Redback Spiders

[pgc hunter]

Anyone else get these in their backyard?

I was out last night with a flashlight, and there are dozens around my pool, under the pool fence, in the rolled up pool cover, in the drains and even in the base of the basketball hoop. Found a few of these crawling away from their webs, I'm thinking if someone would've been walking around in bare feet or something they'd could easily get bitten.

Ofocourse, my backyard also contains orb weavers, huntsmen , black house spiders, daddy long legs, etc.

While observing last night, I walked into a spider web suspended across the entire backyard!!! YUCK! Not to mention getting rid of strands across the aperture of the scope!

[DavidU]

Yeh, I found one in the garage last night. Yuck

[Liz]

Yikes :eyepop:... remind me never to swim in your pool!
Saw on the Qld news last night that spiders are becoming prolific in Brisbane ..... they are everywhere :scared2::scared2::help3:

[casstony]

Our place is infested with redbacks too. Everything on the shed floor has redbacks under it and they are all through the rock garden - 100's of 'em. I have to keep drilling it into the kids to watch out. I suppose it's still better than living in the African bush - nothing here will jump on you and tear your throat out.

I think you treat the bite with an icepack? .....until you get to the hospital.

[AstralTraveller]

AH HA!!!

You've been sprung Sab. This is an admission that, contrary to your assertions, you can _sometimes_ see the sky from Melbourne. :P

I hope you had fun. :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

I've seen 3 in the past few days at my place in Sydney - under trailer wheel chocks and in the dog kennel, which the dogs don't use, thank goodness. I haven't seen any at all before that - in nearly 10 years in this house.

[erick]

Yep, cleaned the piles of garden waste from the backyard in SE suburbs of Melbourne a few weeks ago. Found some small ones.

[pgc hunter]

I rarely actually use my pool, (due to it being cold most of the time)... all you see around the entire things are Redback webs and the spiders that inhabit it are BIG! The abdomens are atleast pea-sized, and they are accompanied by many juveniles. Last night I actually found a Redback egg sack in the coiled pool cover.. and several juveniles inhabiting the web. Even under the decking beside the pool, at the entrance gate live 5 Redbacks that I found so far...and I've been using this gate in barefeet!

Last night I counted about 20 in my backyard.... some of them wondering outside of their webs...

[Ric]

Hi Tony, you are right the reccomended treatment for spider bites is to elevate the bite and and treat with an icepack.

Generally only the young and the elderly are seriously affected by Redback bites as their immune systems are either weak or still developing but it's always a wise move to go to the hospital or your doctor.

We don't seem to get many Redbacks around our place, but we do seem to get every other spider species.

One thing we do have a lot of are Scorpions, fascinating little critters. I think they are harmless.:confused2:

[kustard]

Yeah, we've noticed a mini-explosion of redbacks at our house and at my wife's workplace. They like to nest in the garage door edges where it's dark and warm. I'll have to clean them out as a precaution.

[pgc hunter]

NEVER assume a Scorpion is harmless.

[Ric]

Hi SAB, I always have that vision of the old James Bond movie where the scorpion is dropped down the back of the diamond smuggler and he dies instantly.

I didn't think the Australian ones were like that. could be time for a bit of research.

[kustard]

I've heard that smaller scorpions are worse than larger ones if you get stung. Dunno if it's myth though. I could Wiki but that involved effort ;)

[Ric]

I've done a quick search. Apparently they are mostly harmless but can give a nasty sting.

You treat the same as spider bites, ice and elevation.

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Scorpions

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Others/Scorpions/659


It's interesting that they are flourescent under UV light.

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

Careful where you put your fingers!!!

[Paddy]

We don't usually get redbacks at our place, but the biggest one I've ever seen recently took up residence in the battery box for our solar power system. And she'd laid quite a few eggs.

I heard on the Science Show a few years ago that there is some evidence that they are not native to Australia but are a naturalised form of Black Widow that migrated here on cargo ships in the 19th century. The boffins on the show said that this is why they are mostly found amongst human artifacts and not very much in the bush. I found this quite interesting.

[telecasterguru]

I haven't seen one around here for many years but funnel webs, that's another story.

Frank

[AdrianF]

I think I must have imported 1/2 the redback population from Marooka to Roma recently. I bought a VW IRS from a wrecker who strapped it to a pallet and sent it out to me on a truck the truckie complain about the amount of spiders on the IRS. When I checked there was about 50-60 redbacks in every nook and cranny. I just grabbed the oxy set and had a quick BBQ. Easiest way to get rid of them :)

Adrian

[JimmyH155]

Never seen one in our home at Burpengary.
I think it is either the awful name of our suburb or the two killer chooks we have that keeps them away - they even scare the cat off her food:D

[tlgerdes]

I had an infestation of Redbacks about 2 years ago....... 2 cans of Mortein Spider Control later and I havent seen any since.

Just spayed all the nooks and crannies i could find (anywhere i saw a web without a spider) and low and behold, they came out in droves. I reckon i would have had at least 30 dead ones around the house an hour later.

[Kevnool]

There even here way out west in my shed.
Cheers kev.

[bloodhound31]

Time to go down to Coles and grab a sixpack of those insect bombs. Throw one each in the observatory, shed, garage, outhouse, roofspace of your house and under the floor. :evil2:

Do it all at the same time so you get all the breeders and all the eggs together. I highly reccomend surface spray around every door, window, cornice and skirt too. Petrol down the holes of the big ants nests and sump-oil all along the bottom of your boundary fences. NUKE EM ALL I say!:evil:

Trees....cut them all down, they spoil the view. ;)

If I want to see nature, I go out of the city. Nature should stay out of the suburbs.....unless it helps pay the rent....:lol: :P

Baz.

[BerrieK]

LOL!! That's a unique spider population control method - spaying their nooks and crannies so they cannot breed...


We too have lots at the moment. We always do at this time of the year. Especially in the bore pump shed - the biggest ones I have ever seen. Viva my blunderstones - splat.

Kerrie :)

[pgc hunter]

Nice and warm here tonight, I'll go outside spider hunting and see what I find...

curiously yesterday there was a whole bunch of slugs around. Yuck!

[CoolhandJo]

I got FLICK in and it knocked em down and away for about 6months. Took another 6 months until they returned in numbers, but nothing like before!

BTW I have funnel webs in my backyard... Hard to get rid of them as they "hide" and dont usually die from ground spray.

[pgc hunter]

Time to get a can of hair spray and a lighter ;)

[Hagar]

Spiders Yuk, One thing I have learned during my tussle with termites is that the same spray applied as a fine mist provides a very good surface protection from spiders and kills them all very dead.. The chemical used by my first pest control bloke was Bifenthrin. At a dilution of 0.25% kills spiders for about six months and apparently not humans or pets. It is available from most farm supplies for about $45 for 1 ltr of concentrate which makes about 400 Ltrs of spider spray. I got my place sprayed and no spiders but the termites are still feasting away. Mongrels.

[spearo]

They often like to hide in the "underside" of things such as outdoor furniture etc...
Always check before sitting on outdoor furniture!
Redback and whitetails are the only two kinds that have a short life span around me
I protect all the other one we get at the property (Huntsmen, wolfspider, indoor geeky ones etc)

frank

[stephenb]

It seems the increase of redbacks has also been noticed by experts:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/cooler-summer-conditions-see-redback-spider-numbers-explode/story-e6frf7jo-1225832379308

[Starkler]

Yes I have de-redbacked my outdoor furniture a few times and the buggers keep returning. They make the messiest looking webs of all spiders that seem to get littered with debris.

Garage has them too along the bottom of the main door. Time to start the chemical warfare.



Same here except daddy-longlegs are also exterminated without mercy. Apart from messing up the house with cobwebs they also attract whitetails being one of their favoured food sources.

[pgc hunter]

My pool has an unbroken network of Redback webs around 3/4 of its circumference, with several large spiders occupying it, plus numerous juvineiles. Also found a nest inside the rolled up pool cover, with an almighty egg sac :eek: ... plus another couple of spiders around the pool skimmer box which I handle regularly to clean it, not to mention more yet in the drains. Oh yeah, and the access gate to my pool contains 4 Redbacks, which are a real risk to anyone using it, especially in bare feet.

Ofcourse, the basketball hoop stand is a Redback habitat, as is a couple of rocks in the front yard. Then there is my brother's old doghouse (unnocupied - thankfully!) which has a big mutha residing near it!

I dare not venture into my shed after dark...god knows what arachnid terror lies inside lol...

Time to whip out the hairspray + lighter flamethrower me thinks!

[DavidU]

....note to self........ Do NOT go to Sab's place.

[pgc hunter]

In addition to Redbacks, we have a big population of Bull Ants and White Tail Spiders come in plague proportions. During the warmer months I have to kill one every second night :mad2:

[Octane]

Sab,

Between the spiders and clouds, you have it really good. :P

H

[pgc hunter]

well, atleast there is no mozzies here :D :D :D Infact even last summer the mozzie situation was quiet, but the one before that was hell...

[DavidU]

The mozzies are worried about getting eaten by the redbacks !

[pgc hunter]

speaking of redbacks eating things, i always see them wrapping up beatles and other bugs.

[fringe_dweller]

hey yeah, us too, never seen them in these numbers at this house before, evryday i am glad for that innate thing red backs have in their inbuilt altimeter means *generally* means they dont stray far from groundlevel, yes i have seen them in a roof cavity, very rare in my experience, and no poisonous spiders build webs like say orb spiders do between trees, we would really be wouldnt we? interesting that, that would spark a vicious all out war on spiders wouldnt?
i went round perimeter of house walls/ground level vents last night with the greatest weapon ever invented regarding insects/ of all sorts, the atomic bomb of, the might rolled up newspaper, i know garfield comics guy is a fan, WHACK.... WHACK WHACK this continued seven more times
with this rolled up tome i smite thee oh evil dark grape with legs, and they say newspapers are endangered species, try doing that with you laptop! and this isnt the first night lately i have done this!
of note, i am pretty sure that daddy long legs are redbacks mortal enemy number one, and interesting that i havent seen those lanky bouncing freaks much of late? in fact none now, wonder if thats why the redbacks numbers are up? no longer kept in check? just a cycle, but strange in diff states who have had diff conditions hmmm
and redbacks introduced you say? not sure about that, heard that bout whitetails and turns out to be BS, also in bush think they live under *dry* rocks mostly, thats why you dont see 'em?