If someone has been bitten
Any bite from a big black spider is a medical emergency: call 000. For a redback bite, wash it, hold a cold pack on it for 15 minutes (wrapped, not straight on the skin), see a doctor if symptoms are bad and go to hospital if the pain is severe. Never cut a bite or use a tourniquet. The Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 gives bite advice any time, day or night.
Spiders in Melbourne
No Sydney funnel-webs
According to Better Health Channel, Victoria doesn't have the Sydney funnel-web, the one species tied to recorded deaths. That's no reason to guess at a big black spider, though, so a bite from any of them still means 000.
White-tails, two kinds
Two similar white-tailed spiders overlap in the south-east, both with a cigar-shaped body and a pale tip. They don't build webs, hunt other spiders at night, and turn up in bathrooms and laundries over summer and autumn. Bites hurt and itch, but healthdirect says current evidence shows they don't cause skin ulcers.
Redbacks in sheds and under steps
Redbacks are common around houses across Australia, especially in sheds, under steps and outdoor furniture, around pools and in rubbish piles. Bites happen most over summer, usually when a hand goes straight into a web.
Black house spiders at the windows
These dark, sturdy spiders spin lacy webs with a funnel entrance around window frames and wall cracks. They're timid, so bites are uncommon, though one can be painful.
When a treatment is worth it
A huntsman on the wall isn't a pest job; the Australian Museum suggests guiding wandering spiders out with a broom. A lone redback under the outdoor setting isn't worth a call-out either: wear gloves out there, keep small hands away, and watch whether more appear.
It's worth calling someone when redbacks keep coming back near play equipment, the sandpit or the back step, when white-tails or black house spiders turn up indoors every week, or when a shed or garage is full of webs you'd rather not put a hand near.
Be realistic about the result. The Australian Museum says getting rid of spiders for good is almost impossible, because young spiders arrive on the wind on strands of silk. A treatment knocks numbers down where you need it; keeping them down is about the house and garden.
What keeps spiders out
You can
- Fit draught strips to doors and flyscreens to windows and vents.
- Cut back shrubs and climbers from doors and windows.
- Shake out shoes, gloves and clothes left outside or in the shed.
- Clear junk piles, old pots and timber stacks where redbacks set up.
- Wear gloves when gardening or moving things in the shed.
Leave to a pest business
- Treating eaves, sheds, play equipment and the outside of the house.
- Recurring redback activity near where children play.
- Advice on why spiders keep turning up around your house.
Before you agree to a spray
- Where exactly will you treat, and why there?
- What's the full name of the product?
- How long should children and pets stay off treated areas?
- Will spraying outside push spiders indoors?
Our take on spider control in Melbourne
We'd leave the odd huntsman alone and fix the screens and door seals first. Redbacks returning near where kids play, or spiders indoors week after week, we'd hand over: tap Spiders or ants with your postcode.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
