My car sits out in the backyard all week, and gets covered in spiderwebs, if it's lucky every month or 2 and I'll give it a wash, that gets rid of then for a day or two. They don't concern me, although it makes the car look unloved...enough of that, we don't go there. One of my daughters has a bad case of arachnophobia, and of course she has passed that onto her daughter.
So the granddaughter and I get into the Volvo this morning, and she freaks out, there is a spider on the door sill. ''It's a White Tail !'' she says. I take a look - ''Yeah...nah, that's not a White Tail.'' 'You sure ?' ''Positive.'' After she gets out I take a closer look, and it's a White Tail alright, protecting her eggs.
I hit it with some engine start...that gets her going, for awhile. Then I finish off with Simple Green because I'm a Hippy at heart. Car washed today, inside the doors too. Looks like I need to get some sort of spider killer better than engine start.
The White Tail is an Australian spider, and has apparently been here for a long time, but they have only become really common in the last couple of decades, before that I'd never heard of them. Their bites are really bad, and it can takes years for them to heal. But experts say it's not the spider's bite, but bacteria on it's fangs that causes the ulceration. I may have been bitten by one, in bed. I woke up, and it felt like sunday morning after a drinking session, but it was wednesday and I hadn't been drinking. Off to work as per normal, and a couple of days later I've got sore and stiff muscles in my arms and back. Oh, must've been working a bit hard I thought, but I hadn't really. A week later I'm scratching my back, have a look and I see I've been bitten, and the weeks symptoms make sense.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-n...es-new-resident
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/1010...pider-speak-out
My arachnophobic daughter lives close an Auckland suburb famous for a monster spider...called the Avondale spider, the town centre is all about the spider, sculpture and stuff. She found one in her bathroom - we get the full pantomime of how big it was what she did with it. They are harmless of course, but, but...
So the granddaughter and I get into the Volvo this morning, and she freaks out, there is a spider on the door sill. ''It's a White Tail !'' she says. I take a look - ''Yeah...nah, that's not a White Tail.'' 'You sure ?' ''Positive.'' After she gets out I take a closer look, and it's a White Tail alright, protecting her eggs.
I hit it with some engine start...that gets her going, for awhile. Then I finish off with Simple Green because I'm a Hippy at heart. Car washed today, inside the doors too. Looks like I need to get some sort of spider killer better than engine start.
The White Tail is an Australian spider, and has apparently been here for a long time, but they have only become really common in the last couple of decades, before that I'd never heard of them. Their bites are really bad, and it can takes years for them to heal. But experts say it's not the spider's bite, but bacteria on it's fangs that causes the ulceration. I may have been bitten by one, in bed. I woke up, and it felt like sunday morning after a drinking session, but it was wednesday and I hadn't been drinking. Off to work as per normal, and a couple of days later I've got sore and stiff muscles in my arms and back. Oh, must've been working a bit hard I thought, but I hadn't really. A week later I'm scratching my back, have a look and I see I've been bitten, and the weeks symptoms make sense.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-n...es-new-resident
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/1010...pider-speak-out
My arachnophobic daughter lives close an Auckland suburb famous for a monster spider...called the Avondale spider, the town centre is all about the spider, sculpture and stuff. She found one in her bathroom - we get the full pantomime of how big it was what she did with it. They are harmless of course, but, but...