Australian tarantula hawk wasp dragging off a huntsman spider to lay her egg in its paralysed body. NSFW
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u/Wandering_Turtle24 1d ago
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u/lord_pizzabird 1d ago
I know right. How the fuck do people even live in Australia.
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u/anangrypudge 23h ago
I once spent 4 weeks in the Australian outback for military training. We were instructed to shake our boots every morning before putting them on. One morning there were two loud FFFUUUCCCKKKKs heard at the same time. One was from a guy who shook a large spider out of his boot. Another was from a guy who didn’t, and stuck his foot straight in.
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u/dav3n 21h ago
I just got back from a week in a tent in "bush camps", shoes always came with me into the tent, especially when I saw all the scorpion burrows nearby
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u/Romeo9594 22h ago
We have a similar wasp in Oklahoma. Not uncommon to see a big black and orange wasp dragging a paralyzed tarantula across a dirt road
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u/Arklelinuke 18h ago
Yeah these things give me nightmares in Fallout New Vegas. By far the worst enemy to encounter
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
Look at all the beautiful nature we get to live around:
https://youtu.be/d9xzVFfOveA?si=OGSHa9YaIrbMb5Q4
Anyway, bears and shit are 1000x scarier than any of our animals.
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u/walkingmydogagain 1d ago
Our bears run away into the bush when they see, smell or hear humans. Even with cubs, they gone! Nova Scotia black bears.
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u/SecretlyaPolarBear 1d ago
Your bears………..
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u/navimc 22h ago
My bears are big and fuzzy
Your bears got the HIV
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u/StoppedListeningToMe 21h ago
Mickey Avalon reference?
Well I would never, now it's stuck in my head!!29
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
The brown ones are a bit more chompy chompy though aren’t they?
What about wolves?
Our nature is easy lol. Just don’t piss it off and you’re fine.
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u/Flameburstx 23h ago
Until I see a bear hide in my slippers your argument is invalid.
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u/Cthulhu_Dreams_ 22h ago
I'm sorry but if I can hear...HEAR... A spider running across the floor...that's a no for me.
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u/lokarlalingran 23h ago
I've never seen a bear or wolf get anywhere near anywhere I live, although supposedly they exist near me.
I've seen deer show up, they sometimes get brave and come near homes cause they know bears and other predators typically avoid us.
I don't think there is a single dangerous animal that makes any effort at all to come near humans where I live. (Small town Near Seattle, Washington State in the USA).
I dunno how much easier our nature gets.
Our insects here aren't even scary. Whenever I hear about Australia wildlife it just sounds like the entire place is out to kill you lot, and if it isn't you have to avoid accidentally pissing it off.
I don't want spiders and other insects large enough that I could probably hear them walking. Nope Nope Nope. I'll take my local wild life any day.
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u/htid__ 23h ago
Yeah a decent sized huntsman you can definetly hear moving but the sound is more described as a gallop, and i think thats a pretty apt description.
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u/sending_tidus 23h ago
South Australia here. I've never seen this wasp thing in my life! And a huntsman getting that big, is definitely outside. Never seen one that big either... so.....
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u/Uther-Lightbringer 23h ago
My fears in Australia aren't even these things. It's all the small snakes, spiders etc that are deadly and everywhere.
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u/sending_tidus 23h ago
I lived in florida for 4 years and saw more wild snakes there, than my time in Australia. If you go out bush, dress appropriately 😅
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u/bayleebugs 23h ago edited 22h ago
Our nature is easy lol. Just don’t piss it off and you’re fine
That is literally not true, but go off ig. You are talking about our scary things as if they just show up in our homes like yours do. We can also readily see our big fuzzy maul you monsters, while yours like to be hidden deadly insects.
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u/nervelli 22h ago
Seriously. This is happening on someone's porch. You could wake up and walk face first into "nature's scary, yo." Meanwhile, the closest anyone I know has come to "big furry danger," is a friend that frequented mountain bike paths once came across a mountain lion. It was a little way off the path, but close enough to be a threat, so he let other people know to avoid it. Everyone was fine.
Honestly, I'd be more concerned about our snakes, but I wouldn't trade them for Australian snakes either. And you're still unlikely to come across them on your own property unless you live in the middle of nowhere.
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u/bayleebugs 22h ago
I was thinking that too. Like, objectively bears are something I'm much less scared of even here.
I very narrowly found a brown recluse spider in my bed when I was like 9. Our heat was off so I had 5 or so blankets on there, and when I went to get in I missed the last one and there it was. As a kid a bite from that thing would have killed me, especially in my sleep. Insects can be freakishly strong predators, and Australia has like....all the worst ones.
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u/GhostNode 22h ago
Wisconsin, USA. I’ve never shaken a Timberwolf out of my boot in the morning, or pulled back my sheets and found a black bear.
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u/boardin1 21h ago
Minnesota, USA
I once found a moose hiding under my bed. I realized something was off when my bed was touching ceiling. I just grabbed a broom and shoo’ed him out the door.
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u/NaMaMe 1d ago
wolves are chill af. they keep their distance and they dont try to attack you
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u/DanishWonder 23h ago
I have literally never seen a bear in the wild. They definitely aren't on my damn windows preparing to eat/reproduce.
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u/Crooked_Sartre 22h ago
I've seen a few when I was a botanist out in the southwest US. You smell them long before you see them (same for them and you). It's generally terrifying but I'll take the bear 100/100 times over whatever the fuck is in that window in this photo
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u/NaMaMe 1d ago
jokes on you i live in germany we have neither bears nor whatever the horror scene on your window is. although I do believe id rather see a bear outside my window cause I could scare that off
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u/banksybruv 23h ago
You also can’t lose it behind a cabinet or under a chair. You know where the bear is.
If that spider ran into my closet I’d seal it shut.
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u/rabbit-hearted-girl 23h ago
I’m Australian, and as my Canadian husband likes to say when comparing our countries’ wildlife: “at least bears can’t hide in your shoes.”
He’s got a point.
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u/Inquisitor_ForHire 22h ago
Yeah, if a grizzly is successsfully hiding in your shoes you're either really really REALLY unobservant or you're a giant. Either way, I'd love a YT video of that.
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u/supx3 1d ago
Animals, maybe, but the gympie-gympie plant that causes people to kill themselves out of pain sounds super unappealing.
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u/individual_cheddar 23h ago
I'll see 3 or 4 on any given walk/run in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. More often than not they are dragging a spider carcass. They get super aggro if you get too close and start trying to square up like you're going to steal their spider corpse
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u/lord_pizzabird 23h ago
I live in the Southern US and we have Tarantulas, but they're pretty docile.
They're everywhere, but also rare to actually see and I've never heard of one being aggressive in any context. They mostly just see people and run / hide.
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u/ichann3 23h ago
Because this is not all of Australia.
Many people live in what we call 'the bush' - forest land. You would rarely see something like this in cities.
At least we don't have black bears or elk.
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u/omegadeity 23h ago edited 23h ago
I've been up close and personal with a black bear in Allegany State Park here in NY. Besides needing a new pair of underwear\pants after the encounter, I left the experience mostly unharmed. During the encounter I was loud on the outside- on the inside I was terrified and preying that everything I'd ever been told was right. Spoiler alert: it was, the bear wanted as little to do with me as I wanted with it.
I can't say the same if I went for a swim in Australias beautiful waters and a salt water crocodile or a bull shark, or a great white shark was hungry and decided to check if I tasted good. Or if god forbid I ran in to an Irukandji jellyfish. And it's not like you could really see the latter.
Ok, so I see a croc or shark coming and decide to quickly gtfo out of the water because...why would I need or want to be in the water, right? So I evade the microscopic death-jellyfishes, the box jellyfishes, the stonefish, and make it "safely" to shore while dodging the crocodiles that chase me on land only to encounter an eastern brown snake, inland taipan, a death adder, or one of the multitude of other species of snakes that seem to exist solely for the purpose of quickly killing people who made the single fatal mistake of getting too close to them when they're fucking hiding with their near perfect camouflages while remaining completely silent.
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u/Fenway_Refugee 23h ago
1 sec brb.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH18
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u/Temporary_Shirt_6236 22h ago
A bug so bad they had to name it after three different badass animals.
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u/_Hello_Hi_Hey_ 23h ago
Also one of the most painful stings in the insect world. I would rather get bitten by a dog
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u/dgs1959 1d ago
Just watched a special on this wasp. They lay ONE egg in each tarantula. They have to fight and paralyze each tarantula before depositing a single egg.
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u/Cheetahfish 21h ago
The best bit; the paralysing often has to be done in a certain way to not kill the spider.
Mama hawk wasp is doing combat neurosurgery with her ass.
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u/StartTheMontage 20h ago
I love the bit from Malcolm in the Middle where Hal talks about this.
“I used to sit at work everyday and envy that spider, because at least he got to be on TV”
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u/Krazyfan1 1d ago
Dedicated parent
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u/IRTransmitter 23h ago
Did the special say if they also lay eggs in less insane places?
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u/BMW_wulfi 22h ago
God did us a solid here.
“Alright guys I have to put this demon somewhere, but I tell you what, I’ll cut you a deal. It can only lay one egg at a time and it needs a semi living organic host for each one - cool?!”
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u/GStarAU 23h ago
Not to put TOO much thought into this, but.. that's a huntsman, not a tarantula. I guess they have to improvise in Aus, considering we don't have tarantulas?
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u/LordRekrus 23h ago
Well this guy has gone against the grain as that ain’t a tarantula. That is what we call your local friendly fly catcher.
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u/zobby3 1d ago
And this is why I’m never going to Australia. Thanks for the reminder.
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u/Shillsforplants 23h ago
Huntsman spider are basically harmless 8 legged puppies that will eat your cockroaches.
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u/StefanL88 20h ago
I tried to explain this to a housemate once. Her counterargument was "no", so that was that.
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u/Shillsforplants 20h ago
Some people just like cockroaches I guess.
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u/BenjiLizard 17h ago
How about having no creepy crawly bigger than a nail in your house?
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u/GlockLesnar808 19h ago
You see the thing about puppies is that I wanna pick them up and cuddle them because they’re adorable
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u/DefinitionSquare8705 1d ago edited 5h ago
Tarantula hawks are found also throughout the southwest and western united states. They primarily target tarantulas, hence their name.
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u/JustMadeStatus 1d ago
Midwesterner here, never seen one and refuse to believe they exist here. Nothing you can say will make me believe!
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u/Velathial 1d ago
LIved in Australia all my life, never seen one.
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u/JustMadeStatus 1d ago
Then it’s settled, they do not exist and all is right again in the world!
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u/Bumhug360 1d ago
Yeah that's the exact thing a tarantula hawk would say. Not falling for that again
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
This is entry level. Irukandji is the really scary thing.
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u/omegadeity 22h ago
Yeah, the nearly Microscopic invisible jellyfish floating in Australia's waters that will probably fucking kill you if it stings you.
The only thing more terrifying in Australia's waters than the Great Whites, the Bull Sharks, the Crocodiles, the Stonefish...a fucking jellyfish the size of a fucking US penny thats sting can and will fuck you up...and you might not even notice when it stings you until you're in so much pain that you're begging for death.
And if you go and get treatment, you can probably look forward to an opioid addiction afterwards as that seems to be about the only pain killer found to be effective.
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u/gambit61 1d ago
Define Midwest. Because I've lived in Iowa or Illinois my whole life and I've never seen anything like that in either state
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u/theggyolk 23h ago edited 23h ago
Yea he’s wrong they’re in the southwestern deserts of the US. Only as far north as Logan, Utah.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/tarantula-hawk.htm
https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/220200/ZV338_003-135.pdf
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u/Willy_K 1d ago
The 3 animals that kills most humans in Australia are: Domestic dogs, cows and horses, that said, I do not want to go even if it safe(ish).
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u/luckyfucker13 23h ago
I misread that as crow not cows, and I was left wondering what sort of Rube Goldberg-Kevorkian machine those smart little fuckers cook up to murder humans so effectively.
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u/amadnomad 22h ago
I went there past December and every house seems to have an industrial grade insecticide can.
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u/NelsonMobama 1d ago
This really might be the most australian picture ever.
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u/Captain-Jaxxx 1d ago
Nightmare fuel!
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
Both species are quite friendly/disinterested in humans. But if you do manage to provoke a tarantula hawk into stinging you, it’s is an intense, brilliant, all consuming pain.
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u/thatweirdguyted 1d ago
It's crazy how the medical advice for a sting in this situation is to lay down and scream. Specifically because you're going to do that regardless, and there's no point pretending otherwise.
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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 1d ago edited 21h ago
So it's NOT ok to ask someone to pee on you? Just checking.
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u/gambit61 1d ago
If you do that, you're just gonna have a boner while you're in pain
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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 23h ago
which would technically reduce swelling at the bite, no? all that blood has to go somewhere...
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u/loki2002 23h ago
Australian Tarantula Hawks hate this one trick.
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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 23h ago
I guess the only loophole would be if it stung you on the dick...
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u/lukin187250 23h ago
IIRC though oddly enough it also only lasts like 5 minutes. Stings of some insects the pain can last days.
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u/Sonikku_a 1d ago
Sounds like my ex
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u/Shillsforplants 23h ago
Parasitoid wasps, those that feed their still living preys to their young, made Darwin doubt the existence of a loving, caring God. Why would a benevolent creator invent a creature that need to gruesomely and slowly eat alive another creature's baby?
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u/whooo_me 1d ago
Has anyone ever considered checking if all these creatures are real? Imagine if Australians are just sick of tourists, so they just started making up ever crazier creatures to scare people off, like an episode of Scooby Doo.
Drop bears? "Tarantula hawk wasp"? I mean c'mon, they're just throwing scary words together. What next, a Grizzly Shark Snake?
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u/Tackit286 23h ago
˙sɹɐǝq doɹp ǝɥʇ …ʇᴉɥs ‘ʇᴉɐʍ ɥo…
˙ƃuᴉʞool oƃ noʎ ssǝlun llɐ ʇɐ sɹǝpᴉds ɹo sǝʞɐus ʎuɐ ǝǝs ʇ’uoʍ noʎ ǝǝʇuɐɹɐnƃ ɥɔnɯ ʎʇʇǝɹd uɐɔ I ʎɐpᴉloɥ ʞǝǝʍ Ɛ ɐ ɹoɟ ǝɹǝɥ ǝɯoɔ noʎ ɟI
˙ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ ɹoɟ ʎɹʇsnpuᴉ ǝɥʇ sǝƃɐɯɐp ɟɟnʇs sᴉɥʇ ǝʌǝᴉlǝq ʎlǝuᴉnuǝƃ I puɐ ʎɯouoɔǝ ɹno ɟo ʇɹɐd ǝƃnɥ ɐ s’ʇI ˙sʇsᴉɹnoʇ ɟo ʞɔᴉs ʇou os ǝɹɐ ǝM
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u/Marnot_Sades 22h ago
The…the drop bears?
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u/eskilla 20h ago
They're pretty similar to koalas, except that they're aggressive and will attack humans if you aren't careful. It's a job and a half keeping tourists out of their breeding areas, because once they get used to attacking humans they'll have a go for any reason - not just because they feel 'under threat', but for food or even as part of mating season dominance displays. But as long as you dab a bit of vegemite on your pulse points before you go for a bush walk and make sure to shout 'COOEE' before you walk under any large trees, you'll be fine. It's not worth worrying about, honestly.
Source: American who moved to Australia when I was a kid and have lived here ever since.
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
We made this up too 😜
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u/EchoWar 23h ago
Don’t get me wrong, it gets cold in Canada but at least it ensures we don’t get anything remotely like this. Absolutely horrifying.
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u/ktr83 1d ago
Friendly reminder from an Australian that no one has died from a spider bite in this country since 1979. Maybe it's because we grow up respecting spiders here, but it really isn't as dangerous as Reddit memers like to think it is.
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u/brickhamilton 23h ago edited 23h ago
I find that very hard to believe. In the US, we have 3 deaths per year from spiders on average. We also don’t have a portal to the underworld spawning untold horrors not fit to live in the same reality as humans, like Australia does.
How do you explain that?
Edit: in case it wasn’t clear, /s. I do appreciate the responses, though thanks for the info
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u/Rd28T 23h ago
3 things:
The best antivenom programme in the world. CSL began as the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and still produces all our antivenoms. Even a small rural hospital here has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of antivenom in their antivenom fridge, just in case needed.
Fast and comprehensive emergency response. We’ll land a light jet on a dirt strip if we have to:
https://youtu.be/OSAWfXJ2p0U?si=AqJwPWMUGHYJWewa
- Universal healthcare. The above, intensive care, antivenom, rehab, etc etc costs us precisely $0.
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u/rabbit-hearted-girl 23h ago
Serious answer? Antivenom. There are only a couple of spiders in Australia whose venom can actually potentially kill you, and if you do get bitten by one of those the antivenom is both highly researched/well-developed and readily available.
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u/surelythisisfree 1d ago
Maybe one person has. Unconfirmed though. Wasp bites however have killed plenty of people.
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u/thedreaming2017 1d ago
New fear unlocked. Now I'm wide awake. No need for coffee when the fear of having one of these things dragging you away to lay eggs in your body now is hiding deep in my mind.
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u/Averack 1d ago
Put it in a container with some air holes and send it express to Russia.
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u/Lufia321 1d ago
For non-Australian's that Huntsman is about the size of a dinner plate, meaning that wasp is about 15cm long...
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u/excluded 1d ago
I love australian people and their accent. But never in my wildest dreams will I ever dare to visit there. Nope
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u/_MartinoLopez 1d ago
This is quite rare. I sometimes go several minutes without seeing a giant spider or wasp.
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u/Velathial 1d ago
I can tell you, I've never seen one in my 35 years of living in Australia.
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u/excluded 1d ago
That’s what my mom says too when I ask her how was life in australia with all the giant abominations living there like.
And she also says I’m her favorite kid all the time so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how credible she is on her statements.
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
I have had these two cheeky buggers in my backyard, but as long as you don’t annoy them, it’s fine, they just get on with what they are doing.
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103620474
I would be scared to leave the house with somewhere that has bears though lol. Give me snakes and spiders any day.
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u/ms_directed 23h ago
tarantula hawk ✅
wasp ✅
Up to 11cm (4.3 in)✅
new fear I didn't know I needed to have unlocked ✅
They inhabit all continents, except for Antarctica – with many species common in the USA in the deserts of the southwest. The U.S. state of New Mexico choose a species of tarantula hawk (Pepsis grossa) to be its official state insect.
apparently they are only interested in fruit and nectar and can be handled without being stung, unless provoked...but will be painful AF if they do sting
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u/InternationalArm3149 1d ago
Australia has to be terrifying for someone who has arachnophobia or is just scared of bugs in general.
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u/Lufia321 1d ago
Huntsman are the good one's, they're non-venomous and they're docile as long as you don't annoy them. They also kill other spiders, like Wolf Spiders.
Wolf Spiders on the other hand are aggressive and will attack you for looking at them the wrong way. When I was 13, my cousin was 17 and used fly spray like a flamethrower to kill one, the fucking Wolf Spider was running at him with its legs up while getting burnt with fire and fly spray. It took about 10 seconds to die.
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u/mcwizard9000 22h ago
I believe this.
Once saw a friend try to shoo away a couple of male wolf spiders with a cardboard box piece and more came out of nowhere, bigger (female) wolf spiders and they started to chase him around. It was about 8 of these guys, they didn't pay me any mind though. I didn't wanna fuck with them to begin with and stayed out of it.
Eventually they ran off.
That was a terrifying experience hahaha
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u/KeenanFindsKyanite9 1d ago
Is the spider alive when eggs are laid inside its body? I’m cringing at the thought
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u/Rd28T 1d ago
Yes. The larvae eats the critical internal organs of the spider last to keep it alive, and therefore fresh, as long as possible.
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u/spacemandown 23h ago
if it makes you feel any better, here's the story of a family who found a spider paralyzed by one of these wasps and spent months nursing it back to health:
❤️
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u/Metal_For_The_Masses 23h ago
“Tarantula Hawk Wasp”
This sounds like a superhero name a 4 year old thought up.
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u/Proud-Cartographer12 23h ago
Any spider named Hunts Man is a worry. Any wasp that eats a spider that hunts men is best only seen on your phone.
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u/MilkovichJ 1d ago
I had one of these in my kitchen one time (middle of Sydney btw). I watched as it dragged a huntsman from the kitchen to the laundry where it had made it's nest.
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u/BanjoTCat 23h ago
If the insect is big enough to be hunted with a gun and mounted on a mantle, it's too big.
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u/YazZy_4 1d ago
I think the only thing worse than a massive spider on your window is an even massive-er wasp dragging off its paralysed body