Latrodectus hasselti

Or affectionately and more commonly known as the Redback spider.  

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later as we are somewhat in the trees where we live but I am still a little surprised to have come eyeball to eyeball with a Redback.

I was opening the garage door (manually, which is a little unusual in a place where virtually every house has electric roller doors) and when it was half way up I saw the arachnid in question.  Unassuming, small, black spider with sharp looking legs and that unmistakable red spot on it's back.  I was taken aback for a moment and then common sense kicked in and I realised this one had to be dispatched.  Until now we have not needed to do this as we have only had one Huntsman in the house which we caught and posted outside.  Huntsman are generally very large, ugly and desired spiders as they eat other insects which as far worse!  Plus, can you imagine squishing one of those on the walls......?  You would have to redecorate.

So, with the children safely buckled in the car still I chose my weapon.  The flap from a used box from Christmas.  Perfect.  I went for the squish and unfortunately didn't get it square on so it scrambled a little and dropped to the floor. OMG, I couldn't see where it had gone to start with and was pretty worried that I now had a cross Redback on my hands.  Thankfully I spotted it quite quickly and ensured it's departure.  Phew.

This whole moving to Australia thing has made me quite a bit more able to deal with things that I used to find made me a bit squeamish.  I can dispatch spiders, remove lizards, clear webs and generally deal quite well with the insects.  However, there are more then I ever imagined possible.  We all had tea in the garden last night and we spotted what looked like a wire running between some trees about 20 feet apart.  It was then that we realised it was in fact a spiders web thread.  Seriously yuck and focus' the mind somewhat!

I can also deal with prawns in the shell which I never could before, and dare I say it.....I quite like shelling them now!  Prawns for tea tonight...yum.