Are Australian spiders really that big?
- Thread starter Insanity72
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Spiders around here don't get that big, no. We have a couple really common poisonous spider though: brown recluse and black widow. They aren't like the usual rare-but-deadly, they are fucking everywhere. I could go in my shed or basement and find one of each in half an hour. both are around an inch too, not that big. Just have a nasty bite. I'd prefer big spiders so long as they aren't poisonous.
thankfully the recluse doesn't bite too often, just have to watch what you're doing if you're messing with some old wood or something. They can get in clothes and bite though. My mom had to have a chunk of her leg cut out after being bitten by one.
thankfully the recluse doesn't bite too often, just have to watch what you're doing if you're messing with some old wood or something. They can get in clothes and bite though. My mom had to have a chunk of her leg cut out after being bitten by one.
And that one is p.o'd - time to leave!Nazulu said:
The Funnel Web are not as big but still pretty big and are the most dangerous. Teeth are sharp enough to go through your shoes and their poison can kill you.
Also, they're movie stars, a lot of monster spiders (like Shelob in the LOTR movies) are modelled on them.
*screams loudly at 3 point intervals*CulixCupric said:the coconut crab, is actually a spider:
this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.
And yes. A spider the size of my palm I would consider rather large. But then spiders freak me the eff out.
Ah yes. Golden Orb Weaver... Words fail.Dastardly said:I have run out of screams. All of them are gone, forever. Now I must kill to obtain more, because this image still exists.reonhato said:its not the big ones you need to be afraid of though, they are easy to see and you can just avoid them. its all the little bastards that bite people. sure most dont die but occasionally it does happen
anyway pic is apparently from some guys backyard up near Cairns, yes the spider is eating a bird
And suddenly I'm glad that the most terrifying things in Canada are moose with parasites in their brains that cause them to go crazy...
Is it just me or is that thing rearing up to strike?Jaythulhu said:
Yes, yes they are. That one was trying to hitch-hike with me. It's a baby, by the way.
OT: Well I'm Irish so the house spiders we have here don't bother me too much as long as they don't drop on my head or anything. Hell I prefer a spider on the wall to a moth fluttering about my head.
That's not to say we don't get ones that are relatively big here. I remember one time I was in the bathroom taking a wee when a big ************(for here) of a spider dropped down from the ceiling and started scuttling around my feet. Bastard was big enough that it made fucking NOISE on the wood floor. I wasn't surprised to find that the volume of piss had increased at that moment.
As for Austrailia, those spiders can fuck right off. Not the huntsman or ones like that. But the angry ones that'd bite and kill you for the lulz.
Spider related video below:
For me I think it depends on the average size for the species. For example, I live in the UK, where wolf spiders aren't meant to grow larger than about 4cm^2, but I've seen a few the size of large mice. When I see those guys, I think they're pretty big, but only because I know what size they should be. However, palm-sized spiders of appropriate species like bird spiders I consider pretty regular.Insanity72 said:
But then again, I'm a biologist, so I'm probably overthinking this.
Reminds me of the story about me as a toddler in a Publix or something. As the story goes, my mom was looking at the canned foods and whatnot while I'm in the buggy sipping a juice box or something. Then she hears me go like, "Uh, mom? Could you get this thing off my face?" She looks over and there's this 6 inch long praying mantis just chillin like mofo on the side of my head. Mom's freaking out but apparently I was just mildly irritated by the fact that I was being asked to share my face. Little me was kind of a baws, it seems.Nexis01 said:
this thread is making me laugh nervously and question why i ever thought about going to australia
It's stuff like this that convinces me that we as a species are in no way ready to meet extraterrestrial life.
yes, that would freak me out. Speaking of Australian animals, I heard about something called a drop bear. Is that a real thing, or something that's made up?Insanity72 said:
When ever I think of Australia, for some reason I think of Dylan Moran's description of Australia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_43-4xjnVA&feature=related
I've never seen a spider that was bigger than my thumbnail, and even those I think are a bit too big ... but all I ever see around here are wolf spiders and the occasional jumping spider. I was never afraid of spiders, and then about two years ago I found a black widow in my bed, so I've been at least slightly weary of them ever since.
Hold me. I've just spent 4 pages not knowing whether to cry or scream.Irridium said:No, HELL no, fuck that. FUCK that. That shit needs a nice heaping of flamethrower and nuke applied to it. Perhaps an Exterminatus just to be sure.Zack Alklazaris said:
Yea I'd say they are pretty big.
Oh and I just had to share this, I think I fainted a little.
*image snipped to preserve what little sanity remains*
The other week I got out of bed in the middle of the night and saw one of those things with the tiny body (millimetres wide) and really skinny legs, and I couldn't fucking sleep all night.
A spider could never get that big because their circulation system adn respiratory system isn't nearly effective enough to sustain that kind of body size. A coconut crab is as closely related to a spider as a lobster is.CulixCupric said:the coconut crab, is actually a spider:
this is a medium sized one, btw, they can get bigger.
No. Everything fails. Because this exists, there can be no loving God (who could not justify creating this), nor a malevolent Satan (who could not abide such competition), nor natural Evolution (there is nothing "natural" about this). There is only the stark, naked reality that there exists a monstrous, unspeakable feedback loop in the food chain that produces things like this.LordHotCakes said:
I had already reconciled my life with the fact that some species of spider have demonstrated the capacity to learn, or that certain species of trap door spider can catch and eat tiny birds from carefully-planned places of ambush on the ground. But this?
It is a goddamn spider that eats birds. It eats them from the air.
IF there was ever a tiny chance of me going to Australia, it has been reduced to UNDER 0% after this thread.
I considered myself the epitome of braveness when despite being arachnophobe i'd capture spiders in my house with a glass and let them free in a display of generosity. Those are spiders no bigger then my pinkie at its worst, legs included.
With the australian spiders... No fucking way. And large spider visits are common? Up to a dozen times a year? Fuck that!!!!!!
I considered myself the epitome of braveness when despite being arachnophobe i'd capture spiders in my house with a glass and let them free in a display of generosity. Those are spiders no bigger then my pinkie at its worst, legs included.
With the australian spiders... No fucking way. And large spider visits are common? Up to a dozen times a year? Fuck that!!!!!!
Awwww, they're adorable! *equips Honey Badger Anti-venom* Besides, they're mostly helpful creatures. It's just a shame they're mostly terror-inducing, the poor misunderstood little guys.
See? They kill wasps! I'd take spiders over wasps any day, the miserable, life-hating airborne squads of death. Wasps want nothing more than to fuck your shit up.
So show some love to our helpful, eight-legged friends.
See? They kill wasps! I'd take spiders over wasps any day, the miserable, life-hating airborne squads of death. Wasps want nothing more than to fuck your shit up.
So show some love to our helpful, eight-legged friends.