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multiweb
02-01-2012, 09:54 AM
This is about the size of a 50c coin and it was crawling under my T-shirt this morning and came out of my sleave under my arm pit while I was gardening. I didn't get bitten but it looks like it has a major set of front hooks. Just checking with you guys it's totally begnin. I nearly s||t myself though. :question:

Liz
02-01-2012, 09:58 AM
:eyepop: eeeeeek, any spider is a bad spider, unless it is a dead spider. double eeek, in your shirt. :help3: Sorry Marc, could not look at spider, but am sure someone will help. :thumbsup:

Marke
02-01-2012, 10:28 AM
No its not dangerous , looks like a big fat huntsman or similar most likely a big female your safe :)

Marke
02-01-2012, 10:47 AM
Mouse spiders are black generally and have much larger mandibles and thick legs:


Mouse spiders have high, bulbous heads and jaws
The carapace is smooth and shiny
The eyes are spread across the front of the carapace, not closely grouped
The spinnerets are short, the last segment domed and button-like
Male spiders have long slender pedipalps
Male spiders have no mating spurs on the legs
Males of some species have distinctive colour markings but others are black overall

jjjnettie
02-01-2012, 10:52 AM
Hard to tell what species it is, need a sharper piccie.

Jen
02-01-2012, 10:53 AM
:jawdrop: ewwwwww OMG if i found that in my t-shirt i would so be screaming like a girl :eyepop:and i would never wear that t-shirt ever again :shrug:

multiweb
02-01-2012, 10:54 AM
Cool - it's just a big scary nothing then. :P When I saw the red on its butt I thought wow that can't be not good. I knew it wasn't a funnel web as I had plenty in the house when we had the brick work exposed upstairs when building the extension. They don't back off, they just face you with their legs up in the air when you tease them with a wooden broom stick. I had one that jammed its fangs in the wood once and I had to shake it off. :lol: You wouldn't like to be bitten by one of these for sure. That's gotta hurt.

multiweb
02-01-2012, 10:54 AM
Can you see the awesomeness of my macro skills? ;)

multiweb
02-01-2012, 10:55 AM
Yeah I did that too. :P

JohnG
02-01-2012, 10:57 AM
This is a nice spider, lol.

Cheers

renormalised
02-01-2012, 10:58 AM
Mouse spiders have long spinnerets....they're mygalomorphs (primitive spiders). That's what was worrying me with that piccie of Marc's. Some male mouse spiders have colour but they're mainly black/brown/reddish brown in colour as you mentioned.

It probably is a huntsman, but you still don't want to be bitten by one!!!.

The fact it was so calm even after Marc putting his T shirt on would suggest it's a huntsman. Most mouse spiders would either skidaddle or curl up into a ball. Some will bite, though.

As JJJ said, the piccie really made it hard to identify. That's why I thought it may have been a mouse spider of some sort.

I've seen a mouse spider munching on a gecko......gecko had no chance despite being a rather large one. Needless to say I killed the spider as I didn't want it coming in the house!!!.

AstralTraveller
02-01-2012, 11:22 AM
Yep, we really do need better photos, preferably before it was mashed - and without so much shaking! :P

The options seem to be huntsman or mouse spider and I'll give long odds it's the former. They are far more common - I've seen hundreds in urban areas (including indoors) compared to only several mouse spiders which were always in the bush - and famously non-aggressive (I've carried them outside in my hands). They are good around the house as they feed on bugs, including cockroaches, though we did find the several hundred hatchlings on the kitchen ceiling a bit too much.

Given the time you've been here I'm a bit surprised that this is the first one you've seen. A bloke I know, a Scot, met is first huntsman when it crawled out of the vent and onto the windscreen of the car he was in traveling from Mascot to Wollongong about an hour after he landed in the country! Apparently it just raised a claw and said "Welcome to Australia, mate!". :lol:

http://australianmuseum.com/Mouse-Spiders
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Huntsman-Spiders

DavidU
02-01-2012, 11:26 AM
Did the BO kill it?:lol:

multiweb
02-01-2012, 11:31 AM
Yep it curled up alright when I rolled it off. Sorry it's in the bin now so no chance of a better photo.


Garlic will kill anything David. In time....

renormalised
02-01-2012, 11:40 AM
Just had a look at that site, Dave. Said mouse spiders have short spinnerets. Yet have a look at a red headed mouse spider....they're typical mygalomorphs with long spinnerets

renormalised
02-01-2012, 11:42 AM
Pity, a good pic would've been good to have.



Especially vampires!!!:):):P:P:P

Marke
02-01-2012, 12:08 PM
Looking at it closely mainly the belly markings its a Badge huntsman and again most likely a female.

Allan_L
02-01-2012, 01:44 PM
Classic !!!
I love it.
:rofl:

Baddad
02-01-2012, 03:08 PM
Hi Marc,

Common Badge, Garden, House or Brown Huntsman. Bitey but no venom to worry about.
I have them in the house sometimes.

I've been bitten a few times. They have enormous strength to drive those curved pointy things in.

Everytime I've been bitten its been because I pick them up or::: once as I was teasing it. Just two tiny pin-pricks on the end of my finger.
Only reason I pick them up is to throw them out of the house.
Have not had any for a few years. Probably the Geckos have sorted them out lately.


Common name:Badge Huntsman SpiderScientific name:NeosparassusFamily:Sparassidae Order:Araneae

renormalised
02-01-2012, 03:25 PM
Yep....beautiful spider. Not like these brutes (below). It was a female eating that gecko I mentioned before. You wouldn't want it to sink its fangs in anywhere!!!. Considering they do have a nasty venom!!.

Baddad
02-01-2012, 04:43 PM
Hi Carl,

I used to tease these little black monsters out of their burrows.
The female (as the one you pictured) digs in up to a metre


Missulena "occatoria" and "bradleyi"
Nasty bitey and dangerously venemous. Shorter spinerrets than the Sydney Funnel Web. (That's the two small feeler things out the tail.)
Otherwise its difficult to tell them apart.

Marc is fortunate not to have that in his shirt. Otherwise we would be hearing from him in hospital.
I don't kill safe spiders. I like to have them rather than mossies.
Many people will kill everything off and then complain about all the nasty mossies they get. Its their own doing sometimes. They have killed off all the mossie predators. The frogs and toads leave because they are very sensitive to insect repellents and the propellants, etc.

Look after some of your spiders. They inadvertantly look after you.

Cheers

ballaratdragons
02-01-2012, 04:51 PM
It's just a garden spider :thumbsup:

A Smallish Huntsmen. Fantastic insect control around the house, great in the Garden for eating the bugs that eat your vegies :)

Cool little fellows :)

renormalised
02-01-2012, 04:52 PM
Don't mind daddy long-legs, but anything larger and bitier can take a detour outside, thank you very much :):P

AstralTraveller
02-01-2012, 07:27 PM
Is it true that the daddy long-leg venom is actually extremely nasty but they don't carry much and can't pierce your skin anyway? Urban legend perhaps. :shrug:

Marty??

Barrykgerdes
02-01-2012, 07:32 PM
All those spiders are tame compared to the one I used to have dealings with. If you got in a session with him on the rough red in the wardroom or on a bar stool you would be sick for a week!

Barry

renormalised
02-01-2012, 07:48 PM
Daddy long-legs actually have the deadliest venom of any spider, any terrestrial creature for that matter. The only reason why they don't kill people is that their fangs are so small, they'd actually break them trying to pierce your skin:):P

What's scary is that they've been hybridising with red backs.

adman
02-01-2012, 08:03 PM
funniest spider related story I have to tell is of my father....

Driving home from work one Friday afternoon after a long hard week, he had stopped off at the bottle-o to get a beer to drink on the way home (I know, I know). He was in that relaxed frame of mind that comes when winding down at the end of a long week when he rounded a bend in the road. The sun was getting low and he flipped the visor down to shade his eyes. On top of the visor was a very large huntsman spider that plopped down into his lap. I think there was much screaming and weaving across the road as he frantically tried to brush the spider away.

Needless to say the relaxed frame of mind took some time to return....!

Marke
02-01-2012, 08:04 PM
Umm they actually eat redbacks thats why they are often found together

renormalised
02-01-2012, 08:11 PM
I know, but there have been reports of hybridised spiders.

Good to have DLL's around, but they spin webs just about everywhere!!!.

gliderdog
02-01-2012, 08:43 PM
think it is a garden or fruit spider...I captured this huntsmen after it lost a battle with a wasp - hence the melancholy pose!!

ballaratdragons
02-01-2012, 10:14 PM
Sorry Carl, but it is an Urban Myth.

http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

Also:

But lets not let all that get in the way of a good story ;) :P

Octane
02-01-2012, 10:20 PM
There was a Mythbusters episode on daddy long legs and their venom.

H

ballaratdragons
02-01-2012, 10:25 PM
Yep, Stupid Adam made the Daddy long legs bite him :lol:

Baddad
03-01-2012, 08:38 AM
Hi David,:)

I didn't know the answer about DLL. I never researched it. Any harmless spiders were not an issue.
Thanks to Ken I now know what the facts are.:D:)

But! Yes, it was what I had heard about DLLs as well (them being highly toxic) and that was from rather poorly informed sources.

Just another way I used to play with spiders (when I was about 7-11)
I'd catch a fly, keep it alive and unharmed, throw it into a spider web.
Then watch the spider rush out from its harbourage and attack the fly.
It would wrap the fly in web material and eventually move the secured fly to its storage area. This was called fun. :lol:

I disliked both spiders and flies but they fascinated me. Particularly how such sticky web material was so expertly manipulated by the spider.

Cheers

multiweb
03-01-2012, 09:47 AM
Thanks Marty, that's the one. :thumbsup: It maybe harmless but I'm still glad it didn't sink its fangs into me. They were freaking huge. When I felt it under my sleave it rolled into a ball and played dead. It didn't do anything nasty or try to run away. Just got scared when I saw the red back. I now have a fair idea where I collected it. One of the front palm trees. I was working at the back on my pier so it must have been there for a while (in my T shirt) before I noticed it. :scared:

multiweb
03-01-2012, 09:48 AM
Yeah I recognise those ones. Nasty buggers. I hate them. I sprayed them all though. The ducks love'em. Apparently they're only deadly to humans.

AstralTraveller
03-01-2012, 10:19 AM
Spray??? Ducks??? Do you eat the ducks or their eggs? Ever heard of bio-accumulation?

multiweb
03-01-2012, 10:53 AM
Yeah I sprayed all the ones inside the house. No I don't feed the ducks anything I spray. They like the live stuff so whenever I find one or roaches they love them. The vet told me it's fine.

I used to eat the eggs but she got too fat and stopped. She's on a diet now. Bio-accumulation... :question: I'll check if I grow a third eye next time I get a hair cut. :thumbsup:

Baddad
03-01-2012, 01:03 PM
Hi Marc,
Its often not a good thing to use sprays. Phosphates are very deadly to birds (ducks) where as pyrethrins are deadly to fish and aquatic life.

Both ranges of chemicals are used in insecticides.
Some phosphous compounds are used in agriculture controlling fruit pests. They are available from produce stores for the public.
The concentrate, straight out of the bottle is so toxic to birds that one drop, 1cc, can kill up to 2,000 pigeons. The LD50 is 240ugms/Kg.
Farmers spray it on fruit. There is a with-holding period before they are allowed to harvest. The chemical breaks down to harmless H2O, CO2, etc.
That is only while the fruit is still attached to the tree. It does not breakdown if the fruit is harvested before the end of the withholding period.

Most of the Mortein and Rid type of products are pyrethrins. Quite dangerous to the fish.
We all need to be aware of what the affects are on wildlife when we spray. Googling helps. Have a look at the active constituents.

Cheers

DeeTee
03-01-2012, 02:30 PM
Hi Marc

The perils of gardening.

One of the advantages of Astronomy is that it's a lot harder to see the little nasties crawling around you. I am sure there are many.

multiweb
03-01-2012, 04:36 PM
I don't spray the garden. Ever. I'm aware most of the stuff gets into the storm water or drains then god knows where. But I do spray the house every 6 months or I'd be invaded by spiders, ants or roaches. They can stay outside, I don't mind.



You still can feel them though. One night I set up on a bull ant nest. I still remember it. I boiled a couple of kettle and poured it down the hole.

Shano592
04-01-2012, 12:19 AM
Yeah, that sort of encounter is one you don't forget in a hurry. And bull ants are on my list of things to kill on sight. In Perth, I used to pour over-strength chlorpyrifos down their nest. And then boiling water. A 3cm long ant is just too big.

A pity they banned chlorpyrifos - I plucked it off a shelf at Bunnings one day. The health warning just said "TOXIC". Apparently 5mL in 500L of water can kill a horse! Awesome stuff!

Glenhuon
06-01-2012, 12:09 AM
I used to quite like spiders, until a redback bit me about 3 months ago. Little bugger got into my shirt while I was working on the bike, bit me at the waist. Thought, well, it just a bite be ok in an hour or two. Not! Spent the next 36 hours suffering from what felt like Gout in all my joints. 3 shots of anti veneen (most they could give me), and one of morphine before I came good. They are now Persona Non Grata around here. If ya get bit, straight to the doc and take the spider with ya for ID.

Screwdriverone
06-01-2012, 02:41 AM
Thats not a spider.....now THIS is a SPIDER......;)

Here is a quite large huntsman I walked under 6 times when bringing my astro gear inside from the backyard. ( I am 6'9", so my head JUST clears the alcove he is sitting on...)

I only saw it after I turned on the light....wouldnt have been the first huntsman on my head though, I have had one the size of my HAND land on my head when I was up the mountains checking the house after the 2004 bushfires... now THAT made the hairs stand up and the adrenaline pumped.....

One time when my wife and I were driving through Liverpool, a 10cm diameter (legs extended) Huntsman crawled out of the crevices on the car body and proceeded to climb up my wife's passenger side window......she SCREAMED and scared the crap out of me on the Hume highway, I swerved and she pointed out said monster, I asked her if it was on the inside or the outside, she said "OUTSIDE", so I continued driving, wherein she kindly told me (read: screamed at me) to PULL OVER AND KILL IT, KILL IT NOW!!!!!,

Then she proceeded to LOCK HER DOOR, well, that was it for me......I pissed myself laughing for 10 minutes while I pulled over, hazards on, left lane of three lane highway, braved the traffic, ran around the car, took off a shoe and brushed it off the car where it ran off into the grass......got back in and continued on with tears in my eyes and sore ribs from laughing.....

She said: "why are you laughing at me..???." I said......"honey, I know it scared you and it was a BIG spider.....but do you really think it was going to try to OPEN THE DOOR to get to you????". I kept cackling all the way to our destination....

:) :) :)

Still bring up that pearler during family dinner parties.....LOL!!!

Cheers

Chris

Baddad
06-01-2012, 08:00 AM
Good one Chris.

We can say goodbye to a few hundred pesky bugs in that release area.:lol: