Illustration by Slug Signorino
I’ve often heard Australia contains more things that can kill you than anywhere else on the planet, often coupled with the proud assertion that our deadly wildlife is deadlier than everywhere else’s deadly wildlife. I live in suburban Sydney and have personally encountered funnel web spiders, redback spiders, red-bellied black snakes, and a blue-ringed octopus. So I’m not surprised by the idea that there are lots of things in Australia that can kill you. But are we Aussies really blessed with a more lethal fauna than the rest of the world? —Christine Moffat
Your letter provoked yet another controversy here at the Straight Dope. I too had heard boasts about Australia’s dangerous wildlife, and was quite content to believe it was the most noxious pesthole on earth. But my assistant Una felt Oz’s creeping perils were all bark. Declining my offer to airdrop her into the Outback to investigate personally, she proposed the next best thing: a book-off.
I knew immediately my weapon of choice: travel writer Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country . Bryson lovingly catalogs the many horrors infesting the land down under, leading him to declare it “the most extraordinarily lethal country.” Pulling out my copy, I recounted notable vermin for Una’s benefit:
First, there are at least 14 different types of poisonous snake, including the taipan, the most toxic land snake known, whose venom clots the victim’s blood. Una groused that by Bryson’s own admission the last fatal taipan bite had occurred in 1989.
Spiders, including the funnel web spider, which Bryson claims is “the most poisonous insect in the world.” Una was scornful, noting that spiders aren’t insects but arachnids. Whatever you call them, I retorted, they’re murderous little bastards, responsible for at least 13 deaths. Meanwhile, the redback spider has slain at least 14.
Tragic, said Una calmly. But all 13 funnel web fatalities happened before 1980, and all 14 redback deaths occurred before 1955. In other words, the danger in affluent Australia is largely theoretical. If we consider actual body count—snakebite deaths, say—we find Australia isn’t even in the top ten worldwide. India has a mortality rate at least 30 times as high. Australia has less than a quarter the venomous bite rate of southeast Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, and its death rate is laughably low.
Never mind, I said. Let’s turn to aquatic monstrosities. Per Bryson, on some Australian coasts merely dipping a toe in the water will result in certain death. You’ve got box jellyfish, snotty jellyfish, poisonous sea snails. There are stinging coral, sea snakes, stonefish, lionfish, and scorpion fish. Giant groupers. The blue-ringed octopus. And let’s not overlook sharks.
What Eats Spiders - News
Remember those funnel web spiders? The deadliest variety is found within 100 miles of Sydney. And the fearsome saltwater crocodile reliably eats an Australian every year or two, likely holding the record for most people killed by animals at one go.
The researchers wrote, "The wasps may have been attracted to the egg because of the presence of scavenging insects feeding on the decaying organic matter, or they may have been attracted to spiders feeding on the scavenging insects.
Contrary to popular belief, the female black widow rarely eats the male after mating, but may do so if hungry. Tarantulas are long-lived spiders that occupy burrows in the ground during the day but often come out at night to hunt insects near the
Seems like a fair payment for keeping the cockroaches, earwigs, beetles, spiders and other crawly creatures out of your garage. Community Concern for Cats (CC4C) has been helping the community with cats for 25 years. Now we are asking for your help.
She explained that black widow spiders poison and eat the male spiders. "When I started up in 2003, everyone had a nickname. I saw "Seabiscuit." I thought, 'I am like him. Should I make my nickname Seabiscuit?' Then I found black widow.
As long as men remain boys, Australia will remain stunted, sexist ...
Fitzgibbon’s sexist mockery of the deputy leader of the opposition was addressed with stern words by the Prime Minister, but it was given barely any coverage. We were implicitly encouraged to accept it as nothing more than thoughtlessness and ‘just’ another example of what we’ve learned to accept from the school yard nature of Parliament. There are, it was implied, far more important things to worry about. I live, work and socialise with many great Australian anglo, and wanna be anglo blokes (like those who dominate senior positions and board rooms in public and corporate Australia). They range in age from their early twenties to their early eighties. They include the employed and unemployed in a variety of fields and at different stages of their working lives. They include professionals in senior leadership positions, academics, uni students, labourers, economists, lawyers, sales reps, public servants, builders, plumbers, doctors, retirees, teachers, consultants and artists. These blokes all share an Australian larrikinism that is affable, light hearted and fun. I enjoy their company, am used to indulging and participating in their banter and teasing and find their playfulness fun and easy to be around. But the change agent in me is becoming deeply disturbed by it. The playfulness camouflages and subtly reinforces racism, sexism, and homophobia. When the behaviour or banter gets unruly or out of line, the offender is scolded, but because it’s inherently light-hearted, it’s accepted as nothing too serious.
RT : You know who else eats curd - Little Miss Muffet. You know what happened to her? Fucking spiders. Not taking that chance. 
What? Nahhh. RT : The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
RT : You know who else eats curd - Little Miss Muffet. You know what happened to her? Fucking spiders. Not taking that chance. 
RT : You know who else eats curd - Little Miss Muffet. You know what happened to her? Fucking spiders. Not taking that chance. 
You know who else eats curd - Little Miss Muffet. You know what happened to her? Fucking spiders. Not taking that chance. What Eats Spiders - Bookshelf
The Spark, A Revolutionary New Plan to Get Fit and Lose Weight, 10 Minutes at a Time
"Doe eats spiders. I saw her eating them on the back deck. ... "Doe eats spiders ," DJ. whispered to me again the next morning at the university. ...Lizards, Windows to the Evolution of Diversity
Gonatode s hasemani eats spiders, insect larvae, roaches, and homopterans (Vitt, Souza et al. 2000). The tiny leaf-litter Coleodactylus amazonicus eats ...Growing Your Vocabulary: Learning from Latin and Greek Roots - Book B
An ARACHNIVORE is something that eats spiders. The Greek word ARACHNE means " spider" r Did You Know? Some people believe that Little Miss Muffet was a real ...Notes and queries
Perhaps Anna Maria Schurmann had something of the same idea, but did not get beyond the spiders. Charles R. Dawes. Anybody who eats spiders may safely be ...Notes and queries
Perhaps Anna Maria Schurmann had something of the same idea, but did not get beyond the spiders. Charles R. Dawes. Anybody who eats spiders may safely be ...Day-to-day Report Directory
Goliath Bird Eating Spider - Theraphosa blondi
The Goliath bird-eating spider is, as its name suggests, large enough to eat a bird. ... The Goliath bird-eating spider was named by explorers from the ...
What eats spiders
What kind of spider has black and white striped legs and lives in Michigan? ... Technically, a spider eats blood. Everyday spiders will drain the blood from bugs ...
Urban Legends -- Eating Spiders (All Lies)
Urban Legends: Eating Spiders ... can only say that the average person eats 10-12 whole spiders a year, and some two to three pounds of miscellaneous spider parts. ...
CoralPedia.com :: PREDATOR - Zoanthid Eating Spiders
Video of a Zoanthid Eating Spider in a Dish - shot by phishlet ... Zoanthid Eating Spider. Zoanthid Eating Spider. Date: 10/19/2005. Views: 1356. Photographer: ...
Spiderzrule
Venom: The Goliath bird-eating spiders are considered to be very aggressive and ... Unlike other spiders, who are noiseless, the Goliath bird-eating spider can make ...