I’ve started a new job recently where I can commute by bike, my old commuter bike has been under cover in the garden next to the shed so got it out yesterday to give it a check over and saw some spider eggs in the fork steerer tube, pulled it out to find this attached to it, what kind of spider is this, thought the markings where interesting, my mate reckons we get those false widow spiders around here – Sussex …. should I have nuked it from orbit?

my googlefu gets as far as:

steatoda bipunctata
http://www.eurospiders.com/Steatoda_bipunctata.htm

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=steatoda+bipunctata&pws=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HkcNVOvNEpLWauffgdAP&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ

which seems to be called a false widow.

It is probably a Steatoda nobilis. Most spiders from the Steatoda family are called false widows. That is a female and is next to an empty egg sack. They can have more than one egg sack per mating and she is rather large so I would expect more spiderling at some point.
They do have venom, like almost all spiders, but they are reluctant biters. Their venom is mild too.

According to the Daily Mail, false widows are a deadly threat to mankind and civilisation. Watch out!

Or if you read the Daily Mail it could kill you and your whole family!

EDIT ^^^Beaten to it

Sounds like nuke from orbit is the best option.

Thanks Stoner, I get quite a few of these in the shed, mostly almost black shiney spiders, my mate says kill them, he always mentions a story where someone almost died from a false widow bite! Maybe I need to nuke the shed as it’s long overdue a good clear out 😐

I have them in my garden and there are loads in my dad’s shed. We’re all still alive. Just be aware that they can bite and check gloves before putting them on!

yayyyy! Roper!!!

Got any more picture threads lined up yet?

A part from sensationalist bullshit in the Daily Mail, there has never been a report of then causing serious harm. The worse case scenario would be you have a very very rare allergy to their venom. Remember that up to 12 people die a year to wasp or bee stings. This has never reportedly happened with these spiders.

On the other hand, they are great at pest control and would happily live in the corner of your shed keeping all the other pests out of the way.
There is no need to kill them and they can be useful.

Edit. I need to get round to putting some up online. Maybe with a giant centipede, but we will have to see about that.

Maybe with a giant centipede

hell yeah!

<shudders> as always looking forward to your next thread Roper…</shudders> 😉

Had an awesome looking spider near my gas meter cupboard, was one of these:

St Andrews Cross Spider

Body was about 15mm so at the large end of the scale according to the internets

We have some epic spiders in the garden at the moment, reminds me I must get some pics

We had a labyrinth spider in one of our borders this year… Fast as fk and looked like it ate anything, Web ended up over 75cm across….

That’s all very well but who wants a house full of spider webs?

We have loads of false widows in our house. Roper talked me out of killing them on here years ago.

He’s right. They kill shed loads of flies and wasps and pretty much keep themselves to themselves. Occasionally find a male on the wander and we just catch him and put him outside. The missus got a bite a while back which may have been from one. She did not die.

I like them. Since discovering them we’ve had a baby inthe house and have been unconcerned, but then we don’t read the mail.

love roper’s spider/arachnid threads 😀

Living in australia you get used to it. Flat has loads of redbacks living in the fences. I regard them as our perimeter defense against the other beasties.

Big centipedes on the other hand, uurrgh, I think the only thing that truly freaks me out.

Yay Roper please give us another spider thread.

Not a spider but I had the privilege to see this close up today

I love spiders. Nothing better than hearing a fly come into the kitchen, buzz around for a bit, before heading on up to the skylight where our resident kitchen spider lives. The buzzing then changes and you watch the fly fight a losing battle with the spider. It then goes quiet.

Spiders are cool and we welcome them in our house

I got bitten by what I reckon was a yellow sac spider on the South Downs at the weekend. Felt a sting and looked down to see it on my wrist. The bite swelled up a bit like a nettle sting for a couple of hours. Little bastard.

This spider bit me last week when I was packing up from a camping trip near Berwick.

The photo isn’t great but it is supposed to be the UK heaviest spider.

Another vote of Roper to make a new thread, despite being a little scared of spiders I never kill them and love to observe them, just not keen on them crawling on me!

I remember seeing something about a very dangerous spider species in Australia. It was not at all aggressive and its bite was mild, but it was huge and ugly and as it like hiding under slabs of rock it would also (somehow) sneak into cars and hide on the sun visor. Drivers who lower the sun visor and find themselves with a lap full of giant arachnid tend to roll the car.

The photo isn’t great but it is supposed to be the UK heaviest spider.

That actual spider there? Or that species?

Surprisingly I didn’t weigh it and contact Norris McWhirter’s replacement 🙂

Link to spider

I remember seeing something about a very dangerous spider species in Australia. It was not at all aggressive and its bite was mild, but it was huge and ugly and as it like hiding under slabs of rock it would also (somehow) sneak into cars and hide on the sun visor. Drivers who lower the sun visor and find themselves with a lap full of giant arachnid tend to roll the car.

Think that’s the huntsmen spider, I remember going to Oz and the guy who’s house we were staying at was saying that he’d had a quick scout around and he hadn’t seen any huntsmens. Me being terrified of spiders casually asked how big they are, he replied that they were about the size of a small dinner plate 😯 he then kicked me whilst I was down by telling me that although the bite wasn’t poisonous they had a tendency to jump at you. Literally jump.

His young daughter then said that one had bounced under her bed a few nights ago and she hadn’t seen it since, I asked her how the hell she slept at night.