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From Times Online
May 6, 2009
Sophie Tedmanson in Sydney Australia is known around the world for its large and deadly creepy
crawlies, but even locals have been shocked by the size of giant
venomous spiders which have invaded an Outback town in Queensland.
Scores of eastern tarantulas, known as “bird eating spiders” which can
grow larger than the palm of a man’s hand, have begun crawling out from
gardens and venturing into public spaces in Bowen, a regional town about
700 miles north west of Brisbane on Australia’s far north east coast. Earlier this week locals spotted an Australian tarantula wandering
towards a public garden in the centre of town where people often sit for
lunch, and called in a local pest controller to get rid of it, but not
before unleashing almost an entire can of insect spray on it which
stunned the arachnid into a paralysed state. Audy Geiszler, who runs Amalgamated Pest Control in Bowen, said the
spider was “quite a large male one” which had powerful 1cm long fangs,
measured 5cm and was so big that when he placed it - dead – in the palm
of his hand its legs overhung his fingers. He said he has been inundated with calls from worried locals reporting
sightings of the giant tarantulas, which have been pushed out of their
natural habitat and into public areas over the past month due to heavy,
unseasonable rain. "There have been a number of reports, its not plague proportions but a
number have been spotted around the district,” Mr Geiszler told The
Times today shortly after he received a call from a resident who had
spotted another on the outskirts of town. While not deadly like other Australian spiders, the eastern tarantulas
are venomous and can grow up to 6cm long with a leg span of 16cm. They
are known as “bird eating spiders” and, while they don’t actually eat
birds, can kill a dog with one bite in about 30 minutes, and make a
human very sick. They are also known as whistling or barking spiders for the hissing
noise they emit when they are disturbed or aggravated at close range. Mr Geiszler said they are common in the east of Australia, but usually
keep out of the way and live under mulch and logs and in natural rocky
outcrops. “I’ve warned folks around here to make sure they wear shoes and gloves
when they are gardening at the moment as it can be a very nasty bite,”
he said. Asked what he would do with the giant spider he caught this week, Mr
Geiszler said he did not want to donate it to a museum. “I think I’m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big
it is,” Mr Geiszler laughed. “It’ll make a great paperweight.”
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