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Giant spiders invade Australian Outback town
Topic Started: May 6 2009, 07:59 AM (342 Views)
XNavyGunner
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Gunner

Australia is known around the world for its large and deadly creepy crawlies, but even locals have been shocked by the size of the giant venomous spiders that have invaded an Outback town in Queensland.

Scores of eastern tarantulas, which are known as “bird-eating spiders” and can grow larger than the palm of a man’s hand, have begun crawling out from gardens and venturing into public spaces in Bowen, a coastal town about 700 miles northwest of Brisbane.

Earlier this week locals spotted an Australian tarantula wandering towards a public garden in the centre of town where people often sit for lunch. They called in a pest controller, but not before using a can of insect spray to paralyse the spider.

Audy Geiszler, who runs Amalgamated Pest Control in Bowen, said that the spider was a large male with powerful long fangs and was so big that when he placed it – dead – in the palm of his hand its legs hung over his fingers.

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Mr Geiszler said that he had been inundated with calls from worried locals reporting sightings of the giant tarantulas, which have been pushed out of their natural habitat over the past month by heavy, unseasonal rain.

"There have been a number of reports. It's not plague proportions but a number have been spotted around the district,” Mr Geiszler told The Times today shortly after receiving a call from a resident who had spotted another spider on the outskirts of town.

While not deadly like other Australian spiders, the eastern tarantulas are venomous and can grow up to 6cm (2.4in) long with a leg span of 16cm (6.3in). Despite their common name, they do not eat birds, but can kill a dog with one bite, and make a human very sick.

They are also known as whistling or barking spiders for the hissing noise they emit when they are disturbed or aggravated at close range.

Mr Geiszler said that they were common in the east of Australia, but usually kept out of the way and lived under mulch and logs and in natural rocky outcrops.

“I’ve warned folks around here to make sure they wear shoes and gloves when they are gardening at the moment as it can be a very nasty bite,” he said.

Asked what he would do with the giant spider he caught this week, Mr Geiszler said: “I think I’m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big it is. It’ll make a great paperweight.”

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Max
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Pickle barrel, pickle barrel, Kumquat!
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EWWWWWW! "I don't like spiders and snakes"
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newbloodmoon
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this would make a great horror movie, about giant spiders that attack.... oh wait, it's been done. Isn't everything in Australia poisonous and the only antidote for a poisonous Australian animal is to be Australian?
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

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AtlantisRises
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rofl

We've got some great Creepy Crawlies in Australia, Bird Spiders aren't that bad though. I know people who have them as pets and they are pretty cool as long as the venom glands are removed.
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Who is John Galt
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XNavyGunner
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I'll pass. :swoon:
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StrmySummer
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umm....yeah.....i'm with XNavy....i'll pass on havin one for a pet...ack!
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Ella
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Huntsmen are as large as I like to go, even some of them grow freakishly large.
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Mystical
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Only good spider is a dead spider...My daughter had my nephews kill a big wolf spider last night in my bedroom..OMG...glad they got it..those things are so hairy and big...eeek :swoon: They can move really quick too.

hmm last year we had this freakishly big spider in our flower bed..it was like like greyish tanish with like marbleized body..the size of a mans fist....and really long legs..have no idea what kind it was but Mystertikal killed it.. :lmao:
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StrmySummer
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Storm Goddess

Mystical...those sound like a type of wolf spider too from the coloring....

need to get ya some Ortho Home Defense Max......that stuff has kept the spiders outta my house since i found it about a year and a half now....it lasts a year, i need to go get some tomorrow so i can keep em out for another year......lol :)
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Mystical
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Well the thing was it was in a flower pot or something and it was not hairy..it was more translucent and slimy lookin...and when he killed it...it literally popped...some kind of mutant spider :lmao:
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StrmySummer
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hmm.....dunno what it might've been then lol
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newbloodmoon
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Well I have eaten BBQ tarantula, so maybe they want revenge?
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
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StrmySummer
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newbloodmoon
May 8 2009, 07:48 PM
Well I have eaten BBQ tarantula, so maybe they want revenge?
ewwwwww.....no thank you
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newbloodmoon
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Mr. Sardonticus
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It tastes like chicken, at least that's what the Matrix tells me it tastes like.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

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