More venomous false widow spiders spotted in Shropshire

Eight false widow spiders – Britain's most venomous arachnid – were found, sparking fears there could be many in the county.

The spiders are no bigger than a 20p piece, but have the worst bite out of every species in the UK. They were spotted in Sundorne, Shrewsbury by Karen Burgoyne's son, 17-year old Jamie.

Now Shane Wheeldon, from Dawley, has captured a spider in his house and said: "It looks like they have made it to Telford."

Harry Sheehan from Shrewsbury said his granddaughter, Kelly Parkes, saw one crawling on a cuddle blanket of her two year old son, Findlay.

"They killed it but they were a bit worried about what would have happened if it had bitten him," he said.

The false widow population is spreading fast across the south west and further north due to the warmer temperatures.

Star comment:

There have been an increasing number of sightings of Britain's most venomous spiders in Shropshire.

Following on from the eight false widow spiders spotted in Shrewsbury, there has been another potential sighting in the county town, and one in Dawley.

Experts say that the false widows, the bite of which can trigger a fatal allergic reaction – not that we're trying to spread alarm or panic or anything – are now "extremely abundant" in some places.

The probable upshot of all this is that even more totally harmless spiders than usual are going to be killed by terrified householders.

Let us put things into perspective. This is not exactly a recurrence of the Black Death. And there are countries all around the world in which many millions of people live side by side with a whole range of deadly spiders, insects, scorpions, snakes, lions, and tigers. And we have not even got on to exotic tropical diseases yet.

On the bright side, you could argue that this sort of thing heightens the living experience.

Global warming will bring many changes to Britain and we may as well start getting used to them now.