My sister's boyfriend has got an invasion in his flat, Loads of spiders, odd looking ones in the bath and on the walls. They made strange webs that were tough like hair. The pair of them were a bit worried because there are a few people from abroad staying in the other flats and they thought that maybe they might have brought them with them in their suitcases or something and that they might be poisonous.
When they went to bed, her boyfriend woke up with painful rash and has been feeling ill ever since. Then oddly enough, in the local paper they discovered this article! It's all about someone who found a venomous spider, and how the council were as unhelpful as ever in dealing with it (no change there then). There was a photo too and it was exactly the same spider, Steatoda Nobilis also known as the false widow spider. It's from the same family as the black widow amd can give a nasty bite, people can have flu like symptoms and be ill for days.
Yesterday mum spotted a funny looking spider by the front door. She got out our very small-yet-effective magnifying glass (free in a Christmas cracker) and we both compared it to the photograph in the paper. Guess what, it was the same! They must be everywhere. It was funny because it was like a bad horror film. It's just as well that spiders, along with other animals and insects are one of the few things that I'm not scared of (everything else in the world freaks me out). They're just too interesting to be scary.
So anyway, I decided to look it up on the internet. I found a lot has been written about it and it's been in national newspapers and I even read on a forum that someone had heard about it on the radio. (Shows how out of touch with the world I am, I never heard any of this).
It looks like a lot of the reports about the spider are a bit over the top.
I found some more reliable information on the Natural History Museum website. Apparently the spider has been in Britain for over a hundred years (since 1879) and originates from the Canary islands. It doesn't usually bite people unless provoked (I suppose my sisters' boyfriend probably just rolled on it or something in the night, I suppose you cant really avoid them when they're all over your flat) and are not fatal (although if you were allergic to it I don't suppose it would do you much good).
This page talks about an article that was published in the Daily Mail which the blogger thinks is a bit of a scare story. I agree seeing as these spiders have been around for years and are not all that dangerous.
This part of the blog was amusing though:
'If someone had actually been bitten by the spider and suffered ill-effects (a malaise known as steatodism) that would indeed be news - as such an event is almost unknown in this country.'
Argh! looks like there's been another case!
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5 comments:
The reports are widely exaggerated, for the sake of selling newspapers.
Where I live, in a mountainous part of the Canary Islands, these spiders can be seen, but the difference is that I've never (yet, she says crossing her fingers) known one come indoors, so we live happily in mutual harmony.
Nevertheless, according to a local "bug" expert, they may not be native to here: were introduced and, they say it's very unlikely that they were introduced to the UK from here in bananas, as is frequently reported. Whilst I am no expert, as I've said they exist in areas above the altitude where bananas can grow. I've lived on a banana plantation too, but there, I had never seen this spider, so it seems feasible.
The spider itself might not be very common in England (yet), but the descriptions of the effects of this spider's bite on the Natural History Museum website (hardly a sensationalist tabloid trying to flog newspapers, is it?) do sound rather unpleasant.
Fortunately, in this country we don't have any of those funnel web spiders like they do in Australia. You know, the ones that are said to hide down the lavatory pan just when you least expect it.
Er, at least I don't think we do. But I did buy a digeridoo a while ago. I'll just have a squint down it. Be back later...
Hello peeps,
Pamela - That's interesting, I wonder where they really come from! It must be nice to live in the Canary Islands!
Frumplinton - I think you misunderstood me a bit there, I didn't mean the Natural History Museum were being sensationalist! Hehe. Those funnel web spiders sound a bit scary! I don't fancy being surprised by one of those hehe.
arrghh!! I can't stand spiders. Luckily I've rarely seen any in our flat. We used to get quite a few at home (the kind that have a small ball like body and really big legs and they just about fit under a pint glass). I used to trap spiders frequently under pint glasses and then be afraid to move them so had to get someone else to take them outside. I think we don't really get them in our flat because we aren't close to trees and vegetation and things. At my parents, there is ivy right outside my old bedroom window and they crawl in from that.
Hehe I had a strange moment with a spider yesterday, I was in the bathroom and a large one dropped out of nowhere and onto the carpet right in front of me! It did make me jump.
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