Nature's battles

[iceman (Mike)]

Was doing some gardening out the front on Saturday, on the driveway cutting up branches for the green bin. We've got a rock retaining wall to the right, and I notice something moving out of the corner of my eye.

About a metre away, I see a huge orange/black wasp literally dragging a huntsman spider out from one of the gaps between the rocks. I don't like wasps or huntsman spiders, so I take a step back and continue to watch the show.

A few seconds later, a kookaburra swoops down and lands on the ground in front of me. It sizes up the situation and then pecks out at the wasp/spider. The wasp drops the spider which lands on the rock, and proceeds to buzz around the kookaburra stinging at its head a few times. It flies off, while the kookaburra calmly pecks at the huntsman and begins to devour it, taking about 6-10 chews before it's down the hatch.

The kooka then flew back to the top of a light pole probably with a sore head, and a few minutes later the wasp comes back sniffing at the ground probably looking for any left over spider

It was quite a show!

[Dujon]

Ol' Mother Nature can indeed be cruel, Mike. The huntsman type spider is subject to the attention of a few predators if I recall correctly. One is the spider wasp (which could be the one you witnessed) and, apart from birds such as the Kookaburra, another class of flying insect - whose name totally eludes me at the moment, but they look like hornets as they have long dangling legs.

I once witnessed an orange version of the latter dragging a stunned huntsman up a large sliding door window. An amazing feat of strength. The only other meeting of such kind was when a dark brown/black version of the same beastie (though a little smaller and which are common around here) flew into my workshop. This, by the way, is not an unusual occurrence so I thought little of it. This time though the thing flew into my hair; naturally I brushed it away. I was sitting at the work computer at the time and heard a solid 'plop' on my keyboard. The offending object was the body of a huntsman sans legs. These insects must stun the spider and then de-limb the poor thing before heading off to somewhere to store it. Yuk!

[Ric]

Nature is certainly fascinating, I remember watching water spiders by the dam. They dangle their long front legs in the water like fishing lines and the small fry come up for a nibble and the spiders grab them, very quick and talented on their part and a nice fish dinner to boot.

cheers

[Dennis]

Last week I accidentally trod on a mud nest on the front patio and when it crumbled, inside there were some larvae and a couple of small, green caterpillars. Then, a large, angry wasp thing, with an orange body and dangling legs came to review the mess I had made, so I hastily got indoors, behind the fly screen and watched this distressed parent trying to make sense of what had happened to his baby incubator. My wife thought that the wasp paralyses the caterpillars and builds the mud nest around them, for her larvae to feed on as they develop.

Cheers

Dennis

[xelasnave]

I tried to tell you guys life is exciting in the bush. These sorts of shows go on all the time. I have various lizards after moths, the odd bat after insects a snake after a rat, it is all indeed interesting.
alex

[xelasnave]

Funny just thought about it..ever seen that cartoon of the frog in the mouth of a stork with its legs around the neck of the stork. with the caption never give up...saw this snake travelling along the ground but raised like a cobra so his head was about 1.5 foot off the ground, in his mouth a frog holding on with all fours just like the cartoon. I guess he would have had to give up finally as it was a no win situation for the frog.

[Striker (Tony)]

What a show Mike.

I dont mind most insects or spiders but I am extremely scared of snakes.

I cant help thinking this story was based on a true life event where you brought home some nice takeaway for the family went out to set up the scope then went in for a feed to find nothing was left.

I think your the wasp Mike....lol

[ving (David)]

i love just sitting and watching nature doing its thing around me...

One time while waiting for a train at Artarmon station i saw a wasp swoop up into the rafters of the shelter. I watched for a little while but couldnt see anything... next thing i knew a spider dropped on teh ground at my feet and staggered around a bit, then the wasp came and landed near it, attacked and started pullung the legs off one by one. the wasp then flew off with the parylised spider. it was facinating to watch

another time in my backyard i had notice for some time that a wasp had been building a mud nest under a small fishtank in a window sill... i had completely forgotten about and one day removed the tank to clean it. squeezed inbetween to bricks was about 20 small spiders of various species.

[Ric]

Hi Tony, when your in the bush just remeber to walk with heavy feet and snakes will pick up the vibrations and move out of your way, most times.

cheers