Bowen, Australia, a town about 700 miles from Brisbane, is seeing in influx of eastern tarantulas, also known as "bird-eating spiders". Dozens of spiders have crawled out of gardens and have made their way into public areas of the town.
Audy Geiszler, who runs a local pest control service, caught one this week that more than covered his hand after he killed it.
Link -via Arbroath
While not deadly like other Australian spiders, the eastern tarantulas are venomous and can grow up to 6cm (2.4in) long with a leg span of 16cm (6.3in). Despite their common name, they do not eat birds, but can kill a dog with one bite, and make a human very sick.
They are also known as whistling or barking spiders for the hissing noise they emit when they are disturbed or aggravated at close range.
Audy Geiszler, who runs a local pest control service, caught one this week that more than covered his hand after he killed it.
“I think I’m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big it is. It’ll make a great paperweight.”
Link -via Arbroath
It's mostly harmless.
I'd say I'd need a bigger vaccuum cleaner hose and wand if I found one in my house but thta thing looks like it would just grab the vaccuum out of my hands and beat me with it.
When I was in high school, "barking spider" was a euphemism for flatulence.
I felt you should all know that.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/web-of-lies-uk-press-plays-up-spider-invasion-20090508-axgx.html
And I quote:
"Mr Geiszler laughed off the coverage this morning, telling brisbanetimes.com.au it had been "blown out of all proportion and massively sensationalised."
"There have been no more than 10 sightings of these spiders here," Mr Geiszler said.
"There is definitely not an invasion or a plague or anything like that.
"It is unusual only because they are not seen very often. They are quite shy and don't come into contact with humans very often.""
Also, Nick: after strenuous research (read: 5 minutes of googling), it would seem that there are a few reports of barking spiders being able to kill german shepherds. In a human, it seems to be able to make someone physically ill for several hours, so in a smaller mammal, I don't see why it couldn't do a lot more.
I dunno. I'm no expert, and as cool as Australia is, it seems like everything there is trying to kill you. Love to visit one day, but damn the wildlife.
Kill it with fire.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090505-spiders-bigger-global-warming.html
and on the more tabloidish side:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/07/armoured_spiders_out_of_greenland/
Watch out for the spiders up on the ceiling!