or people, but kills roaches and spiders pretty much on contact, along with ants and most bugs with shells…reason is most of them breathe through tiny pads in their feet instead of their mouth, and the boric acid burns the breathing passages.
Even wonder why you find dead roaches and ants on their backs with their feet in the air…it is because they are suffocating and are trying to breathe by holding their feet up in the air.
You can mix the powder in water and make a spray also, spray the outer and inner walls and crawl spaces and anywhere you think the critters are getting in, when it dries, it is just as effective as the powder.

[Ashore]

Or ... get yourself a blue tongue , they love spiders, roaches and snails . We have one who does the rounds of about 4 houses , we get him every 3 months or so , and when he eaten all the baddies he moves on , even made him a little rock nest under the back of the house, umm we call him bluie