Australia's Deadliest. Thanks for the Fosters beer and the Body Bag.

And btw

This is a Beer

Just to be clear...

www.ratebeer.com...

I have to be broke as heck to be drinking the clear stuff....

reply to post by zorgon


DUDE, that is so knarly

When I got bit by one, luckily it didnt progrees that far, just a 1/2 dia hole all the through the back of my thigh to the bone.
The doctor agressivley excised the wound early on and I think that helped, plus the extremely strong antibiotic, steroids and something im not really sure what it was, but it was like $15 a pill.
The hole was big enough to pack about 24" of surgical drain into it.
It took a good three months to fully heal, the drains were in for about 4 weeks with them being changed 3 times a week.
I never even noticed the bite till my thigh swelled up like a basket ball.

reply to post by mopusvindictus


right on,
i love beer you cant see through.
right now Im drinkin a sierra nevada stout, mmmmmm

www.ratebeer.com...

[edit on 6-10-2009 by punkinworks]

Crocodiles are by far scarier to me than ANYTHING! I was watching a special last night actually the took a guy to Australia and although he couldn't verify for sure there was undeniable proof of a 22 foot saltwater croc roaming around some river. One day he spotted 170 crocs in a lake in Africa! Holy! Crocs just seem so damn sneaky and I love to swim in rivers and lakes!

Hi Guys

Great thread Zazza
star and flag and Hi
I got the following the other day in a email

One hungry Redback

An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider. Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the sight next to a desk in her office. The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web. It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it. A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.









hope you all enjoyed that as much as the spidey

reply to post by ocker


Im torn between how incredibly cool that is and my natural gagging reflex.

www.youtube.com...

A bit of Australiana

Wow, great thread! But seriously scary lol. You know what? All this talk of spiders and snakes is actually making me nervous, I keep looking around my room wondering if there are any spiders hiding in here and if I'd see 'em. I've had a few in my room before. Thankfully though I don't think there are any at the moment, I hope...


I once had a scary encounter with a snake when I was little. It was when my family lived in South Australia and we went to Nelson for a holiday. I was running with my younger sister along a path ahead of my Nan and Mum. There were bushes on either side and a river on one side, which I think was the Glenelg river. Well yeah anyway, we were running along in front when we came upon a snake. I think we might've stopped maybe a metre or so from it and it hissed at us! I can't remember what colour it was, maybe brown I think, but as you can imagine, my sister and I ran back to our Mum and Nan as soon as we saw it lol! It was pretty scary! Especially considering how young we were! I think my sister was about 5 or 6 and I was either 7 or 8, so yeah scary. We went back to the spot where it was with our Mum and Nan, but it was already gone.

Also
Remember that just because a snake is dead or if the head is severed from it's body, it can still kill you. Unfortunately the jaw still works and the venom is still in there...

It is also important to avoid snakes that appear to be dead, as some species will actually roll over on their backs and stick out their tongue to fool potential threats. A snake's detached head can immediately act by reflex and potentially bite. The induced bite can be just as severe as that of a live snake.[2][22] Dead snakes are also incapable of regulating the venom they inject, so a bite from a dead snake can often contain large amounts of venom.

source

reply to post by zorgon


The brown recluse appears to have much in common with the white-tailed spider, including the affect of being bitten by one which varies a great deal but in the worst cases is very much like your gruesome pics. White-tails don't build a web, they just roam around looking for other spiders to snack upon.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a70532477199.jpg[/atsimg]

The redback and the black widow are close cousins too - maybe this pic will ring a few alarm bells for our american friends.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6f67647e547c.jpg[/atsimg]

Do you have anything related to this 8 legged fiend though, a funnelweb ready to strike. They're found all over the country and only the Sydney area appears to have the most dangerous variety although it's hard to find volunteers to test the strength of other location's breeds. I've found identical looking funnelwebs in firewood from the highlands here in Tasmania and the general word is their bite hurts but is not fatal - I'm not about to try to prove that wrong :O

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b11e4160c62a.jpg[/atsimg]

We just need to be aware and keep an eye out for these critters and get to know where to expect to find each variety. Curious children are probably most at risk.

I am from tassy and you forgot to mention the most dangerous Australian of them all.The Ozzy digger.A perfect killing machine.The finest fighting soldier in the world.Being a ex-ozzy soldier,i should know.

Originally posted by OzWeatherman

The Huntsman



when I was in Darwin I saw one chase a small gecko across my car dashboard....while I was doing 80km/h.

PMSL! That would have made an awesome YouTube moment. Huntsmans can be so tenacious. You gotta take your hat off to that one that chased the Gecko! Brilliant!

IRM

[edit on 6/10/09 by InfaRedMan]

Originally posted by zazzafrazz
Can someone post on Cane toads, I cant even look at them yuk.

Ask and you shall receive!

The Cane Toad (Bufo Marinus)

The cane toad, Bufo marinus, was introduced to Australia by the sugar cane industry to control two pests of sugar cane, the grey backed cane beetle and the frenchie beetle. One hundred and one toads arrived at Edmonton in North Queensland in June 1935. Unseasonal breeding occurred almost immediately, and within 6 months over 60,000 young toads had been released.

Cane toads eggs are laid in gelatinous strings. Large females can lay up to 20,000 eggs in a spawning. The eggs can be easily identified from eggs of native Australian frogs by their typical appearance like black beads in a string of jelly.

Source

The Cane Toad Problem... Can We Lick It?

Erm... Yes... But it's not advised!

Menzies School of Health Researcher Bart Currie says people licking the pests for a high is quite common, but sometimes they get more then they bargained for.

"There have been quite a lot of deaths in other parts of the world from people trying to use cane toad venom for recreational purposes and what it does is stop the heart."

But Dr Currie says the key to finding a treatment for the poison might be found in the Territory's slatey grey and keelback snake populations that are able to eat the toads without dying.

"If we could figure out first of all how the venom is working on that animal and then secondly what component of the animal protects it against that venom".

He is hoping further studies will produce a treatment for people with cane toad poisoning.

Source

Smokin!

Erm... Yep that too!

Some children and teenagers in Katherine and Arnhem Land are even drying out the skins of cane toads and rolling them up as joints to get a hit.

"These are very foolish and dangerous acts," he said.

"Anyone who does this runs the very serious risk of seizures, a rapid loss of consciousness, cardio-vascular collapse and death.

Source

And... For your viewing pleasure!

Excerpt from Cane Toads (Mocumentary)



IRM :shk:

[edit on 6/10/09 by InfaRedMan]

Hi again guys found a picture of one of the locals enjoying a natural water bed
hope they fed the crocs already



Thanks

Ocker

Originally posted by JackWestJr
Don't leave out our white tail spiders which do come into your house and up into your bed. Oh yes. You could get an amputation from that bite.

There is also our redback spider commonly found out in the backyard dunnie or just in the backyard among the wood and stuff, they can kill ya if you don't get it treated.

Now let's see..............scenario here, tptb drop some of their elite in our Queensland rainforest or country or NT or WT. We have got the poisonous snakes as well as the big fatties that will curl around your neck or body and strangle you, he, he, oh plenty in them there forests. he, he.

Oh yeah, there is plenty I have not mentioned.

The Australian White Tail is analogous to the North American Brown Recluse in both behaviour and venom which works by rotting the flesh. Damned hard to treat. My mother was bitten by a Brown Recluse in the US then came to visit me. The Aussie doctors couldn't figure out what the problem was, so they treated it as a bed sore with little result. As she left, I told her to suggest to her doctor that she may have been bitten as a Brown Recluse, and she laughed it off. But she did mention it to her doctor, and he said of course!

The Australian Red Back is analogous to the North American Black Widow in both behaviour and venom which works similar to a bee sting. Only much stronger!. I have never heard of anyone dying from either a Black Widow or a Red Back. Having said that, anyone who is allergic to a bee sting would have one hell of a problem with a Red Back or a Black Widow I expect, and probably people with heart or respiratory problems, and very young children. And the sting would be damned painful, there is no getting around that.

edit: Pilgrim beat me to the gist of this post

[edit on 6/10/2009 by rnaa]

Drop Bears



Be afraid, be very afraid …. this fearsome furry drop bear feasts upon unwary visitors to Australia.

Description
The Drop Bear is described as an arboreal, (tree dwelling) carnivorous mammal of Australia, Phascolarctus Hodgsonii, growing to around 4 feet in height. This description is not far wrong. Believed to have evolved from a similar line to koalas, Drop Bears vary from 3 to 5 feet in hight, but are extremely strong. They are covered in a dense fur, which can range from almost black to the Alpine Drop Bear's snowy white coat. They have broad shoulders and razor sharp claws on all four limbs. They are able to walk for short distances on two legs, but are much faster on all four, being capable of bursts of speed approaching 60 km/h at full gallop. Their heads are similar to those of koalas, but with enlarged canine teeth, not unlike those of bears or other carnivorous animals. There are no reported photographs of them, and only a select and very lucky few have laid eyes on them and lived to tell the tale.

Sub-species
The Common Drop Bear is found in wooded areas all over the Australian continent, including Tasmania, and is thought to in fact venture as far north as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It lives in trees, dropping down to feed on kangaroos, wombats, and anything else that walks beneath it.

www.geocities.com...

Thanks

Ocker

Originally posted by InfaRedMan

WTF? One Foot across!!!

Yeah but only the Indonesian variety.

I usually have a Huntsman prowling around the house somewhere during the summer. He (she?) usually stays up high on the wall next to the ceiling where I can't catch him and throw him out.

We'll go to bed and spot him in the bathroom, then he'll be in the kitchen in the morning, probably been feeding on cockroaches all night - more power to him.

Had a golden orb spider in the driveway last year. I hope he(she?) or a descendant is back this year. It used the house eaves, a well placed bush, and the cars side view mirror as anchor points for its engineering. It was neat to watch it make a beautiful web in the evening and clean it all away by morning.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Thanks for the useful information, I think I will have second thoughts now when walking and hopping on the rocks near the public beaches.

Originally posted by krystalice
reply to post by zazzafrazz

 

Thanks for the useful information, I think I will have second thoughts now when walking and hopping on the rocks near the public beaches.

Oh piffle. If you don't live your life how are you going to know when you are dead?

I live in Sydney and I am sitting about 4 feet away from a Funnel Web as we speak. It's under our house but whenever I go under there to kill the bastard he ducks under some brickwork and hides. I had one in a jar a few weeks ago, the bite on them is horrendously strong, and I'm not talking venom-wise. I stuck a pencil in the jar and he attacked it so hard it nearly wrenched the pencil from my fingers!

Huntsmans are cool, except the odd one who decides he wants to try and fly and takes a leap off the wall at you. They are handy to have around to keep the cockroach population under control. They might look a little creepy and their bite might be a little painful but they rarely bite anyways, they would rather run like hell to get away from you.

Surviving Australia's deadly critters is not really a hard task if you use a little common sense and keep your eyes open. Know the rules when you decide to say go swimming in an unfamiliar area, or go for a bushwalk. If you see a snake, stand still and let him go on his way. If you see a spider, avoid him. If you get bitten, call an ambulance and begin first aid. If you are in an area known for crocs, dont go swimming and stay away from the waters edge. If you are unsure of any of the above, double check before you go! It's simple! I could go on and on and on about what you could and can't do but I think you get the point

Originally posted by zorgon

Originally posted by zazzafrazz
As mother nature couldnt possibly come up with such fantastic creatures on her own

Well that was the point... these species apparently just appeared almost like the escaped from a specimen collecting vessel

It really sucks when you file something to look at later and then can't find it

You guys have camels down there... how about the Camel Spiders?

Actually the pic is real although there are 2 spiders linked together. One spider is holding on to the other.