Funnelweb spider

[Andy Mac]

AARRGHH! The joys of living in SE Qld. Not enough to contend with brown snakes around the house (and my wee dog has killed another, small one) but we caught a suspicious looking spider in the house 2 nights ago, right near the bedrooms. I put it in a jar and brought it to the uni biology dept to confirm my fears... sure enough a bloddy male funnelweb spider!! They reckon the bit of rain the night before was probably enough to get it moving, but the country we live in isn't their normal haunt. Usually on the range itself and the eastern slopes, not the drier western side. And the woman from biol., who lives near us, says she's only seen one in her house since 1989, so hopefully we have a similar occurrence. Certainly don't want young Loki playing with one.
BTW I rarely kill spiders, except the odd white-tail, and of course redbacks which aren't inside anyway. I keep a jar with a slide lid handy and relocate them outside, and we don't own fly spray of any kind.

Cheers,

[bitingmidge]

I keep a jar with a slide lid handy and relocate them outside, and we don't own fly spray of any kind.

Mostly the geckos take care of the spiders, but we keep some "knockdown" spray to neutralise wasp nests, and to bump off the odd bush tick before removing it.

On the other hand, copious quantities of "Bushman's" repellant are needed sometimes when the midges come out to play!

Funnel webs are best not seen round kids!

Still it could be worse, imagine living somewhere where hedgehogs roamed wild at night!

P

[Shedgirl]

When we lived in the Blue Mountains near Sydney Funnel Webs were common visitors; once I went to hop out of bed and nearly put my foot on one! So pleased to move to SA where there are none, just the world's biggest whitetails, huntsmen and redbacks.

You are lucky if the redbacks don't come inside. We have caught one under the dining table, one under the couch and one under the fridge. The biggest, named Vegemite after the jar in which she now lives, is still with us a year later. The kids catch live bugs for her.
As for my shed.... let's just say I don't have it to myself....

[Flowboy]

Hi,
To quote Paul Hogan, "That's not a Redback, this is a Redback."
This is Arachnitarkington. He started in Melbourne and has gone with us to Sydney, Auckland, Boston and now Melbourne again. He's about 6" long and about 5" wide (leg tip to leg tip) and has his own frequent flyer card. Currently he lives on the very tasteful lounge curtains, but we're about to move again, so he'll need to find a new home.

Regards

Rob

[dadpad]

those curtains could use a wash flowboy. Hop to it, theres a good chap.