1 Yikes! I never how many different kinds of spiders we had 'round these parts until I moved into this house. Some day soon I'll have to figure out a way to post photos of the giant slugs that used to crawl out of my garden and up the back stairs; they were about 8" long, as I recall.

2 T.S., I think those are called "snakes".....

3 What's the big deal? They're not small, but I've been bitten by bigger ones in my back garden. Hurt like hell, bled profusely, but no great drama.

It's not the dinnerplate-sized bird-eating spiders you have to worry about, it's the Funnelwebs and Redbacks, the largest of which are no bigger than your fist. Even then, there are antivenoms, hardly anyone dies of a spider bite these days.

Drop Bears are a different matter, of course. But they're never found in Urban areas.

4 He dares to ask, "what's the big deal?"

Is he ill? And a paook "no bigger than your fist" is one fist size too big a paook.

Once again, Ted, thank you for the warning. You bet your sweet bippy I did NOT click that link.