Latest / The Shed Organics Show / #24 - Working With The Worlds Deadliest Spider | Emma Teni [Australian Reptile Park]

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#24 - Working With The Worlds Deadliest Spider | Emma Teni [Australian Reptile Park] · The Shed Organics Show

0:00
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
0:05
Organics show. Now my name is Jordan and this
0:09
week we have an incredible guest by the name of Emma Teeny and
0:14
she is a spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park.
0:20
Now this is just north of Sydney and they are home to so many
0:24
incredible spiders, snakes and lizards and other sorts of
0:28
reptiles. And Emma does some really,
0:30
really interesting work there with bundle web spiders.
0:35
Interestingly, the deadliest spider that you can find on the
0:38
planet. And she does some work with anti
0:42
venom where one small drop, as she alludes to in this
0:45
conversation of this venom can take out many, many human beings
0:50
and it's very, very scary. But she's doing some incredible
0:53
work highlighting that you can take some of this venom and turn
0:57
it into anti venom and save many lives with this.
1:01
She also, on the flip side, is trying to raise awareness into
1:05
how misunderstood some of these creatures can be and how
1:08
fascinating spiders are. And we have this innate fear of
1:13
things like spiders and we talk about how that might be related
1:17
to your genetics or some form of learnt fear that we've passed
1:21
down through generations. So if this is something that
1:24
interests you and you want to learn a little bit more about
1:27
the world of spiders, then buckle up because we're about to
1:32
jump into the conversation. This is Emmettini from the
1:36
Australian Reptile Park. Suppose the one of the more
1:57
obvious places to start for this kind of conversation for someone
2:02
like yourself is how do you not have the fear that so many
2:09
people innately have for spiders?
2:13
I honestly, I've never really feared animals so much.
2:18
Like I, I, we've got family videos and there's pictures of
2:21
me like, you know, going up to these giant Kangaroos that like,
2:25
I mean, they could trump me now in height.
2:27
But I've just, I've never really been scared of the animals so
2:32
much. But they say like with fear,
2:34
it's either like it's genetic, like a survival of the fittest,
2:39
I guess Darwin theory type thing.
2:41
So the, the, those ones that survived weren't the ones
2:44
playing the snakes and spiders. And so it's taught not to play
2:48
the snakes and spiders and things like that.
2:50
But I, I, I just, I'm not scared of them.
2:55
I'm, I'm just not, I suppose just how some people are, you
2:58
know, scared of heights or falling or those kinds of
3:01
things. I'm, I'm not scared of them.
3:03
I respect them and I understand them.
3:05
Yeah. But I mean, yeah.
3:08
And I, like, I, I mean, I've been obsessed with animals since
3:11
I was born. And I, my mum used to always
3:15
joke that she couldn't wash my clothes without checking my
3:16
pockets because it'd be like a snail or a, you know, a lizard
3:19
or something in there. So you know when you've
3:22
exhausted all supplies of pets that you can let your parents
3:25
say you can get, you just go and catch them, right?
3:29
I love that. That's really cool.
3:30
You're right though, it's just this thing that either you have
3:34
it or you don't. And I suppose going off that
3:37
kind of exposure type situation where you say you're either
3:41
taught to fear them or you're not.
3:43
And generationally, like you might see your your mom or
3:47
whatever, freak out when there's a spider in the living room and
3:51
then all of a sudden they're the scariest things that you've ever
3:55
seen. And then you're taught to fear
3:56
them and then you don't want to go near them and etcetera,
3:59
etcetera. So were you just, did you have
4:01
no family that taught that sort of thing?
4:03
Everyone was just kind of like, oh, it's a spider, you know,
4:06
just we pick it up, we put it outside or help him out or
4:09
something like that. Is that kind of how you saw it
4:10
or were you a little bit of an outcast in that regard?
4:13
No, no, no, not at all. So my dad is very catch and
4:16
release like he he had for ages a red backed spider that lived
4:21
on his laptop out in his office and he'd just feed it.
4:24
So like, it's definitely, I know, you know, my dad is very
4:29
nature focused and he does boat salvage.
4:32
So he'll go down with the net and catch each individual little
4:35
fish out of the boats and let them go before they lift them
4:38
off to do the salvage. So he's, yeah, he loves it.
4:41
And so that definitely encouraged it.
4:43
And then my mum was, well, is a preschool teacher and so she's
4:46
always really encouraged that like innate sense of self and
4:50
who you are. And so I was just animals
4:53
always, and that was always encouraged.
4:55
And yeah, we've just always grown up respecting nature and
4:58
animals and never fearing it. And I guess like you said, like,
5:03
you do learn it. And if your mum's screaming
5:05
because there's a spider, you're going to scream.
5:06
But when my daughter was little, everyone was like, how do you
5:09
have so many nice house plants? I was like, I just taught her.
5:13
We just kiss them. We don't grip them, we don't
5:14
touch them. You just get taught the way of
5:17
life, don't you? That's so true.
5:19
That's a really beautiful way of just saying, like we do, you say
5:23
we kiss them rather than we tear them up and things like this.
5:26
Is that right? Yeah, yeah.
5:30
So with my like my thickest, my plant, I, my daughter, I would
5:35
just say, well, we just, we just, we just kiss them.
5:38
So she wouldn't RIP them. She'd just give them a little.
5:40
Kiss. Yeah, like a little cat.
5:41
That's very beautiful. I like it.
5:43
And so how, like you said, you, you went through sort of all the
5:47
animals that you were allowed to, to have at home and you got
5:52
to spiders. How, how did you get to spiders
5:55
as something you were like, yes, this is what I really want to
5:58
focus on because for me personally, I'll speak probably
6:01
for a large majority of people. I, I really don't mind spiders
6:06
in the garden. I like will, you know, I'll be
6:09
going around and if I move a pot or something and I see a spider
6:13
kind of gives me a little bit of a whoa, OK, and or it like runs
6:16
up your arm and and off and I'm OK, OK, that's all right.
6:19
I can keep my distance, watch you.
6:21
I'm not going to hurt you. You're doing your job.
6:23
You're playing your role in the ecosystem, But I wouldn't go and
6:27
pick one up and play with one or, you know, become really
6:31
fascinated. So how did that develop for you,
6:34
that fascination? So I didn't always start out
6:38
with spiders. I actually was obsessed with the
6:40
ocean, obsessed with seals and obsessed with training marine
6:43
mammals. So I actually did that at
6:45
university and I worked up at SeaWorld for a couple of years
6:48
working with the seals and doing the shows and like dressing up
6:51
as a police officer and driving boats with big seals on them and
6:56
the best. But then when I came back to the
6:58
coast and I had my daughter and we started our family, there
7:01
weren't any seals here. So when I was at the reptile
7:05
park, I started just doing like reptiles and a little bit of
7:10
mammals and that kind of stuff. And then the spiders fascinated
7:14
me and from more of a perspective of it's life saving
7:18
work with anti venom. And so I started milking the
7:21
spiders and then I started breeding the spiders.
7:24
And then just over the course of a couple of years I've just
7:27
become the spider lady. But I do think it comes from the
7:31
fact that I do appreciate them. Whereas, you know, some people
7:34
be like spider, whatever. But I mean, it's not, it's not a
7:37
koala, it's not a kangaroo. Like I get my fair share of them
7:40
too. But I respect it as its own
7:42
little individual being. And therefore, once you actually
7:46
delve into the spider world, they are fascinating.
7:49
Yeah, super fascinating creatures, they really are.
7:51
And I'd love to dive into a little bit about some of that
7:54
work and like you're talking about with the anti venom and
7:57
things in a second. But I want to highlight kind of
8:01
what you do as as part of your your role at the reptile park,
8:05
you're doing a lot of work with, I guess, little shows and
8:10
workshops and things like this and helping people.
8:13
Are you, are you doing much of that where you're working with
8:15
the public and handling some of these things and showing them
8:18
and getting people to get up nice and close and personal with
8:21
some of these spiders? Yeah, absolutely.
8:23
So we don't necessarily encourage other people to handle
8:26
the spiders, but we do have our encounters, which are amazing.
8:31
And so you can come and see the milking program.
8:33
We have Spider World, which is just incredible.
8:36
We've got an exotic tarantulas on display here.
8:39
And we do encourage people, yeah, to come in and see the
8:43
spiders and appreciate them for what they are and what they do.
8:46
Totally. And I I mean, I've seen you with
8:50
tarantula crawling all over your face.
8:53
Yes. I mean, like, because you get to
8:56
know the temperament of these creatures and you can you can
8:59
really understand, OK, they we've built this relationship.
9:03
I understand what it's looking for, whether it's going to be
9:06
able to walk all over me. And I'm not going to show fear
9:10
because obviously the fear that you give off will then translate
9:13
to the animal. I've I've been learning this
9:15
from other reptile people as well, especially with snakes and
9:18
holding snakes, but they're not the most cuddly of creatures.
9:22
So how are you? You have to kind of just let
9:24
them do their thing on you, right?
9:26
And crawl around You don't kind of just like there's no cuddling
9:29
like a koala might be. Is that right?
9:33
How? Do you?
9:33
How do you go? About holding them.
9:36
Well, I mean, again, it's not something that we say, oh,
9:39
everyone go out and hold a spider.
9:40
When we got Gretchen, the big tranche that you're speaking
9:44
about, I didn't just go in and just pick her up and hold her.
9:48
I would sit there with my hand in her enclosure.
9:51
I started by encouraging her to walk on a piece of bark.
9:54
I would then hold her on the bark and then I regressed with
9:56
the bark. So heaps of people go, they
9:59
don't have brains, you can't train them, blah, blah, blah.
10:01
I'm not saying I trained it and I and from a training
10:04
perspective, I couldn't, you know, encourage A behaviour by
10:07
giving her a cricket because a cricket a week.
10:09
So I couldn't train her. But yeah, like you said, it's
10:13
it's a matter of she knew I wasn't a threat and I knew she
10:19
wasn't a threat and I could see her behaviour.
10:21
So there would be some days I was like, oh, won't touch her
10:24
today. She doesn't want to bar of it.
10:25
Whereas the other day she was quite willing.
10:27
She'd walk out onto my hand. You let her do what she wants to
10:29
do, go for a Wanda. And then yeah, she was, she was
10:33
quite content. And it is about learning their
10:36
different personalities. Because I've got a couple of
10:38
other Australian tranche Lizia Chichi is a lunatic.
10:42
And then I've got Agatha, who, unfortunately for Agatha's name,
10:45
is actually a boy, and he's super fast, but he's, yeah, he's
10:50
confident where Chichi's crazy. Right.
10:52
Yeah. Well, I mean, a crazy tarantula
10:54
is not something that I'd probably want to pick up.
10:58
I'm kind of. Yeah.
10:59
Moving in this way towards understanding the creatures and
11:04
how to, like you say, not necessarily train them, but
11:07
build this relationship so that you can handle them safely.
11:10
So that when you're getting to the point of working with some
11:13
of these spiders that are venomous and you are working
11:16
with things that are anti venom, where we're, it's crucial work
11:20
for people that do get bitten. And I'm sure you might have
11:22
some, some sort of statistics or knowledge on how frequent these
11:26
types of bites and things are. But maybe you could tell us a
11:30
little bit about your process of learning to to work up to the
11:33
venomous spiders and then how that work comes in in terms of
11:38
learning to milk them and and your work with anti venom.
11:42
Yeah, absolutely. So funnily enough, the first
11:44
spiders I ever worked with were the funnel of spiders.
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So I started with the world's most deadly spider, and that
11:50
started my interest in the spiders.
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And then I was like, cool, let's get a tarantula.
11:56
So it kind of worked backwards as far as like that venom
11:59
severity goes. But as far as holding them
12:02
funnel web spiders, it is completely contact free.
12:05
We do not touch them at all. And I would never, I would never
12:08
let them crawl on me. Yes, Gretchen did have venom,
12:11
but she she wasn't an aggressive spider and they're not a
12:15
medically significant spider. Whereas when we're talking about
12:19
our funnel web spiders, our mouse spiders, even our red back
12:23
spiders and things like that, I'm not going to just let them
12:26
crawl on me, you know, for the sake of getting a good media
12:28
video or something like that. I have too much to live for.
12:32
I value my but working with the funnel web spiders was a part of
12:38
the job and it is incredibly safe granted you follow
12:45
protocol. Yeah, OK, so there's when you're
12:49
not touching them. I've seen when people are
12:53
milking snakes, for example, they have to get right in and
12:55
they have to hold it behind the head and kind of get it to bite
12:59
on something. I've seen when these, when the
13:02
spiders, they bring their big front legs up and they're in
13:05
this sort of attack mode, which looks quite daunting.
13:09
Are you sort of trying to Dang, talk me through the process of
13:12
milking a spider? I'm not really sure how it
13:14
works. Are you getting them to bite
13:16
into something? No.
13:18
So as you mentioned before with the snakes, you have a a shot
13:23
glass effectively with a piece of plastic over the top which
13:26
they pull to the tension of a human skin and they encourage
13:29
the snake to bite down on it after they've pinned it and they
13:32
can massage the venom glands and that expresses the venom glands
13:35
into the jar. And then they get quite a
13:36
substantial amount of venom with the spiders.
13:40
Our funnel webs are our old world spiders.
13:43
So our ground dwelling spiders, their fangs will point downwards
13:47
and that defensive position which she said that is them
13:51
raring up and that's normally saying don't come near me, I
13:55
will bite you or catching a prey item.
13:59
So what happens is, is either which way they'll stand up, the
14:03
venom drips off their fangs and then they throw their fangs down
14:06
into their prey item. So that venom is modified saliva
14:12
and that would start that digestion process outside of the
14:15
body. So then they could eat that or
14:17
alternatively it would immobilize, you know, a predator
14:22
or, you know, deter a predator enough that the spider can't get
14:25
away. So when we milk the spider,
14:29
where the snake milking is like, you've got to be like a ninja
14:33
and just so quick with the spider milking, you have to be
14:37
so precise and patient. And it's very repetitive.
14:42
And it's very, you know, like, very, very precise.
14:47
Like these things. Yeah.
14:48
They can get up to like 2 centimetres, which out.
14:50
Yeah. But when the spider stands up,
14:52
the venom droplets come off. And these are tiny droplets.
14:56
And so then we've got a glass pipette and you actually suction
14:59
the venom off the face. Yeah.
15:01
So they don't bite down into anything.
15:03
Then I suck it into a pipette. And then once it builds up in
15:06
the pet, it actually crystallizes, and then we
15:09
transfer it to a viral by making a liquid again using acetic
15:14
acid, which is just effectively a fancy vinegar.
15:17
Yeah, wow, amazing. So you're right, it is very
15:19
precise. You're gonna have to go in there
15:21
and kind of be patient and yeah, getting a few droplets, but can
15:25
a few drops go a long way in terms of anti venom?
15:28
A few drops go a long way in terms of killing you.
15:31
So like, your your yield that you get it's, you know, you
15:35
know, when you like mow the lawns and you sit back and
15:37
you're like, oh, my God, that just looks so good.
15:39
That's so satisfying. You do a whole day of milking
15:41
and you're like, there's nothing there.
15:43
It looks like there is nothing there.
15:45
But in a vial with a tiny bit of venom, it could be enough to
15:49
kill, you know, everyone in the park that day.
15:51
Like, yeah, it is. Absolutely potent.
15:57
Yeah. And it's you need.
16:02
But that being said, you need to milk about 150 to 200 spiders to
16:06
even create one vial of anti venom.
16:07
Oh my goodness, it's huge work. Yeah.
16:10
And that one vial is that for one person.
16:14
I like records. I think in 2017 a guy in the
16:18
coast got bitten. He was 10 and I think he got
16:21
like 13 vials. Wow.
16:24
So it's, yeah, it's huge and. A lot of spiders for what?
16:28
To save one person. Yeah.
16:30
And the male spiders, they're effectively just genetic
16:33
couriers. So once they mature, their job
16:36
is to mate. And so it's their venom that we
16:40
use because it's six to seven times more toxic than the
16:43
females. But they've got a natural
16:45
lifespan of one year. So we have like a constant need
16:50
for more and more spiders to be able to get enough anti mem.
16:57
That is honestly crazy. That really highlights how
17:00
important it is for you to be doing this type of work and like
17:05
the consistency and how much you need to to be getting because
17:08
that's crazy. That amount of potency does it
17:12
like if it gets on your skin or something or anything like that,
17:15
how how toxic is it compared to obviously if it went into your
17:19
bloodstream? So the difference between venom
17:22
and poison, if something's poisonous, you ingest it and you
17:27
get sick. So you know, like a Berry or
17:30
something like that. Whereas with venom, it needs to
17:33
be injected into your lymphatic system.
17:35
So if I had an open cut or something on my hands that was
17:39
bleeding and venom got into that, that would be an
17:42
inventimation. However, I would need an open
17:45
wound. Theoretically, if I had venom on
17:48
me, I could just wipe it off and they wouldn't be a problem.
17:51
You should theoretically be able to drink it, but if you've got
17:54
an ulcer or an abrasion or something like that, it will go
17:57
into bloodstream and your lymphatic system and then that
18:00
would. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:02
Amazing. That's incredible that it the
18:04
difference between, yeah, actually going into your
18:07
bloodstream depending on what it attacks like it's, it's very
18:10
deadly in one specific situation.
18:12
But as you say, if you were OK to drink it, which I doubt
18:15
anybody would, then. Yeah, we don't recommend it.
18:17
Yeah, then. You're actually going to be
18:19
somewhat OK. That's amazing.
18:23
Amazing. So how many of you are there
18:25
that do this work at the reptile park or in general how many
18:29
people are doing work with anti venom for spiders, especially
18:33
things like funnel webs, red backs.
18:35
I presume red backs are quite common bite as well in Australia
18:38
and things. What are?
18:39
What are some of the other ones? Yep.
18:41
So redbacks they get around 2000 bytes a year is the most common
18:45
bite. However they only around 200 of
18:50
those bytes actually require anti venom so most people can
18:54
ice it and they're fine. The funnel web spiders we're
18:58
saving you know, 50 plus lives a year.
19:02
The it's and and bytes are more frequent than that even.
19:07
It's just a matter of the fact that not all of them require
19:10
that anti venom. But as far as who does what we
19:13
do, The reptile park invented the anti venom for funnel web
19:17
spiders in 1981 and we are the sole supplier of raw venom for
19:21
the anti venom program. So we are literally the only
19:24
place that does this. Well, shouldn't there be more if
19:30
this is a common thing? Like, should we be encouraging
19:33
more people to do this? Look, I don't know, like, I
19:36
mean, I know other people do work with the spiders in their
19:38
venom to go down that path of like heart medications and
19:43
things like that. But yeah, we we supply the raw
19:47
venom to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory in Melbourne and they
19:52
create the anti venom and we're the only people that do it.
19:55
Wow, So very, very important people, I imagine.
19:59
Yeah, that's so cool. Tell us a little bit about some
20:02
of the other species that you work with in spiders and what
20:07
are some of your favourites? OK, so obviously you guys have
20:12
heard about Gretchen. So she's our Australian
20:14
tarantula and she is the favorite.
20:18
And then we have on display in spider.
20:20
Well, we just have a lot of spiders which you would find in
20:23
this area. So we've got your red backs on
20:25
display, your mouth spiders, which we are seeing so many of
20:29
at the moment. It's their breeding season.
20:32
They're a medically significant spider.
20:34
If you were to be bitten by one of those, a series of animation,
20:37
you would receive funnel web spider anti venom.
20:40
And we also have wolf spiders and up in our new venom
20:48
building, we've also got spiders on display up there as well.
20:50
So we've got red backs, funnel webs and golden orbs and a Blue
20:57
Lake, triangular up there. And then we've got triangular
21:00
bill where we've got exotic tarantulas, which I think we're
21:03
the only place in Australia that has exotic tarantulas on
21:05
display. That's so cool.
21:07
I think it's worth a trip if anyone is close by because you
21:11
guys are just outside Sydney kind of aren't you?
21:14
Yeah, yeah, we're just north of Sydney and it is a fun day.
21:17
Yeah, yeah. I highly encourage people to go
21:19
and do it because I'm all right walking through.
21:21
If I can see them behind the glass, I can get up close and be
21:24
like, oh wow, this is really fascinating.
21:25
But if it was outside the glass, I would be a good 50 meters away
21:30
like you're watching. It's so funny when I milk the
21:33
spiders in the spider room. It's a display so people can
21:36
watch us milk, but people forget that it's like not a one way
21:41
glass. Like, I can see their faces and
21:43
you just watch them, like with the face of like, disgust and
21:47
like, terrified. And then you lock eyes with them
21:50
and they're like, oh, I didn't realize you could see me.
21:52
Like you're OK. But it's so funny because, yeah,
21:56
it's it's not everyone's cup of tea at all.
21:59
Yeah, you must see an all sorts of kinds of reactions for from
22:04
the spiders. Why do you think we, I mean, we
22:07
spoke a little bit about it before, but why do you think
22:10
spiders and snakes and things like this get such a bad rap?
22:14
I know that yes, maybe historically poisonous
22:16
creatures, we're, we're trained to kind of genetically want to
22:20
stay away from those types of things.
22:22
But what is it about the spiders that really makes people kind of
22:26
have these shit and these crazy reactions?
22:30
Honestly, I mean, no one likes anything that could kill them.
22:34
And we we do get a pretty good reputation in Australia as
22:37
everything does want to kill you.
22:38
Like if it's not going to inventimate you, it's big enough
22:41
to take you down. But I just genuinely think like,
22:46
it's that like kind of X Factor, like they are not the prettiest
22:51
animal and they move quickly. They yeah, they can bite.
22:58
No one likes to be bitten by things.
23:01
I've been bitten by koala more than I've been bitten by a
23:03
spider. But no one thinks about that.
23:05
But koalas get away with everything.
23:08
But yeah, I think people are innately scared, told to not go
23:12
any of them when you're little. It's don't touch the spiders,
23:15
don't touch the snakes. They will kill you.
23:18
And so we're taught to not appreciate them and not respect
23:21
them. And you know, like, it's funny
23:23
because I get a lot of like backlash for touching the
23:27
spiders and talking about spiders.
23:29
However, the same people giving the backlash probably have pest
23:33
control coming to their house and literally obliterate them.
23:36
So it's just, I'm here, you know, to be like, hey, they're
23:39
not so bad. They're pretty cool.
23:41
They're actually very cool. And I'm all for the spiders.
23:44
And you know, you're looking after them and catching them and
23:47
releasing them. And then people go out and just
23:49
be like, I don't want them in my house.
23:51
I don't want them here and poison them and think nothing of
23:53
it. No, I think that's a terrible
23:55
what you're doing is amazing because even though, yes,
23:58
sometimes you do have to jump in, handle them and, you know,
24:02
take venom from them and maybe do some things that the spiders
24:05
are a little bit out of their natural habitat or something
24:08
like this. The general goal is raising
24:10
awareness and doing it for the, you know, saving of these
24:14
creatures and more ecological awareness.
24:17
So it's certainly a good thing. Can you tell me about some of
24:21
the roles in our ecosystems and nature in general that spiders
24:26
play? For instance, I'm thinking in
24:30
the garden, it's good to have spiders around because they can
24:33
eat other pests and they can control different pests and
24:35
things like this. Some of the beautiful webs that
24:39
we we see in the garden from something like a golden orb or
24:43
things like that can take out some of our flying creatures
24:46
that are going to come down and eat our vegetables we're
24:48
growing. But what are some other things
24:50
that spiders are important for and or things that you like to
24:55
highlight about them in the ecosystem?
24:58
Well, I think The thing is people only appreciate something
25:04
once they understand it and they only understand it once they
25:07
taught it. Well, they actually asked the
25:08
question. And so, you know, with the crow
25:12
or something on the side of the road, you can so easily see that
25:16
it's cleaning up at carcass. Like that's the, you know,
25:19
nature's garbage bin. Spiders are the same, but it's
25:23
just those little things that you don't want in your house
25:25
anyway. So you know, your mozzy user or
25:27
your cockroach or things like that, they're actually doing
25:30
that job anyway and they don't want to hurt you.
25:33
They'll they'll clean up. I think there's a statistic and
25:36
you know, it probably gets thrown around a bit too much,
25:39
but the spiders could eat the entire human population in one
25:43
year given the opportunity with how much they clean up, you
25:47
know, not giving them a bad rap. Like it's not like they're
25:49
production phobia, but they do such a significant amount of
25:53
cleaning up of all the little bits and bobs that you don't
25:56
even think about. So true, so true.
25:59
And I'm, I'm going to use this opportunity to maybe bust a myth
26:03
or two. Now, the daddy long legs spider
26:07
that we see in our homes often. OK, I did see you post a little
26:12
bit of content about busting a myth on them, about the, you
26:16
know, eating the human skin and whether it can penetrate and how
26:19
toxic they are, etcetera. But I've also heard that.
26:24
So maybe you can go into that. But I've also heard that they
26:28
they can take out some of the more poisonous spiders, so
26:32
something like a red back or something like that.
26:35
Can they come in and deal with those for you and keep those out
26:38
of your house? Yeah, absolutely.
26:41
So when we have the daddy long legs that got that reputation
26:46
of, you know, it's the most venomous spider and it just
26:49
can't penetrate human skin. They believe the origin of that
26:53
story was because they ate the Redbacks.
26:57
So, you know, if you take down the big dog, then obviously
27:00
you're a bigger dog. But no, he just can do that.
27:04
So that's where that reputation of these guys being so venomous
27:10
was. And yes, they do.
27:11
So if you've got them there or, you know, your token Huntsman,
27:16
which yeah, they're terrifying, they move so fast, but he's
27:20
cleaning up all the other guys. So if it's there's, there's a
27:23
spot there for everyone. That's so true.
27:26
I think they're one of the ones that I don't mind seeing in the
27:30
house. The daddy long legs, the
27:31
Huntsman, not so much. I can deal with that.
27:34
Maybe out in the garden, but I've seen some pretty huge and
27:38
fast Huntsman. Because we do get quite a fair
27:41
few in Australia, don't we? With Huntsman and sizable as
27:46
well. Now, they're not venomous, are
27:48
they? Well they are venomous but
27:50
they're not medically significant so a bite from them
27:53
you would probably just ice if you had a reaction that you were
27:57
concerned about. Obviously I'm a zookeeper.
28:01
Go and seek medical attention. However, their venom isn't
28:04
medically significant. Like you would consider your
28:06
funnel web or something like that, Yeah.
28:09
That's a good point. That's a good point to
28:11
distinguish between the fact whether it's, yeah, significant
28:14
enough for you to urgently go and need attention because
28:17
that's I mean red backs, the one that comes to mind straight away
28:20
and final webs where it's like, OK, if I suspect that it might
28:26
be that we need to get action. Quick spot 100%.
28:29
And The thing is as well, like, you know, people go, oh, what if
28:32
it's what if it's not? No one's going to go, you idiot.
28:37
Why did you come to AR like you thought you got bitten by a
28:40
funnel web? If you ignore it, on the other
28:42
hand, no one's going to have the ability to tell you you're an
28:45
idiot because you're not going to be there.
28:46
So if when in doubt, go and get medical attention.
28:51
It's Australia. Like they you don't have to pay
28:54
for it. In America if you get bitten by
28:55
a venomous animal you have to pay for your anti venom upfront.
28:59
Wow, really? I didn't know that.
29:01
Yes. So not not in Australia.
29:03
No, in Australia it's all free. That's amazing.
29:06
That's well, I mean, that's kind of like one of the great things
29:10
that the the government can do for us in that regard is because
29:14
we do have to face such incredibly venomous things at
29:18
some points. And it's, it's probably not
29:21
through like a, a lack of care or anything.
29:24
Is it Like people would generally get bitten when
29:27
they're not expecting it. They're kind of just putting
29:30
their hand into somewhere or they're just moving something
29:33
and then all of a sudden they've gotten bitten.
29:35
It's not a they're not usually going and playing with them and
29:38
things like this, I imagine. Look, statistically, if you're
29:42
gonna get bitten, you're either drunk and stupid or you're just
29:46
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
29:48
So there are instances where people are trying to catch a
29:51
snake or show off, and that's just so that's Darwins theory.
29:56
Like, you know, like, let the idiots wipe themselves out.
29:59
However, if you're getting bitten, yeah, like, especially
30:03
in your case, you're gardening. You lift up a rock, that's where
30:06
they are. They're they're hiding under
30:08
their rock and next minute there's giants.
30:10
They're displacing their home. They're not coming after you
30:14
like to try and you know, have well domination, but they're
30:17
going to defend themselves. They're little like you can
30:19
squish them. Also, they do come into our
30:22
homes, but they come into our homes for the exact same reasons
30:24
why we have homes. It's warm, it's sheltered,
30:27
they're safe, they're seeking shelter.
30:31
And especially with the rain that we've got at the moment
30:34
they're getting, they live in boroughs, so they're going to
30:37
come out of the boroughs, they're flooded, they're going
30:39
to go somewhere, they're going to go to higher ground, warmer
30:41
ground. Someone shoot.
30:43
That's so true. Yeah, such a great point.
30:46
Speaking of that, then how would we attract spiders to our
30:52
garden? No, that sentence alone might
30:55
scare people wanting to attract spiders.
30:57
But as we've spoken about, they can be really useful and I've
31:01
mentioned to quite a few people about having a pretty complete
31:04
ecosystem at home for your garden as much as possible
31:07
because that's going to provide the best thriving diversity for
31:11
all of these things in your garden.
31:13
So tell me a little bit about habitat and going through a few
31:17
of those things that you mentioned, like maybe they live
31:20
in Burrows. So can we put like a pile of
31:22
sticks somewhere? Can we create some sort of areas
31:25
or leave them, go wild for spiders to live in?
31:27
What are some things that we could do at home to encourage
31:30
them to come in? Yeah, absolutely.
31:32
And I agree with what you're saying in the sense that you
31:34
can't protect an ecosystem or and like just leave out a key
31:40
species in it. So as far as creating habitats
31:43
for the spiders, you know, most people are asking the opposite
31:46
question, like how do we not have them in our garden for
31:49
things like your funnel webs and your ground dwelling spiders and
31:52
that kind of thing. They like to be under areas not
31:55
disturbed and things like that. So I mean, naturalistic, yes,
31:59
you could have rocks and things like that around.
32:01
They love rock walls and that kind of thing.
32:03
And then for your other spiders, your New World spiders, your
32:06
arboreal spiders, having those spaces where I guess low traffic
32:12
areas, so maybe not across your path, but if there's an area in
32:16
your garden where you do have some nice branches and things
32:18
like that, that can encourage them to have their webs there.
32:22
And just like if you're going to encourage any invertebrate or
32:26
you know, if you were trying to encourage frogs or something
32:28
like that, you could put a little night light in and that's
32:30
going to encourage the bugs. And then the bugs are going to
32:32
come for that, but they're also going to come.
32:33
The spiders are going to come for the bugs.
32:36
That's a really good point. You know what?
32:37
I've never thought of that? Putting a night light in bought
32:40
for bugs to come in so that there's something for them to go
32:43
and eat. That's such a smart idea.
32:45
Yeah, and it's simple as well. You know the little ones that
32:48
you can get from Bunnings that you could put along a path and
32:52
they're solar. So if you pop them next to a
32:54
pond, then the bugs are going to come there and then the frogs
32:57
are going to come there. Whereas if you're just
32:59
attracting spiders, it's the same.
33:01
Same really. Yeah, that's amazing.
33:03
That is really, really cool. And I like what you're saying
33:06
about the low traffic areas for the webs too, because yes, you
33:10
obviously don't want to be clearing these webs all the
33:12
time. Often if I have a spider that's
33:15
created a web over a pathway or somewhere there, I'm not keen to
33:19
have it. I'll try my best and grab to
33:22
like sticks and sort of yeah, And I'll keep the web between it
33:26
and I'm trying to like stick it up somewhere else and put them
33:29
so I don't disturb the web. But obviously I'm, I'm not, you
33:32
know, doing the best job. Their webs are really, really
33:35
fascinating. And something about the geometry
33:40
as well that is just so gorgeous that the way that they can do
33:45
these beautiful patterns in there.
33:47
And I don't know where that comes from and I don't know
33:50
whether you know that either, but it's just, it's a, it's
33:52
really, really cool. Can you tell me anything else
33:55
about the webs, how it becomes so sticky?
33:58
And then the difference between some of these webs where we've
34:03
got some that are really tough, like they're really hard to
34:07
break. And then there's some that are
34:10
just like kind of really wispy and you can kind of just brush
34:13
through them. Is there a type of what what's
34:17
in the web that they are weaving?
34:20
Or is this tightly undiscovered science?
34:26
I haven't delved into it so much from like a like a what they're
34:35
made of, but all spiders produce silk, but not all spiders
34:40
produce webs. So I mentioned earlier, you've
34:42
got your ground dwelling spiders.
34:44
They're like you're funnel webs and your mouse spiders, those
34:48
kind of spiders, they will live in Burrows and so they'll silk
34:51
line their Burrows and they'll have trip lines and things like
34:54
that. And so the trip lines are that
34:56
classic funnel which we see. And during breeding the the
35:00
males will actually go and he'll drum on the web.
35:02
So you know, the female knows if she's receptive to come out and
35:06
they can mate and she also knows it's not a bug to run out and
35:10
eat him straight away. Whereas then you've got your,
35:15
your new world fighters and they're your arboreal ones.
35:17
They're the ones that make those webs and you've got your orbs.
35:22
So they're those really stringy, sticky ones that you're thinking
35:25
of. And just from like a layman's
35:28
terms and kind of thinking off the cuff, those fighters are big
35:32
and they are capable of eating like microbats and small birds
35:36
and things like that. So I'm thinking the the, the
35:40
tension of the web and the stickiness and the strength is
35:44
probably correlating with the ability to catch certain prey
35:47
items, whereas your softer webs, your little ones and just
35:50
catching smaller things because they're only capable of eating
35:52
those smaller things. So I definitely would say, you
35:55
know, if you're going to be catching a microbat, you're
35:57
going to need a stronger web. It's kind of like that tension
35:59
of you have fishing rods, you know how you choose.
36:03
Choose. Your reel.
36:04
That definitely makes a lot of sense.
36:06
You're right. Because it's like, I mean, if I
36:08
walk through one like that, it's it's like, whoa, it pulls me
36:12
back, you know, it's like, yeah, so it pulls me right back and I
36:17
kind of get stuck on me and, and things like that.
36:19
But the the silk is fascinating too.
36:22
So they, I've seen spiders like eggs and things they are
36:29
wrapped. Is that wrapped in silk as well?
36:31
Quite often they've got these little sort of cocoons that they
36:34
create with all the little babies.
36:36
Yep, they do. So our funnel webs in
36:39
particular, we hatch their exacts around about November,
36:42
December. And what happens is mum will lay
36:45
down a little silk mat, she'll deposit her eggs, and then
36:48
she'll make another little silk mat over the top.
36:50
So they look like a little marshmallow and they've got all
36:53
the eggs in there. So she'll look after those eggs
36:55
and turn them and make sure they're the right temperature
36:57
and humidity and everything for the duration of that time.
37:00
And then they'll actually hatch within there.
37:03
They'll harden. They're like a little pink Jelly
37:06
Bean, like tiny, tiny. They look like caviar.
37:09
Yeah. And then as they, they'll mulch
37:12
once inside the egg SAC and then she'll help open the egg SAC and
37:15
then they'll disperse. So yeah, they do.
37:18
They wrap them in silk. And then you've got like your
37:21
wolf spider who will wrap the eggs in silk and carry them
37:24
around on her spinnerets. And then you've got your
37:28
arboreals, like your golden orbs and things like that.
37:31
And that's when you see that golden silk because they'll wrap
37:35
them all up in the in their webs and there's like a little parcel
37:39
and they're like kind of messy and wrapped up.
37:41
Yeah, that's gorgeous. How many eggs or spiders would
37:46
one spider be giving birth to in a in a single guy?
37:51
Well, I mean, look with the funnel webs, we will get you
37:54
know 70 to 150, but we have had cases where there was 220 in an
38:00
egg sack and that kind of thing. So there's a lot.
38:03
And then Huntsman's, it's just insane.
38:06
They're hectic when they have their exact like hundreds.
38:10
But the whole theory behind that is, you know, from a genetic
38:15
point of view and survivability, you've kind of got your R
38:19
strategist and UK strategist. So one will have heaps of heaps
38:23
and heaps of young in the hope that a couple survive with
38:26
little parental care. Whereas then you've got other
38:29
ones like humans and they will have one young and invest a lot
38:33
of care and a lot of time into it, ensuring that one young will
38:37
survive. So with our spiders, they just
38:39
have bulk babies and let them go out in the world and hope that a
38:44
couple survive to pass on their genetics.
38:46
It's that Darwin theory again, isn't it?
38:48
Survival of the fittest type situation, Yeah.
38:52
And I presume then that also often correlates to, to the
38:56
gestational period as well, like how long it takes for them to to
39:00
produce all of these young. Because like with, as you said,
39:03
with a human being, it's a huge investment.
39:05
It's yeah, nine months plus. But then you've also got, you
39:08
know, the best part of 18 years 20?
39:11
Six years now, like we all live at home.
39:14
Exactly right. So how?
39:16
How often are spiders laying eggs then and producing young?
39:21
So you've got different spiders like your tarantulas and your
39:24
funnel webs and things like that.
39:26
The females can live for 20 plus years.
39:28
So their time which with their exacts and that kind of thing is
39:32
significantly longer where then with your orbs and that kind of
39:35
thing, it's almost like a yearly cyclical thing.
39:38
So they'll towards the end of or it's now ish, they'll be having
39:43
their exacts and everything. Mom will probably pass away and
39:46
that over winter, the babies will hatch and then that whole
39:48
cycle starts again in spring where you start seeing them
39:51
everywhere again. So it does depend massively on
39:54
the type of spider. But you know, one of the hard
39:58
things working with spiders is, is their life expectancy is
40:01
smaller. So you do have them pass away.
40:04
And, you know, like, you know, if I've got a red back on
40:06
display now, chances are in, you know, 12 months I won't.
40:09
And same with the male spiders that we milk.
40:12
Whereas with our tarantulas, you know, I could still be working
40:16
with them in 10-15 years. That's incredible.
40:18
You're right. And you'd have to the change
40:20
over of all of these PCs is quite quick, but then some yeah,
40:24
yeah. You get to know over a long
40:25
period of time. That's really, really cool.
40:28
Can you tell me a little bit about your, your day-to-day
40:32
possibly at the at the reptile park and what that might look
40:35
like? So what, what percentage are you
40:38
doing milking versus doing like, you know, your encounters and
40:43
then that kind of thing. What's What's your normal day
40:47
look like? So my day is kind of cyclical
40:51
with the spider cycle. So from November through to
40:55
April is when we have our male spiders wandering, which is when
40:58
we tend to get a lot of them in from the public.
41:00
So in that point in time, two to three days a week I will spend
41:04
solidly milking the spiders and then the rest of the time is
41:12
raising the spiders. So our funnel web spiders mature
41:15
at about 3:00 to four years of age.
41:17
We breed them here and we actually actively go out eggs
41:19
that collecting. So December through to June,
41:24
July, we're feeding the babies every single week and then for
41:28
the next 3 1/2 years of their life, we feed them fortnightly
41:32
until they mature into a male. So I've got the little room
41:35
which you can see on display when you do come down to the
41:38
park where we milk with, you know, anytime we like to have,
41:42
you know, as many spiders as you can get, but you know, like 100
41:44
to 300 spiders being milked. And then I've got the container
41:48
out the back, which is a shipping container, which we've
41:50
just had to double because I've got 5000 spiderlings there that
41:53
I'm raising. So yeah, there's a lot there.
41:57
And other days we literally do go out.
42:00
Eggs are collecting, which is so much fun.
42:03
And we will go out into the Bush and gardens and everything, and
42:07
we'll find the egg sacks and then we will nurture them and
42:11
hatch them. And unlike the wild, where one
42:14
or two might survive, we might raise, you know, 1200 new babies
42:18
each year. Yeah, brilliant.
42:19
And then that's obviously more anti venom and things like that.
42:23
That's exactly right. What are you looking for in
42:25
terms of when you're going out for those funnel websites?
42:27
What, what are you looking for out in the wild that gives you a
42:30
clear sign that that's a final web spider part like is it, is
42:34
there Burrows very distinctive obviously to you and that type
42:39
of thing? Yep.
42:43
So, you know, you can narrow it down pretty quickly.
42:46
They live in about 120 to 160 kilometre radius of Sydney.
42:50
So if we're in there, we're good.
42:52
They like sloping areas, they like pretty untouched areas.
42:55
So you're not likely to go into the middle of, you know, in a
42:58
golf course that gets mowed weekly and find funnel web
43:02
spiders. However, you know, a property
43:06
recently, we did some filming and we had to find spiders.
43:10
And so I saw this property and went, yeah, that looks good.
43:13
And it was just pretty well abandoned.
43:16
And there were tiles piled up. They had dumped some tiles
43:19
there. And I knew straight away that
43:21
they'd be underneath those tiles.
43:23
So if I'm looking for funnel webs, corrugated iron, it's been
43:27
like for a while laying down rocks, tiles, just that kind of
43:32
stuff, pretty undisturbed. Or things like rock walls and
43:37
logs and that kind of thing. You can find them under there.
43:40
Yeah, OK, cool. Because that's kind of like if
43:42
you are wandering around in the Bush and you're sort of seeing
43:45
some of these areas, then you would be cautious about, I
43:49
presume anybody would be cautious lifting up a piece of
43:52
corrugated iron in Australia. You should be cautious
43:54
regardless of where you are. But yeah, that's just good to
43:58
know kind of what you're looking out for and how to check for
44:01
those signs and things. Especially because you say they
44:03
are very localized to the Sydney area, aren't they?
44:07
Because that's why they do. They call them the Sydney Final
44:10
web or. Yeah, so there's there's a bunch
44:13
of different species like 40 also different species of funnel
44:16
web spider predominantly on the East Coast of Australia.
44:20
Some are arboreal so they can live in trees.
44:23
But the Sydney funnel web itself, which is 8 tracks
44:26
robustus, they're the ones we milk here at the park because
44:29
they are responsible for the most human fatalities prior to
44:31
the invention of the anti venom. So yeah they are the Sydney
44:36
funnel web. Recently, actually, they found
44:39
they broke down the Sydney Funnel web into three separate
44:42
groups. But but yeah, they're they're
44:45
pretty localized to the scenario.
44:46
OK, cool. Because I mean, that's something
44:49
also to be aware of is what species are more localized to
44:53
you and what you're more likely to come across if you're out
44:56
there in the wild. And you said a lot of the people
45:01
bring them in. Is that something that the
45:03
public do? They say, hey, look, we found
45:06
one, can you come and take it away from our house or something
45:08
like that? How often does that happen?
45:11
Yeah. So a huge part of our program
45:14
here, we actually encourage public donations.
45:18
So from Newcastle all the way down to Sydney, we've got a
45:21
bunch of different drop off locations which you can find on
45:24
our website. And so if you happen to come
45:26
across one of those spiders, like I mean, you've got a couple
45:28
of options. You can kill it and then no one
45:30
wins. You can catch it and release it
45:33
somewhere else, which is, you know, preferable and or
45:36
alternatively, you can catch it, bring it into the park.
45:41
You win because it's not in your backyard or your house or you,
45:43
you know, shoe anymore. And then we can milk it here and
45:46
create anti venom. And if you're finding them in
45:48
your backyard, then, you know, you never know, you or a loved
45:51
one might need that anti venom one day.
45:53
So yeah, we do encourage people to catch the spiders.
45:58
They're really safe to catch, granted you follow the
46:01
instructions and most importantly, just don't touch
46:06
the spider. They'll walk into a jar.
46:08
You can encourage it with a long handled spoon, something like
46:11
that. Securely put the lid on, take it
46:13
to a drop off location or to here at the park and then you've
46:16
done your bit in helping save lives.
46:17
Yeah, I think that's a really cool point because there's
46:20
probably quite a few people that would find them and then
46:23
instantly think to just get rid of it in probably and not very
46:28
nice way. What are some of the questions
46:30
that you get asked the most about spiders and what should we
46:34
be asking more? All right, what do I get?
46:39
Most probably more along the lines of, like, being scared of
46:44
them and that kind of thing. Yeah.
46:47
People are always asking about are they scary?
46:50
You know, why am I scared of them?
46:52
Have I been bitten? That's a frequently asked
46:54
question, but yeah, it's it's probably more around the context
47:00
of working with them that I get questioned.
47:02
Like OK, because everyone's SO adverts to it.
47:05
Yeah, that's true. That's so true.
47:07
And just to get the answer to that question, have you ever
47:10
been bitten? No, I have not been bitten
47:15
again. It's super duper safe, granted
47:17
that you keep your hands away from the body bits.
47:20
Yeah, yeah, yeah. True.
47:22
And what does it take to become someone who wants to work with
47:26
these creatures? Because if you are one of those
47:30
amazing people that does not get scared of spiders and is really
47:35
fascinating and finds this work really intriguing, what are some
47:39
ways that they can get involved with this?
47:41
I know your pathway took you down a slightly unconventional
47:44
way through working in the ocean world, but how would someone
47:49
dive into reptiles and spiders and things like that if they're
47:52
interested in that? I look with anything in the zoo
47:58
world, volunteering is massive. So if you've got a local, you
48:05
know, animal shelter or anything like that, volunteer with them.
48:09
Reptiles, you know, they're good in the sense that you can have
48:12
your own collections at home so you can start perfecting your
48:14
skills and your experience and everything with these animals at
48:17
home. Read, study, observe nature, get
48:22
out involved in it. And yeah, make yourself be known
48:26
without being annoying to like the local zoos and facilities
48:31
and things like that. Because, you know, when I was
48:32
little, like I wasn't old enough to work, but I used to write
48:34
letters to all the pet shops and all these things saying can I
48:37
please work there? And you know, you never hear
48:38
back. But yeah, you do.
48:40
You get in contact. Not when you're like 7 asking
48:42
for a job, but when when you, you know, I volunteered from
48:46
when I was 12. And as far as reptiles and
48:52
spiders and everything like that, it actually is becoming a
48:56
pretty well accepted hobby. And so yeah, just self educate,
49:05
get involved. There's herpetology in like
49:08
groups and societies. And same with the spiders.
49:12
And yeah, just if you want to do something, do it.
49:16
Like the amount of people who, when I said I did marine
49:19
biology, they're like, I wanted to do that when I was younger.
49:21
And I'm like, well, why didn't? You.
49:22
Yeah. Why didn't you?
49:23
Exactly right. Yeah, like it's you'd go to
49:26
university, you get your degree, you do your job.
49:29
It's like teachers and nurses, you get trained in the field and
49:33
then you get a job in it. So, you know, and my parents
49:35
were definitely the kind of people who'd be like, OK, well,
49:38
like whatever you want to do will encourage it and work
49:43
bloody hard because I did. Yeah, good on you.
49:45
And I think that's a testament to to what you're doing and to
49:49
how hard you have worked in that in in that endeavour.
49:54
I'll tell you a little story. I met this young fella called
49:58
Josiah at a garden fair this weekend and he had a little
50:02
reptile show that he was doing at this this event and he had a
50:08
couple of snakes there. And he told me that from a very
50:12
young age, very similar to what you're highlighting here, is
50:16
that you can get involved doing it at home now.
50:19
He got himself a little stinton. Python or stinton.
50:25
Python. Yes, that's one.
50:27
And so he got himself one of those, and I vaguely remember
50:31
him saying something along the lines of needing a license of
50:35
some sort to be able to either hold them or keep them as pets
50:39
and then to be able to then educate, right?
50:42
I'm not sure what point the license came in, but it was
50:45
really interesting, like you say, that you are able to then
50:48
go and have these creatures as pets.
50:52
And what's your take on someone wanting a spider as a pet?
50:58
And what spiders would people or have people got as pets?
51:04
So it's a funny thing, as you mentioned before, with the
51:08
licensing in NSW, you need to get your wildlife handlers
51:15
license or you know, your reptile license.
51:17
It used to be, I think amphibian and reptile keepers license and
51:22
that there's got different classifications.
51:24
So you could have your level 1, which is those entry level
51:27
animals, your blue tongue, your Simpsons, pythons, things like
51:30
that. And then you go up to the higher
51:32
levels and then that exhibiting license, that's when you can go
51:35
out and take your collection out and show and educate and
51:38
everything like that. With the spiders in NSW, in some
51:44
other areas you do need permit for certain species, but as far
51:48
as spiders and invertebrates, they don't have many like ethics
51:56
and rules surrounding them. So because they're an
52:00
invertebrate you can go and catch 1 and keep it as a pet and
52:05
that's not illegal. Ethically though, it's probably
52:09
not the right thing to do. And that's when having them as
52:12
pets comes into it. And that's where I just can't
52:16
express enough to have reputable sources for your animals.
52:22
So mini beasts are amazing. They're up in Queensland and
52:28
they will breed those animals. And you know you're going to get
52:32
an animal that is mite free, parasite free, healthy, not
52:37
plucked from the wild. Because then that contradicts
52:40
what was saying before about their roles in the ecosystem.
52:42
And it's not right to go and you wouldn't go and catch an echidna
52:47
or a kangaroo and just be like that's fine.
52:49
And I'm going to keep it. Now as a pet, you get in heap of
52:53
trouble for it too. But with the spider you can get
52:55
away with it. So as far as keeping them as
52:57
pets, I like number one source ethically captive bred animals.
53:02
And as far as the species to have it would come down to your
53:08
individual interests. People do and can keep venomous
53:13
spiders as pets. I wouldn't like, I don't know,
53:20
it's like everyone rehomes a Guinea pig that bite.
53:22
So why would you go and get a venomous spider?
53:25
You know what I mean? Like, I, I yeah.
53:29
And that's some people. Some people do that.
53:30
And that's no judgement, but you know, you can get your jumping
53:34
spiders and things like that and they're fun and they're
53:36
inquisitive and they're they're cute to watch.
53:40
The Peacock jumping spiders are exquisite, but tiny.
53:44
So they're really hard to see. And then you can have your
53:47
tarantulas and you can know they're semi social tarantulas.
53:50
So you could have like a little colony of them or your
53:53
individual like solitary spiders and that kind of thing.
53:57
But yeah, as far as keeping inverts, it's granted they're
54:02
not exotic. There's there's so many options
54:05
and it is something that is becoming more popular.
54:09
Yeah, cool. Well, I'm, I'm glad you
54:11
highlighted that because my first thought was similar to
54:16
what you said about keeping a poisonous spider.
54:18
You know, you don't want to come home and find an empty cage and
54:22
not know where it is. But aside from that, trying to
54:27
protect the ones that are in our ecosystem and not just go and
54:32
pick one up and take it home. So if you are looking at keeping
54:36
some sort of spider, yeah, look for one that's a reputable brand
54:43
or reputable source I should say.
54:46
And you can go and find these guys that and presumably they've
54:49
got lots of knowledge they can help you with and set you up
54:52
with. And then also probably a good
54:54
port of call if anything does happen or goes wrong or someone
54:58
you want to find some more information about looking after
55:01
these guys as well. Yeah.
55:05
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think like The thing is,
55:06
is with, with reptiles, they require, you know, heating and
55:11
lighting and all of these things.
55:13
You, you don't just, you know, you have a cat and you Chuck it
55:16
in your house and it lives in your house and, and your house
55:18
is fine for it. Whereas with reptiles, you
55:21
create this micro habitat. You create, you're not just
55:24
having a animal, you run its environment.
55:27
And if you have the wrong conditions, it's not going to
55:31
thrive and potentially not survive.
55:33
The spiders are so sensitive and things like the fact that, you
55:38
know, we've got lungs, they don't have lungs, they've got
55:41
book lungs. So they need moisture in the air
55:42
to be able to breathe. So if your enclosure is dry,
55:45
your spider's not going to survive to be able to move.
55:47
They don't actually like use muscles like we do to move.
55:51
It's like a hydraulic pressure. So they need to be hydrated to
55:54
be able to move around. So your conditions for your
55:58
spider need to suit your spider or your spider will.
56:03
Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's such an important
56:05
point. Look, can you just tell me just
56:08
to kind of wrap up, what's some of the, the favorite parts about
56:11
your job that you absolutely love to do and what's on the
56:16
horizon for you and the Reptile Park or either raw in terms of
56:21
like looking into the future, what's, what's things that are
56:24
prevalent for you at the moment? All right, what do I love about
56:28
my job? I think as a mum first and
56:31
foremost, like it is amazing to think that we've saved people's
56:36
lives. So anyone's, you know, child or,
56:40
you know, mum or brother or sister or, you know, friend that
56:43
is bitten by a funnel web spider since 1981 has not died because
56:48
of us and what we do at the park.
56:50
So good like that. That is so cool.
56:55
To know that my bizarre little job in my bizarre little room
56:59
that everyone goes actually saves lives and we're the only
57:04
people that do it. That is huge.
57:06
And to know that if, yeah, my daughter, you know, was bitten,
57:13
she would survive is everything. I like the fact that, you know,
57:20
it's kind of got a bit of a stereotype and I don't think I
57:23
fit that per SE as far as the spider keepers concerns, you
57:27
know, when people ask what you do for a job, they don't expect
57:29
me to say I work with the world's most venomous spider.
57:34
So that's fun. That shocks people and it is
57:38
really interesting. They're they're super
57:40
fascinating. And I feel like I know nothing
57:44
because I, you know, I'm not new new to it, but I'm pretty new to
57:49
it. Like I said, I did marine
57:50
biology, I work as seals, I study training and everything
57:53
like that. And the spiders, I just feel
57:56
like I'm like tip the iceberg. Like there's so much that I can
57:59
and will learn. So any question where am I going
58:07
in with the park? I would just like to just
58:12
continue to like do better. You know, how like when you look
58:16
at olden day zoos and things like that, the enclosures were
58:19
nothing because people didn't give the animals enough credit
58:22
to understand that like, you know, that theory of their being
58:25
and everything like that. So I just want to see the whole
58:28
industry, like, you know, enclosures, everything just get
58:32
better for the animals and that's really fun.
58:36
And then as far as the park's concerned and spiders here,
58:40
yeah, we really want to nail this funnel web spider breeding.
58:43
So then we don't have to get the spiders from the wild because,
58:48
you know, that's got to have an effect on the wild populations
58:50
of the spiders. Although I'm sure everyone's
58:52
pretty happy to see a rapid decline in front of the spider
58:54
numbers. But yeah, I want a nail breeding
58:57
because it is so hard. Yeah, I imagine, I imagine.
59:02
But look, Emma, I think this is a really cool opportunity to
59:06
highlight what you do and to kind of like, I guess, you know,
59:10
I'm grateful for the fact that there's people out there doing
59:12
what you do, putting, you know, yourself on the line working
59:17
with venomous creatures. I know you say it is safe when
59:19
you do it properly, but essentially you're working with
59:22
the most venomous spiders, as you say.
59:24
So that's amazing that we've got these people doing these special
59:28
jobs that can help that. And I think it's a wonderful
59:31
thing that you have been saved some lives and kind of raise
59:34
some awareness about some of these creatures and why we
59:36
shouldn't be so scared. But also to appreciate that,
59:40
yes, they can be harmful to us if we don't treat them the right
59:44
way. And how we can then go about
59:46
looking after ourselves if that does happen.
59:49
So yeah, I'm, I'm really grateful to you to spend the
59:51
time to share some of this, share some of your passion and,
59:54
and this kind of thing. Is there a place we can find you
59:57
if people want to go and follow you and keep up with your
1:00:01
journey I presume? Like I found you on Instagram
1:00:04
and I know the Reptile Park has Instagram and socials as well.
1:00:08
Where are some places that you'd like to direct people to come
1:00:10
and find out more? Yeah, absolutely.
1:00:14
So obviously our Reptile Park website is a good place to start
1:00:20
if we're wanting to, you know, find out about spiders, first
1:00:22
aid, anti venom, everything like that.
1:00:25
They're socials St. in Reptile Park.
1:00:28
I think that's just it for Instagram.
1:00:30
And then I do have my page now, which is Emmettini under score
1:00:34
spiders, where I can share all my weird quirky things that I
1:00:39
get to do. Yeah.
1:00:58
And then we have it, ladies and gentlemen.
1:01:00
What a crazy conversation. I know myself I find it a little
1:01:03
bit uncomfortable talking about spiders and dealing with spiders
1:01:08
in general, but people like Emma are doing incredible work to
1:01:11
help save so many lives when it comes to lethal spider bites.
1:01:16
And even just to understand the fascination of how these
1:01:19
creatures are and how they work. And to try and conserve some of
1:01:24
our thoughts and feelings towards these guys and, and try
1:01:27
and protect them out in our wildlife areas because they do
1:01:31
so, so much for our ecosystems and they are an integral part
1:01:35
just like so many of the other amazing wildlife we see out
1:01:39
there. So something to be highlighted,
1:01:41
something to be spoken about. And I'm really grateful to Emma
1:01:44
and her team at the Reptile Park for giving us the time for her
1:01:47
to come and speak to us and share her knowledge today.
1:01:50
So once again, go and check out her links, both to her personal
1:01:55
page and the Reptile Park as well.
1:01:57
They will be in the links, in the description and the show
1:01:59
notes. And please, if you found value
1:02:02
in the podcast, remember it is so valuable to me and to
1:02:06
everybody else who can find this podcast.
1:02:08
If you leave a review, five stars is always preferable.
1:02:13
But obviously anything that you can add that's valuable feedback
1:02:16
can help me to better this show every single time and try and
1:02:21
make it more accessible to more people.
1:02:23
Now again, last thing is the intermediate organic growers
1:02:27
guide. Don't forget I've got a
1:02:28
beginners one that is out for free.
1:02:30
You can go and get that if you want to get started growing
1:02:32
organically, thinking about living soil and keeping our
1:02:35
healthy soil for healthy plants and healthy human beings, go and
1:02:39
check that out. It's on the website, link is in
1:02:41
the description. You can also now get the
1:02:43
upgraded intermediate version, which goes a little bit more in
1:02:47
depth and allows you to really harness some of those organic
1:02:51
growing techniques for the betterment of your garden.
1:02:56
So that's it for me. Thank you again very much for
1:02:58
listening and very excited. I'll see you again on the next
1:03:01
one. Bye for now.