If a big black spider bites
Treat it as a funnel-web bite and call 000. healthdirect says to lie the person down and keep them still, wrap an elasticated bandage over the bite and then a second over the whole limb, and use a splint to keep it still. NSW Health's children's hospitals say not to wait for symptoms. For advice on any other bite, the Poisons Information Centre is on 13 11 26, any time.
Funnel-webs in Sydney
Where they live
The Sydney funnel-web's main range runs from the Central Coast south to the Georges River, reaching as far west as Baulkham Hills at the southern end, with records from the Blue Mountains and Wollongong. They like bushy suburbs, south or east facing slopes and shady gullies.
When the males wander
Males leave their burrows to find females, mainly at night from November to April and often after rain. They need cool, damp cover by dawn, which is how they end up in shoes, laundry piles and garages.
Pools and pool filters
Wandering males often fall into suburban pools, and the Australian Museum says funnel-webs have survived 24 to 30 hours under water, so a spider floating in the skimmer box may not be dead.
The look-alikes
Mouse spiders, trapdoor spiders and even black house spiders are often mistaken for funnel-webs. A funnel-web burrow has irregular silk trip-lines around the entrance; a brown trapdoor spider's has a neat silk collar and none.
The other spiders you'll meet
Redbacks sit in dry corners outside: sheds, under steps, around the pool fence and in letterboxes. Bites are most common in summer, usually when a hand goes straight into a web. White-tailed spiders build no webs and turn up in bathrooms and laundries in summer and autumn; healthdirect says they aren't considered dangerous, and current evidence suggests their bites don't cause skin ulcers.
Huntsmen are the big, flat, hairy ones on the wall. The Australian Museum says they aren't considered dangerous and are reluctant to bite, and suggests leaving them be outside or moving one out with a broom. Black house spiders make lacy webs in window frames and are timid.
What makes the biggest difference
You can
- Fit draught strips to the bottom of doors and keep flyscreens in good repair, as Better Health Channel suggests.
- Shake out shoes, gloves and towels left outside or on the floor overnight.
- Keep rockeries, timber piles and dense shrubs back from doorways.
- Wear gloves when moving pots, logs or anything stacked in the garden.
Leave to a pest business
- A treatment around the outside if redbacks keep turning up near play areas.
- Spiders in a subfloor or roof space you can't reach.
- Honest advice on what a treatment won't change, such as males wandering in from the bush.
If it were our house in Sydney
We'd fit door strips, clear the rockery edge near the back door and keep shoes inside from November to April. We'd only book a treatment if redbacks kept appearing where the kids play: tap Spiders or ants.
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.
