Scared of Spiders

[J170 Owner]

What would YOU do if while driving down the road a huge hairy huntsman comes out of no where and starts running around inside the car? Most people I know literally panic, jam on the breaks and try to smash the spider with the street directory. Today, while driving into work, a huntsman the size of a cat charged across the dash and up the passenger window like it was on fire. Then up across the roof, over my head and down my window back onto the dash. I just kept driving as if it were nothing. I don't have a real fear of spiders so I may be in a better position than some but the way I have seen some people react, I sometimes wonder what they would do if it happened while they were flying a plane. Food for thought?

 

 

[airangel]

When i was 17yrs old a bee came in the window of my 39 vauxhall, landed on my crutch, and proceeded to crawl upthe leg of my shorts. Took out 6 posts of a shop verahdah

 

 

[Guest Wigg]

We were driving along City Rd Melb when a huntsman ran up the windscreen on the outside, next thning I knew was John sitting almost on my lap in the passengers seat. He pulled the car over & I had to get out to remove the spider from the car. If it happened while he was flying all hell would break loose & I think it would be the quickest decent of a recreational plane ever.

 

 

[J170 Owner]

When i was 17yrs old a bee came in the window of my 39 vauxhall, landed on my crutch, and proceeded to crawl upthe leg of my shorts. Took out 6 posts of a shop verahdah

My eyes are watering at the thought.....

 

 

[Acky]

A mate of mine had a huntsman visit him in his full face motorbike helmet. He said he's never stopped in the middle of three lane road so quick to take off his helmet!

 

 

[Guest Wigg]

I bet that helmet was off before the bike had come to a halt. My M.I.L had an old radio with the wooden case on it. She moved 4 times before she realised that the huntsman had taken up residence in the radio case. It wnet where they did.

 

 

[Hongie]

I.WOULD.CRAP. Def dont like spiders.. not big ones anyways... snakes i can handle (have a pet one) spiders i cant

 

 

[farri]

Back when I was a member of the FNQUA, one of our members got airborn in his Lightwing and a snake crawled out from under his seat!

 

Fortunately it didn`t bite him and though he said he was terrified, he turned around,went back and landed safely!

 

Frank.

 

 

[Scooby]

I got bitten by a red back on the inside of my thigh whilst driving a tractor. I never want to go through that again! I don't think a hunstman would bother me too much. Although it's bound to give you a bit of a shock when you first see it.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Spiders i can handle, it's snakes suddenly appearing that freak me out. Don't like snakes.

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Many years ago, I had a company station wagon to carry equipment in the rear. One day, at the onset of winter, I needed the demister and after the engine warmed up, a reasonable size huntsman crawled out of the drivers side windscreen demister vent and sat on the windscreen just above eye height. I proceeded to work and later in the day, the spider had disappeared.

 

The next morning, the sequence of events was repeated, and so it was daily for some weeks, with the spider sitting on various parts of the windscreen during the drive to work. One morning the spider decided to investigate further and took up position on the roof just over my head. Well that was just too much. It had to go, so that evening the car got a liberal dose of fly spray. That was the last I saw of that spider.

 

Now that I live in the country, we have lots of spiders and there's always a few in the house. House Spiders, Wolfies, Huntsmen, Red Backs in addition to the ubiquitous Daddy Long Legs. The latter, I don't mind, as they catch the little midges that fly clean through the flywire, but the others are not permitted to stay. It is a bit disconcerting to wake up and find one in the bed! The really nasty looking ones meet their end, but Huntsmen just get relocated outside. My wife swears it is the same spider that just keeps coming back inside again, and she urges me to put it further away from the house.

 

Some spiders are very pretty, like the Golden Orb which is very prevalent at the moment, creating webs that may be a metre across. They grow to about 10cm leg to leg. Here's a photo of one in our garden.

 

http://www.redbubble.com/people/davidh10/art/6982955-golden-orb-weaver-spider

 

 

[Yenn]

Spiders OK, I don't mind picking them up to remove them from inside the house. Snakes OK, they get in the house and I have to remove them, never had a brown inside the house luckily. What I don't like are scorpions, especially when I walk around barefooted in the dark. Very painfull but not life threatening. I did spend some time helping a friend remove a tree snake from his Supercat and was really pissed off when he killed it. Next time he can do it all himself.

 

 

[pete8862]

I had a mate who i went fishing with to stanage bay he stood on a stone fish, the most painful thing i have ever seen a bloke go though. he did get his first ride in the rescue helicoptor

 

Pete

 

 

[Guest SAJabiruflyer]

I think spiders are naughty perverts - there are many in my shower area, they seem to like it in the moist air. My wife always wants me to get rid of em, but I dont mind them sitting there. I got bitten by a white tail once, and it left a red weeping sore about the size of a 5c piece. White tails dont survive in my house, but Hunstmans, DLL's, garden spiders etc are all left alone.

 

 

[cherk]

Spiders OK, I don't mind picking them up to remove them from inside the house. Snakes OK, they get in the house and I have to remove them, never had a brown inside the house luckily. What I don't like are scorpions, especially when I walk around barefooted in the dark. Very painfull but not life threatening. I did spend some time helping a friend remove a tree snake from his Supercat and was really pissed off when he killed it. Next time he can do it all himself.

Scorpions! It's one of the creators....(who ever she, is/was).......little creatures the you instinctively KNOW what you stepped on ! You don't have look to find or confirm what you just stepped on. Always on the soft fleshy instep of your foot.......in the dark ....on the way to the bathroom! They love to head for the damp spots...just like the jo-blakes and the rain water tank.

 

 

[kaz3g]

In 1969 I accompanied a friend on a road trip to Birdsville. We went in his FB Holden panel van which, I recall, had already done around 200,000 miles (yes, miles).

 

He was a bit of a character - red hair, pale and freckled skin, beard and short, shorts. He smoked a pipe and had a Canon camera with big lense (quite something in the optical department back then). A bit of a photographer, for sure.

 

We were hurtling along the Track at his usual 60+ mph leaving a long, red plume of dust behind. I was in charge of the sandwiches and drinks. All of a sudden, the brakes were slammed on and we slewed to a stop in the middle of the road beside a bearded dragon which was accumulating energy by sunbaking in one of the wheel ruts.

 

My friend jumped out with alacrity, camera in hand, and frantically twirled the focus ring as the reptile engorged its beard, rose up and hissed at him in obvious annoyance at its disturbed repose. Then it was all too much and it lay down again before the shutter could click.

 

My friend stamped his moccasoned foot beside the beast and it reared its head with beard erect only to almost immediately lower it once more. "Bugger", my friend said, "missed again".

 

Then my friend had a better idea. He instructed me to come across beside him and do the stamping of foot while he manipulated the rather splendid piece of photographic equipment (secret men's business).

 

So I did.

 

And the lovely creature with its big beard semi-erect scuttled up my friends bare leg and made valiant attempts to hide inside the lower half of his shorts.

 

Now these things are about 2'6" long, have large, clawed feet and are very determined climbers.

 

My friend let out a horrible howl, dropped the Canon and proceeded, unsuccessfuly at first, to remove said lizard from his more private parts while I rolled over and over on the ground and wet myself.

 

After I had dressed his wounds, we travelled the rest of that day in silence. Only now have I dared recount the tale.

 

kaz

 

 

[cherk]

Some spiders are very pretty, like the Golden Orb which is very prevalent at the moment, creating webs that may be a metre across. They grow to about 10cm leg to leg. Here's a photo of one in our garden.

Cultivated , the golden orb ....as we know it was used to provide the " cross hairs" in ww2 bomb sites!!

 

One of the fine Italian weavers cultivated and harvested sufficient strands of web...filaments...to weave an increadibly intricate piece of cloth ...... as a 'Masterpiece'......about a metre long and maybe forty cm. wide with amazing patterning in the weave. Strength/weight is outstanding.

 

 

[stanzahero]

I'd try to kill it by slamming it against the nearest tree, telephone pole, pedestrian, etc.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

My grandpa had names for the various spiders that lived in his old EH Holden s/wagon (it was a work vehicle). I can only remember Charlie who lived in a nice web in the LH door alcove, under the A pillar. Guess many of us have gotten a bit sissy these days.... or less crazy, as I think about it now I'm not sure which!

 

I thought Huntsman spiders were pretty docile, a female redback would concern me more.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I have had a bee fly inside amotorcycle helmet whilst riding, guaranteed to get your attention

 

 

[Guest Redair]

Greetings each... let me take you, if I may, back to the old country, where we were terrorised by the dreaded Tegenaria. These darlings would find whatever material they could to best amplify their footsteps, then proceed to race across it as soon as the lights were turned out. Often, switching the lights on again would result in one of these monsters being found, clinging onto the bedroom ceiling just above your head. More often than not, the sudden surprise of the light coming on would cause said spider to lose its grip and drop onto the bed. The race was then on... the spider tried to run as fast as possible to find a spot to hide, whilst the poor occupier of the bed would make an equally frantic attempt to escape both the bed and the room. I found that the best way to deal with these 8-legged terrorists was to take my wife's 177 air-pistol and shoot them. Despite what others may say, these monsters are very poisonous, and will take anything from a woodlouse to small dogs and even babies... their aggresion is only matched by my wife's, after finding pellet holes in the walls and ceilings. So, be afraid, be very afraid!!! You do not want to find one of these in your plane!!

 

All facts relating to these spiders have been carefully deduced during long discussions in the pub. Some claim that Tegenaria is as big as a cow, and can eat cars in a single bite. Some say the moon is a Tegenaria egg sack, and that would just go to prove that the moon landings never happened!

 

Sleep well, don't let the buggers bite you!!

 

Regards, Redair.

 

 

[dazza 38]

I have never had a spider incident, but my father did when he was a firefighter in Rosebud Vic. He was in a burning house looking for people alive or crispies when a huntsman crawled up his back, which he couldnt feel due to the heavy jacket he had on, crawled up the back of his neck, under the protective flap and placed it self under helmet.Between the helmet and the webbing.Theres a gap between the shell and the skull, just like a construction workers hard hat. Anyway it just sat there trying to get away from the heat.This happened nearly forty years ago. Its still funny to hear about it though.

 

 

[Tomo]

I've never been scared of them, but don't particularly enjoy them crawling over me. Though it happens quite a lot as I'm usually under old machines fairly often working on them. I got bitten by something in PNG but never worked out what it was exactly - still have the little scar today, but am still alive so it mustn't have been too bad - it hurt for a few days though.

 

The only good snake is a dead snake, unless it isn't a harmful one, such as tree snakes, or carpet snakes, pythons etc... But King Browns etc... get, well, removed so they will never come back!! Mostly around the house that happens, out in the field you just leave them be.

 

One thing I don't see to much around home anymore is the really huge Goannas, my first clear memory of them was the time one ran in front of my bike and I hit it and fell over.

 

I remember reading a story of a guy having a baby crocodile run loose in his aircraft - it crawled in somehow and obviously didn't like the ride to much!

 

 

[facthunter]

Two critters that can cause angst are a little bigger. If a kanga (skippy) comes through your car window, which they have a habit of doing when you hit them, they can open your stomache up with their back legs. Koala's "lovely little fella's" have enormously sharp claws. If you find one has gotten into your car, remove IT carefully, or you will need quite a few stitches.

 

Victoria has a lot of snakes most of which are quite venomous. Tigers can be aggressive if you are between them and their offspring. I have had one swim a creek to try to get to me. Most of these things are protected. I reckon I am the endangered species. We have had a tiger lying on the front doorstep. In the winter they get around the base of fence posts. On the first few sunny days of spring I usually get the tractor and slasher out and go along the posts. Often I find some fillets of snake after mowing. Very sad. I will have to be more careful.

 

The koals's, echidnas, stumpy tail lizards and wombats, don't fare too well around here,with road traffic, and that is a pity. Nev

 

 

[dazza 38]

I've never been scared of them, but don't particularly enjoy them crawling over me. Though it happens quite a lot as I'm usually under old machines fairly often working on them. I got bitten by something in PNG but never worked out what it was exactly - still have the little scar today, but am still alive so it mustn't have been too bad - it hurt for a few days though.The only good snake is a dead snake, unless it isn't a harmful one, such as tree snakes, or carpet snakes, pythons etc... But King Browns etc... get, well, removed so they will never come back!! Mostly around the house that happens, out in the field you just leave them be.

 

One thing I don't see to much around home anymore is the really huge Goannas, my first clear memory of them was the time one ran in front of my bike and I hit it and fell over.

 

I remember reading a story of a guy having a baby crocodile run loose in his aircraft - it crawled in somehow and obviously didn't like the ride to much!

The last brown snake I saw, was when it reared up,and tried too attack me, back in the day when firearms where politicaly correct hey hey. I was on a farm shooting hares, anyway I pulled up in the FWD, it was only 10 feet from the Ute. No worries, I blew its head off and half its body with a 12 gauge pump action shotgun."for the young fellas, that is what we had including semi autos, before the fun police said we couldnt have them anymore."Johnny Howard". Google it if your too young to remember.LOL