The Cellar Image of the Day

Australia has a reputation for some nasty wildlife. Things that bite like, Crocs and Sharks, or venomous bites like Snakes and Spiders.
Of course humans, being the self centered creatures we are, are most concerned with the dangers to ourselves. We rarely think about the dangers these nasties pose to other critters, except our pets. As a result, when one of these pictures comes along, it sort of jars our reality.

This picture from Atheron, is a native finch called the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, caught in the web of a Golden Orb Weaver.

I can't tell from the photo, what the black mass is on the head of the bird? Is it a swollen wound?

I try and think about how spiders interact with each other usually. I saw a jumping spider kill a recluse in the corner of my window. Since then I have been hesitant to kill them all, because I can't kill the ones I don't see...So I let nature take it's course with the spidey's. Unless it's directly threatening me, like the other day, and I don't have time to establish it's identity. lol! My husband was so scared he made me kill it. (croquet mallet)

Since the new puppy has been around, I might take a new course of action and kill them all, 'tis true....For the same reason. Now I'm not willing to let nature take it's course or I could end up with a sick puppy.

No wonder aussie's seem so tough.

#1: Get shotgun.
#2: KILL THAT MOTHERFUCKER!!! NOW!!!!!
#3: Sit in corner whimpering quietly. No, not in the corner, that's where the spiders hide!

I've seen pictures of a Praying Mantis catching and eating a hummingbird, so this is well possible.
Actually, the spider seems to have heard about the slowly eaten rescue pig and decided to start this one off with drumstick; yum, one down, one to go.

Those spiders are very common in the state I live in. We have them in our garden in fact. Mostly they're smaller and just catch bugs. They're actually very beautiful and not aggressive. They just wait for things to land in their web.

Sure, it just sits in the web, waiting for something to land. Until you walk through its web one morning and it finds itself on your face.... aaaaaaggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never heard of anyone using shotguns on a spider, but I do know someone who dealt with a seven-foot brown snake (quite lethal and aggressive) that was draped over the bushes in their garden by blasting it in two with a 12-gauge.

I think this was actually a good technique, because (a) it worked and (b) most people who get bitten by snakes got bitten because they were attacking the snake with something silly like a stick or a shovel. Don't take a stick to a fang/gun-fight.

That said, leaving them alone usually works.

I rescued a woman from a spider on the bus the other day. Brit sized spider (body smaller than the nail of my little finger) but she was terrified. Her friend noticed it, but was too scared to brush it off - they were both up squealing, doing the spider-dance. I offered my services and she thanked me for the rest of the 5 minute journey.

That spider is practicing on the mannikin and working its way up. Next victim: man.

I absolutely love spiders, I would love having aussie spiders around here. I "rescue" spiders all the time from close-minded people who try to kill them. I love plants and gardens, spiders just make all that better. In the summer I like to catch grasshoppers and throw them into the webs, its fun to watch how quick they get mummified.

Don't forget Aussie spiders can kill you...
Well, two can. And there are others which give painful bites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Well if that's the worst of it, I reckon I can cope.

I always see the beauty in nature though. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of others like me out there...or even on this board.

I think spiders are often beautiful. Snakes, too. I've happily patted and held semi-wild carpet pythons.

Slugs .... no .... icky.

Here's me with a snake.

That was about 6 years ago now.

Attachment 20172

eta: don't ask me what I was thinking when I got dressed that day. thankyou.

Blimey babba - I wouldn't have recognised you!
You're twice as beautiful out of snakeskin.

I have a good aussie spider story for this thread actually.

The place I lived in when my boys were little and I was still with their father was in an area where redback spiders were common, so I went on a bit of a search and sure enough, there were a number of them in cracks and between brickwork etc.

I went and got myself some insect spray and proceeded to spray the little suckers and did under all the edges. Out the back, we had a screen door and the lip of the step was constructed of folded aluminium. I sprayed in one end of the lip and about a dozen of the little buggers came running out the other end.

This wouldn't have been such a big deal except that I wasn't prepared for it. I was wearing thongs (flip flops) at the time and a number of them crawled right over my feet. fortunately they were in too much of a hurry to get away from the spray to worry about biting me. Needless to say, I squashed them all.

Now that is lucky.
Blimey - an afternoon's spider hunting ends up with you with 12+ redback bites... Nice. Ambulance for Trish!

lol...well fortunately I didn't get any bites. It could have been a lot worse though. I imagine 12 bites would put even a healthy adult in hospital.

eta: here's another funny story about the redbacks at that house. My other half at the time was telling me he felt sick and woozy and was going to lie down for a while. When I asked him what he thought he was sick with, he said he didn't know. Later on that evening he was feeling better and told me he'd been bitten by a redback that morning...

Ahuh...dickhead.

If this thread ever comes up on the SDRTP, people are going to wonder what the hell footfootfoot is talking about. :p Suckers.

This seems to be a bad time to be a bird in Northern Queensland.

Attachment 20263

Carpet Python 1. Cockatoo 0.

Quote:

AN elderly woman has been forced to have her leg amputated after it became infected and then gangrenous when she was pecked by a pet magpie.
The woman, 84, went to a hospital emergency department in Newcastle, NSW, with pain, swelling and redness to her lower left leg, near where her daughter's magpie had attacked her 11 days before.

She was admitted to hospital and prescribed antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs, but continued to worsen. Gangrene set in and her leg was amputated above the knee.

Infectious diseases physician Paul Wilson reported the case in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

He said infections following pecking injuries were rare.

"Serious infections relating to trauma involving a bird have included septic arthritis of the knee after a chicken bite and a fatal brain abscess in a child caused by a rooster peck," Dr Wilson wrote.

In the Newcastle case, he said pre-existing circulation problems in the woman, a former smoker, may have contributed to the aggressive course of the infection.

I imagine a big can of Raid would work on magpies just as well as those icky spiders.

I've had pieces of my scalp removed by magpies as a child. It farking hurts.

My son complained the other day because a maggie managed to get it's beak inside the gaps of his bike helmet and give him a bit of a nudge.

Those creatures can be nasty. I still think they're beautiful birds though. I love the sound they make in the morning when the sun's coming up.