I am sooooo enraged by the press hype of false widows I made this short video, of a false widow (Steotoda grossa) Just to show how FEARFUL they are of us.
I do not deny they can have a nasty bite, but the severity varies greatly between people, some people will get localised swelling and redness, others fever and may be vomiting and/or the shits.
But they are not the ‘arachnophobia-esque’, hunt you down spiders they are portrayed to be, far from it. streched out they are under an inch from the front legs to the back legs. They body size about 10mm. So yea.. big ass scary spider *rolls eyes*
I have at least a dozen false widows in my flat, they feast on the silverfish. I have 3 kids and guess what, no one has ever been bitten in the 5 years we’ve known about their presence in the flat.
They like warm dark places so they stay out of the way 99% of the time. We mainly see the males who are looking for some spider loving and even they leg it when we move around them. The females will stay put in their area. Only the males wonder.
I had to dig this female out of her burrow from between my reptile vivariums in order to film her, she was not impressed but even so, showed NO AGGRESSION towards me. I also put her back, that is how ‘not worried’ I am about the bite risk.
They are not poisonous, they are venomous, like every spider is.
My lizards actually pick them off and eat them, do I have dead or poorly lizards… nope! I’ve been bitten by our native and most probably our ‘illegal-alien’ species of spider in my lifetime and never suffered the threat of having a limb amputated or any kind of emergency surgery. just a red bump for a day or two ~ and even that didn’t hurt after an hour or so.
So please, please remember that there are many things in your house and your garden that can and will bite you in defence, Just because you have been bitten does not automatically mean a false widow is to blame. How many of these bite stories have had the biting species confirmed? errrr that would be none I have found so far.
Peace out!
Lisa Psy High
