Hmmm... as I predicted.....

Some time ago (can be found a l-o-n-g way down this blog somewhere) I predicted the false widow spider [steatoda nobilis] would continue spreading north in the UK. Although not much of a prediction really, more of a statement of the bleedin' obvious!

VIEW ON VIDEO: Steatoda Nobilis (BBC 2008)

Well, apparently (according to 'the press') the spider is, now, heading northwards! Although, I suspect this eternal story is a staple favourite of journos in the usual summer copy drought, or 'silly season'. I think I've read the headline 'Dangerous spider spreads across the UK' every summer since I first took an interest in the eight-legged beasts!

But still, it's fact I guess, and definately worth a mention on Arachnipedia.  

So, here's the link      http://current.com/items/90069751_venomous-spider-spreading-breeds-in-britain.htm 

A Mediterranean species of arachnid, introduced to the UK in the 1800s, through fruit carriage, the false widow is similar to, and related to the notorious Latrodectus family (black widow), found in America and some southern parts of Europe, and the potentially deadly Australian redback. 

The spider [steotoda) has had somewhat of a stronghold in some south western and south eastern areas of the UK for decades. It has been noted in Dorset since the 1980s and has been reported as a biter with nasty symptoms, including arythmia, swelling and flu-like illness. 

Generally, its bite should be no more frightening or painful than a bad bee or wasp sting. But people can react differently. 

It is also true that its tropical cousins the black widow and Ozzie redback have very dangerous bites, but should be noted that fatalities from these bites are incredibly rare, with the last redback fatality back in the 1950s - and it was a young child which sadly died. 

So, on that basis, just remember that the false widow has venom nowhere near as powerful as its tropical counterparts. 

As I always say though, don't push it, all spiders have venom, most will try to bite if trapped, and some will nip. So, best really to leave them alone and not handle them.

Stay webwise folks. Gav xx 

Photo: Copyright National History Museum 2009. [Steotoda Nobilis].

Ladybird Spider

Just to show Libby (my sister) that they aren't all horrid (not that any of them are), this is the Ladybird spider (Eresus cinnaberinus). And it IS a British spider (one of the country's rarest in fact!).

BBC VIDEO OF LADYBIRD SPIDER

The reason I pinpointed this spider is that it is one of the longest living spiders - (you asked why the one in my window lived for two years!) The Ladybird spider can live for about five years. And also, it is, if a spider can be cuddly looking, perhaps one of the most attractive spiders in the world.
It is only found in certain areas of moorland in the UK. I believe it could be found on Thorne Moors at one time.
Thing is, folk don't often realise we have fancy spiders like this in the UK!

He's gone! :(

The little fella in my bathroom has officially buggered off/died. Perhaps this is a signal to get my flat in order. I have webs to put Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to shame! Six days without the bog spider - I guess he's dead!
But that is a tiny animal that has lived there for two years. Pretty amazing animal. I've watched him for two years. Crazy little critters if you ask me. Some people (my sister included) just squish them! Eughhhhh!
If I had to live in a window and eat flies, I'd find a morgue window frame! I just feel sorry for the poor little buggers inhabiting windows at Woolies! Windolene ain't quite as tasty as a bluebottle for them.
Mind you, there'll be some beauties at the MFI warehouse off the M18 at Doncaster come April.
Big up the eight-legged beasts!
Stay webwise folks.

xx Gav.

Spider intelligence?

Here's an interesting question. How intelligent is a spider?
Are they just irritating beasts?
Now, obviously, I KNOW they aren't. But I may have just recently conducted a fascinating experiment purely by accident.
About a year ago, perhaps even longer ago, a spider set up camp in my bathroom window. A humble little amaurobius similis.
I wasn't bothered by him/her. And so, this relationship continued for months. It just sat there on the window ledge every day. Regardless of whether I was using the loo, cleaning my teeth, or just having a shower. It was always in the same position. Never bothered it and it never bothered me.
Now, you can call me cruel, or maybe experimental, but about two weeks ago, a smallish tegenaria spider (domestica - too small to be duellica or gigantea) crawled across my sofa. I grabbed him in a beaker and popped him on the windowsill in my bathroom. The amaurobius similis did what I can only describe as packed his bags. At the point I dropped the larger spider, the little amaurobious tried to attack, backed off and disappeared. Then, for days, the tegenaria spider actually sat guarding the web I'd dropped it in, belonging, in fact to the amaurobius similis.
Then I felt very guilty. This little spider had been there for a year. I even had a holiday abroad and came back to see the little fella sat there.
Then, bizarrely, this week, the very same amaurobius similis started appearing around my flat. Obviously looking for warmth or food. Tonight I went to the windowsill, checked the web, found the tegenaria (yes, it was still there - thinking 'cheers mate, you gave me free food here when you dropped me here) removed it and put it outside.
I then found the amaurobius similis, caught it in my hand, left it on the bathroom wall, and, I HAVE to report, it has taken up its usual residence in the silk it laid in my bathroom window frame.

Spiders. They don't give them eight legs for nothing!
Stay webwise folks.

xx Gav.

I'm a spider get me out of here

It's that unfortunate, yet oddly addictive, time of year again when ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here nibbles away at our better judgement and suckers in audiences for sick-making scenes of 'slebs' chowing down on those poor, unfortunate arthropods.
Already, Joe Swash has eaten two yellow-tale scorpions. At least they were dead as he sunk in his teeth. Interestingly, I doubt they were Australian solifugae though - looked more like the common European variety, so not really true Oz bushtucker!
The new titles for the show/in-programme inserts have an occasional sting featuring the brilliant Netcasting Spider/Stick spider (Deinopis subrufa). Common in gardens right across that wonderful spiders' web of a continent, the deinopis is a completely harmless arachnid (to humans anyway) that grows very large and cleverly back-comes its silk. Being unlike the silk of most spiders, it has no adhesive property, hence, if the animal built a web with it, insects would land and then just hop off! 

Click here for video DEINOPIS SUBRUFA

Just for the hell of it, here's the titles for the current series of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

Click here for video IACGMOOH

Deinopis (species of which also inhabit parts of South America) has cunningly evolved to, as I say, back-come the silk to give it a spring-loaded effect. It builds a triangular blanket web between its four front legs and uses one of its back legs to hold the 'net' in place, with silk outstretched, using the elasticity it has created with the back-coming to make it taught, spotting prey and then literally launching and catching it in its net.
Like most true arachnids, deinopis subrufa has eight eyes. Despite this, the majority of spiders have relatively poor eyesight. However, Deinopis subrufa has evolved two of its eight eyes as MASSIVE eyes that mark the animal out among most other similar species. These eyes are reminiscent of the eyes of maybe a small mammal like a fieldmouse or bush baby. This spider has often been nicknamed the ogre-face because of its fearful face, hence the name 'Deinopis subrufa', which pretty much translates as fearful appearance, or face.
So, that's the wonderful netcasting spider of Australia - completely harmless to humans. Think of it as the stick insect of the spider kingdom.
I see that tomorrow's I'm A Celebrity ... features spiders, notably huntsmans, another massive, but harmless Ozzie critter. I swear, if I see one of those animals maimed in anyway, I will be writing to Ofcom and the RSPCA - forget Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross! Harm a spider and I mean war!

Stay webwise folks.

Gav XXX

Forgot about the littlest hobo!

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

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.

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.

CLICK HERE FOR STORY

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!