Found two of these in our house today - they look like redbacks but all the photos I've found of redbacks on the internet, they don't have stripey legs like this one does.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Buzzy

The red "splodge" (that's a technical term ) would say to me that it's a red back - maybe the pale bits on the legs are because it's juvenile, or a female or something?

(Squash it anyway to be on the safe side! )

Looks like one to me.

It's a redback alright. Kill it! Unless of course you just want to take it outside somewhere and throw it in a bush. Personally I don't like to handle them

BTW, it's definitely female. The males are tiny little things and not even black.

not the males in our back garden, we have a couple of huge ones!
males dont usually have the red mark.

Males are usually very small - about a third of the size of females. They are also usually white and brown. Apparently their little jaws aren't man enough to bite us properly but I'm not going to test that theory out! We've had a few around the garden but they've never been a problem. Well........ they're all dead now.

and just when i'd forgotten about all those bloody spiders....

I do hope you used a zoom on the camera and you didn't get that close to it. They do look much better after they have been squashed. Sorry all insect lovers.

The last one I saw had the red stripes on the legs as well.....

As if I am not scared enough about my up coming move!! Good luck - and my opinion is the only good redback is a squashed redback.

Thanks for your help guys! I have dispatched both spiders. I suppose we should get a firm round to do a spray perhaps? Can anyone recommend one in Bayside Melbourne?

Thanks

Buzzy

Hi Simon

Get one of those insect bombs, set it off shut the door and walk out, hey presto everthing is dead when you come back an hour or so later

I suppose it is the insect version of being nuked

John

I used that Mortein Outdoors spray a while back, did the whole perimetre (spelling?) of the house, especially around the patio doors (and squirted extra in to the ventilation bricks, which are essentially little spider condos in my opinion!). The next day it was incredible how many ex-spiders had fallen out of their hideyholes and were dead on the path/patio! I did feel a little bad, as obviously most of them were probably not poisonous, and birds might eat them and get sick (probably not die? I hope) but at the end of the day I just don't want anyone to get bitten at my house.

I was going to go around the fence as well, which is a whole other spider apartment block (at the top, the bottom is a mosquito incubator) but my can of Mortein Outdoor ran out after I'd gone around the house. Moral of that story, is next time buy three cans to do the job properly!

God bless Mortein!

I paid $240 to have my house sprayed, inside and out, last August after I found a HUGE spider in my daugher's bedroom (which I'm sure wasn't dangerous, just scary!). We haven't seen as much as a house spider inside since so from my pov it was money very well spent. They reckon it lasts 9 months so I'll have it done again in April just to be on the safe side