A snake or a funnel-web in the garden
A snake is moved by a catcher on the state's reptile handler list, never by a neighbour with a shovel. The Australian Museum describes two funnel-webs whose ranges bear on the Shire: the Georges River is where the Sydney funnel-web's main range ends, and the Australian Museum records a second species whose range lies mainly to the south and west of Sydney.
A snake in the garden
NSW's own advice is short: if a snake is found in a home or a garden and the householder wants it removed, the next call is to the nearest snake catcher on the reptile handler list. That list exists because catching reptiles is licensed work in this state. The environment department may issue a licence to suitably qualified people to catch and release reptiles.
The rest is about timing and distance. Snakes shed their skin between one and 4 times a year. In cold areas of the state they hibernate through winter, and in cold weather they are less active and hunt less. In the bush, the department's instruction is simply to walk calmly the other way. A garden at the edge of a reserve is Shire ground, and none of the steps above involve handling the snake.
The funnel-web, and where it stops
The Australian Museum records the Sydney funnel-web's main range as running from the Central Coast down to the Georges River, and reaching west as far as Baulkham Hills near the southern end of that distribution. For a reader in the Sutherland Shire, south of the river, that is the edge of the main range, not a line the spider never crosses: the museum also notes records from the Blue Mountains and from Wollongong.
What the animal does is worth knowing because it explains the sightings that do happen. Sydney funnel-webs are shiny and dark brown to black, with finger-like spinnerets at the end of the abdomen. Males carry a large mating spur on the middle of the second pair of legs, and they leave their burrows to wander for mates, mostly over summer and autumn. That wandering is why males turn up in backyards and fall into suburban swimming pools, surviving there for many hours, and why they sometimes enter houses and become trapped inside.
Their home ground is the bush edge. The spiders live in silk-lined burrows in sheltered places under logs and rocks, where the climate stays cool and humid, and they wait inside the burrow for prey to cross the silken trip-lines set around the entrance. Other spiders are often taken for funnel-webs, among them mouse spiders, trapdoor spiders and black house spiders. The museum also records that there have been no fatalities since antivenom was introduced.
Two species, side by side
The Australian Museum keeps a page for each of them, and the two pages answer the question a Shire reader is really asking: which one is this, and does the river decide it. The museum's Sydney funnel-web page already looks across to the second species, noting that it cannot easily be told apart by eye. What follows is drawn from the two pages themselves.
| The museum's two pages | Sydney funnel-web (Atrax robustus) | Southern Sydney funnel-web (Atrax montanus) |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is recorded | Main range runs south from the Central Coast to the Georges River, west to Baulkham Hills | South from the Watagans to Bowral, and west as far as the upper Blue Mountains, overlapping the first species, mainly south and west of Sydney |
| What it looks like | Shiny, dark brown to black, with finger-like spinnerets; males carry a large mating spur on the second pair of legs | Shiny, dark brown to black, with finger-like spinnerets and the same mating spur on the male's second pair of legs, and not easily separated from the Sydney funnel-web by eye. Both species rear up and display their fangs if threatened |
| Where it lives | Silk-lined burrows under logs and rocks, in a cool and humid climate | May need more moisture and shade, and is often found under rocks or logs in or near rainforest gullies |
| When it moves | Males wander mostly over summer and autumn, into backyards, pools and houses | The museum records the same habit for this species too: males wander into backyards, fall into suburban pools where they can survive many hours, and sometimes become trapped in houses |
None of that changes what a reader should do: for a suspected funnel-web bite of either species, the page to follow is the official one, linked below. A spider is also the last thing to try to name by hand: the museum's own pages, read before an animal is seen rather than after, are the place to compare what was found.
Ticks, the third thing a bush-edge garden brings
Ticks are parasites that feed on animal and human blood, and NSW Health records that they occur in humid, moist, bushy areas. A garden facing a reserve is that kind of ground. As with a bite from anything else on this page, the first aid is the official page's and not this guide's: the NSW Health ticks page carries the state's own advice, and the NSW Poisons Information Centre's tick bites page carries first aid for a tick bite.
First aid, in one line each
No first aid is written out in this guide. For a suspected funnel-web bite, or any spider bite that might be one, the page to follow is the NSW Poisons Information Centre's spider bites page, which is the official first-aid page. For a snake bite, it is the centre's snake bites page. For a tick bite, it is the centre's tick bites page.
If a snake, a spider or a tick needs to be identified later, the animal itself is the last thing to touch; the museum's identification pages are linked at the foot of this guide and are the ones to compare a photograph against.