Don’t believe the spider lies!
Friday, February 8th, 2008One of the things frequently discussed in New Zealand is the absence of nasty spiders that can kill you. Australia is of course notorious for having spiders, jellyfish, snakes and even ants that can kill you in abundance. But New Zealand is safe, as in, roll-around-in-the-undergrowth-and-fear-nothing-more-than-a-bit-of-itchiness safe. At least that’s what they tell you here.
Well say hello to my leedle friend…
I met him while putting on my pants this morning. More specifically, he was in my pants while I was pulling them on. At first I thought he was a scrunched up ATM receipt, but as he fell to the floor with a rather obvious thunking sound I looked down to see this evil little flurry legging it across the carpet. So, after saying a quick morning prayer— Jesus Fucking Christ! — I grabbed an empty jar and caught the bugger.
Now I just have to work out if he is the kind of spider whose venom causes paralysis leading to asphyxiation, or merely the common-or-garden necrotizing flesh wound variety.
__________
UPDATE: Oh alright it’s just a stupid house/window spider. But it is a big one!
February 9th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Well, it’s not the dreaded white-tail from Oz, so you should recover soon ;-)
February 9th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
It probably just burst out of a boil on the back of your thigh - could easily have been there since you lived in Australia.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Just be glad that it hadn’t spawned:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1028/spidersiq8.jpg
February 10th, 2008 at 10:56 am
the other day a hunts(w0)man ran across the foof studio and hid in some plastic sheeting we use to wrap our fabrics in.
3 days later, upon doing the yearly cleanup, i discovered said huntswoman with a strange white sack surround by about, oh, let’s say, 500 babies.
Great, so with one eye on the mob, and the other figuring out the best route to the outdoors… i relocate all arachnids.
but then the mother decides to abandon her brew (mob) leaving me with the responsibility (which i took on) of finding suitable safety, cover against rain, and food source.
so, now i can say i’m the proud (foster) father of 500 arachnids.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Haven’t you seen Bladerunner? She *was* the food source, and you let her get away!
February 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am
yes, i have seen bladerunner.
yes, i know she was the food source
that’s why i cared for them, after she walked away. it’s hard to reason with a spider. they don’t speak.
hey, don’t walk away spider, you have to be eaten!
February 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Looks a bit like a tunnelweb (note NOT a funnel web)
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/English/CollectionsAndResearch/Collections/InsectsSpidersAndSimilar/Spiders/Spiders_Web/What/
I have never seen such a spider in NZ - eek.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
doesn’t have the spinnerettes of a tunnel web… unexciting as it sounds I think it may in fact be a large female “black house spider”. I still haven’t got a better look at the markings on the abdomen so not 100% (hard to see clearly through the jar)
February 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Holy crap. I’m a complete arachnophobe, and that thing would have scared the crap out of me. I can’t even imagine finding something like that in my pants. The US may be nearly a secular totalitarian state, but we don’t have the insane abundance of ultra-lethal creepy crawlies. I’m not sure which is worse.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
have you returned it to nature yet, or are you still studying it?
February 12th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
you’re not going to make me feel guilty for keeping it confined are you? I have enough guilt as it is. And I’m sure it would eat me if it had the chance.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
It appears to be a common house spider of some sort.
Did I ruin the leg falling off theory?
So sorry… though I do rather like your ability to meander about!
Check out these sites;
http://www.usq.edu.au/spider/find/family.htm#Desidae
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~stevelew/cbcstuff/common_spiders/big_spi_quilt.html (Badumnas longinqua)
Spiders really, really give me the heebie jeebies. I can deal with the various creepy crawlies invading my house, but the eight-legged critters get vacuumed once a week - minimum!!!!! :)
btw, if you have yet to meet the Robocan from Mitre10, it’s awesome!
February 13th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
*shudder*
After reading this little story, I have a feeling that before wearing any pairs of pants from now on I’m going to want to shake them vigorously for, like, ten minutes, and then peer down each leg with a torch.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Does look a lot like a black window spider (black house spider) - they look much more nasty than they are, but still their bite “may be quite painful and cause local swelling… nausea, vomiting, sweating and giddiness are occasionally recorded (and) in a few cases skin lesions (Necrotising Arachnidism) have developed after multiple bites.” We have many of them living in the corners of the windows at the warehouse - you just don’t see them out of their webs very often. Oh, and it appears NZ does have the white-tail spider too ;)
February 13th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Actually the white tail is not as bad as is made out, and is often blamed for the really nasty wounds caused by the brown recluse spider.
Of course I haven’t ruled out the reluctant gypsy spider, nor the hungry evening spider.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Thankfully it is NOT a South American Death Spider…. :\
February 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
have you let it go yet? c’mon, take it outside and give it back. It probably didn’t want to be inside anyway…
February 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
It’s a *house* spider… of course it wants to be inside. How are your 500 spiderlings going?
February 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
they have all grown up and moved out, sniff
February 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Sure, let it go, but cut its legs off first so as not to come bother you ever again!
February 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
maybe house spiders don’t live in houses maybe they eat/are/grow as big as houses…
February 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Ok, the stupid spider is free. And by “free” I don’t mean dead.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Should have killed it. Like a villain shown mercy in a bad action movie, he’ll be back to wreak vengeance, mark my words.
In other news: Have you heard the rumour that certain house-dwelling spiders have a tendency to crawl onto your face while you sleep and drink the saliva from the corner of your mouth like a buffalo at a water hole? Pretty cool, huh?
February 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
you’ve moved up a rank in my friends list :)