False Widow Spider found in garden chair

YEOVIL couple Roger and Karen Brown made a scary discovery in the back garden of their home yesterday (Saturday, October 19, 2013) – a much-maligned False Widow Spider.

The gruesome-looking spiders with their distinctive shiny, black flesh, bulbous bodies, thick legs and skull-like patterns have hit the headlines in recent weeks following a spate of attacks on people in the UK.

Millions of the creatures – Britain’s most poisonous spider – are found across the UK and the population is growing.

But they have come to national prominence after a string of bites on people including a footballer who had to be taken to hospital and a schoolboy who was bitten while he slept.

Now Roger Brown narrowly escaped becoming the next victim when he found the venomous spider sitting on a garden chair at his home in Mudford Road.

“It was a bit of a surprise actually finding one – especially as I had carried the chair up from the end of the garden,” he told the Yeovil Press. “But I suppose there must be hundreds of them about."

PHOTO - TOP: The False Widow Spider found in a garden at Mudford Road, Yeovil.

PHOTO - RIGHT: The spider can be seen about halfway up on the right hand side of the photo in the garden chair.

Roger added: "I'm generally ok with spiders, but I don't try to pick them up or kill them. And I definitely left this one alone!"

The False Widow was first spotted in the UK in Devon in 1879 and it is believed that the spiders may have been introduced to this country from Madeira or the Canary Islands in a shipment of bananas.

And Roger told the Yeovil Press this afternoon (Sunday, October 20, 2013): “I checked the chair again carefully this morning and the spider had gone!”

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