SPIDERS: SHOULD I BE WORRIED ABOUT BEING BITTEN BY A FALSE WIDOW?

A study has found that numbers of the spiders are increasing, along with the number of people being bitten. But what risk do they really pose?

- PROF ADAM HART

You could be forgiven for thinking that the UK is in the grip of a spider emergency. With “spider numbers surging” and “dangerous bite warnings” being issued in the media, people are being “terrorised” and even hospitalised.

These headlines have been building for a few years, and the species behind the media arachnid obsession is the noble false widow spider, Steatoda nobilis.

A relative newcomer to the UK, the species is from the Canary Islands and Madeira. First reported from a site near Torquay in 1879, it spread through southern England, building up from the 1980s to become quite abundant, particularly in urban areas.

It has also been expanding its range northwards. So, although the lurid headlines are recent, the species has been around in many parts of the country for some time.

FANGS A LOT

If we want to get to the truth behind the headlines then there are several questions we need to answer. First, can noble false widows actually bite? There are not many UK species of spiders with fangs that are able to pierce our skin, but the noble false widow’s fangs certainly can.