No offence Australia (spiders!)

[RubberTrucky]

Another arachnophobia thread...

But how do people in Australia living amidst the most gruesome monsters on the earth. If I were to live there I'd be driven to the regions of Lovecraftian insanity by sheer paranoia and hysteria. So how do Australians cope with these medium sized monsters without spending tim in the loonybin or taking massive amounts of therapy just to get them into that tool shed outback.
Heck, I once heard one of these creepy crawler is responsible for a fair share of traffic accidents cause it loves to hide itself in cars and jump out when a driver is least expecting them.

For that matter how do all of you southern dwellers cope with arachnophobia? A colleague of mine stayed in brazil once in a little hotel and told me that in the room wild tarantulas were not a rare sight. I don't care what y boss tells me, if i get put there for a conference on the most awesome thing in the universe, I was jumping on the next plane back after my arrival.

[FishyPerson]

Some of the spiders on that list aren't even harmful. And the ones that are, I've only seen once or twice each.

And it was hiding under an old pot making some webs. No aggression or bites or anything.

I have never seen a wolf spider, house spider, funnel-web or mouse spider ever. Only huntsmen, redbacks, St. Andrew's Cross and whitetails.

Seriously, you're fretting a little too much IMO. Spiders are honestly not a big problem here (unless you have arachnophobia or something) and getting worked up over the anticipation of them is just wasting energy.

We don't have any tarantulas over here either.

[RubberTrucky]

At 12/13/10 05:58 AM, FishyPerson wrote: Some of the spiders on that list aren't even harmful. And the ones that are, I've only seen once or twice each.

Arachnophobia is not to be taken too lightly, though. I am an arachnophobe and seeing all the phobia threads it seems like a very common phobia. And arachnophobes probably know that the majority of spiders are perfectly harmless. Heck, where I live there are no really dangerous spiders and even then, the red-back is named pretty dangerous but I heard that it takes you to fall into a nest of them to actually be lethal.

Effectively, there are barely any spiders to be in the list of the most dangerous animals.

[Shmossy]

At 12/13/10 05:58 AM, FishyPerson wrote: Some of the spiders on that list aren't even harmful. And the ones that are, I've only seen once or twice each.

And it was hiding under an old pot making some webs. No aggression or bites or anything.

I have never seen a wolf spider, house spider, funnel-web or mouse spider ever. Only huntsmen, redbacks, St. Andrew's Cross and whitetails.

You're missing the point.
Arachnophobics are afraid of spiders for a number of reasons, not the fact that they are dangerous.
Huntsmen are massive, with horrible long gangly hairy legs. Being bitten isn't my fear, really, it's just the way they look.

It's not a totally rational fear, we just really don't like the way spiders look or move. We really really don't like it.

I agree with OP - this is why I would not like to live in Australia.

[Lintire]

I've seen those a heap of times, where I happen to live, I've seen every single one of those spiders a bunch of times - they're not uncommon in the least. So yeah, they would not want to live here, but I pretty much totally recovered from my fear of spiders (used to be terrified of them) after a few lash-outs at ones that got particularly close to my face. Swift punch between them and a hard place, they don't get up.

But yeah, Arachnophobics, this is not your ultimate holiday destination.

[CyanSandwich]

I lived in Australia when i was 8. Only when I was 8.
Back then I didn't really think about spiders, and didn't really have that much trouble with them.
I remember there was this huge hunsman in the kitchen once. Fuck. And we had a shed which I probably didn't go in at all. There would've a few gnarly spiders in there.
But I'm seriously scared shitless of spiders. But not really. Spiders that I'm familiar with, or I know to be harmless and don't actually do anything except sit somewhere then eventually leave, I'm not overly worried about.
What I really hate is when there's a spider in a place that can't be ignored. If there's a spider in the shower, I'll be like "fuck that, I'm not having a shower today" lol.
Today there was this pathetic grass spider or something that just decided to walk in through the front door. I watched it from a distance and when my mum came in I told her to kill it. to be fair I didn't even know if we had bug spray or not and I didn't have shoes on :P
I also hate spiders that just look weird and move creepily/fast.
Anyway, I don't live in Australia but yes spiders are fucking horribly unsettling.

[IDropedMyBiscuit]

I always thought Wolf Spiders were kool looking. Also the webs they make are detailed. Must go draw...creepy...crawlers

[razorbladesigh]

Don't forget the snakes.

[Ronald-McDonald-LoL]

At 12/13/10 08:29 AM, razorbladesigh wrote: Don't forget the snakes.

Australia is one of the few places on Earth where poisonous snakes outnumber the nonpoisonous ones.

[HungarianSupermarket]

Y'all just checked under your desks.

It's been raining here a lot, so there are a ton of spiders and junk everywhere. Haven't seen any properly big ones recently though.

[msolkner]

Apparently being afraid of spiders means being afraid of death, because spiders somehow represent death.

[Mechabloby]

Whenever I see a picture of a spider, I feel all tingly, as if to suggest a spider is crawling on a certain part of my body.

[Wolfos]

At 12/13/10 08:45 AM, HungarianSupermarket wrote: Y'all just checked under your desks.

It's been raining here a lot, so there are a ton of spiders and junk everywhere. Haven't seen any properly big ones recently though.

God I'm not going to Australia, ever.
I think I'm going to move to Antarctica after seeing that pic.

[NekoMika]

Spiders aren't much to worry about in Australia probably. They have those toads that cover most of the upper to western coasts of the continent. That and they have about 40% of unexplored jungle there filled with animals far worse than spiders more than likely such as komodo dragons and many other things that could probably kill a human with ease.

[simon]

At 12/13/10 10:01 AM, Mechabloby wrote: Whenever I see a picture of a spider, I feel all tingly, as if to suggest a spider is crawling on a certain part of my body.

I used to be the same but I started looking into spiders more and more and learning about them and I see them just like other animals (like cats and dogs), same can't be said about scorpions though.

[Xionico]

Fucking spideeeeeers.

The bane of my existence.