This bloke was found in my state. Not only do they control crocodiles but they are great conversation piece. A couple of years ago I was weeding my vegie patch. I at first could hear something rustling under the vegetation. When one of the jokers pop out I broke the world record from zero to inside.
Those huntsmen can get pretty big. I remember years ago a friend of ours who had a sugar cane farm found one on the valve wheel for the irrigation pipes. The wheel would be about 8" in diameter and the spiders legs were resting on the rim of the wheel.
Matty, as a tree climber for over 30 years I can tell you that is just a medium one. I have seen 4 or 5 that not only do their eyes shine in the day light but when they rear up, they hiss.
Well, you are the sort of bloke that I want next to me in the trenches. I'd have given the tree climbing a miss the first time I saw one of those mothers. There is no way I'd have seen the 4th or 5th as I'd have been out of there for good, after the first one.
Not being familiar with these Spiders, I'm having trouble with a sense of size. How large is the Spider pictured? What is it pictured on, for a sense of scale?
Hmmm, I thought I would try to visit Aus one day - now I'm not so sure! Still, I bet they make a satisfying crunch when you blat the b'stards with a spade... Looks like it's on a broomhead so maybe 6-8" across fully stretched out?
Yes, I suspect around the 8" mark. In all honesty these spiders aren't really a danger to you.They just give you the creeps. In fact they are good at keeping the pest population down. Spiders that shouldn't be messed with are the smaller, still large in their own right, Sydney Funnel Web, White Tipped/Tail and Wolf. They are aggressive and will either kill you if not treated or their venom eats your skin/muscle and makes a serious mess of you - even with treatment. The smaller Red Back spider has been known to kill but it is unlikely these days to kill you if you get anti-venom. The Red back is essentially the same as what the Americans call Black Widow. The Whip snake pictured above is poisonous but would only cause serious harm without treatment. With something like 22 of out of 23 of the most poisonous snakes in the world living in Australia they are more of a threat to your life. If you live in rural or remote areas and can't get treatment in a hurry they pose a bigger threat to your life. Having said that, a lady gardening in her Brisbane home died from a Brown snake bite last year.
Trevors' photo looks somewhat like a Wolf spider. I don't like them very much and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual.
I forgot to mention this cutie, the Northern Tree Funnel Web. If these don't scare Anthony, they should. Not as poisonous as the Sydney Funnel Web but the last paragraph says it all. Despite the venom lacking the atracotoxin or atraxin of A. robustus, the symptoms are very similar to those from a Sydney funnel-web bite. Common symptoms include diaphoresis,hypertension, sinus tachycardia, muscle spasm or fasciculation, nausea and vomiting, altered consciousness and local pain at the bite site. Pulmonary oedema occurs frequently and comes on early. As these spiders are larger than the Sydney funnel-web, it may be that they inject greater amounts of venom and are the deadliest spiders in the world
In the last 24 hours 3 people have been bitten by snakes in my area. 1 died, two are in hospital. One of the women was bitten by a Brown snake that was inside her car. It bit her as she got in. They can well and truly kill you, so she was lucky. The man that died was bitten by a Taipan. Not the most poisonous in Australia but up there.
