but some of us are running breeding programs.
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OzAsia festival 2024: a celebration of Asian culture and art – and what it
means to be Asian-Australian
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Although the festival focuses on Asia, it also offers opportunities to view
Australia.
1 hour ago
11 comments:
eek alright. What if they climb into your car and run over your hand when you're driving??
You will perhaps be introducing an eradication programme?
Yes. I vacuumed up one of these from my couch today. They're truly out and about this time of year.
Beautiful photo of a beautiful creature - hard to get such clarity when they spin themselves into veils of silver, and the egg sacs look luminous.
Go figure. The big hairy harmless spider sends me into nervous breakdown territory, but these ones have me going 'ooh, pretty'.
Naomi, I feel exactly the same way, and that's why I couldn't bring myself to kill it. I mean look at the lovely hard-working thing, it hasn't even finished that second egg sac -- and I cleaned a whole webful of them out of the same place only last week, so the poor thing's had to go through the whole reproductive schtick all over again, and in this weather, too.
Deborah, I'll come to my senses and get rid of it soon enough, if I can bring myself to. Librarygirl, the car lives in the driveway; the garage is more of a Shed. It's a long story.
Elsewhere, the couch? Aaargh. What do the cats think?
If I ever get close enough to one of these to get bitten while trying for a closer look (anybody know whether redbacks jump?) I'll feel like Mr Palmer in Sense and Sensibility -- 'through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, she was the victim of a very poisonous spider.'
One of these days you'll walk into the garage and find it's written, in large friendly letters in its web, EXCEPTIONAL!
My parents had (possibly still have) a brilliant St Andrews Cross spider on their balcony that diligently reweaved the cross every night - it didn't matter whether a clumsy head (possibly myself) lumbered into it the day before, the cross would be reproduced first thing in the morning
It's kill on sight around here, but then, we have three childrenm plus sundry visiting children. Too big a risk for them, 'though possibly not so much for me.
Deborah, oh Goddess yes. The one in this post would have got squasherated on sight even if it hadn't been heading for my right hand, before it bit a precious cat on the nose, much less a visiting child. This is just a spidery old house, I think -- I've found white-tails inside too (though not lately) and you can bet your boots I kill them on sight.
You Aussies are so brave! I'm with Deborah.
Oh my goodness, I just had this encounter a couple of days ago, walking into one of the rooms at the art school that obviously hadn't had the light turned on for a while... there was a ginormous redback hanging in a web over the very exposed sink. I've never encountered one that wasn't in a small dark squeeze of a space. I almost ran my hand through the web accidentally and it scared me silly. Mind you, when my heart stopped racing, it was a real thing of beauty, and a shame to get rid of...
I used to have a breeding colony in the garage. Every few months I'd round up the survivors (they eat each other in the egg sac)and take them off to the Commonwealth Serum lab (who sadly kill them to make antivenom). They were always pretty timid, and they do look so lovely and shiny.
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