Welcome to Australia (NOT for the faint of heart, lol)

I've got an Aussie friend who easily admits that his country seems to have a monopoly on the unpleasant, toxic animals....
And yet, its not made me second guess wanting to go there for one nanosecond..:)

but if i walk into a room and those guys are on the ceiling, it'll be four star hotels from then on.

and New Zealand as well.

mate! Woo-hoo!
Signed,
Steve Irwin......

the dreaded box jellyfish...

Box jellyfish venom is the most deadly in the animal kingdom and has caused at least 5,568 recorded deaths since 1954.<2> Most often, these fatal envenomations are perpetrated by the largest species of box jelly, Chironex fleckeri, owing to its high concentration of nematocysts, though at least two deaths in Australia have been attributed to the thumbnail-sized irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi).<3> Those who fall victim to Carukia barnesi suffer several severe symptoms known as Irukandji syndrome.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_jellyfish

I'm surrounding it with a 50 ft wide moat and filling it with those guys

they actively swim & stalk their prey...

I saw a Discovery show about them. Including two scientists who DELIBERATELY exposed themselves to these guys (trying to study their habits) and they didn't QUITE get all the protection they needed..:scared:

didn't the woman get scraped by a dead box jellyfish and still ended up in the hospital shrieking in pain for like 2 weeks? or, maybe that was another show?

The forgot to protect their faces. And yeah, they were stuck in the hospital in intense pain for two weeks...

or is that considered cruel and unusual?

those very aggressive "jack jumper" ants there as well, which have painful stings similar to fire ants in the US, though, 3% that are allergic to jack jumper stings where it might induce anaphylactic shock and/or death. let these guys lose in the prison itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecia_pilosula

just to catch any of the lucky bastards that make it past the jellyfish

For the ones that miss the jellyfish...:evilgrin:

and put the prison in the middle of the salt flats. that should make it pretty escape proof

Evidendly, the Volvo design team are slipping.

in most of OZ. :P

in the world, if not the first and foremost...and even if said spider isn't one of the toxics, they make up for it in size!

Lovely place and people, but what a bunch of bugs and snakes...fairly primordial.

when they picked it as a Prison colony. Why not stick all your undesirables on a island with the meanest motherfuckers on the planet.

"Britain sent her puritans to America, and she sent her criminals and whores to Australia...Lucky for Australia they had first choice..."

Stupid stick-up-the-butt pilgrims.

Here is part of a Greg Proops riff on the subject:

My feeling is... the Pilgrims were *asked* to leave England. England was never funner than when the Pilgrims split, right? The people in England got a little tired of these dour, right-wing, conservative, psycho-Christians wearing all black, bumming people out, *confusing* everyone by wearing buckles (points to shoes) on (points to belt) their heads (points to head). "Is that tight enough for you, Cotton?" "Yea, verily."

Finally, someone went, "Hey, I've got a crazy idea. Why don't you freaky little weirdoes get in a rickety, leaky, dinky little boat and get the *fuck* off the island? (makes kicking motion) Sail around 'til you hit the new world. When you get there, commit genocide on the indigenous people, all right? Have a groovy time. Have a witch trial. Let us know how that works out for you. We'll be back in England having the Renaissance in case anyone needs us. So they send this group over, right? With guns and bibles and *no* farming implements. Hmm. How English is that? (fairy English accent) "Oh, surely there'll be a shop open. I say, Squanto, can you make us some baked beans on toast?" ...

How come we got the grubby boat of bandy-legged Puritans? How come we didn't get the Italian party boat with the cappuccino maker and the gelato machine? That was the sexy boat, man. Those guys have a million saints, we'd have a holiday every other day! We'd *never* work! (sexy Italian voice) "One o'clock now, I go to bed! Then I get up, I drink wine, I make love, I get up in the morning, I have strong coffee, I look very sexy in my suit. Beep-beep-beep, get out of my way, I do not use brakes on my sports car, beep-beep-beep. La dolce vita, Bambina!"

http://www.groovefunkistan.com/comedycentral.htm

:scared:

I freak when I see a simple centipede scrambling along my wall-- can you imagine sleeping out in the desert wondering if one of those comes along???? :scared:

And they DO bite, BTW:

and even go camping with children...just maybe not the biting ones. :evilgrin:

You who lets lizards run all over you (a memorable story in my book) are not gonna be afraid of an "itty bitty" spider...:P

And YES, I LOOOOOVE lizards. :P

of one of those things eating a MOUSE in his barracks in Iraq. Grossest thing I've ever seen! :scared: :scared:

And it killed it first. I've never seen anything like it!

:P

:hide:

I bet there is one there - I don't think it was a random occurance. :scared:

:wtf: is that?

I am going to have nightmares tonight... :scared:

...but look how they match the troops uniform :D

Throw a molotov at that big bastard...

no thanks, a gallon of bug spray will do just fine

Flamethrower


:P

By the Australia Tourism board....:rofl:

You can just PM the link to JeffR...
Lounge posts do win quite a few DUzy's actually

That would be the death of me right there.

and yet, I'm all for flying down to the Outback tomorrow if I could...:)

let the critters go over the continent. ;)

about is hitting a moose, or losing a dog to a coyote or wolf. Nothing poisonous that wants to get me. The bugs stay a manageable size. It's a small price to pay.

We have Carolina Wolf Spiders where I live.
Just look at it's pretty eyes...all eight of them:


http://www.spiderzrule.com/wolf.htm

I'm still a little itchy and squeamish, but by looking at their eyes, I have grown to appreciate spiders. I've had to. I keep finding these bad boys in my house. I once did battle with them. Now, I escort them back outside.

I love the eyes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11311418@N00/2292724817/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11311418@N00/2292725281/sizes/l/

Maybe the babies eat fleas and the big ones eat roaches.

Somebody thum it with a boomerang, quick!

or have a million babies scattered throughout the house .... :scared:

I have it on good authority that the nasty old spider can be killed by a certain type of candle..Or at least that many critters from Australia are adverse to it...:evilgrin:

its a candle that one of the sites resident Aussie's HATES...(butt candle)...Just the very name incites him to threaten one with annilation by missile...

:rofl:
google it if you are curious but you might be sorrry....

but I still take my life into my hands every time I go into my garage or the shop....

When I was bike trekking up the east coast of Australia, one night I woke in my tent for some reason. I noticed something through the mesh right above my head - that's inches. So I reached for my specs and a torch. There was a huge spider, bigger than my hand sitting there. It was even wearing Doc Martins. Batting at it with my pump it took a while to evict it. The next night, I woke to another, but smaller brother. At least they weren't on the inside.

Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve

70 degrees, mid summer.




I love Australia! Spiders, snakes, blue octopi (most poisonous sea animal in the world) jellyfish, whatever. It's an island, after all, life evolves differently when isolated from the rest of the world.

Australia also has amazing birds, great people, gorgeous beaches, wonderful weather. Sydney is like someone took London, moved it to San Diego and populated it with non-snobby people. The pub culture is the same, but you get HUGE drinks, and instead of sitting in a damp bar, all moldy from the constant rain, you get rooftop gardens.

Don't let a few arachnids scare you away!

Oh, and PS: New Zealand is great too, and doesn't have all the poisonous creatures.