False Widow Spiders infesting house

[LRM]

Last year I found a black shiny? spider in bedroom and put it in garden, later I read it was a False widow spider, but not to worry about it. This year I found a larger dull black spider in my father's conservatory, under lip of plant tray. I avoided it. Then I read about FW spiders on internet but it had disappeared. A few weeks ago we were turning out fathers kitchen and found 10 FW Spiders under counter, and 5 empty egg sacs. I cleared out smallest bedroom and found little 9 little ones.

I found about 30 in the conservatory but had to give up cleaning it out, because next door in my bungalow, I found lots of small ones of various ages running around and hiding absolutely everywhere. One dashed out of a folded newspaper and grabbed a large green beetle (which had got in under the door) 10 times bigger than itself. On looking around I found to my horror several large dark females. (They become darker as they get older.)

The experts (unbitten) say the bite is like a wasp sting, but non-experts who have been bitten say the bite is much more painful. - and I will try not to find out personally!

I had noticed that the house spiders had vanished, and a whole colony of Daddy Long leg spiders behind the door vanished but I found 3 young FW's hiding. When I pulled out the washing machine and fridge etc I found alot of corpses of large spiders.

I put one very small spider in a container with 2 ever tinier babies and then put a larger spider which I thought might be a male in and within 2 seconds the small spider attacked the larger 6 times its size over and over again.

I don't care whether other people like them, I am not having these things all over the house/conservatory/garden. I have to check everything before I put my fingers under the lip of a plant tray or trough or put gloves, boots on.

I have started spraying the house with insecticide. So far I have found 10 large females, under the chairs, under my computer table, up under my armchair, as well as behind and under fridge, Washing machine, tumble dryer, plus 50 or so other sizes with the distinctive steatoda markings.

Normally spiders don't bother me unless I find them in bed, lacy web spider or on top of my head (house spider - having hidden in my hat) but these things really give me the creeps, and there are so many of them. I've only found less than 10 of the other spiders and well over a hundred of FW and I've only cleaned 20% of the 2 properties so far.

[Ukwildlifeo]

False widows are very unlikely to bite (as is any spider) and usually, like most animals, only do so when threatened.

Welcome to the forum btw

[naturegirl]

Welcome to WAB!

I am just such a scarey cat when it comes to spider bites etc.

However, these creatures do not want us as their prey (wasted energy and venom!)

These creatures may not really want to live with us but we/they may be forced to do so due to global harmony. I'm not sure exactly where you live in the UK?

I have recently suffered a bout of cellulitis maybe due to a spider bite, who knows........

Naturegirl

[dazultra2000]

I feel your pain LRM.

I too, had an infestation of them back in the Summer and my fiancee was completely freaked out, and after seeing a couple of the biggest females I'd ever seen, I wasn't exactly comfortable either. I have been bitten twice by these nasty little creatures, once on the hand, and once on the shin. Both times the area around the bite swelled up to several times what is normal. It gets very, very itchy and will probably weep fluid at some point. Lasts about 5 days for me usually.

I haven't seen any for quite a long time now (at least 3 months) so I suspect they're out of season now, and I imagine they'll be back with a vengeance next summer. I did some research online after asking on this forum (with the standard response of "they won't bite you, they are good as they kill flies etc) and found a spider repellant spray which is mostly horse chestnut and clove based. I sprayed this around all of my door and window frames every other day and this seemed to do a good job of keeping them under control.

Might be worth a punt...

[LRM]

Thanks dazultra. Sorry to hear about your bites.

You confirm my theory that people who have been bitten report much worse pain that those who only hypothosize about it. I have heard about spiders not liking conkers, don't know if it is true and haven't been able to get any yet. But I will look for the spray you suggest. Also heard that spiders don't like lemon or citronella (whatever that is).

My immune system isn't good and I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is pain enough. I react very badly to common horse fly bites ie arm swelled up elbow to fingers, and another time knee to toes, so don't want to try spiders.

I live in Cornwall and they are spreading down here, the Pest Control man says he knows people who have been bitten, but he hasn't treated houses before for spiders and only wanted to spray the carpet which isn't adequate, so its back to doing it myself.

As I said I don't mind the odd spider (British) and did have a couple of house spiders running around. But several hundred spiders is another proposition altogether, especially extra poisonous ones. These hide in dark places and are reported to get inside gloves, shoes, boots etc and back of cupboards. I've found young ones under the newspapers on the desk the cat sleeps on, in the seed trays in the window, in the files, in and under my chair etc. I daren't move anything in the conservatory or the shed until the weather is good enough to search everything thoroughly as I know there are hundreds hiding in the pots and trays.

I know people say will only bite if feel threatened but even if you're not meaning to threaten them on purpose, you have a good chance of coming into contact with them in the normal course of the day. Plus my cat likes to chase spiders, and I worry is she'll disturb one when she's under the bed or the bath.

People wouldn't put up with 300 cockroaches, or beetles or woodlice running around so why put up with 300 poisonous spiders. As they come from warmer climates, they probably find living indoors warmer than outside, (and are still laying eggs in November) plus they have no natural predators indoors and only food will limit their numbers, and how many predators do they have outside in this country? And they are eating our native spiders.

Many introduced species are becoming a problem, ie vine weevils, Japanese knot weed, grey squirrels, various water species etc. And if these spiders carry on colonising houses they will increasingly become a problem. I will happily leave the orb web spiders weaving their webs in the garden and some Daddy Long leg spiders on the ceiling, but colonies of poisonous spiders indoors - no way.

[Venger]

Venomous, not poisonous :P

You're daddy long legs spiders (Pholcus phalangioides) will quite happily eat them for you, so will many other spiders, (these aren't native either and are making a much bigger threat to our native spiders (they will actively hunt our spiders where the Steatoda sp wont.)

Depending on which false widow you have (it applies to the Steatoda family, not to one specific spider), some are native, some aren't.
But if you're talking about S.nobilis they've been here for over 200 years (ish) before you start waiving the 'immigrant' flag around, they're only spreading due to the warming of the climate.

They produce so many young because they become dinner for many things. Birds, amphibians, mammals, and other invertebrates will prey on them (on all spiderlings really, rather than this one species), only a few will make it to adulthood.

Even where their more venomous relatives live (said black widows) no one has died from their bites - bites are still rare (while obviously the bites may be severe and unpleasant especially if you have an allergic reaction to them)

You'll just have to adapt your lifestyle I'm afraid - insecticides will kill ALL spiders rather than one species.

[LRM]

Re your comments Venger. As you know I am a new member but I presume that as you are titled Commander of the Wild Empireyou are a senior member or something, and seem to be knowledgeable about spiders. Therefore I am shocked that you bring political correctness into a discussion on wildlife. It is a great shame that we can not even talk about spiders without someone implying it is racist to comment on the origin of said spider.

I did not mention immigration. I made perfectly legitimate and scientific remarks about the dangers that any introduced species can do to native species and to crops. (I mentioned odd British spider as a short way of saying not as poisonous as more exotic introduced species and most British ones tend to prefer outdoors).

As for that new chestnut, climate change, is an excuse for everything. I don’t know what your weather has been like, but down here for several years, the summers have been cold and wet and early this year winter temperatures went down to -10 or more. So it is not unreasonable to suggest that a species from a warmer climate might prefer to set up home in centrally heated houses, where as there are no natural predators their numbers can get out of control.

As I pointed out these spiders are inside the house and therefore not being predated on by birds, etc. They are not eating flies as they are in dark places. Also before spraying with insecticide, I removed the Daddy Long Leg spiders to a safe place first and the House Spiders had already been reduced to corpses.

I have suffered many adverse comments for not killing things unnecessarily. But, there are times when things get out of control, and are destroyed in the interests of humans eg fleas, mice, rats, rabbits, cockroaches, vine weevils, greenfly and of course flies and wasps, therefore, I see no difference in destroying an infestation of spiders with potentially painful bites inside my house, than I would destroying an infestation of fleas on the cat and carpet.

[Venger]

You've taken it the wrong way, perhaps I should have written 'non native' rather than 'immigrant'

[seymour-arts]

hello everyone!

i just had the scariest encounter with what i have ROUGHLY with my extreme lack of spider knowledge identified through images to be the false widow, it was odd,

i have just returned a few days ago to bournemouth in dorset where i attend university and because of the snow i have been in kent at my parents house for four weeks! plenty of time to leave my cupboard undisturbed

i live in a very old house and have quite a large old wooden dark cupboard in my room, upon my return i have washed my clothes and putting them back in the cupboard and sitting on my bed i felt something fall on my head it then seemed to crawl down my face and i brushed my hand over it panicking and it dropped on my bed and crawled into the crevice of the shade behind my teddy bear i managed to trap it in a glass but sadly panicked and asked a housemate to deal with it as i was scared i am normally fine with spiders as long as they are nowhere near me they can enjoy the dusty corners of my room as long as thats where they staY!!! but this REALLY freaked me out. this spider was unlike any house spider ive ever seen! are kent spiders just different to southern british spiders :/

another thing is that my cupboard is right next to my radiator it blocks it actually, would this be the perfect sort of situation for a false widow.
oh yeah and a description

it was about just under the size of a 50 pence piece with legs ! black very shiny almost beetle like in appearance and my housemate told me on closer inspection it had like triangle shapes on its back but they were not coloured they were black and almost protuded from the surface of its back

could this have been a false widow or something else should i worry and what do you think would be the best way to deal with this? sorry to babble but tired and shaken :/

[dazultra2000]

Sounds more like a Steatoda Grossa than a Nobilis, but still a "false widow", yes. But it could just as easily have been any one of a number of many spiders.

False widows are not uncommon in these regions. I live in Poole (I went to BU as well) so am only a couple of miles away, and last Summer I had hundreds of the buggers around. I fully expect them to make a comeback this year too, and with a new puppy in the house I'm even more worried.

Best you can do is what you already did. Trap it in a glass (being careful of it's legs) and let it go outside somewhere.