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False Widow 'deadly' spiders found in North West Kent

Comments

  • Wonder if some idiot will try and get himself bitten to become Spider-Man!!
  • deadly only if allergic! Peanuts are more deadly!
  • The photographer should be well pleased with himself for those mug shots
  • PopIcon
    PopIcon Posts: 5,970

    deadly only if allergic! Peanuts are more deadly!

    exactly, bit of a no story. I have seen these in my garden.
  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,111
    Absolte non-story. Here's the distribution map for just one variety of False Widow:

    http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Summary/s/Steatoda+grossa

    It's worth noting that no-one in the UK has ever died from a spider bite, and hardly anyone ever gets bitten.

    I love spiders.
  • I have a proper phobia of spiders, cannot go near them - wouldn't fancy coming face to face with that at home
  • DaveMehmet
    DaveMehmet Posts: 21,635
    You would have thought they'd have come up with a more imaginative name for them though. I'd be pretty pissed off if I was one of them. I'd want a much cooler name than "false widow"
  • put a few in the millsmall dug out on Saturday.
  • Bedsaddick
    Bedsaddick Posts: 24,788
    image
  • JollyRobin
    JollyRobin Posts: 1,706
    It's fangs are no match for my flip flop.

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  • thenewbie
    thenewbie Posts: 11,027
    What a crap story. Next up it will be a horde of vicious killer wasps, or lethal monster peanuts. Allergies are a b*****, but the spiders aren't actually all that dangerous. Besides, they're two inches long, unless there's no other possible option they're going to run away, not bite a giant pink fleshy human.
  • Clem_Snide
    Clem_Snide Posts: 11,750
    Woman at work got bitten by one of these. Looking at the state of her hand and forearm I really wouldn't want to be bitten by one.
  • Swisdom
    Swisdom Posts: 14,977
    I hate them. All spiders in my house get one chance to be caught in a pint glass and released safely out the front. Failure to comply results in the Dyson treatment
  • JollyRobin
    JollyRobin Posts: 1,706
    Swisdom said:

    I hate them. All spiders in my house get one chance to be caught in a pint glass and released safely out the front. Failure to comply results in the Dyson treatment

    The old Dyson technique, I like it. I often like to go for some more gruesome approaches. Drowning them in a glass of water can be fun.

    I should really go and see a shrink.
  • Dont they just crawl out of the dyson?
  • thenewbie said:

    What a crap story. Next up it will be a horde of vicious killer wasps, or lethal monster peanuts. Allergies are a b*****, but the spiders aren't actually all that dangerous. Besides, they're two inches long, unless there's no other possible option they're going to run away, not bite a giant pink fleshy human.

    They bloody well better not be two inches long! I think they're less than half an inch in reality
  • Macronate
    Macronate Posts: 12,914
    off the top of my head:

    Steatoda nobilis is a spider in the genus Steatoda, commonly known in England as the noble false widow. While several species are worldwide known by the imprecise common name 'false widows', this often leads to misunderstandings about identities). As the common name of 'noble false widow' indicates, the spider superficially resembles, and is frequently confused for, the black widow and other venomous spiders in the genus Latrodectus. S. nobilis is native to Madeira and the Canary Islands from where it allegedly spread to Europe, and arrived in England before 1879, perhaps through bananas sent to Torquay. In England it has a reputation as one of the few local spider species which is capable of inflicting a painful bite to humans, although bites are a comparatively rare occurrence and alarmist media reports are often poorly founded.

    The distribution of S. nobilis is expected to increase northwards in the UK, due at least partly to mild summers in recent years.

    they've been here ages.

    poxy bananas/Torquay.
  • DaveMehmet
    DaveMehmet Posts: 21,635
    So it's either a false widow or has nobilis as a surname. I'd still be unhappy.
  • Macronate
    Macronate Posts: 12,914
    false nobilis wasn't an option.