Hot and Bothered Australian Spiders Head Indoors
Date: 14-Feb-05
Country: AUSTRALIA
Scienists say Australia's hot, humid and wet summer has had a bad effect on common, but potentially deadly, redback spiders.
Normally found in outdoor sheds, gardens and under roofs, the cantankerous creepy-crawlies are seeking shelter indoors in tropical Queensland and New South Wales, two of Australia's biggest states.
"There has been rain and winds which push falling leaves into the roof gutters, destroying their web. This leaves them no other option but to come down into the house," said Queensland Museum arachnologist Robert Raven.
Bites have been recorded at a rate of one a day, he said.
A female redback's bite usually results in sweating and pain, which slowly builds to the point of being unbearable.
No deaths from redback bites have been reported in Queensland since the introduction of an anti-venom.
The redback is one of the most common of Australia's seemingly endless supply of poisonous pests. A distant cousin of the American black widow, it is distinguished by a red stripe on the shiny black, thumbnail-sized body of the larger female.
Scientists describe the redback's existence as "amoral" because of their unique mating behaviour in which males give themselves up to the deadly females to be killed and eaten after mating.
"It's all about foreplay. If he doesn't have the moves, she's not going to be interested," said Sydney Taronga Zoo exhibit supervisor Warrick Angus, who said he kept a redback as a pet.
