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Seen a spider recently? (Read 1353 times)
Jovial Monk
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Seen a spider recently?
Mar 10th, 2021 at 8:50am
 
We used to see a big fat huntsman in the house every year. Have not seen one now for some years.

We know that invertebrate numbers have crashed and this could be one small sign of that.

So—you seeing less spiders around the house?
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Dnarever
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #1 - Mar 10th, 2021 at 2:10pm
 
Jovial Monk wrote on Mar 10th, 2021 at 8:50am:
We used to see a big fat huntsman in the house every year. Have not seen one now for some years.

We know that invertebrate numbers have crashed and this could be one small sign of that.

So—you seeing less spiders around the house?


I am currently taking one outside every second night.
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #2 - Mar 10th, 2021 at 2:15pm
 
Dnarever wrote on Mar 10th, 2021 at 2:10pm:
Jovial Monk wrote on Mar 10th, 2021 at 8:50am:
We used to see a big fat huntsman in the house every year. Have not seen one now for some years.

We know that invertebrate numbers have crashed and this could be one small sign of that.

So—you seeing less spiders around the house?


I am currently taking one outside every second night.



I used to do that long ago but they kept coming back
so now I kill them.

I haven't seen any for quite a long time.
I think they are happy outside
with the cooler temperatures and plenty of rain -
there is plenty of food for them outside.
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #3 - Mar 10th, 2021 at 2:18pm
 
During the Xmas hols we had loads.

So I was at my desk and a massive one ran up the wall next to me. I happened to have a 10L tub on my desk so I caught it in that. Then I thought hmm, maybe I'll keep it as a pet so I punched some holes in the top, filled it with soil and leaves and fed him a fly every day and sprayed water him.

We called him Larry. I let Larry go when we went on hols, I hope he/she's doing well.
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #4 - Mar 10th, 2021 at 4:26pm
 
Kill them or take them outside, won’t reduce the numbers.

So some still getting them in droves. Maybe Adelaide is hotter than Vic/Sydney?
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #5 - Mar 12th, 2021 at 5:28pm
 
mothra confirmed she has not seen any “huntsbastards” for years—about 30 minute drive south of where I live.

While digging to lift my trees I saw plenty of earthworms, under the peastraw were black insects, not beetles I think—but no ground spider! I have not used any insecticide at all. Maybe clay is not attractive to ground spiders.

Anyone notice any other disappearance?
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #6 - Mar 13th, 2021 at 3:51am
 
Dragonflies and ladybugs seem to be other insects rarely seen.
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #7 - Mar 14th, 2021 at 8:00pm
 
Jovial Monk wrote on Mar 10th, 2021 at 8:50am:
We used to see a big fat huntsman in the house every year. Have not seen one now for some years.

We know that invertebrate numbers have crashed and this could be one small sign of that.

So—you seeing less spiders around the house?

Surprisingly, I saw a medium small mangy huntsman a few days ago near the door.
I thought... I forgot about them as I hadn’t seen one for ages!

I scooped it outside among the plants.

And in the motel room up at Yarrawonga this week... there was a cute little spider almost above my bed!
It was on the ceiling... fluffing about in its web until it settled and then I thought... it’s waiting for little bugs to eat.

I said to my friend in her bed over the other side with no spider... I hope it don’t fall on me during the night!
After a couple days I said it was “my little mate up there” Cheesy

I hope it survives other people coming through the motel.

Somehow, as I watched its habits...during the day it disappeared in the tiny gap between the ceiling and wall, then at night with the lights on... comes out to nestle in its little web. For some reason  I felt an immense respect for its tiny little life.

Getting back to huntsmen.... whenever the weather was about to rain... into the house they came ... little spiders I don’t mind... but that’s as far as it goes!

I must admit... not seen as many European wasps like some years ago! (Thank goodness!) Although I find their hidden nests behind seats, in the mortar in between bricks, or if hubby has a a folded over old canvas cover outdoors, and we unfold it... there’s nests there too!

Coming to think of it...flies and mozzies and blowflies seem to be far and few between also.


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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #8 - Mar 16th, 2021 at 12:07pm
 
It seems dy weather has limited the population of insects and so of the spiders that prey on those insects. In Melbourne especially the population has boomed because of the mild and wet winter.

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/thanks-to-la-nina-its-cool-to-be-a-sp...

Be interesting to ask this question again next fall.

However, in Adelaide and parts of Vic outside of Melbum it seems there has been a longer term decline in spider and insect populations. Mum tends to open the door to the back porch and leave it wide open. Despite that—not that many flies make it into the house. 20 years ago—millions of flies!
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #9 - Mar 28th, 2021 at 3:21am
 
We had these huntsman spiders made a web so strong and wide outside my sister's bedroom. Sometimes the storms would be strong enough to damage the web. Or we would be cruel and twang the web to make the web collapse.

One night, I had noticed that the huntsman was not on its web. So I poked at the support stream of the web that was attached to the bottom stair's railing. This huntsman appears around the other side of the railing to inspect what kind of insect was caught. It was only about 10cm away from my hand and probably would have scurried if I was much closer. But, the thought of one jumping on to my hand was enough to give me arachnophobia.

I currently live in a house owned by relatives. Under the house opposite the car space, there is a clutter of things that have been covered with some spider webbing. I have had a home remedy told to me to just use peppermint oil and soak the cotton balls in that oil and throw the cotton balls into the hard to access spider web areas. I have managed to reduce the amount of web in the area. But, I figure that the rats have been feasting on the smaller spiders. I have been suspecting that the spiders have moved upstairs somewhere.
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #10 - Apr 7th, 2021 at 9:40am
 
I would still like any accounts of spider numbers and those of other insects like dragon flies, ladybirds, flies and mozzies etc.
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #11 - Apr 17th, 2021 at 12:51am
 
I found the mosquitos have been fairly bad as of late. But, having been washing myself using lemongrass body wash, the mosquitos never bothered me. I had an automatic mist sprayer in my toilet room for the louvres do not close. So, keeping the sprayer up on the hook, I have set the spray for every 15 minutes. I also had a sprayer up in my hallway for the other end where the windows had to stay open for the breeze. Both sprayers have made a near absence of mosquitos (and cockroaches) making the house more liveable.

There have been more spiderwebs about the house. But I would suggest that it might be one spider near the back of the house taking advantage of the flies that hang around my compost bin.

In a month's time, I will have to use some bifenthrin candles (home made) to ward off whatever is left of the mosquito problem during the winter. So too will spiders leave the area as they did last winter.
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #12 - May 2nd, 2021 at 3:02pm
 
So mozzies still bad, spiders maybe down.
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Jovial Monk
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #13 - May 3rd, 2021 at 5:33pm
 
In George Town when I emptied my garden shed a gazillion little redback spiders. Neighbor who was given my shelving units was rather jumpy about the redbacks having been bitten once or twice. Burns, he told me.

Redbacks still plentiful.
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Re: Seen a spider recently?
Reply #14 - May 3rd, 2021 at 7:39pm
 
Jovial Monk wrote on Mar 13th, 2021 at 3:51am:
Dragonflies and ladybugs seem to be other insects rarely seen.


Don't see many dragonflies but we get the Lady Bugs every season.
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