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More false black widow spiders found in Swindon

12:10pm Tuesday 26th May 2009 in


TWO more false black widows have been spotted by Swindon residents, who say the spider may have been in town for more than a decade.

The Steatoda grossa, which are in the same family as the lethal black widow, and have put people in hospital in the past, were first trapped by Justin Holloway, a Swindon exterminator, only days before they were featured in the Advertiser on May 15.

Mr Holloway, a field biologist for Prokill pest control, said that he was astonished by the find because the spider had been contained in Devon for the past 200 years. He said recent milder winters had allowed the spider to survive.

However soon after publishing the story two residents contacted the paper in order to alert the public that the find is not a one-off.

Terry Dabner, who lives just off Frobisher Drive, Walcot, said his wife called him into the couple’s kitchen after spotting a spider on the floor by the sink last week.

The Wiltshire Butterfly Conservation employee said: “The first thing my wife said was that it resembled a black widow.

“As I work for the WBC I took a photo of it, then went on the internet to ID it.

“It was a female Steatoda grossa.

“Apparently they were first found in Wroughton in the 90s.

“She is enjoying the rest of her life in our garden, not in the house hopefully.”

Meanwhile, Callie Neil said an entire family of false black widows had been living in her pond filter for the past four years.

In the past the arachnid has inflicted grave wounds on victims but their bite is not lethal.

Comments(11)

Common Dreads says...
12:44pm Tue 26 May 09

So, let me get this straight:

People are finding these potentially harmful spiders in their homes, then carefully putting them back out in their gardens and politely asking them not to come back inside?

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MarketZero says...
12:58pm Tue 26 May 09

They are no more potentially harmful than a bee or wasp. I saw one recently and took a photo (might send the picture in now) then picked it up by the thread it was spinning and placed it out of harm's way.

Why not go the whole hog and say they are related to deadly scorpions? They too are arachnids.

I've been bitten by house and garden spiders, and both can hurt a bit at the time but never for long.
The 'false widow' is no more dangerous.

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Common Dreads says...
1:17pm Tue 26 May 09

Wiki says:

"The bite of S. grossa is known to be medically significant in humans, however without any long-lasting effects.

Symptoms of bites include blistering at the site of the bite, and/or a general malaise lasting for several days."

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cfa says...
1:19pm Tue 26 May 09

I was bitten by a spider, I thought it was a False Widow, it wasn't, it just looked the same. It turned out to be a False, False Widow.

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Kineasy says...
1:48pm Tue 26 May 09

What other amazing sightings? Any UFO's, Crop Circles, Extra large tabby cats, Snelgrove?
I spotted some folk in Regents Street who seemed to be suffering from a '...general malais'
I think they may have been nipped!

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Mariposaria says...
10:32am Wed 27 May 09

I have just gone through EMDR to get over a phobia of spiders that has affected me all of my life by convincing myself that there are no poinsonous spiders in this country - then I find out that 2 of the spiders I've seen this year, one of which I managed to catch and remove from the house myself after my treatment (something I could not do before!!) are cousins of the black widow and can be poisonous!! The first was the all black cousin which I found in the shed at a house I lived in in Gorse Hill at the beginning of the year, the second is this Steatoda Grossa which I caught in my kitchen in Grange Park about 2 weeks ago! I expect there are hundreds more sightings of these in Swindon than already known!

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UncleRubbish says...
10:52am Wed 27 May 09

Are these false black widow spiders not actually widows? Just pretending so they can claim benefits?

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Ray Gabriel says...
11:34am Wed 27 May 09

These spiders are not new to the area, According to Roberts spiders of Britian and Northern Europe, there are five species of Steatoda found in the UK. S. grossa has a distribution of of "the southern half of England , Wales and Ireland; commonest in coastal areas of the South West." another two species are found throughout the UK, while the remaining to are quite scarce. With the increase in the planets temperature many of the rarer southern species of spiders (actually all wildlife) are now starting to be found further north. When i was bitten in 1999 by S. grossa, all the joints in my body became inflamed and "itchy", which was (according the the excelent staff at PMH) my bodys alergic reaction to the venom, not the actual venom itself.
Ray Gabriel
Arachnologist

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MarketZero says...
1:50pm Wed 27 May 09

Mariposaria, all spiders are poisonous. They all inject venom through their teeth into whatever they bite. It's the potency of the venom that matters. There is not one indigenous spider in the UK that could cause any real harm to a normal (non-allergic)person
.

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Ray Gabriel says...
2:05pm Wed 27 May 09

Technically there is no such thing as a poisonous spider, there are only venomous spiders, Poison is when you are eating it, Venom is when its eating (biting stinging) you. Not all spiders have venom, Uloborus sp have no venom glands. For further information I suggest contacting the British Arachnological Society, especially for identification and distribution data.

Ray Gabriel
Arachnologist

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Kineasy says...
3:38pm Wed 27 May 09

Ray Gabriel wrote:
Technically there is no such thing as a poisonous spider, there are only venomous spiders, Poison is when you are eating it, Venom is when its eating (biting stinging) you. Not all spiders have venom, Uloborus sp have no venom glands. For further information I suggest contacting the British Arachnological Society, especially for identification and distribution data. Ray Gabriel Arachnologist
Thanks Ray.

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