#2 daughter off to Australia in less than 2 weeks :)  All sorts of worries going through my mind but the latest one is that she is going to try and get a job fruit picking.  Now I have an irrational fear of spiders of the harmless kind :rolleyes: but Australian spiders ???  Has anyone got any first hand knowledge of fruit picking in Australia and the precautions, if any, that the fruit growers put in place to protect the pickers from spiders and snakes?

Worried of Hertfordshire

If she's anything like my colleague's daughter, she'll get a job fruit picking, find out that it's extemely hard work, and leave for something a bit less strenuous after a couple of days ;) :D

Yep, my son went off to oz he heard how hard it was working on the land and opted to clean the hostels instead which paid for his lodgings and was easy work, which would suit him down to the ground.

Some one I work with went fruit picking in Australia and said she saw lots of spiders (wolf spider, huntsman spider, redback spider, funnel web) and snakes (brown snake) - but she never got bitten!!!!!  They are part of life over there - I am going over next year to a rural place and am petrified of insects!!!!

OMG I don't know what's more scary.  I was worried enough when she told me that she is going to learn to surf.  I keep trying to rationalise it by thinking that there are more people killed by coconuts every year than by sharks and that there is more chance of getting killed in the car on the way to the airport but today she told me they are going to buy an old car and drive from the Gold Coast to Sydney in it for Christmas.

I wouldnt worry!!!  Not everyone is scared of spiders.  Although I would be more scared of a spider than a shark thats for sure!!!  Ewwwww !!!! 

She is worse than me when it comes to spiders, that's what is so confusing.  I don't want to scare her, I just like to know the realistic risks

Huntsman's are biggish but totally harmless that's all I know!

My dad lives in Mildura, Victoria and that is a big citrus fruit growing area and that employs seasonal staff.  Likewise the vineyards in South Australia & Victoria.

lol I will be very happy if it turns out there isn't any fruit picking where she is going.  Unlikely though isn't it.  With a climate like that I expect there's fruit picking just about most places.  She's going to Brisbane and then travelling down to Sydney (for Christmas), then popping over to NZ and a little holiday in Fiji. 

I don't know, all these years I have been raising kids and then they go off and do all these fabulous things leaving me here envious. :D

I have pm'd you. Caz