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Recently whilst gardening I noticed a family of spiders hidden in the soil at the end of my garden. They seemed small with large black sacks as a lower torso. Nothing huge, but still, i was a little startled...waited until they moved along, and got back to planting my seeds very carefully. After describing the scene to some folks at work, one chap was certain that I had encountered Mouse Spiders. And the more I see them, the more I am sure he is correct. Which seems, at best, hard to accept news, given their capability of killing me, and more easily my hound. Large Fangs and Very Poisonous...

I am trying to console myself and remember that for 6 months Oscar has been out in the garden every day, to no bites or near death experiences, as have I, sitting on a chair in the evening. These are not aggressive spiders, and generally stay hidden away, only appearing when something steps on their trapdoor above the soil. Apparently when/if they do bite far larger prey than they aim for, they don't often use their venom.

What can I do eh??? Pour petrol over the whole area and burn the fuckers out, along with the nearby houses????

do spider traps work???

am I behaving somewhat paranoid, or suitably cautious???

HELP ME.

I cannot condone killing them, even though i have a completely illogical phobia of the creepy little bastards. However, preventing is better than curing.

If you are at ease with annihilating them, go for it. If so, i'd recommend just hosing the fuck out of the small area they inhabit and check back in a few days to see if they're still there..... Then try the petrol idea, lol.

nono, what you want to do is this:

You start by putting out small scraps of food, slowly winning their trust. Then you can start going close to them, and show yourself, making them comfortable with your presence.

after some time with this they're ready for handling. start with having them eat out of your hand, and maybe stroking their backs.

Now the hard part comes... start talking to them. just inane things, like trying to teach a caveman our language.. walk - walk - walk. hand - hand - hand etc. with the appropriate gestures of course. (and reward them for any positive response (remember to stock up on foodstuffs for them))

when you're confident they will follow your directions, this is when the fun part begins. and you are ready to wreak some havoc.

a guy at work you dislike? - sic your spiders on him.
wanna play a prank on a buddy? have your spiders bite him (without any venom)
impress a girl? have your spider pals perform cool acrobatic tricks (everyone knows spiders are acrobatic as fuck)

I watch several extermination TV shows, and know a thing or two about pest/rodent control.

First, you gotta be sure you have properly indentified the pest

Here's what a google search says about mouse spiders:


Mouse Spiders
DANGEROUS - Venomous - Painful Bite



Although normally not aggressive, the male mouse spider will bite if provoked, and should be considered dangerous to humans.

This spider has been known to cause severe illness, especially to young children.

It has large hard fangs which can cause a painful bite with a deep gash.

Area of distribution - found across Australia, including Tasmania.

Size - this is a medium to large spider of up to 35 mm in body length.

The male mouse spider often has a bright red head and elongated fangs.

Habitat - Mouse spiders are ground dwellers with burrows of more than 1 metre deep.

Male mouse spiders often wander about during the day on open ground, especially after rain, in search of females.

The Mouse Spider is often mistaken for the Funnel-Web spider.



You're sure it's the mouse spider and not the funnel-web spider?

Have a look at this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Mouse-Spider

Im tempted to go with Sugar's as always sound advice,..but am also affected and afflicted by the more serious tone of Higher's words of wisdom...YES, they seem like mouse spiders. The pictures can be deceptive, for they show MONSTERS...but these fucks are MONSTERS but dwarf sized...i'm leaning towards a scorch and burn routine. Petrol dowsing the whole area, a match, and watch those fuckers burn into where they belong; HADES...to be fair, folks, its rather disconcerting to near to know, that i am existing side by side, a family of animals which can easily kill my hound, and likely me in turn...

my friends had this huge spider colony growing by their sliding back doors. at first we left them be because they effectively kept away other pest bugs. but then shit got intense in spider land.
it was getting out of control. so they bought spider killer spray. and gave the area lots of spray. whenever the webs start to show up again they just give the corner a light spray and its all good.

australian spiders =/= canadian spiders.

im sure in australia they make strong enough spider killer to deal

werf them! werf them to hell!

what in the fuck

sugar, I love the use of the not equal sign. I never thought about using it that ay when typing. I usually use the little squiggly sign tun an equals sign, but your use of the equal slash equal is far superior.


as far as the spiders go I would say leave them be if you didn't have a dog, or make sure you always wear shoes and gloves. head down to your hardware store and ask around.

in a couple of months I'll probably be using != instead.

Things seem to have taken a turn for the definite worse...with concerns of mouse spiders now playing second fiddle to the harrowing find in the toilet earlier this week of a fucking white tail. A monster which is now causing all-sorts of anxiety which can only be mildly lessened/numbed with alcohol and Baygon Spider SPray covering the entirety of the house and my body 24/7. And yes, its been identified. Too easily for comfort.

im assuming a white tail is some sort of horrible aussie spider

they don't catch their prey in a web, they go out and hunt for it. About 60% of the bites from them come in the bed or when putting on clothes because they roam around so much for their prey.