For Australians: how do you survive the dangerous animals and bugs?

Show all answers

tentofield

The vast majority of Australians have never seen a snake outside a zoo - they live in cities. I live in the country and see a few snakes but they are shy and get out of your way. Australia might have the most venomous snakes but it doesn't have the most dangerous ones. The world's most dangerous snake is a viper from Sri Lanka and India which kills 50 people per million each year. By contrast, all Australian snakes kill 0.13 people per million per year. Most people bitten by snakes were trying to catch or kill them. Don't worry about snakes.

We have one of the world's deadliest spiders in the Sydney Funnel Web. There is now an antivenene for it but few people are bitten anyway. I never saw one in all my years living in Sydney. The redback spider is closely related to the black widow of North America but is only really dangerous to the very young and very old.

We have sea snakes which are highly venomous but don't bite people. There are stone fish, blue ringed octopuses and cone shells which sting or bite perhaps one person a year. The box jellyfish of northern Australia are deadly but you don't swim in the sea in the wet season. You don't swim in rivers with crocodiles and the major beaches are netted against sharks although they never ate many people anyway.

There are lots of scare stories about Australia's wildlife but unless you go looking for them, you won't see the deadly ones.

anoldmick

Say, mate: how do you survive all those gun-wielding nuts overrunning your country? We hear that one person dies of gunshot in your country every twelve seconds. What up with that, eh?

krakkatinni

I work & travel a lot in the bush - & yes, there are lots of dangerous things out there.

Most Australians live in the cities & never leave the bitumen - or venture further than the city limits - so, as they've quoted in here, don't encounter the dangerous critters.

We have the likes of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world; man eating crocodiles; scorpions; centipedes; various poisonous spiders; virus bearing mosquitoes; poisonous jelly fish; blue ringed octopus; stone fish; those sharks you mentioned...........plus the drop bear!

But most Aussies survive because they don't encounter these bities in pubs, clubs or schools - they have to go the zoo to see them!

Live_For_Today

There's also a saying regarding nature and it is ................You leave it alone and it will leave you alone. Most people who get bitten by snakes here are usually trying to attack it with a stick or something. As for the swimming side of things, you swim where the life savers are and where the shark nets are in place.

walsh_22_au

punch the bugger in the face if they get to close

â™¥ Shell â™¥

You know absolutely nothing about life in Australia. Stop depicting as a creature-ridden wasteland.

Ken E

It's a constant struggle mate. Every Australian baby is issued with a pump action shotgun at birth to keep the crocs and drop bears from attacking. Sometimes I wake up at night because the firing stops for a second or two and you then can hear the rooster that lives in someone's back yard nearby crowing. Nasty noisy bird.

But the shotties are not enough to keep off the spiders. Oh dear no. It takes many 50 megaton hydrogen bombs to get the little b@stards to desist. I have to use two, sometimes three every night to get the spiders out of the bed.

As for the sharks, they only attack foreign tourists climbing Ayer's Rock, so we don't worry about them too much.

princessdisaster76

I'm more likely to die riding my bike to work than i am being bitten by something

I had a huntsman spider named Harry living in my flat, he was cool he ate bugs

Moviebuff

Most of us practice running. Kids are taught to outrun crocodiles at kinder.. well, the ones who do learn go on to primary school.

nazjaydan

Most dangerous animals live up the top end.
Ive been stung by a blue bottle jelly fish a friend has been bitten by a red back spider and I have found scorpion's in my shoes and all happened in QLD, I live in VIC.

lidybeff

Hmm, you are right, everything that bites or stings lives here. We mostly just get used to it.

As a matter of fact today I had a knock at the front door, it was the woman next door. She came to tell me that there is a big nest of brown snakes in the overgrown vacant lot behind us. Two had come into her yard, and the woman on the other side had seen a heap of them.

I'm not phobic about snakes, but we don't know what kind they are, it sounds like they might be deadly brown snakes rather than harmless pythons. I have to admit to freaking out a bit.. wish me luck !

Elizabeth

I can only say from personal experience, I don't see any (what I consider) dangerous creatures on a daily basis, and I don't live in the city.
Unless, you want to add in human beings behind the wheels of their cars.
More Australians die or are injured in traffic accidents than by being attacked by any sort of dangerous creature.

Vehicle Accident Deaths 2004 - (Sorry couldn't find more recent data, didn't look.)
1,811 people lost their lives.

Snake bite -
We lose approximately 2 - 5 people per year to snake bite, usually those who were attempting to kill the reptile.
Red Back Spider -
Before the introduction of antivennene in 1956, there were 13 recorded deaths. Since the introduction, there has thankfully been no deaths.
Crocodile attacks -
Only 27 deaths have been recorded since 1971 from croc attacks. In almost all cases death occured whilst they swimming in crocodile country.

loving30

ha ha ha.

the top answer is very funny.

ok, it's really pretty simple. the majority of people that live in australia live in the suburbs.

we have a few redbacks around the home, but they don't kill you and you just need to be sensible (ie no sticking your hands into dark spots in your garage).

snakes don't usually come into heavily populated areas and if you live in the country or rural areas, you're normally in an old ute due to the distances travelled, so not much chance of a snake getting you there.

i've only ever been around caught sharks, i've never seen one in the ocean. the majority of dangerous beaches are usually signposted anyway - especially the ones with bad stinging jellyfish.

there are plenty of swimming beaches around but only a few shark sightings.

it's really not that bad. i reckon australians just get off on winding the rest of the world up about how 'hard' we are.

Sunny 1st

It's a good question and I ask myself that everytime I see a huge redback spider hanging around my front door area, or a venemous eastern brown snake in my backyard, or when my hubby comes back from a surf and says, 'oh yeah, there was a shark in the water today' - but it's true for the most part that if you leave the critters alone, they'll leave you alone. The spiders are quite shy usually, they'll try and get away from you they won't run after you. The snakes only get aggressive if you try and attack them, or get in their way. I don't swim in the northern Queensland waters where the deadly box jellyfish live (and most people that do are tourists! The locals avoid it in danger times) - so we just make ourselves as safe as possible. People who live in the cities have less exposure to the really dangerous creatures. I did enjoy visiting New Zealand - knowing that there were NO snakes. And I loved England - not too many dangerous creatures there, apart from the chavs. America had their rattle snakes but not much else to worry about. Yes, Australia does have it's fair share of worrying bities, but we seem to get along with our lives without too many of us dying on a daily basis. Come down and see us sometime!!

FFS what's with the names?

Most of us live in cities where bugs and dangerous reptiles are not common.

In areas where there are dangerous creatures, we are taught from childhood to be careful of them, and know the signs to look for.

Cheers :-)

waltzsingmatilda

LOL, a good answer Anoldmu another yanks bright question.
Like the yank that asked does Christmas day fall on the 25th of December in Australia?

cc_of_0z

I grew up in the remote north-west of Australia for about 15 years, and strangely enough never met any of the nasties we constantly hear about in the media (despite the top 3 most deadly snakes being residents there). Yet since moving to Sydney I have seen more funnel web spiders up close and personal than I care to ever remember.

The basic advice is always the same though. If it moves, leave it the heck alone, and you will be fine.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: