Do people who live in Australia have to check their boots and shoes for poisonous critters every time they put them on?

As is the case in most countries, those living outside of urban areas have a tendency to check their boots before putting them on. Ants are a major issue, but not so much spiders. Frogs, lizards and field mice are the major culprits who look for somewhere warm and dry to sleep. In Australia, in the outback, shoe racks where available, negate the need to check your boots.

Australia is one of the most urbanised nations on earth. Few people live in the wilds where some critter might crawl into a shoe. Something like in excess of 80% of the Australian population lives in the major cities along the coast, more live in regional centres, towns and hamlets.

Parts of the USA have more dangerous critters than Australia has ever had. For instance: Australian doesn’t have venomous scorpions.

The most innocuous critter in Oz, is what is called in the USA “the black widow spider”. In Australia, we call them “red backs” (the female has a red stripe on her abdomen). In the old days, when toilets were external to the house, people would check under “the dunny seat” to make sure a “red back” hadn’t made themselves at home there. However, the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing made that tradition redundant.

Unlike the USA and other countries, Australia has no native predatory critters. there is no critter in Australia that will hunt you down! However, we do have critters that will defend themselves if you are stupid enough to poke a stick at them.