"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Thursday, June 20, 2019
So, do Australians have to routinely walk around armed with clubs and machetes?
'Huntsman' spiders like that hide in cars, then when you're cruising down the busy highway they suddenly appear and walk across the inside of the windshield.
The spider fell from the interior roof onto a 65-year old Fairfield male driver causing his car to swerve into the westbound lane...
See, it wasn't just taking a stroll across the windshield, it jumped on the driver and wrestled the steering wheel from him, and steered the car into the other lane.
The windshield thing happened to my son, also on the same highway. He's been very arachnaphobic so I'm glad he handled the spider's appearance, unlike hysterical visitors from Fairfield. But he went through a ritual searching of his car every day for weeks after.
Hunstman eat cockroaches and vermin, they are our friends. I wish something would eat the possums that dance on my roof at night. Something ripped a cockatoo apart in my yard a few nights back, still wondering what, a fox? The elusive panther? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountains_panther
Bruce: Are the cockroaches huge, too? Never mind, I don't think I want to know. When I lived in Miami, we were occasionally plagued with really big roaches called Palmetto bugs. The first time I snuck up on one to spray him with a can of Raid, I discovered that the damned things could fly. I regret to say I withdrew in disorder.
Your yard sounds like the kind of place that you might not want to walk around in at night without a shotgun and a flashlight.
I do believe I have posted about our bird-eating Golden Orb spider [Nephila edulis] before. For those that have forgotten, or missed it, here is a photo taken on our property a few years ago. The unfortunate bird was about 7 inches from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. The spider preserves her prey by wrapping it in her golden orb. She makes many visits and takes some weeks to devour it. Her web is strong enough to slow down my tractor if I accidentally drive through one. https://s154.photobucket.com/user/Skeeter_049/media/bird-in-golden-orb-web.jpg.html
Bruce, I may have exaggerated a little about slowing the tractor down but the web was strong enough to push my head back and I braked the tractor to a stop.
Good lord! Skeeter has spiders, too, and even bigger ones! And they're laying traps like I used to see in WWII movies (the old rope-at-neck-level routine).
Indeed Paco. In the instance I mentioned above if the bridge thread — the extra-strong strand from which the whole web is suspended — had been at neck level, the risk of decapitation would have been significant. I was shouting commands at my dog at the time and the bridge strand was at a height that allowed it to come to rest in the back corners of my open mouth. I am blessed with short reaction times and jaw muscles powerful enough to clamp the strand between molars long enough to stop the tractor and select reverse. Incidentally, slowly backing away until the web is entirely peeled off your front, is quite the best way to get out of any web. The normal reaction of wildly flailing your arms is certain to result in serious entanglement and close confrontation with an enraged spider.
13 comments:
“It’s a good-sized spider,” Fry remarked, but “it’s not some sort of Godzilla spider.”
Well, that's your opinion, Mr. Fry. If a spider is big enough to take my entire foot to squash it, it's a Godzilla spider.
I'm with you. Looks like it would take old-school cleated golf shoes to kill that thing.
'Huntsman' spiders like that hide in cars, then when you're cruising down the busy highway they suddenly appear and walk across the inside of the windshield.
https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/4448093/huntsman-spider-sparks-four-car-crash/
- Driver was a tourist not a local. Figures.
The spider fell from the interior roof onto a 65-year old Fairfield male driver causing his car to swerve into the westbound lane...
See, it wasn't just taking a stroll across the windshield, it jumped on the driver and wrestled the steering wheel from him, and steered the car into the other lane.
Just what I'd expect a Godzilla spider to do!
Ahhh, ya bunch of pussies! That's just a baby! And the possum is a young 'un too!
The windshield thing happened to my son, also on the same highway. He's been very arachnaphobic so I'm glad he handled the spider's appearance, unlike hysterical visitors from Fairfield. But he went through a ritual searching of his car every day for weeks after.
Hunstman eat cockroaches and vermin, they are our friends. I wish something would eat the possums that dance on my roof at night. Something ripped a cockatoo apart in my yard a few nights back, still wondering what, a fox? The elusive panther?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountains_panther
Bruce: Are the cockroaches huge, too? Never mind, I don't think I want to know. When I lived in Miami, we were occasionally plagued with really big roaches called Palmetto bugs. The first time I snuck up on one to spray him with a can of Raid, I discovered that the damned things could fly. I regret to say I withdrew in disorder.
Your yard sounds like the kind of place that you might not want to walk around in at night without a shotgun and a flashlight.
Speaking of elusive cats...
I do believe I have posted about our bird-eating Golden Orb spider [Nephila edulis] before. For those that have forgotten, or missed it, here is a photo taken on our property a few years ago. The unfortunate bird was about 7 inches from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. The spider preserves her prey by wrapping it in her golden orb. She makes many visits and takes some weeks to devour it.
Her web is strong enough to slow down my tractor if I accidentally drive through one.
https://s154.photobucket.com/user/Skeeter_049/media/bird-in-golden-orb-web.jpg.html
I was waiting for Skeeter to tell us about his area which is different to mine. Amazing stuff.
Bruce, I may have exaggerated a little about slowing the tractor down but the web was strong enough to push my head back and I braked the tractor to a stop.
Good lord! Skeeter has spiders, too, and even bigger ones! And they're laying traps like I used to see in WWII movies (the old rope-at-neck-level routine).
Indeed Paco. In the instance I mentioned above if the bridge thread — the extra-strong strand from which the whole web is suspended — had been at neck level, the risk of decapitation would have been significant. I was shouting commands at my dog at the time and the bridge strand was at a height that allowed it to come to rest in the back corners of my open mouth. I am blessed with short reaction times and jaw muscles powerful enough to clamp the strand between molars long enough to stop the tractor and select reverse. Incidentally, slowly backing away until the web is entirely peeled off your front, is quite the best way to get out of any web. The normal reaction of wildly flailing your arms is certain to result in serious entanglement and close confrontation with an enraged spider.
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