Steatoda nobilis - a danger to tarantulas?

[Mike_Strick]

We have a lot of Steadota nobilis around our home. They're quite attractive little spiders and just tend to lurk in corners producing messy webs and slaughtering house flies. But in recent months I've had several unexpected deaths of large invertebrates where they've been found in close proximity. A sub adult G. rosea suddenly keeled over and on cleaning out the tank, a large female S. nobilis was found to have been sharing her hide. A similar situation was found with an amblypigid, although the S. nobilis found there was sub adult. I've also found a mantis dead that was living free range on our kitchen house plants. In this case the S. nobilis was actually in contact with the corpse.

In all of these cases, the 'victim' was of course substantially bigger than the spider but the species does have a reputation for having quite potent venom and for taking down large prey. No attack/envenomation was observed and it is perfectly possible that the presence of the spiders was coincidental. At this point though, I'm removing any S nobilis from around my invert shelves but S. nobilis spiderlings are pretty tiny and can easily make their way into enclosures where they can develop undisturbed and unnoticed.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has encountered anything similar.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Mike, I've got one or two of these critters, roaming around under the eaves. I did have a couple of T's die last year, suspiciously, so maybe something to be concerned about. Found this link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...ng-spider.html

[Mike_Strick]

Hi Linda,
That's interesting. Still circumstantial but you have to wonder. Of course lots of factors can cause unexpected T deaths and the presence of S nobilis is not in itself proof.

I don't think I'd rely on any article in the Daily Mail that claims to be the 'truth'. Unfortunately most of the British papers seem to be out to wind the public up about spiders, S. nobilis in particular. That article does seem to have some legitimate content though, buried amongst the infected wound shock pictures and 'I saw a False Widow and was scared' stories.

There is quite a good article on the species here:

http://www.biaza.org.uk/news/1294/15/False-Widows---The-Truth/

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Mike,

You're probably right about the Daily Mail, the overall risk of these S. Nobilis getting into the tanks of tarantulas is something to be aware of, and avoid, better safe than sorry.

Discovered a collection of these nesting behind an outside security light, over the weekend, about a foot from the patio door, so they've been sorted, as very easy access for them into the room. I've also started a bit of intense 'housekeeping' in all of my tanks, just in case.

Thanks for the link, the more info regarding these the better.

[Mike_Strick]

Don't want to start a panic. They mostly stay put and certainly aren't the demonic, agressive monsters the press would have us believe. We have a couple of large adults in the kitchen skylights that show no signs of moving from their webs. However one produced an egg sac a while back and I was removing spiderlings from the kitchen for several days. I'm bound to have missed some. I think I'd just suggest keeping an eye on the corners behind tarantula tanks/shelves etc. Inside the tanks is a concern as they're so hard to spot (webbing in a spider tank is not unusual!) and I try and disturb my tarantulas as little as possible.

Hi Mike,

You're probably right about the Daily Mail, the overall risk of these S. Nobilis getting into the tanks of tarantulas is something to be aware of, and avoid, better safe than sorry.

Discovered a collection of these nesting behind an outside security light, over the weekend, about a foot from the patio door, so they've been sorted, as very easy access for them into the room. I've also started a bit of intense 'housekeeping' in all of my tanks, just in case.

Thanks for the link, the more info regarding these the better.