"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

"Jack Campin" wrote in message

[in the UK]
There are no poisonous spiders here, although they can bite.

The really big ones are harmless - I find them rather cute. We had
an army of them like eight-legged mice swarming over the back wall of
the house I lived in in Sydney.

Shudder

I do not like swarming bugs. One thing that makes spiders tolerable to me
is that they generally travel solo. I have heard of people having
infestations
of thousands of baby spiders, but typically, I get one on the ceiling
every
so often - which causes no end of yowling from a certain black cat.

Very large swarming spiders might make me go catatonic!

Now the funnelweb spider we found in the loo one day *was* something
to worry about, but they don't look very special.

Hmm. I saw a TV show about a guy who got bitten by a funnel web, and I'm
not sure exactly what happened to make this possible, but he was the first
person to be treated with an antivenom, and he made a full recovery. Since
then, I hear, Australia has antivenom available for anyone who is bitten
by a funnel web. Can someone confirm this? Yowie?

During the "dramatization" of this guy's ordeal, the spider was shown
walking around on the floor in his house (the story was true, but the
events were recreated using actors, including a spider "actor"). It was
*huge*, about the size of a tarantula. I don't know how he missed it.

Yes. I'm not bothered about Australian wildlife,I have a problem with
big
spiders. They frighten me. I try and gather them up in a big towel if
they
are in the bath and put them outside. I do not want to harm them but if
they
are marching around downstairs I want Boyfie to get them.

One thing to think about. All spiders are venomous, but only some of them
have the ability to bite through human skin. So most of them are harmless
to us, but I don't know about the skin of a domestic cat, so I'd still
be careful. My guys don't eat spiders. Licky loves to hunt them, but he
never shows any interest in killing or eating them.

My mother used to say if you have spiders in your house it was a good
thing,
it meant you have no pollution.

That's a new one. A friend of mine - a fan of spiders - says they bring
good luck, and that you should leave them alone. I do leave them alone,
but
I'm not crazy about seeing a big one crawling across the ceiling right
over
my head.

I was spider-phobic even with small ones, but I addressed this. I simply
cannot do the huge ones. It makes no difference to know they cannot harm me,
they freak me out.

Tweed