We have a honey bee hive in our garden!

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There's an insect nest hanging up. A few weeks ago, shredded leaves mysteriously started appearing in the holes as plugs. Then, about a week later, I was putting a rubbish bag out in the garden and I saw a honey bee fly into one of the holes with a big piece of leaf! And I would like to point out that I feel very special and smug, as I was the first one to notice! Mwuhahaha!   

It's a very small hive. Like this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510u%2B7vrrOL._SX300_.jpg

Only with shredded leaves plugging most of the holes!

I won't be as happy if the swarm gets too much bigger, but I think (hope) that's very unlikely. Bit sad, really, as they probably won't survive long without proper beekeeping - which I'm definitely not going to do! I wouldn't have a clue! Probably for the best, though, as we'd otherwise have to call in a beekeeper to move the hive. I think it's just a temporary swarm anyway, while they look for a proper home.

What??? Spiders making a noise? Can you post a picture. What we call daddy long legs couldnt make a sound if they tried.

They are actually even known to eat our red backs.

tracyp wrote:What??? Spiders making a noise? Can you post a picture. What we call daddy long legs couldnt make a sound if they tried.

They are actually even known to eat our red backs.

No, the spiders don't make a noise, the Crane Flies do! The bash against things & it's really annoying!

Ahhhh.

Sorry, I meant the Crane Flies!

Some of our spiders do make noise though! They make weird, squeaky sounds when they're looking to mate.

OMG - spiders squeak? I never knew that.

I'll admit to being an arachnaphobe regarding those big scuttly house spiders - shudder shudder. And I could bear crane flies if they didn't insist on coming into our homes (why? what do they expect to find here?) I just can't bear them near me.

I will say in my defence that I can bear garden spiders (so long as I don't get tangled up in their webs). In fact, I spent an hour once watching a garden spider constructing its web - it was fascinating. Just don't touch me or get near my hair, that's all I ask!

 

LyndaW wrote:OMG - spiders squeak?  I never knew that.

I'll admit to being an arachnaphobe regarding those big scuttly house spiders - shudder shudder. And I could bear crane flies if they didn't insist on coming into our homes (why?  what do they expect to find here?)  I just can't bear them near me.

Theres a theory in my house....
We love all creatures great & small unless you have more than 4 legs. Then, you are not welcome in our house!   The yard is your stomping ground.

Do you have huntsman spiders there? They are very big spiders & hairy & ugly! As a child I once squished one, tied it up with string & hung it by the front door. Mum came in screaming "what the hell it that thing doing hanging at the door?"  I replied... I put it there so his friends know what will happen if they come inside.  

  

We do get Huntsman spiders in the UK, travelling on fruit crates from abroad, but they're very quickly spotted and 'disposed of' before they get around. Nasty little (big) buggers!

Oh, and by the way... Tracy, you psychopath!   (joking, of course )

Yeah, the squeaking is, I think, the noise they make with their legs. Not sure how, but I think that's it!

I'm fine with tarantulas. Don't really like jumping spiders. Or Giant House spiders, which I think are our biggest native ones. Once a year, usually in Autumn, we get a sudden sweep of Giant House spiders; you'll wake up to find one on your pillow, or get up to the go the toilet and there'll be one in the sink.

I caught one in a glass a few months ago in my bedroom. The evil sod was trying to attack my hand though the glass!

Looked it up just now and it's also our fastest spidey! Not a patch on Australia's ones though

It's a member of the funnel-web family, though! So we have a small thing in common with your spideys!

I think we have hunting spiders here, but they're not (thankfully) big. They stalk their prey and then suddenly jump on them. I get them on my outside window-sills but I can bear that as they don't come inside the house.

Tarantulas and bird-eating spiders (like in the James Bond film) - can't even look at them. Why people keep them as pets I cannot understand. Thank heavens they are not native here!

Yes it's house spiders that I really, really, really cannot stand at any price. May and September are the worst times for them. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so rapid, scuttling like mice - eeeeuuuuggh.
I get my son to get rid of them, and yes they do bite, and quite hard. I also have a spider catcher (a box on a stick) and if really pressed I have used it with fear and loathing, and tip the bugger out into the road where I hope a car will delete it.

'Delete it' - love that euphemism!

Several years ago, as a child, I was sitting on my kitchen floor, playing, when a huge Giant House Spider scuttled out from under a cupboard in front of me. It terrified the life out of me, but nobody would believe me! By the time I ran back into the kitchen with witnesses, it had gone...

...Until the following night, when it turned up on my brother's dressing gown.   

Ugh Ugh Ugh.

Let's banish them - they do no good to man or beast, they don't even catch flies.

Apparently they hate horse chestnuts, and when I can I gather conkers and put them in the corners of my rooms. I also have a spray containing conker-scent, which I spray into corners in May and September. If I never ever see one again it will still be too soon.

You lie! The spiders are nature's own little pest controllers!

...And so are we   So we're allowed to get rid of them!

I've heard about that conker (just typed that as 'cockner' ) theory, but never tried it!

I don't deny that spiders catch a load of flies, it's just house spiders that don't!

Conkers (and conker spray) are worth a try if you hate the beasts as much as I do - difficult to perform a blind trial I know, but it's conkers versus soldiers armed with howitzers as far as I am concerned   

Oh you two are funny. Yes we have some big, chunky nasty spiders here but nothing a size 12 shoe cant fix. Ours also like the heat & come inside just before it rains.   

Im not frightened of them unless they touch me. I just kill them before they ever get a chance to come near me & since having chooks.... I have really even seen a spider in the yard.

Oh, and by the way... Tracy, you psychopath!   (joking, of course

       Oh its no joke! Be afraid... be very afriad!     

LyndaW wrote:I don't deny that spiders catch a load of flies, it's just house spiders that don't!

Conkers (and conker spray) are worth a try if you hate the beasts as much as I do - difficult to perform a blind trial I know, but it's conkers versus soldiers armed with howitzers as far as I am concerned   

They don't? You learn something new every day! I just assumed they munched on flies, the same as their smaller buddies!

I might try that!

tracyp wrote:Oh you two are funny. Yes we have some big, chunky nasty spiders here but nothing a size 12 shoe cant fix. Ours also like the heat & come inside just before it rains.   

Im not frightened of them unless they touch me. I just kill them before they ever get a chance to come near me & since having chooks.... I have really even seen a spider in the yard.

      

Is the general reaction to large/venomous spiders in Australia like that? Not bothered, as long as they keep their distance? I'd be walking around on my tiptoes!

tracyp wrote:

Oh, and by the way... Tracy, you psychopath!   (joking, of course

       Oh its no joke! Be afraid... be very afriad!     

    Oh dear!

Yes, well it is for most of us, just part of life ( or death in the case of a spiders life) we don't bother too much about them. Though I do know a woman who calls her hubby home if she has a spider in the house. I take a few precautions, but mostly they like to stay away & or hide.  I bomb my house every 6mths so I only get the odd one when it rains & I havent seen a redback inside for probably 10 yrs now.

Probably a lot different if you've grown up with it! With me, I'd be nervous as anything!

In trepidation, I looked up "what do house spiders eat" and it seems that the big fast ones to which I am particularly averse:-

Many people often wonder what house spiders, in particular, eat. House spiders have a slightly limited variety consisting:
House insects
Silver fish insects
Stray insects
Other spiders

So I was kind of right, and kind of wrong. I still don't think they eat ordinary house flies though - their webs are all wrong to catch them.

Tracy - congratulations on being brave enough to tread on a spider, I couldn't do it even if my feet were as big as you claim yours are! For one thing - ugh ugh ugh - and for another thing, these blighters are very, very quick.

Speaking of redbacks (which you mentioned) one myth (? - or truth?) that was prevalent at one time in England was that in Australia you must always inspect the toilet (dunny I think is the word) seat on all sides very carefully before you sit as redbacks hide there and will run out and bite you, painfully and fatally. Or is this a Pommie lie?

 Hahahaha. My feet are little! I normally use on of Cons shoes to wack them. I dont want spider guts on my nice shoes! 

Dunny seat is the term. Its not a myth, it's very true. When we had outside toilets they could be found there but they dont run to bite you. They normally run away. They will bite if you sit on them & don't squash them though. Redbacks very rarely come inside. They prefer hiding in wood stacks,  under old corrugated sheets of iron or in dried leaves. They dont often kill an adult (though they certainly can) but you will be very sick from a bite. We teach kids early on where they live & how to both spot & aviod them. They are actually quite a small spider that can be hard to find. Some of our others are quite large though.

Con has been bitten by a redback. He didnt like it. Felt poorly for a few days but he is a big man so the toxin didnt effect him as it would have to a small child.

This is our huntsman spider.

I hate them! Non venomous, but still a nasty bite. They make my skin crawl! I'd rather a redback. (Which is roughly the size of a huntsmans abdomen) They are too big for my liking. They tend to come inside just before rain. Sitting there with their beady little multiple eyes. Ewwwww! They completely freak me out but I have to kill them. I still cant sleep even knowing its been squished & is gone from the house. It takes me hours to calm down & stop looking for another one. Where there's one, there's another. These buggers travel in pairs!