Who Likes Spiders?

Do you like spiders?
I live in Gippsland in Victoria, Australia and we have just had some heavy rain which has caused flooding in some parts which in turn has caused ground dwelling spiders to seek higher ground to avoid drowning. The spiders have blanketed large areas with their webs.
This is the article in The Age newspaper https://www.theage.com.au/national/...psland-town-after-floods-20210615-p5819p.html

Here are some pics
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.645%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_8/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/0423356bc143eac16f49f8dd6cf00da933423297

and these are some of the spiders

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.642%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_125/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/c8a8f2ada2c39fa267343806e1f3f8e7b8ff335b

 

Amazing!


Nature at it's best.

 

Yeah this is a fairly regular occurrence but not to this scale

Plenty of snakes over here too so you could fit right in

Most of these spiders are not very venomous which is a good thing but when this happens there are millions of them. These ground dwelling spiders are one of several types that can fly to a new area. On a windy day they climb something with a bit of height like an outdoor chair or a plant and start casting out their silk until the wind picks them up and whisks them away. Scary if one gets blown onto your face or neck

 

That was Jim Stafford wasn't it?
Hmmmm.........I guess I must be dated too

 

Gruesome looking.
I was waiting for the invasion of the 17 year cicada onslaught here.

They live underground for 17 years, then come up, mate and die and the youngsters go back underground for 17 years.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brood-x-cicadas-are-emerging-at-last1/

Apparently they aren't on our property because I've neither seen nor heard any.

 

Yeah we have them over here as well. If the start of December is really hot then a week or so before Christmas they emerge. If you live amongst trees then the cacophony of their chirping is deafening. Over here they emerge annually but they may be different groups if they stay underground for 17 years.
Hmmm....I might read up on this later when I have some time.

 

Surprised to hear you have them there.
Here (in Illinois) they get deafening as well. They love the tree in front of our house.

 

We live 1/2 block from woods - and nothing but I did a lot of driving this week for meetings and while in the car, at various spots, I heard them. With all the windows closed and my mp3 player playing through a speaker, I heard them so there must be a lot at certain spots to make that much noise.

 

They are prolific all down the east coast of Australia and and appear where ever there are good sized trees.

Wow 1.5 million per acre....lucky we don't have anywhere near that many but we still have a lot of them.
Over here they are pretty much everywhere and if it is hot they come out in late December or early January. I have noticed a decline in recent years as townhouses have become very popular in urban areas as the developers can put two or three times the number of houses on a block of land. The townhouses are grouped on very small blocks of land and gone are the days of having a backyard with trees where your kids can run around. If there is any room at all for a garden then it is only a couple of small shrubs or some large pots of flowers on the concrete path near the front door. If there are no trees the cicadas don't seem to stay in that area.
My fairly new place in Gippsland had no trees when I moved in as previously it was part of a large farm and was cleared pasture which was subdivided and developed as a housing estate with large blocks of land. Since moving in I have planted nearly 100 trees and shrubs in my very large yard so I guess I will be having some cicadas when the trees become more mature.........some cicadas will probably migrate to my place from the park at the end of my street. We will see.

Yeah they can be very loud and it is a very penetrating sound, especially on a quiet summer's evening where you can hear them from near and far. Lucky for us, once they emerge from the ground, they only hang around for a couple of weeks. The noise is usually only in the last week of December or the first week of January.....but who knows what the future holds with climate change. Will they start coming out earlier due to global warming? Only time will tell

 

Banana spiders may come home with you.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/...deadly-spiders-on-her-banana-photo-video.html

 

Down Under in Australia, each year I've found "Greengrocer" cicadas that have emerged, leaving their cast off outer casing at the back of my backyard - I found they don't seem to like the fertiliser I spray on my trees, so this tends to save my trees without causing them any harm. Right now with spring starting next month, there seems to be a lot of activity in the backyard...time to get gardening I guess...

 

Nice catch, legalsuit.

 

They make me feel scared, its complexion and body structure. It doesn't make me like it.

 

Mate we grew up with the sweet sound of them.....its a reminder of a hot summers night.
Brings me back to when I was young.

Your getting soft in your old age Joffa complaining about these guys, would hate to be your neighbour running an electric toothbrush at night.

Climate change??
Can I have some of what your taking?

 

Hehehe when I was a schoolkid our next door neighbours on both sides and across the road were future greenies and had all planted large stands of gum trees in their yards. The cicadas loved these and every year for two weeks day and most of the night it was loud AF......I used to ride my bike over to visit my gran's for some peace and quiet if I was studying.

Nah not really complaining unless deafeningly loud but if a couple of houses away no problem sounds cool on a summer evening. As an aside mostly my neighbours are complaining about my stereo ;-)

Climate change is the new monetary system to make us pay extra for stuff we don't need

 

Jeez Laura and rattlesnakes aren't too good on the old venom scale. We were pretty worried when we found three 6 foot brown snakes in our backyard and called the snake catcher. The snake catcher said that because it was a very dry summer they were coming for the water in the dog's two water bowls and lucky we saw them before someone was bitten.
Crikey...... but ninety rattlesnakes under your house wow.....looking on the bright side you wouldn't have a problem with rats and mice

 

Oh, it must be software then?

 

Found on MajorGeeks.com...

 

Yeah these things happen.........luckily not every day

 

Spiders bite you while you are sleeping Nope if i see a spider i squash it.I am not afraid of them i just don't like be bitten in the middle of the night while i sleep.And the best way to locate them is in the corners of your home take a bright flash light and shine it in all the corners of your room and you will most likely spot the spider in its web.

daddy long spider's are the most annoying of all the spiders be cause they leave there webs every where you walk.It's so dam hard to find and locate all of them to kill them off in your home.Just this year alone i killed probably 100 plus of these annoying pricks with paper and WD40.

 

Seriously?

 

The Huntsman is a passive spider, it doesnt want to hurt you, it just wants to rid your place of insects!

I would be more scared of the spider wasp.

 

Yup WD40 does kill spiders on the spot.You would be surprised what Wd40 can do.