Question for Australians

[quirkyquerty]

Genuine question- are you not frightened all the time of swimming and meeting a shark, cleaning and meeting a deadly spider, getting the bikes out of the shed and meeting a deadly snake and so on and so forth?

Or is that just certain parts of Australia? It fascinates me!

A hunty running across your face or body in bed in the middle of the night!

Or one falls on you while driving as you didn't notice it behind the visor or the roof!

😂

I’m far more afraid of magpies!! And I do not get our house sprayed annually- do people do that?? I have seen a snake lots of times, bit surprised people haven’t but maybe they don’t go to parks, bushwalks etc. we are taking the family to halls gap in winter and last time the football oval was covered in kangaroos which our dc found a bit intimidating for having a kick.

Oh I do not like it actually when camping and big spiders drop out of trees onto us. So I don’t sit beneath trees anymore camping.

I have lives here 5 years and I actually got bitten by a spider. It is actually super uncommon and really bad luck on my end.

felt like I had the flu, got antibiotics from the doctors and just have a small scar to show for it haha !

Speaking of swooping magpies, one of the saddest articles I’ve ever read was about the baby who died when her mother fell after being attacked by a swooping magpie. I’ve visited that park several times with my kids and I tear up when I go there now. So sad.

Wish I had a python in my roof.

And yes, watching cyclists get dive bombed by the magpies adds spice to a spring commute.

We have an indoor cat for rodent control, and leave any huntsmen spiders who move in as bug control so have not needed to spray the house.

Live and let live.

Pythons (or carpet snakes as we call them) are quite useful for sorting out any rat or mice problems. So they’re a useful family member to have. They really don’t want to hurt humans.

Plovers are evil. Total maniacs. They will pick the stupidest place to nest ( on the ground), and then attack anyone who comes near. We had a nest in our paddock. They left the horses alone but every time I went down with the hay they'd fly straight at me. You can feel the wind from their wings as they pass. And they screech at you. 1 minute down the road is a massive amount of bushland, they don't use that though. A friend of mine had them set up a nest on her driveway!
Oh and OP @quirkyquerty not a silly question, I don't know why Australia has this reputation but as a pp mentioned there are heaps of scary animals in the US but nobody seems to worry about them.
Come visit, you'll be fine.

I’d forgotten about plovers. Another psychopathic black & white birdie, but with longer legs.
Our famous snake story involves my DH and my cousin playing golf in a quaint mountain town in Victoria (in an area where tiger snakes are not unknown. For our English friends, Tiger Snakes are big, deadly poisonous AND aggressive. The nightmare kind of snake. *shudders.) Anyhow, it was the height of summer and the blokes were playing with a beer in their non-dominant paw. They got to the seventh hole and there was a gigantic nightmare tiger snake sunning itself on the green, so they made the unilateral decision to play that one through. They saw a couple of older blokes heading towards it and thought they’d warn them, only to be met with hysterical, hooting laughter. “Oh, That’s Teddy, mate. He’s not gonna hurt you. He wouldn’t hurt a fly!” My DH and cousin thought these guys were batshit until later on when we were all at the pub for dinner, and we found out that “Teddy” was a rubber snake left out to deter swooping birds.

Oooh bad time to hit post… to deter swooping birds and aggressive kangaroos.

Fascinating thread! Could anyone tell me, are kangaroos really as aggressive as we hear they are? Do they ever attack people?

@Appalonia Kangaroos can be aggressive, but don’t attack humans unless they get too close and/or threatening in some way.
They are more of a danger out on semi-rural or country roads at dusk. If there are ‘Kangaroos crossing’ road signs, one has to be very careful as they can suddenly jump out onto the road while attempting to cross it, and cause crashes.

Sharks, no. I don’t swim in the ocean.
Spiders, no. They hide, never see them.
Snakes, yes. The only places I can let my dog off lead for a run are bushland, we tripped over a massive dugite on a walk the other day. Admittedly I’m more scared of my dog being bitten than myself, he would think it was a toy to play with. I keep massive pet insurance purely for snake bites.

I like the idea of pest controllers spraying the house to put spiders off…. Can we get that in the UK?

i know Huntsman’s are not dangerous but my God they look scary.

I have lost a.family friend to a shark attack, and the family home to bush fire. I Am infinitely more anxious about bush fire than sharks or snakes. A hot windy day and I can fell myself getting tense. I regularly swim at the beach our friend was lost at but don't get the same feeling.

Hate spiders but generally don't have the worrying type near me.

I love snakes and have seen a few that are dangerous.

I regularly update my first aid training and talk the the kids about what to do if they see a snake.

I do love the birds we see rosella, cockatoos, kookaburras, corellas, currawongs oh and fruit bats at night.

I've heard of one kangaroo attack in my entire life. Plus there is that famous video on youtube of the guy punching one in the face to rescue his dog. That's it. We have a pretty big mob at the end of our street ( we live rurally before you all think this is normal😂) and they don't bother anyone. They apparently fight amongst themselves but never seen anything myself. They are happily munching grass , and the swans and ducks are swimming and everything is lovely in the 2 dams and the horses are roaming( we do live in a little piece of paradise admittedly)

I’ve been here for nearly 30 years. I did snake handling as part of a wildlife rescue course. I give the brown and black snakes a wide berth on the extremely rare occasion you see them but otherwise barely think about them.

I swim in the ocean and go paddle boarding, but stay close to shore as sharks do worry me a bit.

Spiders don’t worry me at all. In 30 years I’ve only seen a funnel web once.

We had a farm here. I was more scared of our bull who was a vicious brute!

There have been no deaths from spider bites in Australia since 1979.
I'm the only person I know to have been bitten by a spider - left a hard lump for several weeks but nothing else. You have plenty of time to get to A&E on this.

The snakes are more likely to be on footpaths, not in sheds. I have encountered two in 17 years here. Neither on the beach and walks near my house where they're signposted. Everyone knows not to bugger about with them.

A guy was killed by a kangaroo last year. Very rare.

In a minute someone will come along and say the real problems in Australia are climate change and racism. Because they always do.

OP, if you really want to worry, think of the blue-ringed octopus because you will not know it has bitten you. It is very bad news. Lesson? Don't put your hand under rocks/shells when snorkelling/ever.

The other is buruli https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/beating-buruli-in-victoria

My BIL drives roadtrains in Western Australia. (The ultimate Outback - ie my idea of hell…, but he loves it!) The kangaroos out there are massive and muscly buggers. Dangerous to hit in the car, but not as dangerous as the feral water buffalos up in the very top end or the feral camels some bright spark decided to let loose in the desert. (Evil, cranky, giant bastards with no natural predators.) Also goats everywhere, also with no natural predators. We also have an eagle that makes the American Bald Eagle look like a sparrow (the wedge-tailed eagle) but we don’t have bears or mountain lions to contend with. (No big carnivores at all - other than my son.)

My sister lives near Melbourne. She says she has seen more spiders in her flat in Salford. I think her building gets a treatment of some sort. I wish that was a thing in Manchester. I was besieged by them last summer.

I had one crawl through my open car window (so about 20cm away from my head!) as I was ordering at a Maccas drive through. That was an interesting experience lol.

I don't get around in a constant state of fear, but pay caution when required, eg:

• We live in an area which is prone to snakes in summer - we have had a cat nearly killed by an eastern brown (cost $$$ to save him), and have come across other eastern browns and red belly blacks in our garden - for perspective, we've lived in this place for 14 years and have seen 5 snakes. In summer, we only go out into the yard when wearing heavy duty shoes or boots. Not really an issue for the rest of the year as snakes tend only to be on the move in the hotter months.
• We only swim at patrolled beaches, and only ever during daylight hours. Dawn and dusk, and generally speaking when it's dark are really dangerous times to swim - the fear isn't so much sharks as drowning, which is a far more common way to die.
• Spiders aren't such an issue as we have our house treated by a professional pest controller annually. If we don't do this, we'll get redbacks in the garage which isn't pleasant. We live in a funnel web spider area but have only seen one in 14 years here - and that was in a boot that had been left outside. Lesson learned, never ever again have we left shoes outside!

I should also mention that on our regular house block which is only 15 mins from the CBD of a medium sized city, we regularly see wallabies, echindnas, bandicoots, possums and lorikeets in and around our garden. In fact, I see wallabies almost every morning as they like to graze on the grass in our front yard. It's pretty magical.

They can, but generally only if they feel threatened. Which is why I watch in horror as tourists approach kangaroos in the wild because they're "cute". If they're in an animal park they're fine though, because they're used to humans.

For a brief period I lived somewhere where there were a lot of kangaroos, and there were several instances where someone would stupidly allow their dog off leash and they would chase the kangaroos, so the kangaroo would fight back and cause huge damage to the dogs (one died) as their back legs and claws are so so strong.

I live on 100 acres in country Victoria, snake central. But I've seen one (nowhere near the house) in 8 years.

The big spiders (huntsmen) I don't like, but they are harmless. In fact they are beneficial as they eat small flying insects.

The nasty spiders (redbacks) are very small - eg the size of your thumbnail. You just show a little caution such as wearing gardening gloves in certain situations.

I'm a scuba diver so am aware of shark danger, but this isn't confined to Australia. I was in Thailand last week and they had octopus warnings on the beaches.

We have a large resident mob of kangaroos that come right up to the windows of our house, they are quite timid and will hop away if you go too near. Kangaroos are almost never aggressive and will only defend themselves if threatened.

These are just things most Australians don't think twice about.