'Alarming' rise in False Widow spiders in Ireland

xhomelezz

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

KILL THEM WITH FIRE

Done!!

Any chance of spare bedroom?

TheValeyard

xhomelezz wrote: »

Done!!

Any chance of spare bedroom?

For you or the spider?

xhomelezz

TheValeyard wrote: »

For you or the spider?

OMM 0000

Let me tell you my spider story.

I was traveling around Mongolia for a month. This typically involves being days away from a city, being hours away from a shop (by "shop" I mean some sort of wooden hut selling beers, soft drinks and chocolate), and in general having none of the comforts we have in Ireland.

So at night I would sleep in Mongolian tents. These are basically open air tents with no floor, sort of like a circus tent except with a big hole at the top to let smoke out.

I spent two weeks in the Gobi desert. There's nothing there except the most amazing landscape, lizards, vultures, camels, and spiders. Millions and millions of spiders.

If you're lucky your tent will have a bed (not really a bed) but usually you have to sleep on the ground. In other words, on the hard sand. This is usually fine, because you're so tired and battle hardened at that stage that you can sleep anywhere. But holy ****, the spiders. They drop from the roof onto you. They also come in from outside the tent. Dozens of them crawling into your sleeping bag and on your body and face and arms. But what are you going to do? Stay awake all night for your entire trip? So you just close your eyes and accept it. In the morning you wake up covered in bites.

They're not tarantula ****ers, but they're bigger than Irish spiders. Sort of like large false widows.

1o059k7ewrqj3n

Kill on sight.

odyssey06

kifi wrote: »

spray adhesive

Effective trap... but does that leave a mess on the surface? How do you clean the gunk away?

I hope there are no Aussies reading this thread.

Mortifying.

TheValeyard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I hope there are no Aussies reading this thread.

Mortifying.

It's a bit different really. They grow up on a continent that is constantly trying to kill you. Whether it's snakes, crocodiles, sharks, jellyfish, spiders, d1ckhead kangaroos, or that it's 1/4 mile away from the surface of the sun.








We have badgers.

TheValeyard

TheValeyard wrote: »

It's a bit different really. They grow up on a continent that is constantly trying to kill you. Whether it's snakes, crocodiles, sharks, jellyfish, spiders, d1ckhead kangaroos, or that it's 1/4 mile away from the surface of the sun.








We have badgers.

And despite all of that, it was a war against emus that they lost.

TheValeyard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

And despite all of that, it was a war against emus that they lost.

The Emus wanted it more.

odyssey06

TheValeyard wrote: »

It's a bit different really. They grow up on a continent that is constantly trying to kill you. Whether it's snakes, crocodiles, sharks, jellyfish, spiders, d1ckhead kangaroos, or that it's 1/4 mile away from the surface of the sun.
We have badgers.

Dont mess with the badgers or theyll object to your planning permission
.

Hego Damask

grassylawn wrote: »

I have seen a number of them in the last few years and none before. They lurk outside in places like lift-up boxes and inside drain access points. What I find most interesting is that my instinctive reaction is a cold fear at the top of my spine, which I never experience with other spiders. I felt that the first time I saw them before reading they could actually hurt humans. And it wasn't because they were unknown. Just yesterday I saw a white spider on a flower that I hadn't seen before and had nothing like that reaction. I wonder if it is ancestoral memory, reacting to something that looks like a black widow.

I don't get the "don't kill" advice. I always smash the ****ers - with something with a bit of reach.

!! waiting there, just waiting to bite someone the evil little f*ckers!!

1874

Still not sure if what I found recently in my kitchen was a cupboard spider or a noble false widow, placed it outside.
It's markings were unfamiliar to me but it was more that it seemed almost that it had an armoured abdomen, the spider seemed lethargic, so Im wondering if it just birthed its babies and was on its way to die,


It seems they can be tackled by weaver spiders and daddy long legs, somewhat regretting hoovering up the daddy long legs I saw in the months before that.

Leave the daddy longlegs alone they eat those false widows for sport.

BloodBath

Scutter article that does the rounds nearly every summer.

MSM selling fear to the masses as usual.

Vittu

One less to worry about

Vittu

The ****er rang the doorbell, tried to sneak in when I answered

Kermit.de.frog

Did he actually ring the doorbell or did you make that bit up?

Vittu

Bell rang, I answered. Caught him sneaking in. I watched enough Murder She rWrote ...

JimmyVik

I had to check my bed now before I get into it after this thread.

.42.

Yay

An environmental scientist has warned of the possible impact of the Asian hornet, a large wasp-like species that has been discovered for the first time in Ireland last week.

RTE

katiek102010

Got bitten on the hand a few years ago. It swelled up really bad, got antibiotics from gp.

A friend got bitten on the leg last week, she's on antibiotics currently but may have to go to hospital if swelling does not go down.

JimmyVik

katiek102010 wrote: »

Got bitten on the hand a few years ago. It swelled up really bad, got antibiotics from gp.

A friend got bitten on the leg last week, she's on antibiotics currently but may have to go to hospital if swelling does not go down.

I hope these fcukers get spider covid and all die.
Ugly little barstards.

Mimon

Have seen them at work in the ventilation shafts etc.

One was living beside the handles of one of the doors:eek: The do scarper quickly if they see movement.

Horrible looking but still can't bring myself to kill a spider, even an evil looking one.

Killed a money spider by accident last week and still annoyed.

The unfortunate thing is some people are going to start killing all spiders as they won’t spend the time identifying which are ok and which are harmful

Ninthlife

Took apart my old shed a couple of weeks ago and there must have been easily 30 or 40 false widows that I came across in the shed.

Not the first time Ive seen them here but was surprised at the amount of them

What.Now

Can they ring door bells?

What.Now

What.Now wrote: »

Can they ring door bells?

Some spiders can, like the diving bell spider- they can’t resist diving onto your bell:pac:


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_bell_spider

TheValeyard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The unfortunate thing is some people are going to start killing all spiders as they won’t spend the time identifying which are ok and which are harmful

Yeah, that could happen. Although when you come across a false widow you know nearly instantly its one. Just looks and carry itself so different from native spiders.

The other post is also right though. They are definitely people shy, whenever I come across one it scurry away as fast is it can.

Weepsie

Weepsie wrote: »

My house has plenty of the spindly guys though that live in corners and such. I only learned recently that they kill other spiders.

Ive never minded those ones so much so I leave them be, even more so now I know the good work they do on my behalf.

The spiders they eat are also very likely doing good work on your behalf too though. Ask yourself what are _those_ spiders eating? And how much of what they are eating would your house be full of if your house was entirely emptied of spiders tomorrow and forever?

Whenever a prey species is removed - you have to wonder what will happen to the population of the prey.