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Australia’s litany of fearsome fauna seems to have a new entry. Added to deadly snakes, man-eating crocodiles and poisonous jellyfish comes Hermie the hunstman, a spider so unusually large and strong that it had no problem carrying a sizeable mouse up the outside of a fridge.
Hermie’s feat was captured on film by Jason Wormal, a tradesman from Coppabella in Queensland, who was heading out to work in the early hours of Monday morning when he says he received an offer from a neighbour that he couldn’t refuse.
“So I am just about to leave for work about 0030 and me neighbour says ‘You want to see something cool’ and I say ‘Hell yeah’, he wrote on Facebook.
“So we proceed to his place and he shows me this. Huntsman trying to eat a mouse.”
On the video shot by Wormal a voice can be heard off screen wondering in amazement: “What’s he gonna do with him? Man that is so cool”.
Stills taken of the spider seem to show the arachnid clutching the mouse by its head with its mandibles while it scurries up the fridge.
The footage quickly circulated online and by Monday afternoon had been viewed more than 6.5m times.
Among the 41,000 comments below the original post were many expressing deep horror at the strength of the spider. Anthony Candelaria Sanchez summed up the general feeling with the simple statement: “Oh hell no.”
In a later post, Wormal assures his friends that the spider is alive and well.
“Ok guys so just letting you all know that the spider is fine. We have named him Hermie, we have adopted him and he is now running his own extermination business out of our town Coppabella. Oh and he is now paying rent. Lol.”
Graham Millage, the manager of the Australian Museum’s arachnology collection, said it was unusual, but not unheard of, for spiders to target vertebrates.
“This is the first time I’ve seen one catch a mouse, but I have seen huntsmen catch geckos. I’ve seen a redback spider catch a snake in its web, I’ve seen a golden orb spiders catch birds.”
Millage said the banded huntsman could grow to have a leg span as large as 16cm.
However his colleague, fellow Australian Museum arachnid expert Helen Smith, said it was unlikely that Hermie had killed the mouse itself.
“I would be very surprised if a huntsman would attack a mouse and even if it did, that the venom would be sufficient to kill it fast enough for the spider to still have hold of it,” she told the Guardian.
“I am a also suspicious because the mouse’s tail looks quite stiff – as though it has been dead some time.”
While the exact cause of the mouse’s demise remained in question, there was no doubt over Hermie’s remarkable size and stamina, she said.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
2016/10/24 10:53:35
Subject: Re:Australia continues to horrify the world
See, this is why we own guns over here. If I hit that thing with a shoe, it would probably just get pissed and devour my soul. I couldn't sleep on the same landmass as those things. Wouldn't mind seeing one in a plexiglass enclosure at the zoo though.
feeder wrote: Frazz's mind is like a wiener dog in a rabbit warren. Dark, twisting tunnels, and full of the certainty that just around the next bend will be the quarry he seeks.
See, I would have guessed from the thread title it would be our terrible xenophobic refugee policies, or possibly the horrifying rise of the far right in our politics, or strewth, even the casual murder of the English language.
But no, spiders, not even a deadly one (well, to people at least). Hell, the drop bears and hoop-snakes are far more serious dangers to your average Aussie, unless you find one unexpectedly while driving.
/cool video though
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/10/24 11:37:08
2016/10/24 11:55:02
Subject: Re:Australia continues to horrify the world
We have a live and let live policy with most of our spider population in my house. The webbing ones get to have their assigned corners, as long as they deal with the stinkbugs and other assorted pests. Our wolf spider housemates however, get squished on sight.
feeder wrote: Frazz's mind is like a wiener dog in a rabbit warren. Dark, twisting tunnels, and full of the certainty that just around the next bend will be the quarry he seeks.
Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote: We have a live and let live policy with most of our spider population in my house. The webbing ones get to have their assigned corners, as long as they deal with the stinkbugs and other assorted pests. Our wolf spider housemates however, get squished on sight.
It's always quite a task because most the time there are 1000 spider babies on their back.
If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.
- Fox Mulder
Spiders are normal here, just earlier today I got a new RAM stick for my pc and when I opened it up I found a spider had very recently decided to move in. Didn't have a web set up yet. Thing decided to jump out at me probably accepting it would die or take me down with it.
Lucky me, we don't have any spiders that could hurt people (well, except some import stuff in the Museum of Natural History) so there's no reason to be afraid of them. As long as they stick to corners I'm not sitting in they're free to eat as many flies as they can catch.
Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote: We have a live and let live policy with most of our spider population in my house. The webbing ones get to have their assigned corners, as long as they deal with the stinkbugs and other assorted pests. Our wolf spider housemates however, get squished on sight.
It's always quite a task because most the time there are 1000 spider babies on their back.
That really ramped up fast.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
It'll bench a mouse or two. Then its buddies spot whilst a cat is lifted.
Babies are next, then full grown men.
Nuking from orbit? Those eight legged baskets will send the warhead right back.
"Our attempt to nuke the Austrailians failed. The nuke was caught in a spiders web. The spiders are rearming the nuke with millions of their children and they are heading for the mainland."
DS:90-S+G+++M++B-IPw40k03+D+A++/fWD-R++T(T)DM+ Warmachine MKIII record 39W/0D/6L
2016/10/24 17:37:46
Subject: Re:Australia continues to horrify the world
feeder wrote: Frazz's mind is like a wiener dog in a rabbit warren. Dark, twisting tunnels, and full of the certainty that just around the next bend will be the quarry he seeks.
2016/10/24 19:35:16
Subject: Re:Australia continues to horrify the world
If America had stuff like this in our kitchens, maybe we wouldn't be so fat! "Honey, I'm going into the kitchen to get a snack, do you want anythi...never mind!
If America had stuff like this in our kitchens, maybe we wouldn't be so fat! "Honey, I'm going into the kitchen to get a snack, do you want anythi...never mind!
Ah, the old Godzilla vs. Mothra gambit.
Homosexuality is the #1 cause of gay marriage.
kronk wrote: Every pizza is a personal sized pizza if you try hard enough and believe in yourself.
sebster wrote: Yes, indeed. What a terrible piece of cultural imperialism it is for me to say that a country shouldn't murder its own citizens
BaronIveagh wrote: Basically they went from a carrot and stick to a smaller carrot and flanged mace.
Thanks guys. I'll continue to have nightmares for a few days again. I detest spiders.
Poor ignorant guardsmen, it be but one of many of the great miracles of the Emperor! The Emperor is magic, like Harry Potter, but more magic! A most real and true SPACE WIZARD! And for the last time... I'm not a space plumber.
Now imagine each of those baby spiders not actually being baby spiders and having 100 baby spiders on their backs each and that the picture is actual size. That's almost when it's time to burn the house down.
If we knew this we would never of landed on aus and left the place well alone!
Sgt. Vanden - OOC Hey, that was your doing. I didn't choose to fly in the "Dongerprise'.
"May the odds be ever in your favour"
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
I have no clue how Dakka's moderation work. I expect it involves throwing a lot of d100 and looking at many random tables.
FudgeDumper - It could be that you are just so uncomfortable with the idea of your chapters primarch having his way with a docile tyranid spore cyst, that you must deny they have any feelings at all.