Poisonous Spider Bites on Rise in SE UK

Thank god that said SE. Had way too many giant spiders to deal with over the past few days in Cornwall.
 
Mouse said:
Thank god that said SE. Had way too many giant spiders to deal with over the past few days in Cornwall.
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I hope you drove home to Somerset with your car windows closed, because the linked article says:
The false widow spider first came to the UK over 100 years ago in crates of fruit from the Canary Islands. It has been established in Devon for a long time but recently climate change has caused the population to spread across the south east.
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Oh, and:
In 2006 a Dorchester man was hospitalised for three days after suffering a heart seizure following a spider bite believed to have been caused by a false widow.
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I worked at Asda when I was a student and for a while on the produce dept. The amount of stuff that came out of the boxes of fruit which I'm damn sure we didn't have import licenses for was amazing. One guy was taken to hospital along with the offending spider whilst I worked there. It added some excitement to the job when you stuck your hand into a box of bananas and when you came out with a bunch of bananas there was a big colourful spider sat on the back of your hand.

The one incident that sticks in my mind most was a plague of ladybirds that came out of boxes of English apples. They must have dropped down to the bottoms of the boxes when they were refrigerated but once we put them out on the shelves on the shop floor they warmed up a bit and climbed up to the surface (the shelves were refrigerated from below). There must have been hundreds of the things!

Iain
 
I read somewhere years ago that the reason that so many people have a phobia about spiders is because our racial memory doesn't recognise them, because they are not native to earth...

hmmmmm
 
Nothing to really get hysterical about. Here in Oregon we have at least three species of pretty nasty spiders native, and I'm not bothered about any of them:


Black Widow: Infamous, but I believe unjustified. No where near the most dangerous spider on Earth.


Hobo spider: I don't believe this is truly deadly, but it can be pretty nasty. I believe this is a species with a bite that can cause necrosis, but I've never heard of a death from one.


Brown Recluse: This can be a pretty nasty spider, but it lives up to its name-it is very rarely seen by humans and prefers to stay where humans tend not to be able to reach easily. A highly toxic bite that can cause massive bruising and necrosis, but almost always survivable.



Now, if we had something along the lines of the Wandering Spider or Funnelweb, then I'd be worried.
 
birds eat spiders... why don't you bring in the birds that like to munch the things like pringles?
 
At least you aren't Australian. They have several types of giant/poisonous spiders that they find around the house.

Atrax_robustus.jpg
 
jastius said:
birds eat spiders... why don't you bring in the birds that like to munch the things like pringles?
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This reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons. First they discover that species of lizard that replaces bird's eggs with their own, that gets rid of the pigeons. Then they have the infestation of lizards, and at the end, Skinner suggests bringing in things to take out the lizards. Then it goes on to bringing in gorillas.



You can't just trade one species for another.



And that's what I meant, quantum. That thing you posted up is, if I'm not mistaken on specifics, the Sydney Funnelweb. Not quite as bad as their cousins, but still aggressive and nasty.
 
we have free running tarantulas on the escarpment. you just wear a hat... unless of course you think their fuzzy little feet are kitten tickling you when then drop into your hair.
... the owls looove them.
 
Only Northern Black Widow spiders typically here (although Brown Recluse bites are not unheard of, the spider is not considered indigenous to Maryland), and unlike their Southern and Western Cousins ( a la Karn's ), the bite of a Northern Black Widow is not considered medically significant.

Hope your widow population over there in the UK doesn't spread or grow as quickly as feared in the article.
 
Tarantulas, huh?


Nothing to be all that worried about, actually. I believe their hairs are often worse than their bites.


The Black Widow's reputation, Grim, is really unjustified. It's a feared spider, but naturally survivable if you have a solid immune system. Generally it's only dangerous to the very elderly or very young, and they're non-aggressive.
 
The article says not to pick spiders up, which I never do. Clonk them on the head with me shoe, yes, but pick them up...no way. I was chasing a big bugger last night and they don't half move fast I can tell you. It was making a break for it up the stairs and I kept on missing it with an old runner when it turned on me...I almost fell down the stairs. The wee woman thought it very funny until it was near the last step and she ran off leaving me alone with the eight legged monster. I finally got my shoe action right, in a nick of time I think. I was winded, I don't think I could have lasted much longer.

Good timing on this post, but I guess with the weather turning their all going to want lodging now. The thoughts of it, I can't stand spiders me, shoes at the ready.
 
Generally I don't mind spiders - unless they crawl over me unexpectedly! I was sun bathing one summer and felt a tickle on my face - a huge thing was crawling across me. Cue the kind of screaming that you cannot control!!

However, after this story has now made it onto the radio, and the kids heard about it over the weekend, my littlest one has started screaming at the sight of anything even vaguely spider-like. And the Daddy-long-legs are out and about, which made our weekend walks quite noisey!

And this morning, whilst giving the kids a lift to school, my son merrily lets me know that there is a spider web, with spider, right above my head. 'But don't worry Mummy, he's just sitting there, watching you!!'

Yeah, great!!
 
Hmm. Devon.

Was in the shed on Saturday considering a tidy up when I noticed something on the back of an old electric fire. It was like a hand, five long fingers reaching up over the edge, any thing else was out of sight.

But they were huge.

(Not big - big, we saw a bird eating Spider at the zoo and it would have crushed this thing easy... but big for something at home...)

Anyhoo left the shed and decided to leave the tidying until later.

Having read the article I will now be locking the door, and leave the shed to its own devices.
 
Ursa major said:
Worried that they might... er... slip away, are you?
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I wish they would slip away, slip up or any sort of slipping and give me a sporting chance - eight legs = very sure footed and fast moving big black scary things.

And now I can't even go in my shed, and I never had a shed till a few weeks ago!
 
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