Just a little update here on my blog.
Aside from the massive T.Duellica/Gigantea specimen I photographed/videod (featured in a video at the bottom of this blog), I was just reminded of the Tegenaria agrestis by a US contributor.
This is the smaller cousin of the Gigantea, domestica and other tegenaria species. It IS a UK native. I have always been lead to believe it lives in grass/woodland in Europe. It's a strange one really. No UK bites have ever been recorded from the Agrestis (I also believe that its name is nothing to do with aggressiveness and more to do with grass (a-grass-tis) I suppose.
However, in the US it is known as the Hobo spider. I'll be honest here - I never give these spiders a second thought when I see them here in Doncaster, UK. To me they are very stumpy little Tegenaria spiders and I just bracket them all together as one bunch, catch them in a beaker and let them out.
Although, I understand that the very reason we haven't a problem with the T.Agrestis in the UK is that the T.Duellica/gigantis is so common and kills them off if they enter homes.
What I find staggering is that Canada lists the T.Agrestis as a dangerous spider, yet it lives merrily away in the UK without question. Also, US medical reports show that many cases of necrosis (and fatalities in elderly and youngsters) attributed to the Violin Spider (brown recluse/loxosceles reclusa) are probably more accurately sourced back to the T.Agrestis.
There is, of course, the age-old argument that the US has an evolutionary advanced version of T.Agrestis, which is possible. An introduced spider will up/down the ante with its venom depending on where it is and what it needs as its prey.
Adding to this though, I have found this autumn dismal so far for Tegenaria species. I'm usually snided out with them in my flat, but aside from the massive T.Duellica/Gigantea I have posted on a video somewhere below, I've had a few domestic wanderers, a very small cellar spider and little else in my flat this year!
Remember, you can send photos/videos of your spiders to gavinpow77@btinternet.com for identification. And if I can't identify them, I'll refer to other users who can.
Stay webwise folks.
xx Gav
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Does the UK have any dangerous spiders?
As this site has now had some interest and is now searchable in Google, I will put on my sensible head and steer clear of any sensationalism...
In the UK, there is no particularly dangerous arachnid in the wild. That is that no fatalities from bites of any indigenous or immigrated and integrated/locally living species have ever been recorded.
It is, however, ignorant to simply dismiss spiders as completely harmless in the UK.
The danger is that to talk the truths, the facts can sometimes become contorted through rumour. This is one of the main reasons I set up arachnipedia.
There are perhaps four spiders of notable interest in the UK capable of inflicting a painful bite. ANY spider can bite and if threatened, it will try to as a natural defense mechanism. Even a humble money spider will try to bite.
All spiders carry a toxin. This is vital for disabling prey. These toxins can, when a spiders' chelicerae (fangs) are sharp or long enough to penetrate human skin, be dangerous. But there is no spider living in the UK wild able to deliver a bite any more painful than, perhaps a bee, hornet, or wasp sting.
The danger in this description is always apparent. Arachnophobes will now be compelled to squish more on the merit these arthropods bite.
So, I list here some spiders which may (and that is MAY) bite in the UK. The massive Tegenaria Gigantia/Duellica, or UK housespider - the ones that scuttle across carpets in autumn have rarely been reported as biters, but where they have reportedly bitten, it has felt like little more than a gnat bite! Important to get them out of the way, as people often fear these, one of the UK's largest spiders, more than others. Squishing these spiders is self defeating because although they aren't a threat to us, they are the worst nightmare of most other household critters in the UK!
So, the possible biters in the UK.
*Common garden orb-weaver. Fat-bodied brown spiders that spin gorgeous autumn dew-soaked webs. These can nip, but pain is highly unlikely.
*European cave spider - Large rusty-brown spiders (very rare) and live in caves. These can inflict a bite akin to a bee sting. But you really won't see one unless you go in a cave!
*Common Woodlouse Spider (crocata). By a weird twist of nature, these spiders are now considered a hazard to UK gardeners. They have evolved to develop sharp chelicerae to penetrate the outer shells of woodlice. It's wise to keep out of the way of these red/brown spiders (more details elsewhere on this blog) but if you are bitten, it's probably likely to be little more than a wasp sting effect - still not nice though!
*False Widows. There are several members of the false widow (steotoda) genus in the UK. Generally localised to the south east of the country, these spiders are, again capable of bee-sting-like bites. (Again, this spider is featured elsewhere on this blog).
So there you are!
There is a handful of other species that can inflict a significant bite in the UK, but spider bites are so rare it really isn't worth listing them!
Spiders are simply not a danger in the UK!
Click the YouTube links in the top right hand corner for the latest worldwide spider videos (I obviously cannot guarantee any of these are safe!)
Stay webwise....
Gav.
In the UK, there is no particularly dangerous arachnid in the wild. That is that no fatalities from bites of any indigenous or immigrated and integrated/locally living species have ever been recorded.
It is, however, ignorant to simply dismiss spiders as completely harmless in the UK.
The danger is that to talk the truths, the facts can sometimes become contorted through rumour. This is one of the main reasons I set up arachnipedia.
There are perhaps four spiders of notable interest in the UK capable of inflicting a painful bite. ANY spider can bite and if threatened, it will try to as a natural defense mechanism. Even a humble money spider will try to bite.
All spiders carry a toxin. This is vital for disabling prey. These toxins can, when a spiders' chelicerae (fangs) are sharp or long enough to penetrate human skin, be dangerous. But there is no spider living in the UK wild able to deliver a bite any more painful than, perhaps a bee, hornet, or wasp sting.
The danger in this description is always apparent. Arachnophobes will now be compelled to squish more on the merit these arthropods bite.
So, I list here some spiders which may (and that is MAY) bite in the UK. The massive Tegenaria Gigantia/Duellica, or UK housespider - the ones that scuttle across carpets in autumn have rarely been reported as biters, but where they have reportedly bitten, it has felt like little more than a gnat bite! Important to get them out of the way, as people often fear these, one of the UK's largest spiders, more than others. Squishing these spiders is self defeating because although they aren't a threat to us, they are the worst nightmare of most other household critters in the UK!
So, the possible biters in the UK.
*Common garden orb-weaver. Fat-bodied brown spiders that spin gorgeous autumn dew-soaked webs. These can nip, but pain is highly unlikely.
*European cave spider - Large rusty-brown spiders (very rare) and live in caves. These can inflict a bite akin to a bee sting. But you really won't see one unless you go in a cave!
*Common Woodlouse Spider (crocata). By a weird twist of nature, these spiders are now considered a hazard to UK gardeners. They have evolved to develop sharp chelicerae to penetrate the outer shells of woodlice. It's wise to keep out of the way of these red/brown spiders (more details elsewhere on this blog) but if you are bitten, it's probably likely to be little more than a wasp sting effect - still not nice though!
*False Widows. There are several members of the false widow (steotoda) genus in the UK. Generally localised to the south east of the country, these spiders are, again capable of bee-sting-like bites. (Again, this spider is featured elsewhere on this blog).
So there you are!
There is a handful of other species that can inflict a significant bite in the UK, but spider bites are so rare it really isn't worth listing them!
Spiders are simply not a danger in the UK!
Click the YouTube links in the top right hand corner for the latest worldwide spider videos (I obviously cannot guarantee any of these are safe!)
Stay webwise....
Gav.
VIDEO
The right hand corner of this site has a great selection of YouTube spider videos. I'm trying to get the hang of making this site better!
Orb my god
The UK daily public transport-based free sheet Metro relegated a fantastic spider photo to the near middle of the paper yesterday.
A shot of a Golden Orb Weaver eating a bird wasn't enough to tear the hacks away from the bite of the financial climate!
Orb weavers, generally as harmful to humans as Keith Chegwin (and that's pretty much as harmful as they are - nauseating, a bit stingy and leave you irritated) can be of sizes sure to induce sudden panic. Don't get me wrong, they can be massive. But technically, the nice little (or big) fatties you see in your UK gardens in autumn with their gorgeous webs, are Orb Weavers of a sort - and they aren't native either! Imported friends we've had for years from Europe!
The Golden Orb Weaver featured in the Metro article is a spider common in the US/Australia/Canaries and Africa, but is one of the real biggies that we really, really, really shouldn't worry about. It is MASSIVE but its bite is no more harmless than the bird eating tarantulas of Africa or possibly even the UK-native garden nasty Woodlouse Spider.
Great spider though and shame on Metro for pushing this mega-arachnid to the inner-pages!
Great though that some woman took the photos in Queensland while hanging out her washing!
A shot of a Golden Orb Weaver eating a bird wasn't enough to tear the hacks away from the bite of the financial climate!
Orb weavers, generally as harmful to humans as Keith Chegwin (and that's pretty much as harmful as they are - nauseating, a bit stingy and leave you irritated) can be of sizes sure to induce sudden panic. Don't get me wrong, they can be massive. But technically, the nice little (or big) fatties you see in your UK gardens in autumn with their gorgeous webs, are Orb Weavers of a sort - and they aren't native either! Imported friends we've had for years from Europe!
The Golden Orb Weaver featured in the Metro article is a spider common in the US/Australia/Canaries and Africa, but is one of the real biggies that we really, really, really shouldn't worry about. It is MASSIVE but its bite is no more harmless than the bird eating tarantulas of Africa or possibly even the UK-native garden nasty Woodlouse Spider.
Great spider though and shame on Metro for pushing this mega-arachnid to the inner-pages!
Great though that some woman took the photos in Queensland while hanging out her washing!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Idiotic bloke
Here we have a visual example of the type of idiot we don't want to see more of. It's the UK, he DOES have a widow spider walking about on his hand. I love spiders of all kinds, but this guy is pushing it. All spiders bite - especially widow spiders - sadly more common in the UK than they should be, so it's best not to handle any of them!
Woodlouse Spider
A great, robust little spider commonplace in the UK is the woodlouse spider. It is one of the few true UK biters. Relatively harmless, but has fangs that CAN penetrate human skin and deliver a painful bite - akin to a wasp sting. Often a nasty threat to gardeners, the Woodlouse spider is perhaps, alongside the false widow (steotoda nobilis) one of Britain's most venomous spiders!
Interesting news
According to a BBC News report this week, tropical species of arachnia are setting up home in the UK. We've had foreign arthropods for centuries.
The common housespider (tegeneria domestica/gigantea) has been crawling about here for years. Thankfully, tegenaria agrestis stays in the long grass. American readers could only wish for this. This spider, a prolific biter, has become known as the hobo spider in the States. It inflicts a necrotic bite, which is incredibly painful and often ends up with a visit to the emergency room.
We, in the UK, live under the false apprehension we have no poisonous spiders. Tegenaria Agrestis lives in our gardens and fields, but generally won't enter a home because we have the massive and fast (gigantea is the fastest spider in the world) T. Gigantea or T. Duellica. These massive housespiders are friends rather than pests. Kill a gigantea (complete waste of a fantastic animal) and you will have more pillbugs/woodlice/flies than you would have had.
We also have a healthy population of orb-weavers. These are the gorgeous brown-gold spiders spinning orbs in our gardens in late summer and early autumn.
Both the orb-weaver and the tegenaria species are aliens. Neither should really be in the UK. But they are, and have been for the last hundred or so years - a price we paid when the British began importing fruit.
And still now, the same is occurring.
The false widow (steotoda nobilis) was significantly introduced to the UK in the early 80s from the Canary Islands, but there are reports of the species many years before. A member of the genus steotoda, it is very similar to the black widow and Australian redback.
This spider was initially reported as a pest in the 1990s in the south-west of England, but has been reported in the south east too in recent years. It has been spreading north ever since. Spiderlings use the breeze to travel and breed, so technically, it could be as far north as Hull and further inland. Steotoda nobilis is a small-to-large shiny spider not unlike the US Black Widow or Australian Redback, with a bulbous, very shiny abdomen with a patchy white circle/star shape on the top of its abdomen.
Another foreigner with a nasty nip is the tube web.
These are two videos from the BBC this week. The British network presented the sensible argument that arachnids are now setting up home in the UK, regardless of where they are from.
CLICK FOR BBC NEWS VIDEO 1
CLICK FOR BBC NEWS VIDEO 2
The common housespider (tegeneria domestica/gigantea) has been crawling about here for years. Thankfully, tegenaria agrestis stays in the long grass. American readers could only wish for this. This spider, a prolific biter, has become known as the hobo spider in the States. It inflicts a necrotic bite, which is incredibly painful and often ends up with a visit to the emergency room.
We, in the UK, live under the false apprehension we have no poisonous spiders. Tegenaria Agrestis lives in our gardens and fields, but generally won't enter a home because we have the massive and fast (gigantea is the fastest spider in the world) T. Gigantea or T. Duellica. These massive housespiders are friends rather than pests. Kill a gigantea (complete waste of a fantastic animal) and you will have more pillbugs/woodlice/flies than you would have had.
We also have a healthy population of orb-weavers. These are the gorgeous brown-gold spiders spinning orbs in our gardens in late summer and early autumn.
Both the orb-weaver and the tegenaria species are aliens. Neither should really be in the UK. But they are, and have been for the last hundred or so years - a price we paid when the British began importing fruit.
And still now, the same is occurring.
The false widow (steotoda nobilis) was significantly introduced to the UK in the early 80s from the Canary Islands, but there are reports of the species many years before. A member of the genus steotoda, it is very similar to the black widow and Australian redback.
This spider was initially reported as a pest in the 1990s in the south-west of England, but has been reported in the south east too in recent years. It has been spreading north ever since. Spiderlings use the breeze to travel and breed, so technically, it could be as far north as Hull and further inland. Steotoda nobilis is a small-to-large shiny spider not unlike the US Black Widow or Australian Redback, with a bulbous, very shiny abdomen with a patchy white circle/star shape on the top of its abdomen.
Another foreigner with a nasty nip is the tube web.
These are two videos from the BBC this week. The British network presented the sensible argument that arachnids are now setting up home in the UK, regardless of where they are from.
CLICK FOR BBC NEWS VIDEO 1
CLICK FOR BBC NEWS VIDEO 2
Friday, October 10, 2008
YOU GOT EIGHT LEGS?
Hello and welcome to arachnipedia.
I'm a British journalist working as a sub-editor in the UK provincial press, but since childhood I've had a fascination with creepy-crawlies.
Give me a cricket over a cricket report any day. I'd rather see eight legs before I see a leg before wicket! Not that crickets have eight legs - they are insects and have six!
I'm living out my childhood fantasy with this site.
With this blog I aim to probe YOUR back gardens and at the same time I hope to dispel some of the hateful myths about spiders in the UK. I also hope that readers share their photos and stories about spiders (not just in the UK, but worldwide).
In turn, I hope to update this blog with my own videos/ reports / videoblogs about the spiders I've encountered (and am about to encounter as autumn sets in!)
So, if there's a big bugger in your kitchen/bedroom/bathroom, don't squish 'im. He'll be looking for a girlfriend. Just pop him in some bog roll and drop him outside. But snap him first and email him to gavinpow77@btinternet.com
Spiders are quite brilliant..
Gav.
I'm a British journalist working as a sub-editor in the UK provincial press, but since childhood I've had a fascination with creepy-crawlies.
Give me a cricket over a cricket report any day. I'd rather see eight legs before I see a leg before wicket! Not that crickets have eight legs - they are insects and have six!
I'm living out my childhood fantasy with this site.
With this blog I aim to probe YOUR back gardens and at the same time I hope to dispel some of the hateful myths about spiders in the UK. I also hope that readers share their photos and stories about spiders (not just in the UK, but worldwide).
In turn, I hope to update this blog with my own videos/ reports / videoblogs about the spiders I've encountered (and am about to encounter as autumn sets in!)
So, if there's a big bugger in your kitchen/bedroom/bathroom, don't squish 'im. He'll be looking for a girlfriend. Just pop him in some bog roll and drop him outside. But snap him first and email him to gavinpow77@btinternet.com
Spiders are quite brilliant..
Gav.
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