SpecieswatchWildlifeFor those with vivid imaginations the white markings on the black back of a noble false widow spider (Steatoda nobilis) can look like a skull and crossbones, or in other cases just a skull. Perhaps it is a warning that the spider has a nasty bite. The poison will not be fatal, however, rather on a par with being stung by a wasp and or a bee.
The species is one of six similar spider varieties found in Britain, but is not native, having arrived in 1879 in a bunch of bananas from Madeira. After more than a century of being confined to the far southwest it is now spreading northwards as the climate warms. Noble false widows tend to live in houses, round the back of washing machines being a favourite, presumably because of the warmth.
Other false widow varieties, with common names like “cupboard spider” and “rabbit hutch spider”, rather give away their preferred habitats. They too tend to like warm and dry conditions, which in Britain means being close to man.
These spiders are in truth rather docile and slow moving and tend to live inside their rather dense square webs feeding off the insects that stray into their path. They will not go out of their way to bite but handling them is not advisable and, if you know they are about in your neighbourhood, a quick check in a long unused pair of shoes or Wellington boot might be advisable in case you step on one.
The noble false widow spider remained almost unnoticed in Devon until this century when it had already begun to spread rapidly along the south coast. It has since moved north, with two sightings in Scotland, possible with the spiders having hitched a ride on a lorry. The spiders are not very noticeable, about the size of a small fingernail, not like the large hairy scuttling kind that tend to be found in the bath at this time of year. The white markings on the back are pentagon shaped, clearer in males and the legs are red to brown. It likes the top corners of rooms and conservatories as well as in warm spots behind kitchen equipment.
Females can live for years, and survive for months without water, but males live for only one summer and autumn and disappear at this time of year after breeding.
Allegedly some people with acute hearing can hear their courtship routine, which is a noise made by rapid vibrations of the abdomen, but getting very close to listen is ill advised.
The eggs hatch in two to four months and the tiny spiders can sail away on the wind on ballooning silk threads, hence their ability to spread rapidly.
The bite can be very painful, worse in some cases than a bee sting, and last for between one and 12 hours. About a third of bites also produce nausea, headache and lethargy. Although each year a number of people in Britain die as a result bee and wasp stings no one has yet been recorded as dying from a noble false widow bite.
If you spot the spiders in your home, and they are unwelcome, the Natural History Museum advises not handling them and buying a spider catcher so they can be safely released a long way from the house.
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