Reddy Or Not

The Australian Red Back spider is one of the most dangerous around. It can be found anywhere from Sydney northwards... which pretty much means the whole country apart from Melbourne & Tasmania. Susana and I were preparing for the evenings entertainment, clearing out the garden for a barbecue that was to be readied for some guests when suddenly, whilst cleaning the eski (Australian for one of those cooler boxes you take to the beach or on picnics to keep your stuff nice and cold) for the beers, she came across this little fella. This one's abdomen was about the size of the surface area of your pinky's finger nail, which meant he was a male. A bite from him would probably only lead to paralysis, a fever, severe vomiting, general nausea, a slightly annoying headache and maybe a little bit of temporary blindness. A females bite, however, gives you about 2 hours to get yourself to a hospital and treated with an anti-venom or else... well, lets just say it's everything the males bite gives you except when you get the blindness bit, it's not so temporary. Funny really, I always thought these spiders were massive things, the size of fully grown giraffes or something but it turns out they're no bigger than my arachnophobiaec tendencies! Hmmm... how much truth there is in that statement is not for me to comment on ;-)