Humungous Redback

[Iain]

I did, and had published some photo's for Playboy magazine many years ago.
Mates got wind of it and wanted to see the results.
A night was organised and the 6x6 trannys were stuck in the projector for all to see prior to publication.
Entry to my place was a slab and pizza, about 12 turned up and I put on a show for them, even the shots that the magazine didn't use.
They all sat back, stubbie ijn hand, the projector went on and the first slide hit the screen, there were gasps and all were in awe...............................................

[ozwinner]

I did, and had published some photo's for Playboy magazine many years ago.
Mates got wind of it and wanted to see the results.
A night was organised and the 6x6 trannys were stuck in the projector for all to see prior to publication.
Entry to my place was a slab and pizza, about 12 turned up and I put on a show for them, even the shots that the magazine didn't use.
They all sat back, stubbie ijn hand, the projector went on and the first slide hit the screen, there were gasps and all were in awe...............................................

Sorry!!
Confessions of a Trannie second door on the left down the corridor.

Al

[kiwigeo]

Ever felt inadequate watching your tuff guy neighbour strutting down your street with his Pit Bull Terriers straining at the lead??

Find yourself a couple of redbacks and feed them up till theyre real big. Stick 'em pn leads and take 'em for a walk down the street and watch your neighbour with the Pitties run for cover!!!

[kiwigeo]

G'day,

Gee, I thought I'd be blasted for posting a blurry shot, so here's the other one. Not so clear, but maybe now you lot might believe me. :confused:

Im dubious..the lower left part of the spider's body has a squared off look to it.....compare it to upper part of spider's lower body.

If Im wrong Ill dontate $100 to a charity of your choice (and that doesn include Waldos retirement fund).

Cheers Martin

[Iain]

Sorry!!
Confessions of a Trannie second door on the left down the corridor.

Al

the pics were of Mennen aftershave for an advertisement I was asked to do, they all took their slabs home too

[adrian]

A friend of mine has one of those garden settings made out of PVC tube and a plastic mesh held on by plastic 'rivets.' She always folds down the padded insert and when she went to sit on one there were two large redbacks in the crease of the seat. We checked all four seats and found that in between each of the rivets where the mesh lifted slightly there was a redback. I think there were about 50 or more on the four seats. It's a good thing redbacks are timid because each time you grabbed the back of the seat to move it a redback would have been a couple of millimetres from your hand..
I've never seen them in an environment like that, particularly since the plastic can get extremely hot.

[The Hornet]

We made a restop up the Pacific hwy during summer this year, and sat down in one of those picnic huts to eat, anyway after a cpl minutes i looked up to marvel the timber used in this new hut, and saw a mass of redbacks, we quikly jumped off the seats and had a look underneath to find about 10-15 more under the seats where us and the kids were sitting.
I will try and add some shots i took of some of the larger ones.


They aren't the clearest shots but as you can see in the first one it is next to a 3x4 beam! They were both about the size of a fifty cent peice!

[Stuart]

Here's my version - this one was weaving her web near our front door, so I took her to some plants on our deck for some portraits.



This one is as real as they come. She wasn't very happy with me by the end - I kept on jabbing her with a twig to get her into a position I liked!

[Exador]

Absolutely mate no question about it,I've been dealing with these little sods for years and I know a Redback when I see one.

When I was in WA I saw a lot of VERY BIG redbacks that weren't actually black and red, but a sort of brown with an orange stripe. Definitely reddies though. I was told that there are a lot of hybridised reddies over there because of the number of ships that have been coming to Freo from parts far afield for so long. Years ago the quarantine wasn't as tight. Useless trivia - apparently the reddie is the most widely distributed single species of spider in the world, mostly because it tends to live close to people and we carry it around.

[Gympietech]

I don't remember what species it was, but seeing as SWMBO hates spiders.....
Was walking to the loo through the sleepout of a Queenslander home we were renting and caught a glimpse of something lit by the outside streetlight. Turned on the light and there is a BL@@DY big spider hanging between me and the loo. I would have walked right into it if it hadn't moved. Got my sons 2-foot cricket bat and smacked the blighter back through the louvres to fertilise the garden.
Oh, and I don't like spiders either.....can you tell?

Trevor.

[masoth]

Like Groggy says "......... I was running through some bush in another country and went face-first into the biggest spider I've ever seen ....."

- yeah, Mate! Frightening things. My first had a web across an elephant path in a bamboo thicket - this one is/was a bird-catcher. I'm certain I saw the reflection of my eyes in his/hers as I backed away.:eek:

[BobL]

Well I may not like spiders but I respect their right to exist and have had many hours of entertainment from them in the past. When we had our 6 gum trees on our small inner city block we used to come out and watch them on sumemr evenings spinning webs right across our back yard. They'd let out these long silk filaments to catch on other trees and then swing across like trapeze artistes and repeat the process until they had enough cross members and then they'd spin their huges webs. It was pretty impressive. Most times the next day, the morning easterly winds would break up their webs and that night they would be out there spinning all over again. One evening we hosted a BBQ and without our knowing one of the guests went around and killed all the spiders he could see. I was really !

spiders are like sharks and lizards - good environmental indicators. I really like the way since we have stopped using poisons around our place the gekkos have come back - there are dozens living in the shed.

[thetassiebfg]

Even though it looks like this post has come to a graceful halt i'll still make comment - Spiders are nice things as long as they are nowhere near my vacinity.

It was either Douglas Adams or some english journalist who wrote of Australia that it is "..filled by creatures that can kill you just by looking at you.." quite apt in some instances (the most dangerous animal in Tasmania is not a snake or spider but a resonably small ant- in terms of hospital admssions anyway). Anyway those animals are not the issue.. So back to the Red Backs

I have heard on good anecdotal evidence from a couple of mainland mates(ie this worked fro them) about what you need to do to get rid of the "Red Threat" is go to a mates place and collect a some of those the good old innocuous Daddy Long Legs (yes I know some people say they are the most poisonous spiders on the planet but even if they are they cant hurt us .. too small) it seems either they like reddies so much they eat them or they hate them so drive them out of the territory.

Of the two I know which I would prefer to have around; and as Reddies are gaining more of a foothold in this island paradise(yes i am talking about Tassie.. i have been informed by a Getaway/Greatoutdoors Ad that we are one of the best Islands in the South Pacific)

This little system works well for the other little critters in your backyard too as you are not inundating the area with canned chemicals.and a replacing one little scurrying eight legged freak with another.

Try it I'm told its like that hair add "It wont happen overnight but it will happen"

Cheers from a proximial iduced arachnaphobe

p.s. remember this is anecdotal from about fiv different stories not from a three year long university study followed by a thesis on the gentle artform of eradication of the Latrodectus hasselti (Red Back) by use of the introduction of the Phalangium opilio (Daddy Long Legs)

p.p.s.
there are several different species of spiders called Daddy Long Legs and I do not know which of them works best..