300 blips!

Red back spider - Latrodectus hasselti (aka Black Widow spider in other parts of the world)

This seemed like a good idea at the time, that proved harder to bring to fruition than expected. Once upon a time, not that long ago, I could find a red back in my garden whenever I wanted to - they were always there, underneath the children's garden toys, in the sand pit, under the bin, in the rims of plant pots and wheel barrows - any dark and quiet spot an unsuspecting person is likely to put their fingers.

But I spent a goodly while yesterday trying to locate a red back in my garden and could not find a single one. (Added bonus: I got to tidy up my old plant pots and throw out all the old broken ones.). So today I searched my parents' garden and thought there must be a Victoria wide shortage of red backs or something, but finally found this one hiding under a plant pot.

This photo is not real! Shock horror! This is not a red backs web (It's untidy enough, but much too dense). I found the web in my parents' garden too (in an old compost bin; the web's spider not in residence). So I have just spent the last couple of hours constructing this seemingly simple image.

300 consecutive blips! (I sneakily back blipped the couple I missed when I was trying to be a part-time blipper. Fail) That means only a couple of months to go to get to a whole year of blips. Through blipfoto, I have learnt a HUGE amount more about photography than in my previous forty something years.

A tiny bit about red back spiders: This is a female, who has the poisonous neurotoxic venom. Males are tiny and are not a threat to humans. The venom is 15 times more deadly than a rattlesnakes. But, that said, only 14 cases of deaths from red back bites have ever been recored in Australian history (and none since an anti-venom was introduced in 1955) and only about 20% of bite victims require treatment. The female also has a nasty habit of eating the male, once she has finished with him. No wonder you never see males around! Apart from that small unpleasant habit, a spider who doesn't really deserve their deadly reputation, I think.

Read the wobbly numbers