Geordie George

A couple of days ago my three-year-old found a redback spider in the shed in the back garden. He knows to stay away, so got my husband who dispatched it. This afternoon I saw one in the garage, under the house, and took care of that. So I'm wondering whether we should be worried? We've not seen any redbacks and then two within days ... Are there likely to be more lurking? The one in the shed I'm not too concerned about, but the one under the house - does that mean there are likely to be more <gulp> in the house? Am I worrying about nothing or should I be getting the house sprayed? Thanking you muchly.

moneypenny20

I'd be getting the place sprayed. Nothing with more than four legs is allowed within yards of our place.

Swerv-o

Redbacks don't seem to venture into houses, so I suspect in the short term you will be safe. I get them in may garden - particularly in the wood shed - but I never see them in the house. I do have a few helpful Huntsmen keeping guard though...

I'd monitor the situation and see how it goes. It could just be coincidence. If you start to see lots on a regular basis, then maybe consider getting it sprayed.

How are you beyond the spiders? Catch up soon?


S

Geordie George

I'm getting better about the eight legged things. It's the ones with no legs that freak me out.

You could well be right. I might not even have spotted the one today, had it not been for the Gorilla seeing one t'other day.

We're off to Blighty on Monday. (So setting off a bomb or something could be an idea just before we leave. Give the place time to clear before we're back?) Back on the 28th and then I start uni again on 3rd March. But we will definitely have to catch up in early March. Seems like you have lots of news?! Let me know a date and we'll book it in. I'd say you'd be welcome up here, but we might be over-run with arachnids by then? How about a city catch up? I suspect I'll be glad to see Sydney again after a month with the outlaws.

jothefw

You would be very unlikely to see Redbacks inside - they like outsides, sheds, under flower pots, around downpipes, along fence posts etc

You can buy a product called Cislin from a Ag Merchant. You can then spray areas, depending on strength of solution it can last up to a year.

Or you could ring a Pest Control company and they usually charge approx. $200 to do the whole of an outside of a house. And obviously that'll help keep, flies, ants and all other sorts of creepies away (as would Cislin).

We tend to know where are ours are and just sweep away their cobwebs and perhaps do a little "mushing" as we go!

cresta57

We're the same. not seen them in the house but they are in the roof space & they are under the house. We usually spray once a year at Christmas while I'm off work. We didn't this year as we were in the U.K. Will have to make time as the cobwebs are building up.

Geordie George

Thanks, both, that's reassuring. At least the children have both demonstrated that they know to keep away from webs and tell a grown up (Miss Moo encountered a redback at preschool last year), so we'll not worry about it.

lesleys

They come out in warmer weather.

We have them in the roof space and they drop through the fan vents into the shower in summer. We spray, get sprayed professionally and we respray.

A very good reason for having light coloured tiles and floors.

Kapri

We had one yesterday in our outside entertaining area. OH took down a lantern holder to change the candle, and there it was

tartankoala

In 5 years I'd never seen one, then we moved into our current rental and its like Redback Central Station!

Little feckers seem to like congratulating on my garage door (worryingly right at the place where you put your hand to open/close it) and also at the steps at our patio door. Quick call to the agent and and we now get someone in to spray the house once every 6 months.

bitzenpces

We get the perimeter of the house sprayed every year when the termite inspection is done, seems to work.

sammax

We only get them in and around the garden and garage, but we do get the house sprayed every couple of years. Only one of the adults is poisonous, can't remember if it's the male or the female, but I don't take any chances and knock them on the head anyway.

lesleys

Females are the poisonous ones - really velvety black and red. Males are smaller, brown and red/orange, and harmless. They tend to descend on a thread and hover a few inches above the floor/surface.

We didn't see any for the first 8 years we were here.

Japonica

I'd just be careful about disrupting the spider balance in your garden. The first year we lived in Australia, everyone was telling us that we NEEDED to spray our garden and patio to keep spiders down so we brought in the pestie and did. I noticed on the day that it was mostly the black house spiders that were killed in the initial spray.

The next spring and summer, we had double if not triple the amount of red backs and hardly any black house spiders.

In our current house, the red backs seem to be along one fence only while the black house spiders have the other two fences. Same thing with the patio and pergola…black house spiders and yet to see a red back out there this year.

Maybe there's some sort of spider agreement over territory sharing, who knows. This is what we've experienced since we moved here, so I don't do whole garden sprays. If I find a single red back in a place where it might cause trouble, sure, it gets dispatched, but just in case the other local spider species are having some sort of deterrent effect, they can stay.

eddie007

I have more issues with things with 2 legs than with 8