Overview

• Experts advise keeping windows shut day and night over the next four weeks to block male false widow spiders during peak mating activity.
• Recommended preventive measures include weekly cleaning of glass and frames, sealing visible gaps or cracks and using vinegar-based deterrent sprays.
• False widows, regarded as the UK’s most venomous spiders by reputation, can inflict bites that cause burning pain, swelling, nausea and occasional allergic reactions.
• Male spiders become active in August and invade homes through open windows, vents and cracks as they search for mates, drawn by debris-rich surfaces ideal for web-building.
• The noble false widow arrived from the Canary Islands in the late 1800s, established in southern England in the 1980s and has since spread northward across the UK.