23 February 2010

Nothing ...

Nothing can make a girl pause before going outside ...

... peer anxiously at the eaves ...

... gaze worriedly at the overhead trees ...

... search the ground meticulously ...

... always make sure she has shoes on ...

... or worry if she's forgotten to put them on ...

... Nothing can instil such fear in a girl ...


... like finding a fully-grown female funnel-web spider just outside the side door.

(Before you ask, it's here.)

15 comments:

Emily Sue said...

I just googled 'funnel web spider' - NOT because I don't know about them (geez... I'm from Sydney!) but because there was some vague memory in my head about females being more deadly. Turns out that's not true, but the CSIRO fact sheet had this piece of hilariously useful advice "...the fang bases extend horizontally from the front of the head and the long fangs lie parallel underneath (do not check this on a live spider!)."

Scurrette said...

holy crap-moly.

Hell no!

Mind you, I'd rather that to a snake.

Emily Sue said...

Mind you, I'd rather that to a snake.

Only in Australia would it seem perfectly reasonable to have to choose between a deadly spider and a snake...

Givinya De Elba said...

YEP, me too, snakes move in quantum motion.

Interesting hey, the males are more deadly.

But the females can lay a gazillion eggs, presumably giving birth to half a gazillion males.

So now which is more deadly?

Long dark hair, blue eyes said...

Oh molly! That is scary!

Swift Jan said...

Um I thought they only lived in NSW? Did you kill it? Please tell me you killed it!!!!!!

Heather said...

There are only a few varieties of poisonous spiders in my neck of the woods, but that doesn't stop me from viewing every single spider I come across with utmost suspicion. Is it a brown recluse? A black widow? A mouse spider?

In short, and with apologies to Charlotte, I hate spiders.

*shudder*

I too would take a snake over a spider any day. And I'm not even Australian.......

Tracy P. said...

I'll stick with snow and ice, thankyouverymuch.

Jen said...

Did you run screaming away because that it what I would have done. Oh and thrown a shoe at it.

But seriously, what did you do. I can barely kill a nonpoisonous spider.

veiledturnip said...

I can't even stand to look at the photo - I HATE spiders so much. It seems now our spiders have become immune to our pest spray as we've fumigated the house twice recently and they're still around!! People say they're harmless, they're more scared of you - if that's so, why do they insist on jumping on you!! AHHHHH!!!
Make Mr de Elba do a thorough search and spray!
'cling'

Hippomanic Jen said...

Now I'm definitely NOT coming to visit you after my meeting!

And thanks, too, for the catchy ditty that I had FINALLY managed to forget... *humming* "Come to Australia, you might accidently get killed"

John Ross Barnes said...

Wow! That was GREAT!!!

OK, scary, but great. I really, really enjoyed the song/video.

Yeah, funnel cake spiders are bad. They hide in your funnel cakes at the carnival and then jump out and bite you on the nose, thereby causing you to be dead and really yucky looking for the open casket. What? Ohhhhh, Funnel WEB spiders.... Never mind.

Anonymous said...

As my Irish grandmother would have said "Jesus, Joseph, and Mary!"

Nana Tantrum

Anonymous said...

As my Irish grandmother would have said "Jesus, Joseph and Mary!"

Nana Tantrum

Snossy said...

WHAT??? You live in the same place as your sister, right??? Which is kinda on the same hill as me..... and you found a funnel web????

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh no! YUCK.

I thought they mostly stayed in NSW.