Sad to hear about Michael Jackson, we grew up listening to his music which was among the greatest and most innovative of any time. It's always sad when a legend dies!!

Check out the new page

I've been busy the last few days creating a new page which is essentially a quick reference guide to spider's bites, symptoms and treatment. I've done a lot of research to find the most accurate information so please bookmark the site for futre reference. It also shows quite clearly how there are really very few spiders that are really dangerous. I couldn't cover all 30 000 species of spiders but have done the ones that people send in to me the most often. I hope you enjoy it.

Happy New Year - 0r is it?

A bit late but a Happy New Year to all. The way the economy is shaping up though, it may not be all that happy a one!! Also congratulations to America's new president - Barack Obama. As an Aussie it is interesting to follow the politics of our largest ally, the USA, and it is great to see so many people happy to finally have a black man as president. I hope he can deliver, as with the way the world is today, we certainly need some help!! The spiderz pages have even been quiet - because of the extreme cold in the USA but also because of the election, inauguration and I think to some extent - the recession/depression!! Let's make our New Year resolution to do all we can to help each other and get through the tough times ahead!!

Winter is coming in the US so the number of queries from there are getting less. Great to see photos coming from other countries, especially Australia where I do live! It's funny the difference between people of different countries - Americans seem to jump online for everything while Australians seem to be slower to do so, perhaps we aren't as technologically minded as our US cousins!!
Christmas is just around the corner and here in Brisbane we are looking at a hot stormy one. Recent storms have done a lot of damage to homes in Brisbane, thankfully mine wasn't one of them!! We seem to be going back to our earlier weather patten of Summer storms after many years of hot dry summers. I love storms but not when they destroy people's homes and I guess our spider friends don't like having their webs destroyed either.
I've seen very few spiders around my house this summer and usually I have several large orb weavers blocking my path every night!! I hope they come back!!
I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year if I don't get back to here before then!!

Spider ID's

Many thanks to Kevin L who has sent in ID's for many of the unidentified spiders going back to March 2006. If you sent in a spider, please check back and see if it is now identified. Thanks again Kevin!
glen

Please don't kill spiders!!

I just had an email that really made me mad. The writer said "needless to say its dead now but when I sprayed the spider" etc and went on to describe a harmless garden orb weaver.

This was my rather irate reply:
"Why needless to say did you spray it? Why do people go around and kill every spider they see? Do you kill every bee or wasp that you see? That spider was a harmless garden orb weaver and very beneficial in keeping down the number of insects in your garden so there was no need at all to kill it!!"

This photo is of a garden orb weaver like the one she killed. There are heaps of them around homes in large orb shaped webs at present and if you have them at your home, please leave them alone!!

Nice Art work

Alexis has done a great job of painting a lynx spider from the photos on my site and sent it to me. Thanks and well done Alexis!!