False Widow spider ?

[SteCenturion]

Hello.

Wondered if there are any arachnid experts or even just well informed types who can say whether this 8 legged B@$T@RD I found in Trap 1 of 2 staff cubicles is one, or not.

Safe to stay, I suddenly felt no need to go.

Apologies for picture quality, camera phones never as good as they claim.

 

[steve50]

if the pattern on its back looks similar to a skull then yes it is a false widow.

Yes yours is a false black widow

 

[classic33]

The experts agree with @steve50

Alleged incidents

• In 2006 a Dorchester man spent three days in Dorset County Hospital with symptoms of heart seizure, after suffering a spider bite believed to be caused by Steatoda nobilis.
• In 2012 a man collapsed in Southampton after apparently being bitten on his neck. He had complained of feeling hot, queasy and light headed. He required treatment in hospital, where it was discovered that he had been bitten 10 times on the neck, allegedly by the same large spider. The spider (which had been trapped in the victim's hooded jacket) was caught and tentatively identified by health workers as Steatoda nobilis.
• In 2012 a woman in Dorset suffered serious effects after her hand was supposedly bitten by a false widow spider.
• In 2013 a man in Sidcup of London was allegedly bitten in his sleep, reporting that his hand had turned black and yellow. His hand remained swollen for five weeks until doctors gave him a course of antibiotics.
• In October 2013, it was reported that a man from Romford in Essex had been allegedly bitten by a false widow. He was treated for bacterial infection with antibiotics and needed to have his leg drained of pus.
• In October 2013, a British school in the Forest of Dean was closed for a day for fumigation as a result of a dense population Steatoda nobilis on the site.
• In 2014, a woman from County Durham had her left index finger amputated after contracting the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis following a claimed bite from a false widow spider.
• In October 2014, an Irish man went into cardiac arrest and spent a day in intensive care after being bitten three times by what was claimed as a false widow, on the hip, side and shoulder.

 

[Arjimlad]

I think that is an average sort of house spider, not the False Widow, which is much more like a Black Widow in shape and proportions, and less hairy than this particular chap.

 

[Andy_R]

It's Mr Spider. He kills flies. I like Mr Spider. I do not like Mr Fly as he walks all over dog poo then lands on my sandwich.

 

[Donger]

I think that is an average sort of house spider, not the False Widow, which is much more like a Black Widow in shape and proportions, and less hairy than this particular chap.

So a false false widow, then?

 

[Arjimlad]

So a false false widow, then?

Probably never even married, actually.. a false false common law widow mistress lover thing.

 

[Donger]

We had a tube web spider in our BT junction box a year or so ago. The BT man nearly had a heart attack when it jumped out at him when he started poking about with a screwdriver. (Aggressive little sod, it was). I looked it up because it looked a nasty little bugger, and had a really unusual silky tunnel-like tube of a web the like of which I had never seen before. Turns out they are now endemic around these parts, although originally "exotic", and they too give a nasty bite. Not as bad as a false widow, though.

 

[stephec]

Did you take a careful aim at it?

 

[classic33]

Did you take a careful aim at it?

Why the camera.

 

[SteCenturion]

This one was *despite the photo* quite a big b@$t@rd & unlike any house spider I have ever seen (& I have captured a few), big bulbous back & markings just like that posted up.

Recently the Mrs read an article on how the False Widow was thriving due to the conditions over the last year & they have bred like Billy'O'.

Smashing.

Spiders don't normally bother me at all, but this bugger, well I didn't want to chance getting any nearer.

Apparently they are headed indoors in our homes for the winter.

Smashing .....