Tourists
We get their tourists, they get ours. Seems fair.
One of Australia’s two lethal spiders, the Redback (Latrodectus hasselti), has escaped into Japan and is creating national terror, according to news outlet The Asahi Shimbun. First spotted in Japan back in 1995, the spider has now reportedly reached 22 prefectures in the country, the site reports. Most of the affected areas …
To be fair, Japanese tourists pay their way and apply for visas before visiting. These redbacks (not a racist term, I assure you!) are illegal immigrants to Japan, sponging off Japan's ecology, being anti-social and generally behaving badly. Probably getting drunk and picking fights, too.
Of the long list of deadly things in Australia, Japan should be grateful to have received a "gift" from near the bottom of both the "Deadliest" and "Most Aggressive" lists.
Redbacks at least know their place in nature. They know that humans are above them on the predator spectrum and scurry away respectfully to shelter when we disturbed them.
It's everything else in Australia that is having a difficulty with the concept of humans as apex predators. Haven't they ever read a bloody book?
Nice timing on the article. I was bitten by a red back a couple of days ago. I've required no treatment other than an ice pack and a beer or two (I seem to have gone native). Yes, it hurts a fair bit (like a bad burn), but in the vast majority of cases that is pretty much as bad as it gets. I wouldn't want the kids to get bitten, but they seem to be pretty clued up and just leave them alone whenever they find them. The one that got me was hiding in a shirt I'd left on the floor. Sneaky little bugger. If I didn't know better I'd swear my wife put it there to teach me to pick up my clothes.
I'm surprised it's taken this long for one of our nasties to reach foreign shores, considering the speed at which those from elsewhere appear to flood Australia. (also surprised to realise that we only apparently have two species of venomous spider - for some reason I thought we had more?!)
Really though, if you see a redback, you pretty much have to be looking for one(most of the time). It's the funnel webs that I get concerned about (at least they're easier to spot & kill - until they spot you and come scurrying towards you at top speed).
< flame, cos its the closest thing I could find to a redback.
There are many species of funnel web spider:
http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/Funnel-web-Spiders-Group
Probably a lot of them would have a lethal bite if you managed to convince one of them to bite the right person and then denied that person medical attention for a few days. Mouse spiders might be deadly also. It's just that there are only two species of Australian spider that have been confirmed to have ever killed anyone.
BLOODY HELL ship over funnel web and white tailed spider, Bugger it truly inspire national terror ship over our 5 deadliest snakes as well. Piss off the taipan or the king brown (damn easy to do too) and those bastards will take delight in chasing you down. Close off the beaches give them the box jellyfish, sea snake, blue ringed octopus and great white, then for fun the male platypus for the freshwater.
With all the wildlife that is simply waiting to rid the country of as many humans as it can, it never ceased to amaze me how they ran round screaming like a five year old, at the very sight of a "European Wasp"
It's always funny to watch an entire BBQ of surfers and rugby players run around screaming, because of one little wasp.
Most stories are based on truth. My Dad was working with the Dept of Civil Aviation in Oz until the late 70s. We lived in a place called Tenant Creek and the wife of one of his colleagues, Mrs Atkinson was a nurse and worked at the local clinic. This is in the late 60s and it was a very outback place.
Anyway, we were having a barbie and Mrs A tells the story of a local stockman dragging himself into her clinic, in very obvious pain. So he'd gone to the thunderbox (outside dunny) and had been bitten by a redback on the old fellow. That's gotta hurt! So she relates, the guy says "please missus take away the pain but for gawds sake, don't take away the swelling!".
True story? We thought so as she wasn't one to make things up.