A word of caution when working on our cars

[FgNewbie]

I won't put my hands where I can't see any more.

A redback nearly got me when I was cleaning a web inside a garden tap.

One of my side gates regularly had a big spider on it. One night it was too dark to see but I reached over to open the gate, YUK!!!!! I squished him in my fingers when I grabbed the gate. (Gate since removed).

A few years ago, a spider put me in hospital for a month after working in the backyard. Found the fang marks, not the spider.

In the 80s something bit me on the neck while I was driving interstate on the Hume. Doing 140 kph I was slapping my neck like a lunatic and braking as hard as I could. Stopped the car, jumped out, ripped my shirt off and stomped all over it. A scene fit for Youtube. Took a detour to a country town to find a GP. The GP saw the marks and asked me what sort of spider it was. I offered to go back and retrieve my shirt and what was left of the splatter. I got antihistamines instead.

I've had bloody big huntsmen / tarantulas live in or under nearly all my cars over ther years till I could give them a headache. I assume they fall out of trees (which I won't park under any more). They have run across the inside of my screen, outside of the screen then inside the passenger window, across the dash, dropped off driver's sun visor, from inside the driver side trim up the seatbelt, around door hinges & jams, across the roof then in the tailgate. They are just the ones that put the wind up me.

The best one was something really big and furry, ran across the dash in front of my brother in the passenger seat. While my brother was self-ejecting at a set of lights, he wanted to squash him on the dash with a shoe "NO!!!!!!!!" The bugger followed my brother out of the car into the darkness and under the car. Brother wouldn't get back in the car and caught a cab (I was tempted to join him). I drove to a servo and used 3 cans of Baygon before he dropped down under the car.

My new FG has the standard mirror spiders. Not sure what has made a web between the towball and back of the car. I spray and they come back.

I could keep going but I'll leave it with... a female friend has a handful of big spiders living in her kitchen, she has NAMED them.

[wrongwaynorris]

Been bitten 3 times now by redbacks , first time hospital and serious monitoring then released the next day , second time Hospital fellt a liitle unwell released 6 hours later , third time barely even noticed any effects at all . Doc says I have built up an immunity by producing my own antibodies from exposure to the venom .

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by Cav

You haven't lived until you've bin stung by a scorpion, I'll tell you about it one day, but when it comes to spiders.... I'm a bloody hero......

http://bloggercav.blogspot.com/2010/...1-tomorra.html

Do tell!

[ltd]

Originally Posted by FTe342

ltd - don't know what part of the world your in, buy I seriously doubt you have funnel webs on the underside of your mower. Thats just not funnel web behaviour. Yes they will get into a cool garage/house but its usually after a very wet period and they travel uphill trying to avoid the flooding.

I should clarify, my mower is one of those mulching mowers which requires hosing through a hole in the frame with the engine running to clean. If it is not done you get build up. I have had two funnel webs in the mower frame, the first one jumped out when I tried to start it and scared the ever loving crap out of me, the second was when I moved the mower and it fell out dead.

What I was getting at before is the reason they come into your house or garage, they typically prefer to be in their nests.

[aj1964]

Originally Posted by Fordman

Theres a spider behind my side mirror which will not vacate, I pressure hosed the hell out of it and though surely i thought it was gone, woke up the next morning to see yet another cob-web, good heads up though, now where did i put the mortien

Lol, me too. Spider living in the drivers side mirror of the wife's AU. the cobwebs always came back no matter how much pressurised water I sprayed there. I took the scalp off to paint it and soaked the inside of the mirror assembly with mortein surface spray. Haven't seen any cobwebs since!

[aj1964]

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

Been bitten 3 times now by redbacks , first time hospital and serious monitoring then released the next day , second time Hospital fellt a liitle unwell released 6 hours later , third time barely even noticed any effects at all . Doc says I have built up an immunity by producing my own antibodies from exposure to the venom .

No extra spider senses tingling, ability to climb walls or anything?? Lol

[data_mine]

No radioactive red backs around.

[XC GXL]

This little beauty crawled across my windscreen at about 3am one morning.

Wayne

[ebxr8240]

You guys are all wusses... Tuffen up !!!

[fordOwner]

My dad who was a mechanic says the most dangerous part of being a mechanic are the hidden spiders.

actually I just realised, my profile pic to the left has a spider on the headlight, although its fangs are too small to penetrate human skin it still creeped me out.

[BPXR6T]

I recently had to pull an engine from an EF that had been sitting on a bush block for the last three years. Car was covered in redbacks so gave it a good spray first. Still managed to have one land on my hand while it was wedged under the inlet manifold taking the top starter bolt out. No bites...

[ZDI-970]

i had a whitetail hiding in the corner of my shed and i didnt have any mortein or anything so i gave it a hit with some wd40 instead... that didnt kill it and i thought oh damn now its gonna be quick! so i painted it yellow so i wouldnt lose it lol

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by D3v[]

i had a whitetail hiding in the corner of my shed and i didnt have any mortein or anything so i gave it a hit with some wd40 instead... that didnt kill it and i thought oh damn now its gonna be quick! so i painted it yellow so i wouldnt lose it lol

hahahahaha

[Auturbo6]

Thumbs up, top notch thread.

[TRRTRY]

The ones with no legs freak me out also - hanging down below the 4 on the number plate



Fan killed it for me - hehe

[nb_351]

nice snake pic haha
when i was working at the4 army base i had so many near misses, you learn to go and wash them front to back forst, especially when they go out bush, come and sit around for a while...
found snakes a few times, not to mention how many spiders have scared the bejesus out of me lol
spent one morning chasing one out in the paddock in a army rover haha theyre too quick though

[ZDI-970]

had another funny story toady with a spider (damn i hate em!) i was pulling some stuff off my parts ute and i see half a spider dissapear into a hole in the ground... and me being the spider hating meanie i decided to pour some thinners down the hole and flush him out! it was a big one and he didnt like the free drink i gave him so it came out and i squished it.. i think it may have been a funnel web but probly not because theyre not in vic apparently.. but still sorted him out nicely!

[fmc351]

Originally Posted by D3v[]

had another funny story toady with a spider (damn i hate em!) i was pulling some stuff off my parts ute and i see half a spider dissapear into a hole in the ground... and me being the spider hating meanie i decided to pour some thinners down the hole and flush him out! it was a big one and he didnt like the free drink i gave him so it came out and i squished it.. i think it may have been a funnel web but probly not because theyre not in vic apparently.. but still sorted him out nicely!

ASFAIK, funnel web spiders are in many places, they're just not the Sydney funnel web.

[XRGhia]

im plannin on respraying the cat and a thread like this comes up....

[FgNewbie]

FMC351 thanks for motivating me to google.

I found this interesting. Australian funnel webs are restricted to the south-east of the continent, and mainly in coastal areas. There are at least 40 different species, and not all are dangerous, unlike the notorious Sydney Funnel-web spider.

I wish I hadn't read the female can live for 20 years and female redbacks produce up to 1000 eggs. Enough reading. Ignorance is bliss!

[data_mine]

If you check back through this thread to one of my previous posts, it'll ease your mind. No one has died from a red back and funnel web bite in many years. And if you're an adult you're pretty safe anyway. Sick, old, or kids are at greater risk.

[MAV50L]

Originally Posted by xrghiawagon

im plannin on respraying the cat and a thread like this comes up....

How are you going to keep the cat still till the paint drys?

[fmc351]

Originally Posted by MAV50L

How are you going to keep the cat still till the paint drys?

Witchcraft.

Originally Posted by FgNewbie

FMC351 thanks for motivating me to google.

...Enough reading. Ignorance is bliss!

Im here to help.

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by nb_351

nice snake pic haha
when i was working at the4 army base i had so many near misses, you learn to go and wash them front to back forst, especially when they go out bush, come and sit around for a while...
found snakes a few times, not to mention how many spiders have scared the bejesus out of me lol
spent one morning chasing one out in the paddock in a army rover haha theyre too quick though

When I did army cadets we had camps, and on one of our once a year week long camps we had this one cadet sleeping right next to me and two other officers, he woke us up around 1.00am screaming that he had a snake in his sleeping bag. So we walk over with a shovel and a machete and 'lo and behold there is two browns in his bag. Me and a sargeant battered them to death and told the junior to harden up(we where secretly pooing our pants.)