[mitsi]

got a few of these in my hubbys shed,(or I think they are falsies) they get well fed on the few crickets that somehow manage to escape my boscs viv when I open the doors. I don't like spiders at all, but hate crickets even more so they are doing me a big favour, as long as they stay in the shed and don't come in the house that's fine with me.

 

[GRB]

I would much rather be aware of something, than blissfully ignorant of the possibility of them being around. If people are made aware of the facts of false widows, then its also much less likely that they will randomly squish every spider that is near them and be able to identify one if they saw it.

What qualification do you have to advise on these spiders then?

"being aware" of something is such a throw away statement. How many of you smoke or passive smoke? You have magnitude of order more chance that that will kill you than any spider, anywhere in the world, without even reducing that chance from the UK where there are basically no spiders capable of harming humans. Even Steatoda.

These are also an invading species and not natural to the UK. Would you have people then in essence letting an invasive species loose in their back yard if they found one? hmmm.

Wrong.

Steatoda nobilis arrived before 1879.
S.grossa arrived in the 1800's.
S.bipunctata - I don't know if this is native or not, but I suspect it is. First recorded in 1864.
S.albomaculata - first record in 1900.
S.phalerata - first recorded 1864.
S.triangulosa - first recorded 1996.

I take it you go around killing Pheasants, Rabbits, Mice, etc?

As to what was posted earlier about 'pick it up and put it outside'...yeah..advise people to simply pick up a spider that could possibly be venemous and put it outside...great advice.

I study spiders for a living, you get your information from newspapers that have to show naked ladies to sell anything.

I'll let people trust whichever they prefer.

 

[GRB]

Just to add, I've seen dozens of spiders in cricket boxes and all have been Thanatus vulgaris, a type of crab spider.

If identifying spiders were so easy as just googling them, why would anyone refer to "spider experts"?

They are easy once you know how, but there are 650 species in the UK. They are not all Steatoda.

Most of what you will see as casual observers will be Zygiella x-notata, Araneus diadematus, Tegenaria sp., Scotopheaus blackwalli, Nuctuena umbratica, and a few others.

 

[Dragon Farm]

Respect is due to the spider experts ! I am inpressed by the amount of knowledge these people have.

 

[tanithvosloo]

We have them in our garden, have seen them for years. strangely enough i havent seen so many spiders this year as i normally do. Got one question what if your beardie grabs a spider when out, cause they do walk across the floor, especially iof it was a false widow.

 

[Ron Magpie]

We have them in our garden, have seen them for years. strangely enough i havent seen so many spiders this year as i normally do. Got one question what if your beardie grabs a spider when out, cause they do walk across the floor, especially iof it was a false widow.

As I said, my frogs eat them with no problems.

 

[SiUK]

I dont mean to be a d1ck but what a ridiculous thread. If people in the hobby are making scaremongering posts then no wonder the general public are afraid.

 

[nicnet]

Yips..a prefect example of yet another thread where people don't read what is said. Misquote and totally miss the entire point.

No wonder these forums are losing most of the older members.


I won't even bother to reply to most of these posts, not worth my time and effort to once again point out what I DID say and how others have totally ignored that and pointed out what they assume I said.

This is once again turning into a typical flame forum like all the rest. Not worth my time anymore.

 

[miss_ferret]

As I said, my frogs eat them with no problems.

i have one of these

he gets much bigger i'll be feeding stray people to him, let alone spiders.

 

[tanithvosloo]

these spiders have been here since 1897, and only now are people coming up with crap about them. They wont kill you, no worse than a bee sting. there was a thread on facebook the other day showing a man with a 2ft scar down his leg that was obviously caused by having a pin put in and yet our local paper said it was the widow spider. people are so gullible.
I only asked about spiders for beardies cause i dont know if they can eat them some insects taken from gardens are poisonous to them cause of spraying etc.

 

[GRB]

Yips..a prefect example of yet another thread where people don't read what is said. Misquote and totally miss the entire point.

I won't even bother to reply to most of these posts, not worth my time and effort to once again point out what I DID say and how others have totally ignored that and pointed out what they assume I said.

This is once again turning into a typical flame forum like all the rest. Not worth my time anymore.

I read exactly what you wrote. Much of it was over-cautious and sounded like it was ripped straight from The Sun.

If you wanted to help people, you'd have directed to the British Arachnological Society web page , specifically the one about Steatoda.

 

[SublimeSparo]

I read exactly what you wrote. Much of it was over-cautious and sounded like it was ripped straight from The Sun.

If you wanted to help people, you'd have directed to the British Arachnological Society web page , specifically the one about Steatoda.

....and at the very bottom of that page it says to avoid handling them... which is basically what this thread was all about... :whistling2:

 

[GRB]

....and at the very bottom of that page it says to avoid handling them... which is basically what this thread was all about... :whistling2:

Yes, generic advice because the society could be sued if someone was bitten and had a reaction to it.

Do you listen to health and safety advice? Much of what we do on a daily basis has a disclaimer - we ignore it because the risk is minute.

 

[SublimeSparo]

Yes, generic advice because the society could be sued if someone was bitten and had a reaction to it.

Do you listen to health and safety advice? Much of what we do on a daily basis has a disclaimer - we ignore it because the risk is minute.

Fair play with the legal reasons,
and with regards to health and safety advice some i ignore yes but some i follow, but it varies with the information i have
the point the OP was making was that he had found something in a box of food that could potentially give you a bite, and wanted to warn people to take just an extra second to think about that before doing something with it, hardly scaremongering, just think its got a bit out of hand, also as you are clued up on them have you made a thread of your own with that link and more information for people?

also some people let their children feed their reptiles and they are at a greater risk if they are bitten and allergic, no matter how small the risk, parents freak out about that sort of thing (glad i'm not one lol)

 

[GRB]

There's a difference between raising awareness of a real issue and then what this was.

We have someone tentatively ID a spider as a false widow. I have no idea if it was or wasn't, there was no photo. Unless the OP is relatively familiar with spiders then there's a good chance it was an incorrect ID to start with.

It also came at a time where there have been a spate of factually devoid newspaper articles about this spider, hyping up the "danger".

Sometimes you do more harm spreading unnecessary concern than by simply saying nothing. Why should people worry about false widows in food? I've identified dozens of "food box spiders" and never seen a single Steatoda. It could happen, but you have way more chance of it being another species of spider, specifically the one that is already known to routinely get sent with crickets for the reptile trade. It's just undue concern over a non-issue. Worry about peanuts - they kill more people every year than spiders ever have.

 

[Reptile Stef]

Hence why I said 'be aware' of them really.

I was brought up in Africa with the real widows, and played with spiders that turned out to be lethal lol...oops. No bites whatsoever.

But finding one locked up in close quarters in a locust box is a different matter. I think we all simply grab hold of the insert and shake the locusts off it, A spider under the insert would not be happy about that. Lucky the one in the box was pretty much dead and was only just twitching its legs. It got squished and flushed for good measure.


If you do find what you think might be a false widow, put a glass over it if its safe to do so and report to local environment agency, they want the reports to track the migration of the species. If its not safe to 'glass it'....then squish it.

Do not start wiping out every spider you see however, spiders are good guys and we need them.

Don't take this the wrong way but if you lived in Africa where you played with lethal spiders then you shouldn't really be worried about false widows should you :hmm:

Like I said don't take this the wrong way it just baffled me :lol2:

:2thumb:

 

[tanithvosloo]

There are lots of insects in the garden etc that can give you a nasty bite or cause a rash, you dont panic about them. Its got nothing to do with health and safety, that is the cause of these panics, its about common sense, if you dont know what it is dont touch it.
As someone said you have more chance of dying from peanuts and certainly more chance of dying in your car than being hurt by a spider.
My hubby is allegic to wasps so avoids them like the plague, no one causes a panic when there are wasps in the garden. LOL:whistling2:

 

[Reptile Stef]

When people say false widow they start panicking :devil: that story in the daily mail about that feller got bitten 10 time on the neck and he still never died come on THEY CARNT BE THAT BAD......