Brits have been warned of the dangers of false widow spiders invading our homes as spider mating season begins in the UK. Spiders usually start to come out in early September, with their presence noticeable in homes until around mid-October. After this, they tend to be spotted indoors less often.
Female spiders are known to stay in one place for all of their lives, but males are always on the move. During spider mating season, the males will go searching for females and often find them inside homes, which is why you may notice more of them over the next couple of months. In the UK, there are more than 650 different species of spider and while all of them can bite, only 12 can cause harm to humans.
One of those is the false widow spider, and according to the Natural History Museum, being bitten by one can feel like a wasp sting. False Widows have long been established in the UK with first recorded siting in the UK coming in the 1870s, although their numbers multiplied in the 1980s, particularly in the southern counties. The Natural History Museum says the spider was first sighted in Dorset, Hampshire and Devon but can now be found as far north as Scotland.
Pest control expert Clive Boase told the Daily Mail: “The population of false widows in the UK is growing all the time. In fact, people don't realise just how common they have become. “There are half-a-dozen different species of the false widow and they can survive both indoors and outdoors.
They prefer suburban areas an.
