It's the stuff of nightmares, spiders hiding in our shoes and creeping under our doors - but this time of the year in the Hunter is their favourite time of year.
Between December and through until even April, spiders are at their most active, out and about looking for a mate.
Funnel-web spiders, in particular, are most active now wandering into suburbia around the Hunter and south to Sydney. The most deadly is the Sydney funnel-web spider which is the one we're likely to stumble across from Newcastle and down south to the Illawarra region.
Dan Rumsey, Head of Reptiles, Spiders and Venom at the Australian Reptile Park said it's important to check in dark places, which are spiders favourite places.
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| Image reptilepark.com.au |
"What grandma told you about not tapping your shoes out, it's so important because if you think about a male funnel-web spider who is venturing around, your shoe just looks like a dark hole to burrow in and people have been bitten when they've put their shoe on."
Huntsman and red-back spiders are also quite active. Huntsman spiders are good to have around because they eat other spiders that might be hiding around your house. Red-back spiders are tricky though, hiding in dark spaces and under chairs and tables.
Despite living in a country where we have some of the most deadly snakes and spiders, we are lucky that if you do get bitten, a hospital isn’t too far away.
"I think the advantage is that we are in Australia where hospitals aren't too far away and you know you've got really effective and efficient anti-venom so your chances compared to other countries around the world, Australia has a very very small amount of spider and snake bite deaths every ten years, let alone every year," said Dan.
If you are bitten by a spider the most important thing to do is stay calm. Then it's essentially the same process as when you're bitten by a snake, you need to put pressure and a bandage on the area you were bitten and around the whole limb to slow down the lymphatic system from pumping the venom around your body.
Dan said it's so important to stay calm, get an ambulance and get to a hospital as fast as you can where you’ll be treated and you will survive.
“It’s just about making sure everyone understands the first aid treatment, getting pressure and a mobilisation bandage on the bite wounds and the limb and you’ll just increase your time dramatically when it comes to how the venom affects your body,”
“The most important thing is just respecting the animal, leaving them alone, don’t touch them and if you don’t touch them you really reduce your chances of being bitten,” said Dan.
