(not quite) Deadly Australian Spider!!!!!

There was some drama in the lab today.

I was sitting at my desk filling out some paperwork when I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye.
When I looked over, I saw a spider! A slightly big spider, as a matter of fact. I have an avoid-at-all-costs policy towards Aussie spiders, since there is a good chance that it may be deadly.

This little guy was dark brown with a white dot on its end, like this:



I had a vague memory of someone telling me about a spider called a white tail, but couldn't remember if it was deadly.

So when someone came into the lab, I asked:

"Is there a spider called a white tail that is one of the deadly Aussie spiders?"
"There is a spider called a white tail, why?" was the reply.
"Because one just crawled under the desk right there," I said.

We trapped the spider for closer inspection, and turns out that it IS a white-tailed spider! And, it's a male!

Luckily, the spider is not deadly, but apparently the bites can cause pain, nausea, and much swelling, and bacteria that lives on the spider can oftern cause infection. In other words, it's not deadly, but it's not harmless either.

So, I came much closer to death than I usually do while sitting at my desk filling out forms, but not terribly close at all, really.

Here is a picture of him, next to a pen and my water bottle, to give you guys a sense of scale.



Look how giant he is!!!

At the end of the day, I took my spider friend (I named him Stu, as I name all my spiders) out to an area of bush on campus, and set him free.

I thought about keeping him, and carrying him around in his little jar as my guard spider. If anyone tried to bother me, I'd throw a white-tailed at them! It would be so fun! Unfortuneately, Stu is a spider eater, and he prefers to eat actual deadly Australian spiders like the red-back, so I set him free to find his own dinner.

I'll miss you Stu! We had some good times..