![]() If you’re really not a fan of sharing your space with your uninvited guests, then avoid chemical treatments to repel or kill them – these little beauties are great for biodiversity and so be sure to relocate them gently outside. Now you know six of your friendly local spiders (ok, five spiders and one crane fly), you can make friends with them around the house. These are helpfully quite easy to recognise, too as well as their iconic, traditionally-spider-web-shaped webs (lovely round spirals that they sit within and wait for the vibrations of a struggling insect), they have white, speckled cross-like markings on the back of their brownish bodies. Introducing the orb weaver spider, or more specifically, the most common kind of orb weaver spider that we have: the garden spider. In the centre of these webs? A brown, patterned spider, no more than 2cms big. Perhaps you’re walking along a row of houses, turning your collar up against the cold, and, again and again, notice beautiful spiral webs between bushes and trees in each garden. It’s late autumn, into winter- heading into November. These little companions aren’t interested in chomping on us but, like all of us, are just after a good feed.Ī garden spider inside its perfect spiralling web | James Johnston via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) This is a good reminder of how well-adapted spiders are for their hunting, as all spiders can give a bite – but most don’t have fangs that can make an impact on human skin. The experts at the Natural History Museum soothingly tell us that of the hundreds of UK spider species, only 12 can give us a nip at all – and only two or three of these would give a painful bite. Good news! Unlike our pals down under, we really don’t need to worry here about dangerous spider bites. ![]() So why does autumn seem to bring in so many spiders? Well, the same reason that we hunker down instead of those lazy barbeque evenings the weather’s getting colder and the spiders are tempted into houses, sheds and garages by the prospect of a bit more warmth.Īnd the million-dollar question: do UK spiders bite, or can they be dangerous? The nights are darkening, the heating is back on and hot chocolate under a cosy blanket takes the place of cool summer drinks in the garden.Īnd with this come some new housemates yes, it’s spider season again. Because there is no scientific evidence supporting the deadly poisonous supposition of cellar spider bites, there is no reason to believe that this myth is true.Our spidery spotter’s guide to some of the most common spiders you’ll see around in autumn – and some fascinating facts to help you learn to love and admire our eight-legged friends. Because of the lack of information available on the supposed toxic effects of cellar spider venom in humans, the myth about cellar spiders’ venom being particularly poisonous remains unsubstantiated. A bite from one of these would most likely produce little to no reaction everyone’s immune system is different though They’re not anything to worry about, in fact they can prey on much larger less desirable. Additionally, toxicological studies testing the lethality of cellar spider venom on mammals, such as mice don’t exist. This is a Long-bodied Cellar Spider (Pholcus phalangioides). This research has never been pursued for a number of reasons that involve Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics. With no documented cases of cellar spiders biting people and causing adverse reactions, the only way to determine if these spider bites are deadly poisonous to humans would be to milk cellar spiders and inject the poison into human subjects. While no proof exists confirming the toxicity of the cellar spider venom, the insufficient length of the cellar spider’s fangs renders their venom delivery impossible during a bite, unlike brown recluse spiders who sport short fangs and are known to bite people. Nonetheless, an urban myth persists that cellar spider venom is among the deadliest on the planet. Are Cellar Spiders Poisonous? Are Cellar Spiders Venomous?Ĭellar spiders are not poisonous, although the correct terminology would be venomous, which they also are not.Ĭellar spiders are not medically important spiders because they are not known to bite people.
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