Deadly Down Under!

[PheonixKingZ]

I just saw a documentary on “Australia’s Deadliest” And It was very interesting!

This wasp I saw on the TV is nasty.

Here are some quick facts about it.....

A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis. They are one of the largest parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living prey.

(A direct quote From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk )

@Colin_T, have you ever seen one of these? I know that you live in Perth (Australia) so I was wondering if you have ever seen one!

Not fish related, but still super cool!

 

[Colin_T]

I don't think we have true tarantulas in Australia. There might be the bird eating spider from Queensland but most spiders here are small and bitey

We do have a heap of different wasps that catch spiders and other insects and impregnate them with an egg before dragging the paralysed body into a den and sealing it up. The egg hatches inside the bug and eats it from the inside out.

Unfortunately lots of insects are being poisoned here because people use ant powders to kill ants. The powders also kill every other insect including bees and wasps. There are 5 passionfruit vines on the fence and there were several hundred flowers, but none were fertilised this year. No bees left in the area

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Aww...that’s sad...

Honeybees are endangered in the USA, they are super helpful, but they are getting more and more extinct.

 

[Back in the fold]

There are a lot of deadly animals, insects and reptiles in Australia. I saw a show on TV about it once. I don't never want to go there. Not that I could afford to anyway so I'm not really saying anything there. They have a snake that can kill anything.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

The Small Scaled Brown Snake? It lives in Australia, and is one of the deadliest snakes in the world!

 

[FishFinatic77]

Aww...that’s sad...

Honeybees are endangered in the USA, they are super helpful, but they are getting more and more extinct.

Yeah, it's really sad. I always leave the flowers on my lawn and let the grass grow longer for the bees. My neighbors hate it but I have lots of honey bees in my garden!

 

[Colin_T]

They have a snake that can kill anything.

We have more than one type of snake that can kill everything
We have Tiger Snakes and Dugites where I live and both are venomous but pretty harmless coz they don't normally attack you. Up north a little bit and inland are brown snakes (related to dugites) and they can kill you but are normally not interested in associating with people. If you go into the desert or over east you get different types of Taipan and they are just nasty and attack anything that moves or gives off a heat trail, and they bite repeatedly and inject heaps of venom. They are the most dangerous snakes here. But we have rabbits that attack and kill Taipans, so which is more dangerous

We also have lots of other things to kill you including spiders, 8 foot kangaroos, drop bears, giant ants that jump on you as you walk past, sharks, box jellyfish, chocodiles, big ass goannas that have hundreds of different types of flesh eating bacteria in their mouths and if you get bitten, you die from infection. And the most dangerous animals here drive cars and use cell phones.

 

[FishFinatic77]

Yes, I agree. Humans certainly are the most dangerous animals.