Humungous Redback

[John Saxton]

Have'nt been out in the shed for over a week and had to go out last night for a tape measure for use in the house,opened the door turned on the light and there was this flamin' great momma of a Redback curling a web across the access from the lathe to the workbench!!!http://www.ubeaut.biz/jawdrop.gif

I know they're nocturnal but I've never come across one in the shed before particularly across the entry way and at a height where it would be embarrassing to get bitten :o as I only had real short shorts on.

I believe in letting most creatures alone and to themselves however this momma had to go.:eek: :mad:

Would have walked into this sucker If'n I'd barged in as i tend to as the door sticks and if i had'nt turned on the light being nightfall.

Did a course recently on behaviour based safety with awareness to your surroundings but nothing in the course allowed for big momma redbacks...R.I.P.

Cheers:)

[ozwinner]

I suprised one last week.
It was trying to stear clear of the little black ants that were trying to eat it.

I scared it into their path......oooowwwhhhhh bugger went the red back.

Humam or ants, ants or human. :confused:
I made the choice for it.
One squished reddie for the black ants.

Al :p

[DavidG]

Red back bit me once.:eek: :(

Man! do you have some pain in the joints for a while after.:mad:

ps : it is only the female that is poisonous and only when in full colour and even then they only inject poision about 10% of the time. So the doc told me.

A good redback is a 'stain' about 20c in size.:D

[Groggy]

Agree, it came into your space so remove it.

Back in the early eighties I was running through some bush in another country and went face-first into the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. With its legs it was bigger than my face (I could feel its legs touching both of my ears) and it took some struggling to get out of the web. I was informed later it was a Nephila Maculata, or Giant Wood Spider. The web was so strong I didn't even break it.

In fact, the only thing that broke was my bladder and the speed record back to camp. I still get the heebie jeebies thinking about it - uurrgggghhh!

[Slow6]

like David I've had the pleasure of being bitten by a redback.. I was playing with pipelines in a vineyard (and getting hidiously underpaid) and the bugger crawled up my jeans and got me on the ankle.. it hurt but didn't stress me out untill the pain had moved up my leg and was making my balls ache :o

twas off the the hospital quick smart for me. no anti venom tho, the buggers just kept me in there untill they were happy that I wasn't going to keel ever and sent me home.. turns out a shot is worth a couple of hundred bucks and they dont hand em out willy nilly :S

[John Saxton]

I also have been bitten but by a smaller model than this one ..that's why I'm wary of the buggers.

Over 30 yrs ago built a new home in Perth and was sinking a bore for water for the gardens and the sandshoes I was wearing must of got wet.Anyhow in the morning when I slipped my feet into them felt a pinch between my 1st & 2nd toe on my right foot.took the shoe off and out crept this flamin' Redback lookin' as pleased as punch :eek: with itself ..needless to say its also RIP.

Foot went numb and the localised area was swathed in ice as the missus made me keep foot up for a while(quite so)....with forced ministarations of appropriate libations from the fridge as the cricket was on the telly at the time ...bore had to wait for another day!!!

However I keep a wary eye on the sods these days wherever I am ...lifes short and cant be wasting it watchin' cricket:D :D :D .

Cheers:)

[Auld Bassoon]

Jeepers mate,

If my nether regions were being affected, I'd just give the blighters the money and insist on the antivenin :D

[Ashore]

Are you sure it was a red back, as most if they do spin a web spin it close to the ground , usually you find them between layers of timber iron etc
I have never heard of a red back who shun a web that someone walked into , then again .......... as long as I didn't walk into it , cause I have a dissagrement with spiders..... Big time!!!!

[DavidG]

Sorry Ashore but mine was spun from a bottom shelf of a cupboard to the floor and I kicked it with bare feet. One bite on top of foot.:eek:

[bsrlee]

They also react well it having a bunch of flaming newspaper held under their web, so it burns the webbing away & they drop in. My mum was bitten as a girl & had some odd reaction - permanent lumps on the leg, so we have had a 'Zero Tolerance' approach for 2 generations now.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I used to work in an Aussie Native Nursery and the li'l buggers loved living under the lip of those black plastic pots. Being bitten by reddies wasn't an unusual event but the boss only cared when a newby (lots of seasonal casual workers) got bitten the first couple of times. No hossie trip, just a dose (of what I have no idea! :eek: ) and an hour or two of rest. A few never turned up for work again. Funny that. :rolleyes:

Apparently our south-eastern reddies don't grow as big or as venomous as their northern counterparts... although I've seen some scarily big blighters. I certainly don't want to put whether I still have any tolerance to the test! Not even for our "little" buggers.

A good redback is just another stain.

[Termite]

Are you sure it was a red back, as most if they do spin a web spin it close to the ground , usually you find them between layers of timber iron etc
I have never heard of a red back who shun a web that someone walked into , then again .......... as long as I didn't walk into it , cause I have a dissagrement with spiders..... Big time!!!!
Mate the most unusual one I've seen was at a factory, hanging about 10 feet down from the ceiling on a single strand of web. :eek:

[Knurl]

The females are the big ones and eat their little mates after sex. They tend to live under leaves of plants close to the ground - preferably in close contact to moisture in the earth. The babies are skinny spiders that were completely unrecognisable as reddies. BTW the bigger the spider the bigger the bite, ie the little fellows can't get a grip!

I've found funnel-webs around the shed in shoes and cosy spots where you're likely to put your hand. The reddies doen't seem to come indoors so I'm more scared of funnels. Gardeners are far more in danger than woodworkers.

The aniti-venin people (to whom we delivered six reddies last month) say that nonone seems to die from spider bites these days because most people get attention quickly and anti-venins are in ready supply in big cities. They do say the bite hurts like buggery!

[DanP]

Got bitten by a Reddie on the guts. Hurt like buggery but the pharmacist told me not to worry as per DavidG's comment. He had just taken a job there after 30 odd years in the country, dealing with them every day.

I kill about 10 - 15 a month. Don't want them around the kids.

Dan

[John Saxton]

Are you sure it was a red back, as most if they do spin a web spin it close to the ground , usually you find them between layers of timber iron etc
I have never heard of a red back who shun a web that someone walked into , then again .......... as long as I didn't walk into it , cause I have a dissagrement with spiders..... Big time!!!!

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.There's just a preponderance of the buggers here wherever you go in the West let alone the rest of the country,mind you those Funnel Webs would be a different concern altogether that you folk over yonder have to deal with.

This was one of the biggest I've seen and very red and at the height of her maturity I'd say. not anacrophobic but I also have a decent book identifying Oz spiders as well but wellll ....2*4 piece o' timbers tend to give 'em a bit of a headache:D :D :D

Cheers:)

[ele__13]

Well after i would have scremed and carried on and the rest of the world would have heard what a commotion i was carrying on with and doug would have moved the spider on or dedded it the world would finally started to settle down

I hate them with a passion have been bitten and got very sick from qld trapdoor spiders and none of them are going to get a chance to bite me again
cheers all jules

[timberpassion]

I may be an exception to most people...I love the little buggers!

Been an avid fan of spiders and insects since i was a little tike, reading buying books studying them out in the backyard :P Got a friend in far north QLD who has a licence to catch and sell Bird Eaters to licenced collectors. When I can talk the misses into it (6yrs no luck so far!) I will have one as a pet.

Only ones I kill are Whitetails as these are the most dangerous in my oppinion. there one of the only species that will bite when not threatened, will walk on you in your sleep and bite like crazy wich makes them dangerous. Plus the Necrotic germs in there fluids make for nasty scars!

on another note...

Aracnoleptic - The strange epileptic dance one does when walking into a spiders web in the middle of the night!

If you have kids dont risk it, teach them a smart awareness of the dangers but not to fear them, just respect them enough not to get bitten.

Another fact, we each eat 3-5 insects a year in our sleep =D I personally watched a drunk friend of mine woff down an 8inch huntsman that was drinking the bear of his tongue hahaha!

Simon

[Iain]

I too have a passion for spiders, most will not attack unless provoked but I will step on latrodectus haselti that are in or near the house.
Apart from that, the ones that are in the shed are more than welcome.

[echnidna]

Lotsa spiders around here and the odd little scorpion.
Don't really worry about them.

Tiger snakes, however, are another matter.
Got a 4 ft resident one under the pile of gal iron behind the machinery shed.
Looks real fat too, could be a female.

Hope we get a cold winter as I'll go get it then.

[Iain]

Tiger snakes, however, are another matter.
Got a 4 ft resident one under the pile of gal iron behind the machinery shed.
Looks real fat too, could be a female.

Hope we get a cold winter as I'll go get it then.
Wimp:D :D :D
Nothing as character building as catching one on a nice hot day like today:p
Wear thongs just to make it more interesting;)

[Bob38S]

Mortein BLACK - luv the stuff as the spiders hate it.
As to envenomation - some say "I was bitten or know of .... and very little or nothing happened" - bear in mind that once the spider has used its venom it is not replaced immediately - always have bites checked out as you don't know how much of a dose you have received.
Bob

[DavidG]

Baygon Outdoor and spider..

Never found a spider that can survive a wiff of that stuff.
Redbacks just crawl out their web and fall to the ground.
Stays around long enough to do the job.:D


Disclaimer: I have no association etc................ and what ever..:rolleyes:

[la Huerta]

a few months ago whhen i was at he recycling depo getting timber, i turned over a piece and there was a redback right where i almost put my hand....


la H

[Trace]

Only ones I kill are Whitetails as these are the most dangerous in my oppinion. there one of the only species that will bite when not threatened, will walk on you in your sleep and bite like crazy wich makes them dangerous. Plus the Necrotic germs in there fluids make for nasty scars!

Simon

Gotta agree with you there timberpash. I was bitten on the inside thigh six inches below the jewels when I was a roofer. Killed the little bugger. Started out as a small 'itch like mad' spot that eventually turned into a four inch necrotic circle. Left me with a scar with a hole in it.

You see any - YOU KILL EM ALL!

Must be something about my jewels. Got in the car to go to work once and was stung right above the old fella, three times. Shot out of the car and pulled my strides down, then my jocks and out crawled this black wasp. The little blighter must have crawled in them when they were on the line. Good job I was only in the drive at the time.

[timberpassion]

most fetish's are weird but that takes the cake Trace :P

[echnidna]

Wimp:D :D :D
Nothing as character building as catching one on a nice hot day like today:p
Wear thongs just to make it more interesting;)

Me ex BIL used to go tiger snake hunting at Warneet with shorts and thongs.

One day he decided to bottle a live one in metho.
In his lounge room.
Well as soon as the snake hit the meths he comes out agin in a big rush.
BIL wearing only shorts, no thongs, is chasing this agitated snake around his lounge room. Eventually got it.

I'm a wimp, I'll wait till winter then go get it.

[HandyAndrea]

No snakes here in NZ.

We have one poisonous spider, which is very shy, lives at the beach, mostly, and doesn't bother people unless they bother it..........BUT we have been invaded by redbacks and white tailed spiders. THANKS Oz!!!

[Iain]

Me ex BIL used to go tiger snake hunting at Warneet with shorts and thongs.

One day he decided to bottle a live one in metho.
In his lounge room.
Well as soon as the snake hit the meths he comes out agin in a big rush.
BIL wearing only shorts, no thongs, is chasing this agitated snake around his lounge room. Eventually got it.

I'm a wimp, I'll wait till winter then go get it.
Well Bob, after all that, we got a 4 footer about 3" thick in the front garden on Saturday, Mrs ran over it and sat there blowing the horn waiting for me to come and get it, it's a black she proclaims, wrong, it was an extremely agitated tiger.
Iain 1 Tigers Nil.
Thongs and shorts too, if I had known it would have been gumboots.

[ozwinner]

Did ya eat it?
If not why not?

Al :p

[Stuart]

Me- I used to get 100s around the property until I changed the environment (growing grass etc). Still get a few, but what I do is set of a flea bomb in the shed every few months (they also kill spiders) and keeps them away for ages.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

My truckie BIL used to load honeycomb rocks from farms in Colac and flog 'em off to Garden Supplies. We got the occasional drystone fence, but usually we just drove his 30yard tipper into the paddock and hand-loaded direct from the ground. A lot of hard yakka, needless to say, especially when we had the hungryboards on. The "flats" were the big money items, up to about 5' across and 12" thick... they're also the prime nesting places for tiger snakes. :rolleyes:

Now my BIL was a BIG bloke, 24 stone when he passed on last year; he wasn't far off it back then, either... but he amazed us one day when he rolled over a smallish flat. Next thing we know, he was a blur up the side of the truck, not even touching the hungryboards. :eek:

There he was, top of the load, yelling at us to kill the $#&^# snake and when we looked, there was a li'l tiddler barely 12" long. :D:D

[Waldo]

G'day,

I was just down the shed with the camera to take some shots, when I saw this big girl running across my bench and as luck would have it, my tape measure was out - talk about perfect timing! :eek:

I could've done a Steve Erwin, but I didn't pick her up, thought it might be a tad risky seeing as how big she is.

This sheila was huge, was being past tense, as she's now a big splat on the shed floor.

Then coming back up from the shed, SWMBO spots a red back in a nest just near the steps, no where as big, but now dead jsut as the other one now is.

My place must be being invaded or something. Normally I leave spiders, but not redbacks or white tails. SWMBO hates it when I leave the huntsmen's in the house and don't tell her. :)

[Iain]

As much as I like spiders there is nothing as character building as a bloody great huntsman abseiling between you and the monitor when you least expect it, I generally pick them up and put them outside, after the pulse rate has subsided a bit.
Even the girls do it now and are not frightened.
The other great experience is walking in long grass and stepping on a long curved branch which proceeds to roll and smack you in the back of the leg.
That can be a change of jocks job in the middle of summer:D :D :D
Just saw the piccy, you baiting seppos again or is it photoshop?????

[Waldo]

Just saw the piccy, you baiting seppos again or is it photoshop?????

G'day Ian,

What's Photoshop? No idea what you're talking about. :confused: Honest it was that big.

[m@w8]

Wow what a monster!! Better keep that away from your little girl!!! :-) It might even carry her off!!!

[Waldo]

G'day Matt,

Reackon it would've carried me off to if I was quick enought to kill it after taking that shot.

So Matt, what sort of woodie stuff do you do in the shed of yours? ;)

[Felder]

That's only a baby, Waldo. You didn't even wait for it to grow up before you killed it?

Amazing coincidence how it stopped right next to your tape measure like that.......:rolleyes:

[Waldo]

Amazing coincidence how it stopped right next to your tape measure like that.......:rolleyes:

G'day Felder,

Not really, pure coincidence, I've got a few tools lying on the bench you see. Dumb spider raced past my #4 Stanley with out even a second glance. But then I would've too if I was a spider and I thought I might get killed.

Really, it was big. SWMBO wouldn't like me keeping a pet like that.

And besides, it was racing past my tape measure.

[Felder]

And besides, it was racing past my tape measure.
Sorry Waldo - forgive me for being a sceptic. Must just be my nature.:cool:
It's just that I have had a good look at the photo and I can't see any blur marks that would occur if I were to take a photo of a spider 'racing' next to the zero point of my tape measure. :confused:
I guess you are just a far superior photographer to I.;):D

[Waldo]

G'day Felder,

Yep, many years of experience in directing photo shoots. I guess it must be the camera:

http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=2&productNr=25215

[Waldo]

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:

[Auld Bassoon]

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:

I don't believe that these blighters grow that big, and if they do, I'm going into denial mode, and won't believe it's that big :eek: :p :D :D :D

[goat]

a few years ago the missus wanted to move the bed around being a water bed it had to be emptied so i drops a hose pipe in the bladder and run it out the window then sucks on end of the pipe till i felt the water coming down the pipe (not wanting to get a mouth full of the yuck water) first thing out of the pipe was a red back near cr@pped me pants:eek:

[DavidG]

Waldo
So whose plastic spider is it?

[Waldo]

G'day DavidG,

I can honestly and truthfully say that the spider wasn't plastic.

[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 :D

[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 :D
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.
http://i3.tinypic.com/w8upon.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/w8upu9.jpg
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.

http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/%7Estuart.lees/occipital/Pages/Photograph/Nature/images/Redback.jpg

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..