How To Keep False Widow Spiders Away

There have been more reports in the UK of 'False Widow Spiders' causing nasty reactions needing hospital treatment. This interests me as I have had an infestation of these spiders for years now. Or had, I managed to reduce the population right down and now only have small ones.

My adventure started one night at 3am when I had an argument with my partner about what I thought were black widow spiders. (I had seen some in our shed earlier in the day and he did not believe me.) It was playing on my mind all night, hence the 3am argument. I actually took him out to the shed and showed him some of the spiders, he agreed that they sure looked like Black Widows.

The next day I captured some and sent pics to my mum who lectures in Biology, there is another lecturer who has an interest in spiders and he identified them as 2 types of false widow spider. Stetadoa Nobilis and Stedadoa Grossa. I am talking about the female spiders as these are the ones that bite and look gross. The males are sleeker, smaller, and actually nice friendly beings.


Stedadoa Grossa looks just like the Black widow, but has no red markings, I have seen them in my shed the size of grapes. These ones don't seem to be causing people problems and most of the bites I have read about are from Stetadoa Nobilis which is a browner red color with white markings.

I had to take drastic action to get rid of these spiders as I actually had an infestation of false widows. I found 30 spiders of them in one room when I started looking for them, and many more inside cupboards and even in the corner of every canvas I had. I have hundreds of Canvases as I am an artist.

One night my boyfriend got bitten by a false widow, on his butt. The bite was awful, swollen, painful, and still weeping fluid after a week. It was war!

How To Keep False Widow Spiders Away 

First thing I did was get a lot of conkers (horse chestnut) and throw them behind every piece of furniture that I have, I changed all my bedding for light colors (spiders seemed to be attracted to the dark bedding for some reason) I also researched herbs that spiders don't like and made up a mixture from tea tree oil, and mint.

Spiders do not like the smell of tea tree oil, I experimented and the spider would not go on the places I had sprayed. (you can also use tea tree shower gel mixed with water as a spray, which will repel spiders, but it wears off quicker than the tea tree oil.)

I sprayed tea tree oil under my bed, around the outside of my rooms, inside cupboards, and on the window sills.

False widow spiders are tiny when they are babies, the female only has to mate once in her life, but can lay eggs repeatedly from then on. A good way to stop babies coming in is to fill any cracks in the woodwork, windows, or around the edges of rooms. - I used builders caulk, you can get this very cheaply in Poudland and it works like a charm, the less cracks you have the less spiders you will have.

I strew herbs under my bed too, I use mint and corriander. The corriander is not a proven remedy, I just thought if widow spiders hate mint, they must really hate corriander.

The best way that I recommend to keep false widow spiders away is to introduce some daddy long legs spiders, these will get rid of all of the false widows really quickly.

I have been studying daddy long legs spiders, and they are not really a spider at all, they have different eyes and teeth. So I try to tell myself this when I see mine hanging around. They aparantly don't bite humans and are the best way to get rid of other more harmful spiders, in a natural way.

I only have a light scattering of very small baby false widows in my house now, but I am still finding them in boxes and hidden places, I think this is why more people are getting bitten, you put your hand in a box not expecting a spider to be in there, and from what I have read the baby false widow has the same strength of poison as the adult.

What Is A False Widow Bite Like?

 The swelling around the bite area was about 5cm in diameter, the site of the bite was very inflamed, weeping fluid, and my partner said it felt like a wasp sting.

False widows do tend to keep themselves to themselves and don't go wandering around much, unless they cannot get food where they have made their webs, then they will move to a new spot and try that.

They like to get into places where they are undisturbed, this includes inside shoes, inside packing boxes, inside furniture, corners of paintings, and inside tiny cracks in the windows.

The best way to get rid of false widow spiders is to make your house as uncluttered as possible so they have nowhere to hide, fill all the cracks in woodwork and walls, and get some daddy long legs spiders which will find and kill all of them - they are awesome.

Ironically after mentioning how I got rid of my false widow infestation I have found a medium sized one on my kitchen ceiling, it has layed eggs and is now guarding it's egg sack. As a false widow only has to mate once to be able to lay eggs perpetually I will have to remove it from my house asap and kill the egg sack with boiling water.

I try not to kill spiders if I can, but if I need to a spray made from tea tree oil, or tea tree shower gell will not only keep other spiders away, it will also kill spiders stone dead and is much quicker and looks less torturous that poisonous bug spray. I tried bug spray once but It made the spiders writhe in agony and I couldn't bear it. Fairy liquid also breaks down soft bodied insects and bugs and is an effective weapon.