Do you want to see what was on our bathroom wall tonight? Then you can all stop whingeing about .....

[ghosty]

.... how big the spiders are getting in England these days ...

To misquote the great Crocodile Dundee:

"That's not a spider. This is a spider!"

Photos on my profile if you dare.

Um, Ghosty - I don't want to throw a spanner in the works but ... that actually doesn't look like a Huntsman. Well, just not like any that I have ever seen. The stripy legs and round, lighter coloured body look a little different. The body is really big too. Huntsman often have large leg spans but their bodies aren't usually that big. That said, it could be a different type? I am in Sydney. Sorry if I am wrong and I am leading you down the garden path. Other Aussie- based girls - what do you think?

here what do you reckon?

Well, I'll give you all the sympathy you want, ghosty, cos you're a darned sight braver than me, I'd have gone screaming into the yonder! I'm petrified of the bloody things, just looking at the pics has made me shudder!!

Need the gorgeous chappie whipping his shirt off to come and take my mind off the beast

I think it is a huntsman as it's the only one I can think of that would be in Melbourne with the flat "crab like" legs - although it almost looks like a cross between a golden orb and a huntsman.

Maybe it's (shudder) pregnant? and that's why the body is bigger?

Maybe send a photo to this site www.amentsoc.org/insects/what-bug-is-this/

yes I thought it was a bit golden orbish than huntsman - but being up north - we have huntsmen that are somewhat large but very hairy - never seen stripy legs though.

tinto - that is what our huntsmen look like.

Ummm Ghosty, if I remember correctly, didnt you just have a fumigation massacre last year? You are very brave, you'd think you lived in a mud hut somewhere, and not in the civilized world, with insects like that.

(or was that another poster down under?)

I am not helping, am I?

OMFG ... not a huntsman???
pregnant???????????
aaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh[shock ]

Me

I have just been looking at this website - don't look if you are scared ... and I am sure it was a huntsman ... almost identical markings on its back.
Although for a while I thought it may have been the venomous Wolf spider
But I am sure it wasn't.

But ...

DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!!!

sorry for the pregnancy comment - I actually felt a little queasy when I wrote it....

Do you know if they do any "spider appreciation" courses like they do at some zoos in the UK? I tell myself that spiders are our friends and eat flies etc etc etc, but the primeval part of my brain refuses to countenance such nonsense.

Ghosty - screeeaaaaammm!!

I like your truck btw.

Quint - it was me who had the spider massacre. Our cellar was infested with both a hundred weight of deadly spiders and DD's Christmas presents bought in the July sales here.

We also had a hornets nest by the cellar door.

I thought it was you arfishy but did not say anything in case I was wrong.

Personally I would have moved into a motel ...

Oh I wasn't brave. We got a man in. I was terrified a few months later when I had to go and get the presents out. The floor was crunchy.

Oh but you are brave arfishy ... in my eyes you are the bravest brave person in Braveland ... To even stay in a house infested with venomous spiders and to walk on the corpses later ....
I bow in the presence of such Braveness

Actually I got bitten or pincered or whatever by one of those disgusting tiger striped cockroaches last night. It was horrible. Right on the fleshy bit at the back of the knee.

This evening my bathroom wall had a big lump of poo on it.

I take your scary spiders and lizards and raise you a nasty poo smear.

I found a stripy cockroach on our terrace last night - eating what I can only think was some possum poo. Gross squared.

But it's so hot here now that we have to sit with the door open so I am expecting more things to come inside. I do love warm evenings though.

Hey Ghosty - sorry about the "not a Huntsman" thing! I'm sure it was ... really!!

Ah yes, it doesn't matter WHAT it is. The fact that it's big, scurrying, hairy, has eight legs and can potentially kill you (not in any way wishing to send Ghosty over the edge again or anything) is quite enough.

We unleashed a spring chemical arsenal around the house today (and then remembered that parrots have particularly sensitive respiratory systems and would probably drop dead unless we cleared the air). I'm quietly confident that there is nothing creepy alive or likely to cross our perimeter defence any time soon.

Me 1 - Spiders/Ants/Cockroaches Nil

i had a look at yor photos arf - LOVE tht parrot. I always wanted one

He's sitting on my shoulder as we speak. He is a rescue parrot, as I wouldn't normally agree to buying one, as I don't think it's fair to keep them in captivity or encourage breeding.

Having said that I saw a tiny 5 week old Alexandrine (like ours) in a pet shop yesterday. It broke my heart and I'd buy it so it would have a nice life (as far as possible). He didn't have any toys or fresh food. I got a bit and grilled them about why he was being kept like that.

They are great fun, a lot of hard work though. He spends a lot of time sitting on my head, and I spend a lot of time thinking up interesting toys for him.

We're a dangerous pair DP and I though. We acquire animals in need. He nearly bought home another cat yesterday. DD has made me agree to letting her have stick insects and I'm pretty close to getting chickens. And there's that poor little baby parrot