06-20-2015, 08:57 PM | #1 |
Treachery of images ...
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Don't read if you have arachnophobia
A floodplain in the Northern Territory (Aus) could have the highest concentration of tarantulas in the world - an estimated 25,000 ( ) diving tarantulas live along a 10 kilometre stretch of floodplain largely hidden from outsiders and deep within lands controlled by traditional Aboriginal owners.
'The head of Queensland Museum's arachnological division, Dr Robert Raven, who has named more than 400 spiders in his 40-year career, believes the sheer number of tarantulas creates special opportunities for researchers seeking to unlock the spider's secrets..... [they] offer rare medicinal and economic opportunities ....' All they need is for someone to volunteer to conduct the study. Volunteers anyone? Aus Broadcasting Corp: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-2...ntulas/6560978 Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 06-20-2015 at 09:01 PM. |
06-20-2015, 09:54 PM | #2 |
You kids get off my lawn!
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I once had a housemate who had a tarantula as a pet...she called it "Tarantula-cakes".
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06-21-2015, 12:23 AM | #3 |
Surfin the alpha waves ~~
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I used to temporarily keep spiders when I was a kid. Just local wolf spiders and jumping spiders -- nothing exotic.
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06-21-2015, 07:59 PM | #4 |
Treachery of images ...
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06-21-2015, 08:03 PM | #5 | |
Treachery of images ...
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Quote:
Here in Sydney it's most usual to find huntsman spiders high on the walls and on ceilings, and they're not a problem (well, I keep away from them never the less!). They eat mosquitoes and stuff, and they run away from you if you get too close. They can look quite frighteningly large, and I'm never quite sure if they're a huntsman or something else sometimes, but we just let them be - provided they stay high on the wall or on the ceiling. Anything that wants to share floor space goes quick smart! |
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06-22-2015, 01:20 AM | #6 |
You kids get off my lawn!
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Oh, yikes....okay, it was 1985-1986....I just don't remember. I lived in that house a year, and T-Cakes was alive when I moved out. I don't remember seeing her feed it, to be honest....The year after I graduated from college, I lived in a big house just off campus with 20 other women. Serious culture shock, given I had no sisters. I couldn't take it for longer than a year.
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06-22-2015, 01:27 AM | #7 |
Surfin the alpha waves ~~
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No special house -- I just kept them (individually!) in a glass jar. I'd catch the occasional house fly for the wolf spiders. This would have been when I was a kid, many years ago.
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06-22-2015, 08:43 AM | #8 |
Now what?
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To try to conquer my arachnophobia, I kept a tarantula in a terrarium for about a year [it was a male - males only live a year or so, females can live up to 20 years] - would go the local pet shop & buy a bag of crickets and dump them in ... the tarantula would remain perfectly still until a cricket walked under the 'gazebo' and BAM!
How's my arachnophobia you ask? My response to the first post in this thread = Actually I'm a bit better now - I've adopted several spiders living outside the house [adopted = not kill on sight and give them names] over the past few years. |
06-22-2015, 08:21 PM | #9 |
Treachery of images ...
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@poohbear, you've done well to conquer your fear to the extent you have.
We have some of the most dangerous spiders in the world here, and we just get used to knowing that they're there somewhere, but hopefully not close to us. I don't go looking for them, and consider that most spiders are quite 'shy'. Thank heavens!! ------------------------------------ (not for poohbear I don't think) Here's a link to the photos of our 10 most deadly spiders. If you click on the photo the spider details will reveal below. http://www.australiangeographic.com....ngerous_image1 |
06-22-2015, 09:03 PM | #10 |
Now what?
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I did NOT click on that link.
A few years back I watched a program on Animal Planet - about Australia's deadly/poisonous spiders - and still remember the one that crawled into the 'D' ring in the end of the handle of a garden tool and flattened itself around the edges so it looked like a shadow .... waiting .... I still check my garden weeder before using! |
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