Pass the Insecticide

Oh my, Sandy found this one in a bucket this morning, the Sydney Funnel-web (Atrax robustus) male I think. Its appropriate that the bucket is red because these spiders are dangerous and before 1981 when the antivenom was developed killed people (26 reported) . I lived in Lane Cove where deaths from bites of this spider occurred and still remember the sense of relief when the antivenom was available. It has been reported that a death of a small child occurred 15 minutes after being bitten. And let me tell you that they don’t look very nice and rear up when irritated.