Spoonbender
21st May 2007, 16:50
"Global warming is helping a poisonous spider brought to the UK from the Canary Islands to thrive in our back gardens, it has emerged.
The false widow spider is growing in numbers after it first started to arrive in banana shipments from the Spanish islands around 1870.
This is being put down to the increased temperatures in the UK
Stuart Hine, of London's Natural History Museum, said: "There has been a dramatic increase over the past seven to 10 years, no doubt due to global warming. They survive winters to mate.
"There are probably tens of thousands, and in a few years they will be in every garden in the south of England and more will be spotted higher up the country."
The museum's web site says the frequency of Steatoda nobilis bite reports is increasing as the species spreads in the south and east of England.
The spider's bite is not deadly but can cause swelling and severe pain."
What is going on? in the past the only threat in the UK was a grumpy wasp or an agrivated earwig! think I'll tay indoors from now on
The false widow spider is growing in numbers after it first started to arrive in banana shipments from the Spanish islands around 1870.
This is being put down to the increased temperatures in the UK
Stuart Hine, of London's Natural History Museum, said: "There has been a dramatic increase over the past seven to 10 years, no doubt due to global warming. They survive winters to mate.
"There are probably tens of thousands, and in a few years they will be in every garden in the south of England and more will be spotted higher up the country."
The museum's web site says the frequency of Steatoda nobilis bite reports is increasing as the species spreads in the south and east of England.
The spider's bite is not deadly but can cause swelling and severe pain."
What is going on? in the past the only threat in the UK was a grumpy wasp or an agrivated earwig! think I'll tay indoors from now on