Y'all Down Under, watch out for the redbacks!

[mubs]

Here.

 

[Will Rickards]

Thoughts about moving down under --- gone!

 

[ddrueding]

Scientists describe the redback's existence as "amoral" because of their unique mating behavior in which males give themselves up to the deadly females to be killed and eaten after mating.

"It's all about foreplay. If he doesn't have the moves, she's not going to be interested," said Sydney Taronga Zoo exhibit supervisor Warrick Angus, who said he kept a redback as a pet.

I got a good laugh out of both of these.

 

[Buck]

Ditto Will and David.

 

[time]

Actually, they haven't been too bad this year - so far. Brisbane would easily be the redback capital (Sydney has to contend with funnel-webs, which are much scarier).

Our cooktop runs off 9kg gas cylinders which have to be removed for refilling every few months. I almost always find between one and three redbacks underneath the empty cylinder, so have to be sure they're killed before putting it in the car. Actually, that applies to any outdoor object that you handle.

They sometimes lurk under the lip of our wheeled garbage bins, so that's a once a week chance to get bitten. Bicycles are a big worry, because kids handle them. They get under the seat and behind the chain guard (if the bike has one). A kid working at my local bikeshop had to be taken to hospital after one hiding in a bike he was servicing got him, and I've lost count of the number we've killed on my kids' bikes.

It's more disturbing when they come inside. We've had a couple descend from open downlights. Our shower has an exhaust fan directly above it, and some have come through there as well. Just the other night when I was getting out of the shower, I saw this black thing abseiling down right where I had been standing seconds earlier. I had to go out, so my wife had to find it in the shower tray and kill it.

Years ago, we had a plague and had to have the house fumigated. There were hundreds of them on the outside walls and hanging around window frames, so of course quite a few started coming inside. We killed a couple in the same room as our baby, which was distressing.

You get used to living with dangerous wildlife in Australia. I live very close to a river, so you always have to watch for snakes when you're out walking. Unfortunately, most snakes are venomous and many are lethal - the common brown snake is about 150 times more deadly than the diamond backed rattlesnake (the inland taipan is 4 times more lethal again, but fortunately they rarely cross paths with humans - one bite injects enough venom to kill 125 men).

And then there's the paralysis ticks, etc. :lol:

 

[Tannin]

On the other hand, your chance of getting killed by wildlife in Australia for any given year is around about 1 in 3 million. Your chance of being killed by another human being in Australia is around 20 out of one million. Let's look at the numbers in a little more detail and get a sense of perspective, shall we?

Chance of death by:

0.3 per 000,000: wildlife
16 per 000,000: murder or manslaughter
55 per 000,000: suicide
85 per 000,000: traffic accident
150 per 000,000 industrial accident

By the way, if you live in the USA, your chances of being murdered are much greater, somewhere around 40 chances per million per year.

 

[LunarMist]

How do they compare to the bite of the brown recluse we have around here in the US?

 

[i]

As I understand it, the brown recluse spider just leaves a rotting crater, as opposed to being fatal.

 

[Jake the Dog]

we've a few redbacks around our place our house but they're not the one's I worry about since we're not getting the type of weather that drives them indoors. the one's we're currently looking out for are white-tails. I've found three inside since Xmas, one which was in our youngest son's room. they're not lethal but would would cause our kids some painfully nasty grief...

 

[ddrueding]

Death I'm not so worried about, the odds are low and cures common.

Severe inconvinence, however, I'm strongly disinclined to tolerate.

Time, Tannin, and Jake, what would you say your odds of being severely inconvinenced (bitten or otherwise molested) by one of these suckers in a given year be?

 

[time]

Time, Tannin, and Jake, what would you say your odds of being severely inconvinenced (bitten or otherwise molested) by one of these suckers in a given year be?

It's hard to find any statistics, but what I did find for Brisbane suggests between 1 in 3000 and 1 in 10000, or using Tannin's terminology, between 100 and 300 each year per million people. Antivenom is only given in a small number of cases, partly because it doesn't do much for the intense pain - which on average lasts for 48 hours.

From memory, snakebites are less than half this rate, and many snakebites aren't envenomations.

No-one has died from redback bites since antivenom became available (about a dozen people died before this), although the guy who needed 18 packs of antivenom a couple of years ago nearly upset this statistic (redbacks have very small fangs, but he got bitten 20 times while he was asleep - read, drunk). It's the pain that's scary.

We hardly ever lose anyone from snakebite anymore either, for the same reason. Of course, a few will be permanently injured or even maimed.

 

[mubs]

Of course, a few will be permanently injured or even maimed.

I saw a program on Animal Planet once where a South American man was bitten by a venomous snake (can't remember which one) in the foot. Necrosis set in, and his leg had to be amputated at the knee. I'm 100% with David - death doesn't scare me, but life and pain do. I'm a weemp.

 

[Buck]

I think I'll stay in California. The worst we have here are fast moving Fedex trucks or pieced together BC vehicles that are ready to explode at any second. Oh, we also have rattle snakes and mountain lions, but they rarely come out, certainly not twice a day for delivery.

 

[mubs]

Good idea, Buck. What's a BC vehicle?

In related news, Australian Noah's Ark Program Combats Cane Toad. They're trying to fix another ecological experiment gone bad. Those cane toads are amazingly poisonous.

The toads now number in the millions and have highly poisonous sacs behind their head which quickly kill native animals, such as quolls, that prey on them.

Cane toads are so toxic that crocodiles, death adder snakes and wild dingo dogs can die within 15 minutes of cardiac arrest after eating a toad.

 

[Buck]

BC=Front BC=Baja California=Mexico

 

[ddrueding]

Poor Buck lives a bit too far south, and has to put up with excessive ghetto-ness and L.A. all at the same time. Poor Buck...

Me? I have to put up with world-class local wines and the finest golf anywhere. Poor......Buck

 

[Buck]

pfft!

 

[ddrueding]

I just put on Offspring's "Bad Habit" in your honor...

 

[ddrueding]

Though I have to give Buck the free shot he deserves...where I am right now (Eugene, OR), it just hit the highest temp that it's been the last 2 weeks. 11C it's regularly below freezing by 6PM and until about 9AM. Yuck.

Though my GF has already been accepted @ Madison, Chicago, and UCSF...next stop Stanford.

 

[GIANT]

Though my GF has already been accepted @ Madison, Chicago, and UCSF...next stop Stanford...

I haven't the slightest idea what program GF is trying to enter, but UCSF is a pretty worthless place to go -- unless you're doing medical. Everything about going there costs far too much.

If it's non-medical, UC Davis or maybe UC Santa Cruz would be the better choices for a UC campus in northern California.

 

[ddrueding]

Molecular Pharmacology / Molecular Biology / Genetics

IIRC, UCSF is #7 in these fields. Stanford is #3, and the others are all top-ten.

Yeah, she's pretty smart

 

[GIANT]

Oh, we also have rattle snakes...

I saw a rattlesnake in the hills in your area once, back in 1990, when I was walking on a trail in the greater El Cajon / Santee area. :eek4: It was a small fat timber rattler.

 

[GIANT]

Molecular Pharmacology / Molecular Biology / Genetics...

I'm no expert, but I thought UC Davis had programs in all these areas -- and then some.





There's always Fresno State if things don't work out. OK, I'm only kidding about Fresno.

 

[ddrueding]

Davis? Ugh...vetoed due to crappy locale. Same to a lesser degree to Chicago. At least Madison looks beautiful...

 

[timwhit]

Have you ever been to Chicago? Or are you just spouting nonsense?

 

[Fushigi]

Yeah, I have to agree with Tim. While not my favorite city on earth, most places you're likely to go in Chicago and the surrounding area are pretty nice. Right now I'm about 500 feet up in one of the downtown buldings. The view overlooks Lake Michigan & Navy Pier as the sun rises. Very nice. Walking around I can also see Grant & Millenium Parks, both of which are nice places to pass the day. The Chicago museums are pretty good; we maintain a membership at the Field Museum and occasionally see exhibits at the Art Institute. And really, few things are more entertaining than Chicago politics & Mayor Daley, even to a suburbanite like myself.

The call Chicago the second city, behind New York City. That would make anything on the west coast, umm, third or lower.

On a more serious note: By Chicago, do you mean the University of Chicago? If so, then it's a very prestigious school.

I've driven through Madison a few times and it seems like a decent enough place, but I've never actually stayed there. The only place in WI I tend to stay is LaCrosse.

 

[Santilli]

UCSF is one of the top surgical centers, brain surgery in particular. Charles Wilson heads one team, and saved my mother's life.

Sort of a nice area, but very expensive to stay. However, it is easy weekend driving to Monterey.

David:
If you nees someone to house sit, I might be willing to move :lol: :wink:

Greg

 

[ddrueding]

Yes, it was University of Chicago. During one of her tours they said "See that? That's 48th street. Don't cross it." Yeah, no thanks. Besides, in order to make me tolerate such ridiculous cold a place had better be darn awesome. Big beautiful town with culture and art? I got SF, thanks.