99.9% positive this is the false widow.

[Gavin Hannah]

 

These are the best photos I could manage on my phone.  The second one is of the spiders' underside.

 

I've removed around a dozen of these spiders, most of which were found lounging in south-west facing velux windows.

 

I've also removed a female widow which is appx 15-20% bigger with a small abdomen but with the same markings.

 

No photo but here is a stock photo of what I think is the female of species (<- insert pun here)

 

Aside from the spectacular tabloid headlines, there was a mention of the recent summer being partly responsible for this spiders spread northwards.

 

 

[Bobby]

WP_000304.jpgWP_000324.jpg

 

These are the best photos I could manage on my phone.  The second one is of the spiders' underside.

 

I've removed around a dozen of these spiders, most of which were found lounging in south-west facing velux windows.

 

I've also removed a female widow which is appx 15-20% bigger with a small abdomen but with the same markings.

 

No photo but here is a stock photo of what I think is the female of species (<- insert pun here)

steatoda-nobilis-04_65345_1.jpg

 

Aside from the spectacular tabloid headlines, there was a mention of the recent summer being partly responsible for this spiders spread northwards.

 

Certainly looks like one to me. Not seen any here thankfully, just house spiders. Were they in the house?

Edited October 10, 2013 by Bobby

[Gavin Hannah]

I'm in the country so spiders galore but this one does not look like your regular house arachnid. So much for this spider not moving out of the home counties yet....?!

[Crepuscular Ray]

That does indeed look like a false widow spider. Not sure why the press are claiming that they've not moved out of the home counties; there have been sightings in Scotland - confirmed by the Natural History Museum - since as long ago as 2006.

[SomeLikeItHot]

Ha I didn't actually realise there were venomous spiders in the UK.

 

Sorry but coming from Aus they look cuddly compared to these guys who we used to have to look out for.

[Gavin Hannah]

Could be this spider Amaurobius similis  though. Just read they often get confused as they look similar a(altough different genous) so without capturing one and showing it to an expert, I can't be 100%. 

 

There's also two smaller spiders that belong to the same group as the false widow Steatoda nobilis

 

Steatoda bipunctata

and

Steatoda grossa

http://wiki.britishspiders.org.uk/index.php5?title=False_Widow_Spiders

 

But I'm sure it isn't these two.

 

Just going to have to keep hoovering them up to be safe lol.

 

 

 

Ha I didn't actually realise there were venomous spiders in the UK.

 

Sorry but coming from Aus they look cuddly compared to these guys who we used to have to look out for.

 

 

 

Yea, prob why I'd never live there lol.... Anything and everything that can kill you lives in Oz.

Edited October 10, 2013 by IBringTheHammer

[March Blizzard]

Ha I didn't actually realise there were venomous spiders in the UK.

 

Sorry but coming from Aus they look cuddly compared to these guys who we used to have to look out for.

 

Nearly all UK wildlife looks cuddly in comparison to what you get in Aus...Our most dangerous creature is probably the mighty badger.

[jethro]

Please be really careful if you see one of these nasty things, the horror stories in the press aren't exaggerations. A colleague got bitten by one a month ago, she ended up in hospital, her leg not only swelled to twice the normal size but looked like she'd tipped a kettle of boiling water down it too, absolutely covered with enormous blisters. A month later, and although now not swollen or painful, the legs is still a scabby mess which the nurse is having to dress daily.

 

Give them a wide berth!

[Bobby]

Ha I didn't actually realise there were venomous spiders in the UK.

 

Sorry but coming from Aus they look cuddly compared to these guys who we used to have to look out for.

 

I believe all spiders are venomous, just some more than others. A few other spiders in the UK can give a nasty bite too such as the house spider and water spider. I remember reading that the water spider is the most venomous but this false widow may beat it looking at the reports.

Things waiting to kill you everywhere down under, eeek.

[Hiya]

I think it is a Garden Spider.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=garden+spider&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mPVXUpeFKomN0AWo44DwCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=907&dpr=1

[Bobby]

I think it is a Garden Spider.https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=garden+spider&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mPVXUpeFKomN0AWo44DwCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=907&dpr=1

 

The front legs look too long for a garden spider and the skull pattern on the abdomen looks more like a false widow to me.

[Essan]

Nearly all UK wildlife looks cuddly in comparison to what you get in Aus...Our most dangerous creature is probably the mighty badger.

Our most dangerous creature is the deadly Highland midge! :DAnyway, the picture does look like a false widow, nothing like any of the many spiders I share my house with (many of which this time of year are a lot bigger and hairier!)Watch out though if it spins a web by the front door, you may not get any post .....

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454080/Postman-refuses-deliver-letter-massive-spider-web-blocking-path-door--arachnid-bigger-10p-piece.html

[Gavin Hannah]

The front legs look too long for a garden spider and the skull pattern on the abdomen looks more like a false widow to me.

 

 

They do look very similar as I mentioned above, and that's what's probably the biggest concern. If folks do come across a False Widow and mistake it for a garden spider.

 

Best course of action if you either in the house is just to hoover them up.  I'm still on the fence when it comes the ones I photographed in the house, they look so darn similar, you'd need to be an expert to ID them.  

[Polar Maritime]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2452231/Two-treated-hospital-bitten-poisonous-false-widow-spiders.html

 

I would give them a wide berth.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[UV-RAY]

Having a knee implant and being bitten off one of those would be disastrous for me, mind you just being bitten looks a tad sore.

[Colin Greenwood]

 its not a false widow its

 

Nuctenea umbratica

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Nuctenea+umbratica&client=firefox-beta&hs=Bwu&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ps9dUq6jL8eg0wX_qoCgDQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=665&dpr=1

[Katrina Denton]

Looks like a false widow,Post it on http://www.falsewidowuk.co.uk , they have a facebook page as well.

[Gray-Wolf]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mother-finds-dozens-of-worlds-deadliest-spiders-on-sainsburys-bananas-8920292.html

 

False Widow....Pah!!!!

[summer blizzard]

I believe all spiders are venomous, just some more than others. A few other spiders in the UK can give a nasty bite too such as the house spider and water spider. I remember reading that the water spider is the most venomous but this false widow may beat it looking at the reports.

Things waiting to kill you everywhere down under, eeek.

 

I think somebody told me the same but that most in the UK have too weak a fangs to bite a human.

[summer blizzard]

Nearly all UK wildlife looks cuddly in comparison to what you get in Aus...Our most dangerous creature is probably the mighty badger.

 

The UK has plenty of predators, they just rule the air.

 

The numbers of foxes, badgers, mink, grey squirrels, crows, magpies, ravens, buzzards, sparrowhawks and herons are on the up, and not forgetting in excess of nine million domestic cats.

[Snowyowl9]

Those spiders are spreading seen in shrewsbury....

The UK has plenty of predators, they just rule the air.

 

The numbers of foxes, badgers, mink, grey squirrels, crows, magpies, ravens, buzzards, sparrowhawks and herons are on the up, and not forgetting in excess of nine million domestic cats.

Rarely see any herons,suppose the pool near us has just turned into a marsh....

I like cats they catch a few rabbits but not those critter grey squirrels unfortunately,saw 3 in one tree today.