# Is this a false widow spider?



## braduk (Oct 15, 2013)

Hi all hope it's ok asking on here. Always had a few of these on my back window and thought nothing of it, just thought I'd check if they are false widow spiders. Im up north in West Yorkshire, its an old converted barn I rent.


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

braduk said:


> Hi all hope it's ok asking on here. Always had a few of these on my back window and thought nothing of it, just thought I'd check if they are false widow spiders. Im up north in West Yorkshire, its an old converted barn I rent.
> 
> image
> 
> ...


looks like, yeah.


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

Guest Post: The False Scourge of the False Widow | The Elwell Press


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)




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## braduk (Oct 15, 2013)

Been told looks like UK cave spider.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

No! It's an ordinary garden spider- stop being an idiot!

FWs don't hang around in kitchen windows, they hide behind furniture and under boxes etc- and even then, they are not really dangerous. I am *so* fed up with this stupid hysteria...


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## lincolnlatic (May 14, 2013)

it's an orb weaver probably zygiella x notata (missing sector) but pics not clear enough to say for certain


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## braduk (Oct 15, 2013)

Pardon me for just checking Ron......


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

braduk said:


> Pardon me for just checking Ron......


Probably not your fault, mate, I am just sick to death of the current hysteria. 

1) This is not a 'new' species- they have been here for over a hundred years- and no-one has died *ever* from a bite.

2) They are not 'deadly', 'flesh-eating' or any other hyperbole you can think of. And they don't chase people

3) They are rather, shy, retiring little spiders who will mostly spend their entire lives in dark places (when indoors) behind and under furniture or similar.

4) If they actually bite you, it's a bit less painful than a bee or wasp sting, and despite what you'd read, your leg/arm/other appendage won't fall off. In the much-shared instance of the leg with the big wound, the idiot obvioiusly let the bite (or even an unrelated wound) get infected. Spider bites don't cause mass necrosis.


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

Ron Magpie said:


> No! It's an ordinary garden spider- stop being an idiot!
> 
> FWs don't hang around in kitchen windows, they hide behind furniture and under boxes etc- and even then, they are not really dangerous. I am *so* fed up with this stupid hysteria...


Granted they aren't really dangerous, Ron- but we get FWs in the bog at work- real ones, not orb weavers- and they do hang around the window, just above the top of the frame, where they spin their tangly webs, also in the corners of the ceilings in the cubicles.


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

Bodmin Moor


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

wilkinss77 said:


> Granted they aren't really dangerous, Ron- but we get FWs in the bog at work- real ones, not orb weavers- and they do hang around the window, just above the top of the frame, where they spin their tangly webs, also in the corners of the ceilings in the cubicles.


See my post above, mate.


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## Sylvi (Dec 30, 2008)

I've got some false widows living in my window frames, they have got to get busy as I dusted yesterday and now they are webless!

............... after thought........ we have had false widows here longer than we have lived here. Although I didn't know what they were until my friend Corpselight visited last week and told me. About 7 years ago my daughter and I did a 'I'm an Explorer Scout get me out of here' for her unit..... guess the variety of the lovely black spiders we used!


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## Ozgi (Jun 1, 2008)

Ron Magpie said:


> No! It's an ordinary garden spider- stop being an idiot!
> 
> FWs don't hang around in kitchen windows, they hide behind furniture and under boxes etc- and even then, they are not really dangerous. I am *so* fed up with this stupid hysteria...


The markings look like Steatoda nobilis and not A. diadematus? No need to be so harsh, he only wanted to know what it was, didn't mention anything about it being dangerous.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

lincolnlatic said:


> it's an orb weaver probably zygiella x notata (missing sector) but pics not clear enough to say for certain


Definitely Z. x-notata.


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## corpselight (Jan 10, 2008)

100% NOT a false widow. In no way is that abdomen shape or even leg shape right for a falsie. i am far from an expert, but seriously...this is demonstrably not even close to a falsie. 

Markings are not an indication. I have seen glossy black ones and ones with lovely patterns. The markings are not right anyway.


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2013)

Ron Magpie said:


> Spider bites don't cause mass necrosis.


Not widows granted, but some do. 

Loxosceles sp










And then raising the bar even more....

Sicarius sp


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## vawn (Jul 1, 2008)

i think it looks like s. nobilis :blush: poss a female and in the bad erm exposure (?) the legs can't been seen properly at all...


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

Looks like Zygiella x-notata to me.


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## SueBoyle (Aug 29, 2013)

Ron Magpie said:


> Probably not your fault, mate, I am just sick to death of the current hysteria.
> 
> 1) This is not a 'new' species- they have been here for over a hundred years- and no-one has died *ever* from a bite.
> 
> ...


 
There has been mass hysteria here on occasions when Shady Lady (Chilean Rose) went walkabout. For heavens sake, the worst that she would be likely to do is flick a few hairs at you if cornered


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Ozgi said:


> The markings look like Steatoda nobilis and not A. diadematus? No need to be so harsh, he only wanted to know what it was, didn't mention anything about it being dangerous.


It *was *a bit harsh, and I am sorry to be so stroppy- as I said though, I'm sick of the stupid media hysteria. What's next, a mutant cross between BWs, rottwiellers and big snakes?


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## SueBoyle (Aug 29, 2013)

Ron Magpie said:


> It *was *a bit harsh, and I am sorry to be so stroppy- as I said though, I'm sick of the stupid media hysteria. What's next, a mutant cross between BWs, rottwiellers and big snakes?


 
Don't forget the escaped red eared sliders that grab ducklings from below in our local ponds :lol2:


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