False Widow Spider

[Venger]

You may have been thinking of Steatoda nobilis NG, furthest north, somewhere around Birmingham. (maps not upto date though I think)

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Venger

You may have been thinking of Steatoda nobilis NG, furthest north, somewhere around Birmingham. (maps not upto date though I think)

the only maps i know of are those used by or derived from the NBN Gateway, like the one that you linked to for the grossa. Anyway these maps are in serious need of upgrading.

[Nick1986]

Steatoda grossa has also been recorded up in Cumbria North West. a woman had to go on life support cuz she had an allergic reaction to the venom. bloomin interesting stuff tho

[dickybird]

have just managed to stop laughing and can only just see my laptop screen through the tears-----how,escarlata, do you kill a spider humanely??

not tell it its going to die any minute?
hide the instrument of death from the afore-mentioned spider?
not keep it bound and gagged for any length of time before dispatch?
not allow it to make any last plea for clemency?
give it a mind-numbing injection before dispatch?
skip the roll of drums?

sorry but the giggles are starting again......

r.i.p. spider


dickybird

[someblokedave]

Hello, my place is running alive with these things, well slight exaggeration we're up to our 3rd one now in a couple of years. I'm in Essex and the last distribution map I saw had me as the only recorded case of these in the county. I'd like to see an updated map and if anyone can post a link that'd be good as I had a look around and couldn't see one.

Our first one was in our garage when I was having a sweep out and I instantly recognised it as being 'Widow-esque' and also simply noted that it wasn't any other spider I'd ever seen. I ended up at some blokes gaff in Grays who was a spider expert and he comfirmed that it was indeed a Steatoda Grossa and he was unusually enthusiastic about me leaving it with him and I did only to discover that the posion that they produce is used in the antidote for the real Widows and sells for 70 quid a millimicrogram. So I then thought maybe he had some way of milking the thing and raking in the 70 quids!!?

A month or so later I then came across another specimen at the back of the same garage and I've left him/her in peace. But in the last month we've had one build a web in our bathroom and we've seen him/her take woodlice! But I kind of like the idea of having a spider in the house that can cause hospitalisation so we're all kind of protective of him. We have loads of Daddy Long Legs in the house as well and I'm of the belief that these boys despite being as scrawny as a size 6 model are killers and one is camped on the opposite side of the bathroom. I've observed too that the Daddy's are not adverse to moving around either and I'm now thinking does the Daddy pose a threat to my somewhat rare Steatoda Grossa? In which case if he does I'll be moving him on - what do your reckon - if there was a punch up between -

A. Steatoda Grossa v Daddy Long legs
B. Steatoda Grossa v House Spider

I added the house spider as there's been a biggun roaming around in the bathroom too when the lights go out. The thing is the SG is in a prime gap that leads to the space under the bath and is perfect house spider real estate.

It seems because of the proliferation of these boys in just my house and garage they must be all over the gaff?

Later......

Just read through the thread and tried the link to the map posted above and it looks broken. The bloke I took the spider to seemed to be of the opinion that they're not common, certainly not in Essex and he said as above that the reason they're on the increase is because of the increasingly warmer winters. Last winter hasn't deterred this one. My expert said he'd log the find with the people that collate the data, but he said that the data was updated on a very adhoc manner.

[LRM]

Steatoda v Daddy - Not sure who the winner will be, I've heard that Daddy could kill Steadoda. Though I've often found them living side by side, inches from each other.

Steatoda v House Spider - Winner Steatoda - I did have a dozen large females and lots of baby's and probaby some males. they ate all my House Spiders. When I realised they weren't running aroung in their usual places anymore and looked under Tumble Dryer, behind Fridge etc I found alot of large spider corpses - (not shed skins), and colonies of Steatoda!

[someblokedave]

Have you reported your spiders to the people that plot their incidences? There's a general sense that they're fairly rare, but it's quite obvious that they're all over the place? With three in my house and garage in the last 2 years, that kind of suggests to me that they're in fact probably quite common?

My Daddy has gone and my Steatoda is still in his gap and web, whether they had a punch up I'm not sure.

[Lunchbox78]

I hope that people are still getting these replies as I know some of the comments on here are quite Old!

Cleaning out my garage in Milton Keynes at the weekend; I found a large number of False Widows and their egg sacks!!

Funny enough; there has been a massive decline in House Spiders in my house of the past couple of years so maybe this has somethign to do with it.

I have pictures but need to re-size; I will add when I have done so.

Horrible but fascinating.

[someblokedave]

Yeah - get them on here it'll be interesting to see them, if you search Steatoda Grossa using image searches you get a real array of different looking spiders that don't have that classic 'Black Widow' look. Mine are the very dark chocolate brown types, with a very small light patch on the abdomen and look identical to black widows or at least the classic example of a black widow. The also sit in their web hanging upside down rather than sitting on top and the web tends to be one of the messy webs where the strands are attached vertically anchored at the top and bottom, they may be referred to as 'Cats cradle webs'?

[Lunchbox78]

Here you go; this was one of many that I found crawling about my garage in Milton Keynes!! Creeps the hell out of me every time I have to go in there now!!