The Austrailian Redback spider is pretty much the same as what we call the Black Widow here in North America. Like the Black Widow, the Redback's bite is toxic and the bitten area will really, really, REALLY hurt until an antidote can be administered. Antidotes have been available over the counter without a prescription since the 50's. Death is no longer a probable outcome from a Redback bite because the poison has to linger in the body for days and days before it becomes fatal giving the victim ample time to administer an antidote. This would seem to indicate that the bite of a very large spider will likely hurt faster and more intensely but is no more likely to be fatal than the bite of a small spider. In fact a cursory internet search shows that there have only been 14 fatalities in the entire recorded history of Austrailia and absolutely none of those after 1956.

I place this post here as a separate topic because I do not wish to make a certain 'other' thread grow with posts.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Fascinating but nasty little buggers (or would that be arachnidders, since they're not bugs? Hmm...).

I'm still more worried about the spider than the biped.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

No, no, no ... "friendly little devils" if you'll recall a certain Vincent Price - Alice Cooper collaboration.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

How about the camel spider?

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

What's going on in that pic Arjay? Is that monster molting?

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Turthfully, I'm not precisely certain.

But that sonofabitch definitely looks evil!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Oh my good Lord! I can cope with a lot of stuff on the Forum, but as the world's most sissy arachnophobe that is just too much! Now I have to go and bathe my eyeballs in TCP. Shudder!



Hee-hee - I do recall it. In fact, to this day I can still quote that section word for word, bad Vincent Price impersonation and all.

And truly, welcome to MY nightmare!

Cheers - C

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Dang... That's a lot of spider and a distinct lack of camel...

The "Guitar Spider" on the other hand....



...Yeah, that works for me.

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

Not poisonous but flesh eating, it has some kind of analgesic it produces so that it can eat you while you're sleeping. Friendly environment the desert is.

This is exactly correct. I've never met the spider (thank goodness!) but I've genuinely seen the holes it leaves behind in unsuspecting sleeping camels. Ain't nature wonderful?

Cheers - C

EDIT: having said which, I have just been reading a website, www.camelspider.org , which claims it is not correct. Huh. All I know is in Dubai a guy showed me sore holes in a camel's skin and said it was caused by camel spiders.

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

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My guess is that the owner of that bass guitar named it Boris-for obvious reasons.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Its the Sydney funnel web spider that will kill you in Australia.The redback is just like our black widow like BMW-KTM said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QureZOdjzus....watch out for this nasty little guy

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

If I woke up and one of those camel spiders was in my tent I would freak out. I would not be in control of myself. I would probably puke, poop, and empty my clip all at once. Maybe even throw a grenade. No joke.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

Isn't that a bit overkill for a small arachnid....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "