Thread: Spiders

Originally Posted by TimNZ

I'm not usually bothered by spiders, but when I flicked the sun visor down and saw this little fellow inches from my face I nealy jumped into the back seat!

I would of thought you had seen heaps of these in NZ, you have the same spider but goes by a different name.

In the movie Arachnophobia, they used mostly the NZ version of our Huntsman.

Baz.

Ahhhhhh, Arachnophobia.

That's one funny movie.

I well remember driving down Anzac Hwy here in Adelaide when a large one started walking up the INSIDE of the windscreen in front of me. Fastest I have ever got out of a car - and I was in the middle lane. Foot hard on the brake and before the car had stopped I was out, didn't even pull the hand brake on. Cars behind me swerving, blowing horns etc.
Eventually some kind person came and gently removed it.

I always pull both visors down for a look EVERY time I get in a car.

They may be harmless but they sure can give you a fright
I'd bug bomb the car and shed.
My uncle got bitten a few weeks ago reaching into the mail box. Hurt for a bit but recovered in a few days. Nothing alive in there anymore....

The small spiders used in the film were Avondale spiders (Delena Cancerides), a harmless species from New Zealand that were provided by Landcare Research in Auckland. Despite their fierce appearance, this spider is docile member of the crab-spider family and are, in fact, harmless to humans. They were not allowed back in New Zealand for quarantine reasons. The giant "spider" used in the film was a species of a bird-eating tarantula, which attains an 8" legspan or more. Those types of tarantula are not easy to handle and can give a nasty bite. The spiders in the film were managed and handled by famed entomologist Steven R. Kutcher.

Source Arachnophobia (1990) - Trivia

And

It was accidentally introduced to New Zealand in the early 1920s in shipments of hardwood logs used for railway sleepers. The first specimen was found in 1924. Its range in New Zealand has expanded only slowly out of Avondale, a suburb of Auckland, hence the alternative New Zealand common name.[1] Species have been found as far down the country as the Otago region.

Source [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delena_cancerides]Delena cancerides - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Originally Posted by RoverP6B

Hello Tim,

The spider is a Huntsman.

Huntsman Spiders - Australian Museum

Their bite is not fatal.

Ron.

Perhaps... but cleaning the seat after a sight like that isn't pleasant either. Lucky you can remove the seats in Defenders and hose them off.

C'mon, I have one of these in my bedroom. He lives behind a picture frame.

I called him Frank. He's slightly larger though . . . And no, I have no idea how to tell if a huntsman is a 'he'. I'd just be creeped out if anything other than that was watching me sleep at night.

Originally Posted by Relay

C'mon, I have one of these in my bedroom. He lives behind a picture frame.

I called him Frank. He's slightly larger though . . . And no, I have no idea how to tell if a huntsman is a 'he'. I'd just be creeped out if anything other than that was watching me sleep at night.

Well if it is HUGE then it will be female, the male is smaller.

Baz.

Hi,
One of the girls at work was in her car, taking the kids to school or similar, when a spider dropped from the visor.
The next thing she remembers was seeing her car come to a halt up in someone's garden.
She had 'bailed out' at road speed.
Fortunately it was not a bad outcome.
cheers