This spider has a brown bulbous abdomen with pale markings and the females grow to 15mm. The pale marking change from pale brown to red as the spider grows (moults).

There are over 640 species of spider in Britain of which 12 of these have been known to bite humans. The False Widow Spider is one of these but should stories in the newspapers be believed? No human in the UK has ever died from a spider bite and alarmist stories of people losing limbs are usually due to secondary infections.

Control of spiders would have to be assessed on the situation they were found in. Many public Health pest control insecticides are not approved for large scale external spaces and once the treatment is completed other spiders will move in to fill the void left behind Physical removal can be effective for small number of spiders in internal areas, a vacuum cleaner is a very effective tool in removing spiders and their webs Dessicant dusts which are non-toxic would also be effective in removing the spiders and their prey.