Swarms of spiders flee into homes to escape NSW floods(theguardian.com)
theguardian.com
Swarms of spiders flee into homes to escape NSW floods
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/horrific-swarms-of-spiders-flee-into-homes-and-up-legs-to-escape-nsw-floods
64 comments
Sydney area is also the home of the funnel-web spider, a rather venomous and very aggressive spider.
I'm not afraid of spiders but that one makes my neck-hairs rise.
Worth noting that an antivenom for the funnel-web was created in the early 80s [0], and Australia hasn't seen a single death since.
Its still more than a one day stay in hospital, but it isn't likely to cause a fatality if you actually seek treatment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider#T...
Its still more than a one day stay in hospital, but it isn't likely to cause a fatality if you actually seek treatment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider#T...
> The venom is needed to produce the antivenom.. The venom is taken from the spiders by delicately stroking their fangs and collecting the tiny droplets of the deadly venom. One dose of antivenom requires around 70 milkings from a spider.
> Funnel web spider antivenom is prepared from the plasma of rabbits immunized with the venom of the male funnel web spider (Atrax robustus). Each vial of the product contains 125 units of antivenom which has been standardized to neutralize 1.25 mg of funnel web spider venom. The product also contains glycine and other rabbit plasma proteins.
o.O
> Funnel web spider antivenom is prepared from the plasma of rabbits immunized with the venom of the male funnel web spider (Atrax robustus). Each vial of the product contains 125 units of antivenom which has been standardized to neutralize 1.25 mg of funnel web spider venom. The product also contains glycine and other rabbit plasma proteins.
o.O
From time to time one of my staff would catch a male Atrax robustus† in his backyard and bring it to work. I'd create a home for the spider out of a very large jar by placing in it rocks and sufficient dirt for him to make his funnel-web home. Funnel-webs would happily live there for well over year, and we'd feed them on live slaters (wood lice) and occasionally other insects (we only ever kept one at a time).
The jar used to take pride of place on my office desk and sometimes visitors who came to my office were somewhat unnerved by it. Every morning when I came into my office and switched on the lights he'd rise up in an aggressive pose (as in the photo in the link below). To impress visitors, I'd poke a pencil through the air vents holes in the jar's lid then he'd immediately attack it and you could see venom running down the side of the pencil. After a while that pencil—which was kept specifically for the purpose—ended up rather pockmarked.
We kept a number of them over the years but only males, as they are not only more deadly than the females but also they're considerably more aggressive.
I've more stories about them. When I was a kid, I had one on the back of my hand but luckily I wasn’t bitten. Once I'd been bushwalking and after climbing out of a valley at night I pointed my flashlight to the ground and saw that I was in a midst of multiple nests of females some of whom were out of their nests and roaming near my feet. I was so physically exhausted I didn't even bother moving. Another instance was when one bit someone who I knew vaguely. This was in the days before the availability of antivenene and he was very seriously ill despite being immediately taken to hospital (he ended up with pulmonary oedema and other complications and nearly died).
† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax_robustus
The jar used to take pride of place on my office desk and sometimes visitors who came to my office were somewhat unnerved by it. Every morning when I came into my office and switched on the lights he'd rise up in an aggressive pose (as in the photo in the link below). To impress visitors, I'd poke a pencil through the air vents holes in the jar's lid then he'd immediately attack it and you could see venom running down the side of the pencil. After a while that pencil—which was kept specifically for the purpose—ended up rather pockmarked.
We kept a number of them over the years but only males, as they are not only more deadly than the females but also they're considerably more aggressive.
I've more stories about them. When I was a kid, I had one on the back of my hand but luckily I wasn’t bitten. Once I'd been bushwalking and after climbing out of a valley at night I pointed my flashlight to the ground and saw that I was in a midst of multiple nests of females some of whom were out of their nests and roaming near my feet. I was so physically exhausted I didn't even bother moving. Another instance was when one bit someone who I knew vaguely. This was in the days before the availability of antivenene and he was very seriously ill despite being immediately taken to hospital (he ended up with pulmonary oedema and other complications and nearly died).
† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax_robustus
Yep. If the huntsman spider doesn't freak you out, the FWS should.
Huntsmen are creepy looking, but essentially harmless. (Unless you're another bug, which is why it's nice to have a few around.)
Ahah. They are so creepy looking. They pretty much have faces, coats, and top hats. I just don't want to think what kind of bugs are around to need a nightmare fuel spider around.
Yes, they are. It's a bit unnerving to have one on one's bedroom wall and be lying there and stairing up at it (they love climbing up high). But at least you can see a Huntsman, on the other hand Funnel-webs rarely leave the floor (so they often hide in shoes, etc.). People get bitten that way (as a kid I was taught to always look in my shoes before putting them on).
If you don't like the look of Huntsman spiders then you'd probably not like to have a jar with a Funnel-web in it on your desk (as I mentioned above). Funnel-webs really do look creepy, that's part of their fascination.
If you don't like the look of Huntsman spiders then you'd probably not like to have a jar with a Funnel-web in it on your desk (as I mentioned above). Funnel-webs really do look creepy, that's part of their fascination.
Exactly. Huntsmen are like daddy long legs compared to FWS.
Huntsmen are harmless. The easiest way to get rid of one is to just pick it up by a leg.
After the plague of mice, the flooding, and now the spider infestation..I would just move back to Wales at this point.
Since you mention plague ...
Looking at the screenshots and video in the article I kinda wondered if an event like this (flooding) might have been an originator of some Biblical plague stories from Genesis [0].
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[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt
Looking at the screenshots and video in the article I kinda wondered if an event like this (flooding) might have been an originator of some Biblical plague stories from Genesis [0].
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[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt
Yes, it's definitely the type of thing that inspired that story and others like it. Of course it doesn't only happen in Australia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flood_myths
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flood_myths
"grizzly story" the standards of writing have fallen quite a bit for people who are supposed to be writers.
That paragraph is not the journalist's writing, it's a quote, presumably transcribed from a verbal interview.
How is this an excuse to spell "grisly" as "grizzly"?
It's an acceptable spelling in British English https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/grisly
TIL, at 41.
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Mice are quite grizzly, though.
Yes, which means the journalist who transcribed the interview chose the wrong homophone for this particular word.
“itsy bitsy” stories don’t generate clicks
It's known as "The Grauniad" for a reason.
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Cute wolf spiders, like Pardosa sp. that is the key terrestrial predator in arctic areas. More biomass than all polar bears and wolves combined and more influential than those for the ecosystem.
IIRC I was just reading about an explosion of mice populations in Australia...
Was it the same article mentioning that people are praying for a flood to drown all the mice in the fields?
Oh my, I would completely freak out if my home was overrun by spiders. There is a vibrating spider living in my bedroom, and I already get slightly nervous whenever it moves away from its regular spot.
Between the mice and this, I’m starting to think Australia just doesn’t want visitors anymore.
That's it. Ssssh.
If it's any consolation, my grandfather once stopped the car in the middle of a tarantula migration in Texas. My grandmother, who had bad eyesight, opened the rear passenger door and leaned over practically to the ground for a closer look.
Also, power outages, tornadoes, hurricanes, FF extraction groundwater contamination, and everyone has guns. Would you like us to share?
If it's any consolation, my grandfather once stopped the car in the middle of a tarantula migration in Texas. My grandmother, who had bad eyesight, opened the rear passenger door and leaned over practically to the ground for a closer look.
Also, power outages, tornadoes, hurricanes, FF extraction groundwater contamination, and everyone has guns. Would you like us to share?
Don't forget a month of orange sky as VIC/NSW bushland was on fire a month before the virus hit.
How do the spiders know about the flood? It's probably very hard to see from their level. Do they detect vibrations or humidity?
They don't need to, spiders float on water. And as soon as they do they start seeking solid land, so obviously from the point of view of the spider it has no idea if it's a flood or if landed in a pond. It will just keep going in one direction until it finds land.
I want to feel sorry for them and really I do, but seeing past the total shudder-worthy response I have to spiders (particularly large groups of them) is really hard...
Odd to describe a survival instinct as "crazy".
Humans continuing on a path towards climate catastrophe when we know better, that's crazy.
Humans continuing on a path towards climate catastrophe when we know better, that's crazy.
Democracy, populism, and individual self-interest can't lead or solve existential global threats. The only way is to eliminate and control the major sources, i.e., ICEs, FF extraction, meat ag, and unconfined clinker/concrete manufacturing, and get to massive bio-CCS such as by exploiting phytoplankton and/or kelp. Planting trees does exactly jack naught.
Meat is older than democracy/politica. I'll have none of that.
> Democracy, populism, and individual self-interest
Let's totally skip the major contributor, capitalism.
Let's totally skip the major contributor, capitalism.
> When floods did kill off mice, it usually happened quickly. “Farmers talk about the mice disappearing virtually overnight,” the research officer said. “They get to such high numbers they become quite stressed … they start to run out of food, which facilitates the spread of disease, they start eating the sick ones, they turn on the babies, and then it’s all over. It’s quite a grizzly story.”
The lasting question of our time: how do we humans ensure we don't end up like the mice...
I'm reminded of Yuval Harari's quote that civilization is 3 meals away from barbarism.
The lasting question of our time: how do we humans ensure we don't end up like the mice...
I'm reminded of Yuval Harari's quote that civilization is 3 meals away from barbarism.
Also three meals away from: revolution, anarchy, collapse. One of many great quotes that are regularly attributed to everyone's favorite, recent source. It's also been attributed to Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Lenin, Robert Heinlein. Earliest print paraphrasing Alfred Henry Lewis (nine meals).
It must have the ring of truth to it, to survive so long and offered as wisdom from so many sources.
You're right. We need to figure out how to do better than the mice.
It must have the ring of truth to it, to survive so long and offered as wisdom from so many sources.
You're right. We need to figure out how to do better than the mice.
Hah. Posted that I remember it from Larry Nivens before I read your comment :D
I recommend reading about the famous Mouse Utopia Experiment, you may be interested in it
For those curious here is a wikipedia article on Behavior Sink [1] related to the findings from the mentioned experiment.
To summarize: Even in a society where all the basic needs of survival are met overpopulation will cause the society to devolve and collapse from overcrowding and psychopathy.
If you find this interesting you may want to search for the strong correlation between urban population density and increased levels of mental illness.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
To summarize: Even in a society where all the basic needs of survival are met overpopulation will cause the society to devolve and collapse from overcrowding and psychopathy.
If you find this interesting you may want to search for the strong correlation between urban population density and increased levels of mental illness.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
Interesting stuff but I would question how much you can infer about our society based on rodent behavior.
I wonder if the rodents in the experiment had access to birth control.
Probably not too much but definitely not none.
Mouse utopia was basically a prison. I don't think the fact that people get depression when in prison is a revelation.
I recall a very similar quote from Larry Niven’s “Lucifer’s Hammer”. Something about no society being more than a few missed meals from a revolution. (Paraphrasing)
Are we in danger of becoming like mice right now?
I think the point is, we might end up having to resort eating each other as food production collapses due to climate change.
And the preppers are doing it wrong. They're storing bulk goods (and not enough of them) rather than the means of producing food. Say I need 80 million calories for the rest of my life, comprising macros and micros, how am I going to store anything to last 50 years or more? Two adults would need half a million pounds of corn. Are they going to hide that under their mattress? What would any kids be born eat?
It's totally fatalistic, irrational nonsense.
It's totally fatalistic, irrational nonsense.
Well, real peppers do both.
But, if you’re not in a rural situation, you’re basically screwed. Either there’s no space for your crops, and/or you won’t be able to defend them.
But, if you’re not in a rural situation, you’re basically screwed. Either there’s no space for your crops, and/or you won’t be able to defend them.
I like red bell peppers because they're smarter than the green ones. ;)
It's completely untenable without a massive, underground vertical farm, a water source, and an energy source. No one but billionaires could afford that. You'd need an armed commune to defend a massive greenhouse area. It's the only way a self-sufficient group could survive in isolation.
It's completely untenable without a massive, underground vertical farm, a water source, and an energy source. No one but billionaires could afford that. You'd need an armed commune to defend a massive greenhouse area. It's the only way a self-sufficient group could survive in isolation.
I think some form of feudalism would likely end up re-emerging, and feudalism can scale just fine so long as you expect most people on an estate to take a massive quality of life hit.
Yeap. It doesn't sound pleasant. I'll take "fixing man-made issues so they're not so horrible" for $300, Alex.
Doubtful, hence my request for clarification.
Doubtful? Famine due to unusual climate circumstances is not unusual, and we are entering a new era of historically "unusual" climate circumstances (not to mention the many other faucets of human-caused environmental collapse). Far from doubtful.
Without a time horizon you can say anything about anything in the future. In the next two thousand years maybe we face several famines; but we’ll do what we have always done when food runs scarce; adapt, explore and kill. Cosmopolitan virtues will likely wither in that time.
Even with climate change as a factor, we can lose a lot of our current yearly harvest and still have enough to eat. We can change our diets to match what is available to us to eat, and for all we know, even with the loss of some arable land, we gain access to land that was previously unusable due to the local climate being inhospitable to our crops.
So, are we, or are we not, facing in the near term the pressures that these mice are facing that drive them to desperate action? Are we all members of the Donner Party in the future? Or is it just an interesting thought exercise to ask what we would do if we were faced with the same pressure?
Even with climate change as a factor, we can lose a lot of our current yearly harvest and still have enough to eat. We can change our diets to match what is available to us to eat, and for all we know, even with the loss of some arable land, we gain access to land that was previously unusable due to the local climate being inhospitable to our crops.
So, are we, or are we not, facing in the near term the pressures that these mice are facing that drive them to desperate action? Are we all members of the Donner Party in the future? Or is it just an interesting thought exercise to ask what we would do if we were faced with the same pressure?
Yeah. Cosmopolitan values are pretty fragile they might as well be a lie. For one thing they need an absurd level of wealth to maintain without which they disappear and leave a vacuum that can only be filled with base instincts.
Greenhouses, climate-controlled vertical farming, and desalination. Easily doable.
So last year California followed Australia with the wildfires. This year should we be preparing for this?
So whats going on that first photo (after the video)? I see a bunch of spiders and a much larger cricket. Either those spiders are micro tiny or that cricket is some kind of super giant beast of an insect.
The cricket is probably about 3-5cm long. That type of spider is very, very common in Australian gardens and varies a lot in size (presumably as they grow, and not as sub-species). The larger ones would be about the same size as the cricket. The ones in the photo are likely younger.
If you go out with a headlamp at night, you will see dozens of these spiders with their eyes shining back at you.
When gardening, I encounter them constantly (almost every minute when digging over soil) but they tend to run away or stay clear and are never concerning.
If you go out with a headlamp at night, you will see dozens of these spiders with their eyes shining back at you.
When gardening, I encounter them constantly (almost every minute when digging over soil) but they tend to run away or stay clear and are never concerning.
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