Are there a lot of spiders in NZ, compared to the US?

[vilakins]

A naive soul posted this question on Reddit. The answers are hilarious and, um, mostly untrue; I spent half an hour laughing like a maniac at them. Brilliant, wonderful stuff, and it'll give you a good idea of our sense of humour, culture, and what those childhood summer holidays were like.

This totally made my day.

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

so funny!

[vilakins]

It rivals the responses to Rocky the huge rock who flattened a house and was put up for sale.

[feng_shui_house]

That thread is wonderful. So many clever, funny responses. MMM, now I'm hungry for a fryder.

[vilakins]

Sugar- and gluten-free, and packed with protein and crunch!

[feng_shui_house]

MMm, pity there isn't a McFryder's chain near me. :^)

[vilakins]

Maybe we'll expand our takeaway chains and introduce the joys of hot battered crispy fryders to the US. How big are the local game?

[feng_shui_house]

Mostly they're really too small for anything other than perhaps grouping them in eggy batter to make crunchy-fryballs, but some of the orb-weavers I've occasionally seen are almost a hands width apart.

Perhaps some NZ stud-spiders could be brought over to improve the breed.

[vilakins]

I wouldn't be surprised if some Avondale spiders haven't made it over there after their starring role in Arachnophobia (a phobia I've never understood). To quote Wiki:

The film made use of 374 Avondale spiders, from New Zealand, which were picked for their large size, unusually social lifestyle, and because they are essentially harmless to humans.

Sadly for them, we're not harmless to them. YUM!

[feng_shui_house]

You got me worried about the Avondale spiders, so I had to google--- they were juveniles, and due to quarentine reasons could not return to New Zealand.

BUT! One of the entomology wranglers told what happened to them & it all sounds pretty good even though none of them got to shake hands with US spiders.


The 'hybrid' spiders in Arachnophobia (all 374 of them) were juvenile 'Delana' spiders (Avondale spiders) , and yes, these critters could not be returned to New Zealand.
Many of the crew wound up with 'pets' after the filming, and a number of them found homes in natural history museums.
Some were kept by the head wrangler, and one of these went on to star in the movie 'Spider-man'.
(The one that can jump to catch its prey)
To the best of my knowledge, all of the live spiders from this movie had a very happy outcome.
As for the spider itself, these are very harmless huntsman spiders in the Sparassidae family, and these became one of my favorite spiders as a result of working with this movie.
I don't know if these can still be imported to the US, but make fair pet spiders with the proper setup.
Source:
UC Irvine, entomology
wrangler

[vilakins]

They're nice spiders. When I find spiders, all joking aside, I either leave them be or take them outside if they're frightening anyone (like the people I work with - eyeroll).

I never had a pet spider, but did have a weta for a while as a kid.

[feng_shui_house]

Mostly I just leave the spiders be. Once in a while I have to move it outside if it's in a place where it's endangered. Like the time I found the TINIEST green spider on a chair. It was so small I thought it was a dot of green paint and I was wondering where the paint came from. I got it to walk into a paper cup and put it outside on something green. :^)

[vilakins]

I like spiders: they're harmless, cute, and they eat flies.

[feng_shui_house]

I admit if I lived somewhere where a lot of the spiders are aggressive and poisonous I'd be a bit less pleased to see them. :^)

About the worst we have here are the occasional black widow, and while they can bite, they are not aggressive & given half a chance just want to get out of the way.

[vilakins]

We do have some venomous ones, but they're very rare. Little Ashley was bitten by a white-tailed spider a while back and got an abscess, but I've never even seen one.

[feng_shui_house]

I figure spiders are adapted to hunt things a lot smaller than people (insects, frogs, small birds, etc.), so its only a few of them that have the potential to really hurt larger critters.

I remember a 'Far Side' cartoon I used to keep on the fridge. It showed a spiderweb stretching across the end of a pool slide and two spiders on the web. One spider said something like 'If this works, we'll eat like kings!'

[pebblerocker]

Haha, that was great! I love the occasional person who comes in and doesn't get what's going on, poor souls.

[vilakins]

And those who did and were impressed!

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!!!! Now this is really brilliant, those people obviously enjoyed themselves a lot! Of course I had my eyes like saucers and then I laughed like mad!
Thank you for sharing!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And they didn't even mention wetas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weta)! I had a captured weta as a kid but I suspect apple pieces weren't the best diet for it.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of weta before! ajajajajajajajaj! :-):-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Loved it. :D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It makes me feel proud of our sense of humour!

[van.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha that is amazing. Everyone just goes with it so smoothly and naturally. Love it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was tempted to join in but it was all over then.