Afraid of spiders?

Xavi6

Then don't read any further..........

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=651337

Mammoth backyard spider devours bird

13:00 AEST Wed Oct 22 2008

Photos of a mammoth spider devouring a bird in a Queensland backyard are sweeping email inboxes — and according to experts, it's all real.

The photos — which are reported to have been taken this week in Atherton, west of Cairns — show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.

Head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford on NSW central coast, Joel Shakespeare, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.

"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.

Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.

Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut–breasted Mannikin.

The bird, which appears frozen in an angel-like pose, most likely flew into the web and got caught, according to Mr Shakepeare.

"It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said.

But the spider would probably prepare a liquid soup with the finch — as it does with insects — and discard of what it doesn't need.

"It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.

Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said.

But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened.

"They blunder into [the webs] and their feathers get entangled," he said.

"The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food, unlike funnel web and wolf spiders that actively hunt their prey.

Another species of spider called the bird-eating spider does not actually eat birds.

"If a spider gets a bird, it's a very lucky spider," Mr Czechura said.

And here's a few pics -

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pretty damn cool!

brendansmith

Put your 8 legger spider inside her!!! :D:D

c - 13

I fail to see how a bird that size would get caught in a web. Especially if it was flying at the time, It would have went straight through it.

Cunny-Funt

wow thats a horrible looking spider there. I googled Golden Orb Weaver just there to see a clearer pic of one and it seems they are usually quite tiny (like the size we get over here)

Overheal

I'm not a serious arachnaphobe but that was enough to send a spasm down the length of my spine. fúckin hell.

These things are AKA Banana Spiders in North America, I've seen some about as big as that back on an old school trip but I never thought theyd eat a bird. Theres one half the size of my hand hanging over a footpath only about 200 yards from here come to think of it. Creepy.

Mahatma coat

c - 13 wrote: »

I fail to see how a bird that size would get caught in a web. Especially if it was flying at the time, I would have went straight through it.

I was stayin in a Hostel in Innisfail a while ago, I accidentaly stumbled into a Web whilst pissed, they are very strong and very sticky, and I was very lucky not to walk into the bit with the deadly dangerous spider on it at the time

Overheal

Orb Weaver Venom isn't fatal to humans. Theres some localised irritation but it subsides in and around the 24 hour mark. Not sure how long the bite mark itself last for though. Thank thing looks like it has monster fangs.

c - 13

Mahatma coat wrote: »

I was stayin in a Hostel in Innisfail a while ago, I accidentaly stumbled into a Web whilst pissed, they are very strong and very sticky, and I was very lucky not to walk into the bit with the deadly dangerous spider on it at the time

I agree, they can be alight, i've done the same. But the pressure that a bird flying into one would produce would almost surely be enough to burst through it.

Overheal

Could have been hovering/landing onto the tree at the time, he wasn't necessarily at his full flight-speed.

CHD

Kinda Disturbing

brendansmith

c - 13 wrote: »

I agree, they can be alight, i've done the same. But the pressure that a bird flying into one would produce would almost surely be enough to burst through it.

Not if it was a web of lies!

CHD

brendansmith wrote: »

Not if it was a web of lies!

I bet you crack yourself up, dont ya?

Quazzie

The material used in spider webs is actually stronger than steel but is just used at such a thin amount that normally it is very easy to break, but they can and are sometimes stronger and can in fact in theory be made strong enough to catch something as large and strong as a human

RossFixxxed

I for one welcome our giant spider overlords.

Oh dear god, that's horrible. I'm traumatised, It looks like something from The Mist.

*hides*

KnifeWRENCH

The photos do look kinda fake, but if the experts say it's real then that's an impressive spider!

Another species of spider called the bird-eating spider does not actually eat birds.

Then why the hell is it called a bird-eating spider? Who names these things?

Run_to_da_hills

You can buy tarantulas from this web site in the UK. :pac:

http://www.thespidershop.co.uk/insect/index.php?cPath=21_34

That's one big fukn spider. Naa spiders dont give me the chills at all.

Snakes however, GTFO!

Prof.Badass

square_igloo wrote: »

Then why the hell is it called a bird-eating spider? Who names these things?

YORE MA!

yes that's it. We all know about her dubious past as an arachnologist.

Ross_Mahon

Bird>Golden Orb Weaver>Bear Grylls

stovelid

:eek:

/prints out pictures to hide in cupboards around house for wife.

Darragh29

brendansmith wrote: »

Not if it was a web of lies!

This story isn't true, someone spun it up from somewhere....

:D:D

KilOit

Amazing looking spider, I love the varity of spiders in Australia you see quite large ones just walking down the road even in city's, The biggest i seen was a huntsman in Brisbane pretty surreal to see such a large insect running up the wall, Irish have no idea how big spiders can get when they decribe a pathetic house spider in the bath as big as there hand :rolleyes:

rossie1977

the spiders in australia are great and all but spider killing wasps aka tarantula hawks are a different story altogether, they hunt and kill tarantula and lay their eggs inside them............ nice

Xavi6

Another one found this week. Devoured a whole bird apparently -

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=657123

Second giant bird-devouring spider strikes

16:00 AEST Wed Oct 29 2008

A week after pictures of a mammoth finch-eating spider made news around the world, photos of a second Australian spider snacking on a bird have emerged.

Townsville residents Tom and Judy Phillips have supplied ninemsn with photos of a giant golden orb weaver spider eating a double-barred finch in their backyard.

"It was a big spider," Mr Phillips said.

The pictures resemble Atherton retiree Les Martin's photos, featured on ninemsn last week, of a golden orb weaver eating a different kind of finch.

In the Atherton attack, the spider "pumped poison into the dead bird's head" but later gave up on its feast.

According to Mr and Mrs Phillips, their spider completely devoured its feathered prey.

Before that, the spider had wrapped up the bird in the web, totally encasing it.

"You couldn’t see any of the bird by the end of it," Mr Phillips said.

Then it ate the entire carcass.

"It took three days to finish feeding on it," Mrs Phillips said.

Greg Czechura from the Queensland Museum identified the bird in the Phillips' photos as a double-barred finch about 10cm long.

"The bird was caught in the web. By the time we noticed it, it was dead," Mr Phillips said.

"How long it was there [before the spider came along] is a bit unknown."

Mr Phillips said the ordeal unfolded in an open greenhouse in their backyard in Kelso, a suburb of Townsville, in northern Queensland.

It was not the only frightening brush with nature to take place in the greenhouse.

"We’ve had plenty of big snakes in there before," he said.

Cases of spiders eating birds in Queensland were rare, and Mr Czechura attributed the apparent increase to "urban sprawl" compacting spider habitats. "If there was something serious going on we would know about it," he said.

A more likely explanation for the perceived upsurge was "increased awareness of the natural world" and "accessibility to digital cameras", according to Mr Czechura.

"There's no sinister co-conspiring of the golden orb weavers to take out the local bird population," he said.

He also suggested the golden orb weaver has bigger things to worry about.

"The butcher birds and spangled drongos are stunningly efficient at pulling spiders out of their hidey holes and webs," he said.

So damn cool!

Pic 1

Pic 2

The_B_Man

nice! we got a coupla spiders stoned there last week. caught them in a plastic cup and blew smoke into them.

cant remember the name of spider tho.

Rabies

stovelid wrote: »

:eek:

/prints out pictures to hide in cupboards around house for wife.

:eek:
/prints out pics of stovelid's wife and Rabies to hide in cupboards around the house

slipss

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

The material used in spider webs is actually stronger than steel but is just used at such a thin amount that normally it is very easy to break, but they can and are sometimes stronger and can in fact in theory be made strong enough to catch something as large and strong as a human

'Tis true, the US military have invested millions into research to farm spiders for their silk so that they can use the fiber to create body armor, it would be x times stronger and x times lighter than kevlar apparently.

Roadend

There's no sinister co-conspiring of the golden orb weavers to take out the local bird population," he said.

Has he spoken to them?