Oh Jesus God Flying Spiders Oh God Augh Why
IT'S every arachnophobe's worst nightmare: millions of spiders on the move, blanketing everything in cobwebs.The Gippsland flooding has triggered a spider population explosion of up to 30 species, which have taken to the air in the search for new homes.
Australia's leading "spider man", the senior curator of spiders at Queensland Museum, Robert Raven, said the phenomenon was triggered by recent heavy rain, after the drought had postponed hatchings.
"It's amazing stuff that is always a moisture-triggered event, and I would love to be down there to see it directly,'' he said.
Arachnids from up to five families, including money spiders, wolf spiders, water spiders, crab spiders and orb-weaving spiders are in a spin, producing silk, which catches the breeze and lifts them into the air.
"They are remarkable animals and they can get up into the stratosphere higher than planes,'' Dr Raven said.
But when the air gets heavy, the web drops and they fall to the ground, covering everything in sight.
After Age photographer Joe Armao stopped to photograph the shimmering gossamer of webs at Seaspray, near Sale, last week, he returned to find his car draped in webs, along with hundreds of culprits.
Said Dr Raven: "The thing is, if they all stayed at the same spot, there would be no food and they would eat each other.
"After floods you'll also get things like scorpions and centipedes that will float on the water and then get into houses because they are high and dry.''
Gippsland pest controller Peter MacManus said he had noticed that fences in the area were covered in cobwebs.
Locals were reaching for insect spray rather than calling for professional help to keep them at bay, he said.
"I have heard that some people were inundated with spiders after the floods, but in my business, you don't spray houses in the winter time,'' he said.
The spiders are not the only creatures seeking shelter in houses.
Mr MacManus said one Licola resident returned home to find that six snakes had taken up residence inside.
Quote:
Some might choose to pray, some might choose to snooze
But the style that I use is the style that's mine
XBL Tag: Prederick
Wow, that's is brutal
I Wouldn't want to be anywhere near there....ewww
Xbox 360 Live Tag: Lothar71 PSN - Lothars
"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"
Mex refering to Actresses:
Make no mistake, I'd hit them all so hard that my pelvis would have to be classified as a deadly weapon, I just don't think they're all
TTIWWP
WAR: Coda, Archmage, Vortex <Unguilded>
And in Australia, spiders are serious... they'll kill you quite dead. Here in the US, that'd be a little icky and absolutely fascinating at the same time. In Australia, I'd be extremely nervous.
Normally, spiders don't bother me in the least, but if I was to come across that kind of craziness, I would freak the f**k out. Screaming like a little girl, while running for the hills, kind of freaking out.
LiquidMantis wrote:
Oh I dunno. I'd say a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse getting into my house would be plenty scary and they're both around right here in the good old US.
In fact I found a Black Widow on the playground in first grade.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
So Hell does exist and it's called... Australia.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Steam Profile
My Gamercard
I'd just be worried about funnel web spiders.
I remember a long time ago in WoW, an aussie member of my guild took a 5 min bathroom break during an instance. He came back and goes "oh sh*t fellas! I gotta take care of this spider!" on vent.
We waited about 5 more minutes and he comes back and says "that was the biggest funnel yet!". I knew what it was and asked "you talking funnel web man?". He says "damn right! I had to get something to kill the thing with, it was on the toilet!".
I'd hate to be dealing with that. Imagine, you have to lift the lid to make sure you don't get bit doing the deuce!
Here's a site about em:
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/funnelweb.htm
I like my women like I like my meatloaf.
Hot and covered in ketchup.
Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig
Does whatever a Spider-Pig does
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
Yeah, funnelwebs can be nasty but it's the snakes, sharks and dropbears that make Australia a beautiful place to live in
Take me home, Bubbles.
Oh, the horrible words that would come out of my mouth if I were anywhere near that. One spider I can deal with. Spiders falling from the sky and landing on my head... I'd die of shock.
XBL / Art / Blog (09/20) / Buy! (10/07)
It's not just that - basically everything in Australia is poisonous. Even platypuses are poisonous!
Spiders are our friends.... I for one welcome our new spider overlords.
Besides, it's nothing that boot+squelch can't handle if you don't want them around.
A blog: by me!
EGGmen - A European gaming blog *Podcast episode 2 now live*
Good to see you prepared for times to come.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
It's nothing a bit of fire can't handle.
Ok, I mean nuclear fire.
*runs off flailing his arms over his head and screaming about spider apocalypse*
Here's a recent post (elsewhere) about a guy finding a large spider behind a clock (with pics).
XBox Live: Croutonic | Bungie.net: Croutonic
kaostheory wrote:
Just nuke the center of Australia. It will sink when we breach the hull.
I don't watch, I interact!
How do you think the spider feels? He was just taking a deuce when some big human comes along and smooshes him!
It's kind of funny you guys mention this, since I had a similar invasion in my home recently. Normally, I hate spiders. True arachnophobe. Now it seems an egg case hatched somewhere in my central air system, because for a while I was finding tiny spiders floating around my living room, settling on my computer, my TV, my couch, just about everywhere. Dozens rather than hundreds, but still, spiders. I really didn't mind them. They were so tiny they were clearly harmless and didn't even move much, so I'd just squish them.
I was not so pleased when I glanced over my shoulder one night and noticed their mama sitting on the back of my computer chair. That bitch was huge.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
I normally don't have a problem with spiders since, y'know, they are about as big as one of my toes. But falling from the sky en masse ONTO MY HEAD?! I'd be done. Wolf spiders, man! Those things are the ones that scared us at summer camp by sitting in the urinals!
But then reports that scorpions, centipedes, and half a dozen snakes possibly taking residence in your house?
No thank you. I would find reasons to stay inside for hours at a time.
Yet even then we ran like the wind,
whilst our laughter echoed under cerulean skies...
When I saw that the scientist's name was Dr. Raven, I immediately thought of Dr Raven Darktalon Blood or whatever it is from PA.
Steam Id
Twitter
Mixol on XBL, couldn't recover my old account, sorry!
And the moral of the story? Stay the hell away from Australia!!
"We don't care how we get the money as long as we get it!"
- Eric Hartness, Electronic Arts
Wow! Spiders falling from the sky, that's cool!
Most of them would even be non-venomous. Otherwise you'd be reading about all the deaths.
Australia, like China today, also gets plagues of mice and rats at times. This is just the Year of the Arachnid. Anyway, it's Queensland, right? Soon enough a huge hurricane will come along and drown all the spiders. The ones that have not yet been eaten by the poisonous snakes, of course. The snakes that escaped the exploding population of Salt Water Crocodiles. Thet's tha cyyycal ah laahf, mate!
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
I think I'd want to just die right then and there. I'm more arachnophobic than anyone I've ever met. My mom says that when I was a kid I liked spiders.
...until a brown recluse almost cost me my foot.
Just because some hobo attacked you doesn't mean you should be afraid of spiders...
A blog: by me!
EGGmen - A European gaming blog *Podcast episode 2 now live*
That would do it.
I can just see this turning into a horrible invasion. The little spiders parachuting in at the dead of night on their little silk balloons, then striking at the heart of the day when the most panic can be caused.
Yet even then we ran like the wind,
whilst our laughter echoed under cerulean skies...
Unless that hobo was Venom!
For sure, with a name like this it can't be coincidence; he sounds like an evil villain who has intentionally sent his "pretties" aloft.
"Hnee, hnee, hnee," he added.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
Actually, according to Wikipedia, there have not been any fatal spider bites for several years in Australia (since the antivenoms became available).
But seriously. Nuke the site from orbit, etc etc. F*ckin' spiders, they think they can fly wherever they want.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
I fail to see the problem with this outcome.
Xbox LIVE: oldman GWJ
"I might have gotten away with it if it wasn't for a damningly tenacious clinger." - Crouton on a childhood excrement escapade
The biting would simply be a symptom of a greater problem, namely FREAKING SPIDERS LANDING ON ME AIGH.
Quote:
XBL Tag: Prederick