False widows everywhere

comerla · 23-09-2021 8:41pm #1

We have false widows all over the outside of our house.. every couple of foot there is another one with an egg sack.

What do you reckon: get rid of them with a broom?

I can't see how this will end well otherwise.

magicbastarder · 24-09-2021 9:14am

this is worth a watch:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/a-night-of-hunting-the-false-widow-spider-they-are-everywhere-in-this-area-1.4676947

ari101 · 24-09-2021 9:19am

Someone tell me when it is over... who needs to air their house anyway ;)

comerla · 24-09-2021 10:03am

We have an awful lot of this…

comerla · 24-09-2021 10:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117932123#Comment_117932123

I saw this - hadn’t realised these were all False Widows although I had recognised them a few times recently. Seems to be very little (live) other spiders about. I dont want these getting in the house and we already had hundreds of very small ones in my kids bedroom over the summer.

Fighting Tao · 24-09-2021 10:11am

I don’t want any of the family getting bitten so I go around the outside of the house every now and again with a hand held vacuum. Plenty false widows to be vacuumed up.

jmkennedyie · 25-09-2021 10:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117932359#Comment_117932359

Hard to make out, but they don't look like false widows to me.

"My" false widows are the Cupboard Spider (Steatoda grossa). Very dark, solid, shiny with robust shiny legs. See UK varieties of false widow here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identify-nature/spiders-in-your-home/false-widow-spiders.html. I haven't seen them out in the open exposed like in the window photo above, and over ~8 years I only have seen a handful. One sheltering in a wall vent at the moment with web outside, and I found three in a pile of branches in a cardboard box in a wooden shed a few years ago. So they have not taken over in my garden. I understand they enjoy woodlice etc so damp, dark environments perfect.

Maybe other species of false widow are different.

Native biodiversity in enough trouble as it is...pls don't destroy it if you are not sure what it is!!

Thelonious Monk · 25-09-2021 10:34am

There have been some enormous spiders both in my own house and in my parents house lately. I've never seen the likes. I don't think they're false widows though from looking at pics of FWs online. Massive yokes with big thick arms.

I haven't killed any, I either just leave them be or I scooped one up and threw him outside when my partner was coming to stay.

Anyone know what they are?

magicbastarder · 25-09-2021 10:35am

yeah, i think that's a big issue here; false widows and cupboard spiders are going to be near impossible to differentiate for most people, so cupboard spiders are probably being squashed the length and breadth of the country in cases of mistaken identity.

i don't know anyone who has been bitten by either one, bar my in-laws dog, which was worrying at the spider and inevitably got bitten.

HerrKapitan · 25-09-2021 10:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117932398#Comment_117932398

Great idea. Vacuum up spiders outside, bring your vacuum back inside for the spiders to crawl back out of...

Fighting Tao · 25-09-2021 11:01am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936903#Comment_117936903

Never hear of emptying outside away from the house?

BorneTobyWilde · 25-09-2021 11:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117932398#Comment_117932398

Then bring the vac inside, and they'll crawl out, genius.

Fighting Tao · 25-09-2021 11:22am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936964#Comment_117936964

See post above yours. 🙄

comerla · 25-09-2021 2:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936839#Comment_117936839

Thanks for chiming in! This is the variety I have a lot of (I took this photo a couple of weeks back):

fryup · 26-09-2021 9:13am

^^^^^^^^^^^

member of the Scouts?? 😉

I see sheep · 26-09-2021 9:17am

🔥 Flamethrower

Weepsie · 26-09-2021 9:24am

I'm terrified of spiders but I've a pact with those spindly omm, daddy long leg ones that they can stay undisturbed in my house as they eat other spiders .

jmkennedyie · 29-09-2021 11:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937827#Comment_117937827

Thanks for the pic. Not my area of specialty. More translucent than cupboard spiders I have seen but shape is spot on...maybe one of the other varieties like noble.

JimmyVik · 29-09-2021 11:56am

I squashed about 20 of them last night that i knocked off the top of the windows outside.

They are definitely not rare.

batman_oh · 29-09-2021 12:06pm

I think a lot of people are mistaking lace weavers and other spiders (orb weavers) for them as they look quite similar. It's only the Noble one that has them venom that's dodgy too as far as I know.

comerla · 30-09-2021 6:55am

.

We’ve had some setting up inside the house by the door (look exact same as in the IT vid above sitting in a messy pocket of web) which I got rid of with the hoover. I don’t like killing insects and have seen them catching flies but I can’t have millions of these things coming in the house.

sudocremegg · 18-10-2021 6:49pm

I'm having this issue too. They are everywhere. I remove maybe 10 a day from my house.

This was never an issue until this year. I usually leave spiders alone and am a lover of the irish house spider, but these dirty things have taken over.

How do you recommend to remove the egg sacs?

Eddie B · 24-10-2021 4:48pm

Very common here in the Midlands too, the last couple of years

Wanderer78 · 24-10-2021 5:48pm

plenty round here to, south east

False widows everywhere

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