Spiders in Australia

[Tyrasanchez30]

Random topic I know
I have always dreamed of going once it's possible again after the travel restrictions, but I am terrified of spiders. Well most creepy-crawlies really, but those especially.

I know they're supposed to be much larger in Australia, realistically am I likely to find the huge ones in Sydney, Melbourne etc. Or are they mainly in the outback? I've heard stories of people coming home from work and a table-sized spider is on their wall I Sydney.
What's it really like?

@ladywriter1234

I live in Melbourne, in the last 20 years I have seen maybe one big spider. When I was a kid I lived in Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula and we had loads but I think it was the house. Honestly, if you come here on holiday, you will not see a spider. Don't let this silly myth stop you from coming

So not true, when I was on holiday in Melbourne we had a huntsman in our apartment living room and white tails in the bedroom, the huntsman was huge but the white tails scared me more because they can bite, we were only there for 3 weeks! Maybe we were unlucky, it was a lovely modern apartment as well and not some ramshackle place.

Spiders aren't too bad where I am (Melbourne) but when I lived in the rainforest in Tweed heads all the insects were huge and plentiful. A bird eating spider walked up my friends arm when I was talking to him I was more worried about the tics though....

I hate spiders!

Living in Sydney, I saw very few and certainly none of concern (well, actually, they are all of concern because I hate them so much but nothing aggressive or fatal).

Living in Canberra, my house was invaded by wolf spiders. They scared the hell out of me but were never aggressive, just terrifying. I used spider spray or my husband to get rid of them. The largest was probably about the size of a 50p piece, give or take. And that is including legs.

Living in Melbourne, I’ve seen a huntsman in the garden once, I think we both ran in the opposite direction. Lots of redbacks by the laundry room door but they never came in there and I never went out there.

I fucking hate spiders!

But I like Australia. Realistically, if you are out of the cities, you should be more worried about kangaroos jumping in front of cars.

Oh, there were white tails in Canberra too. They were on the patio. I hosed everything down regularly.

Ds got bitten by a whitetail. Not a good experience.

I don't think saying they are harmless helps 🤣 . Uk house spiders are also harmless but if you have phobia that doesn't matter.

But Australia is known for its venomous creatures, including spiders. So it would be very relevant to know which ones are harmful to humans. (After all, if we’re only talking about creepiness, we have creepy spiders here, too.)

I am terrified of spiders. Been to Australia twice, once for a year but only saw large ones in houses twice.
It's a fab place, I wouldn't let it stop you OP. Having said that, I doubt you'll be going any time soon.

You never see them in winter. If you're here from May-October you'd be very unlucky. Late summer and early autumn are the worst. It's like they grow throughout the summer. Most city hotels would spray for them. I've never heard of one in a high-rise hotel, although I don't really stay in hotels in my home town.
I live in Brisbane and we have heaps of large huntsmen in homes. I've developed a tolerance for them - up to about 5cm they are disposed of humanely, bigger than that I just direct the spray, and hope...as long as they are hit with a squirt of bug spray they die, even if they manage to run off first.
I would not base a decision on coming to Australia on spiders. They aren't that hard to avoid for the duration of a holiday.

I was raised in Sydney, in houses with gardens, and there were often large spiders rattling about (they didn’t often come inside though). I only came across a snake twice, and that was in the suburbs (North Shore). This was 20 years ago now though so maybe it has improved. My DP has never been to Australia and is too afraid to go for the same reason!

I'm petrified of spiders and everyone thought I was crazy going to Australia. There was no way in hell I was gonna let some spiders ruin my travel plans!!
Spiders in England are always wandering into my house, zero respect for boundaries lol. Australian spiders know the big Australian bugs are outside so they rarely come in. I had a huge golden orb outside my bathroom window for months. She never came in, never really moved. I can deal with that. I've had three encounters with huntsman (only one was heart stopping) and saw one white tail living in a chicken coop.

I've lived in Sydney and Brisbane for year , never bothered by them. You get your house sprayed every year to remove / repel any pests. Maybe if you're doing some gardening there might be a harmless spider on one of the plants, but it's not that common. I hate spiders and I can honestly say I haven't had a bad experience !

I saw a huntsman in Sydney. We had been living there for few months. My ex and I were fascinated by it then it suddenly jumped

Another time I was at a beach called Shelley Bay and someone spotted a red back in the toilets so a biker of us went to have a look of course we were all British

When I was in Byron Bay there were sign up don’t walk on the rocks as brown snakes are nesting at the moment. My fried saw a brown snake basking in the sun I was quite glad I didn’t see it

• Number of us

Not biker (stupid autocorrect)

I have a pen friend who lives in Melbourne, a bit out of the city, He has often mentioned spiders and snakes around his home.,well,the snakes he sometimes sees in his garden.and basking in the hot sun on his front drive way, He has found some dodgy dangerous spiders that have crept into his house at times.. I think that everyone has local telephone numbers to call, to get experts to come and deal with any dangerous snakes and dangerous spiders, as most people don't fancy trying to kill a snake in their house,or on a driveway.

@kowari

We often had huntsman spiders inside. Redbacks in the garage. Never seen a Sydney funnel web in the wild.

Yes this. Big spiders are not dangerous here. Finding a plate sized huntsman on the wall is distressing but someone else will move it for you. Stay in a hotel. You’ll never see one and you can call reception if you do. Red backs are small and they hide.

Funnel webs are dangerous but they aren’t just hanging around homes unless we’ve had loads of torrential rain making them seek shelter. I’ve never seen one. It makes the news if someone gets bitten. Usually someone sheepishly saying they’ll never leave piles of clothes on the floor again 😂

The sun here is WAY more dangerous.

But you have spiders in the uk? I read a thread the other day where the op said a huge spider had run across her face. I've never had that happen in Australia!

The huntsmen don't bother you and eat all the bugs. We don't get redbacks in the house. Outside you can tell if there's one around as they have a certain web.

Only worry about snakes if you're in a rural area, or if your garden is particularly overgrown or has very long grass.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=XnEqmnOfV6Q

I live in Sydney. Yes we get big spiders. I’ve also seen a dead snake on my street. I have my house sprayed for bugs every year, seems to help with the spiders also. I’ve had some big mothers in the past.

I'm an Australian. What spiders you see will depend on where you are. It's very diverse. Most of the sensational sized beasties you see are from tropical regions in forest areas, like the Daintree, NT, etc. Everything grows extra big there. Lol.

Most people use pest control which keeps them out of the house (mostly). It's places surrounded by forest, log piles, junk, etc. that have places for them to hide that you'll see a lot. Some live in the ground. Certain trees are havens for certain species.

Really, if you leave shoes/jackets outside, give them a shake before using & look for spider webs strung across forest paths (often abandoned but annoying to walk through).

The big spiders aren't usually a problem. It's small ones like funnel webs, white tails, red backs and a couple others who are dangerous. I've never seen them in my house (SE QLD).

If you ask an Aussie we'll tell you to be more frightened of hoop snakes and drop bears.
(*Might not exist.)

The hotter the climate, the more creepie crawlies. There are not huge numbers in Melbourne, relative to Brisbane or even Sydney. If I see one minding it's own business, I leave it alone - after all they kill annoying things like flies and mozzies. Sometimes I put a glass over them, slide a piece of paper under the glass and take them outside.

During the weeks/months I've spent in and different bits of Australia, I have no terrible spider stories.

I don't like spiders - I wish it were different, but I'm not great with them, so I was really careful when camping/traveling about shaking out clothes/shoes and (best tip) using a long stick to lower the visor in the car before getting in.

We did encounter a town that was in the midst of a weird infestation - we got the heck out of there quickly. Otherwise, it really was okay.

Have an amazing time OP!

I've never seen a spider in Oz, although the first time I went to the loo there was a praying mantis.

I've been three times, Perth, Sydney, Cairns but always in winter, I would melt in the summer there.

I've seen loads outside (when we visited a vineyard there were loads of huge ones) but only one big one inside. My MIL had some kind of spider killing spray that dealt with it pretty quickly. This was all in the countryside and I've spent probably a couple of months there total spread over a few visits.

I'm an Aussie. I'm moderately alarmed by spiders and deeply terrified of snakes, but they are both pretty easy to avoid most of the time.
By far the most dangerous native animals near me are the magpies - absolutely vicious during swooping season. They don't give a damn whether you are looking at them or have things tied to your bike helmet or whatever, they just get right in there. I completely change my walking routes in spring to avoid the territories of the bad ones as they will actually draw blood.

(The local council do usually put signs up to warn you so don't let that stop you coming to visit, - just definitely believe the signs when you see them and go a different way!)