An observant resident, Chantalle le Roux of Wilro Park made a creepy discovery in Steinmann Road.
She has noticed button spiders and their nests in most of the corners of the wall of a block of apartments.
Le Roux is concerned about the presence of her arachnid neighbours because they are poisonous.
The Record could establish that these particular spiders are brown button spiders of the Latrodectus genus. There are approximately six Latrodectus species found in Southern Africa of which four are black in colour and two are brown. All are venomous to man, although the brown ones less so, and if bitten the victim must regard it as a medical emergency because it can be fatal to children, and to ill or infirm adults.
However, the body mass of a healthy adult usually is sufficient to dilute the venom to less than a fatal concentration.
Although rarely fatal, the bite often is incredibly painful and medical attention is recommended following any Latrodectus species bite, as medical complications possibly can occur.
As far as humans are concerned, being bitten by these spiders feels like a pinprick. Nausea, aching muscles and paralysis of the diaphragm resulting in shortness of breath are some of the major symptoms of a button spider bite.
They usually are found outdoors or in garages and sheds, frequently near buildings and therefore also are a threat to pets.
Signs that your pet might have been bitten include numbness surrounding the bite site, restlessness, muscle pain, muscle rigidity –particularly the abdominal muscles, seizures, increased heart rate, laboured breathing that usually is rapid and shallow, weakness of the limbs and paralysis. Dogs do respond well to swift treatment.
Maintaining a clean, web-free environment in and around your house is necessary to prevent these spiders from making your house their home.
No need to spread such information.
Firstly, the spider in your picture is not a brown button spider, but rather a completely harmless false house button spider (Theridion sp.) These are very common in and around houses, and pose no threat to people, whether they are young, old, sick or healthy.
Secondly, the fact that spiders have venom and not poison (Venom is injected through fangs, stings, etc whereas poison is ingested)shows how much research was actually done in this article.
Brown button spiders (L.geometricus) are found around human habitation though and as the author says, they are medically significant, but very rarely life threatening. In fact, no deaths from spider venom has been recorded for many decades in South Africa. These spiders are very shy and immediately hide away when bothered. If they are then further pestered, they roll into a little ball and fall to the ground. If still bothered they usually make a run for it and if then picked up, they would consider biting. This is a last ditch effort to chase away the attacker (As it is a big waste of venom which has been developed to subdue prey and not affect people), and as I have said, the venom is not deadly and as long as the bite site is kept clean and the patient is monitored, there is very often no other cause for concern.
Spiders rebuild their webs, so breaking it down will not keep these away. Many of us live blissfully next to these (And have done so for many years) and have never seen them around, so best just to continue living your life as you are now. Surely there are more dangers to worry about in the world than a bunch of arachnids that control the population of roaches and crickets.
As Ruan says, there is no reason for this article, especially not linked to a specific road.
The spiders are common and hardly a threat. They do a decent job of controlling the population of other insects.
Chantelle le Roux is definitely not very observant and both she and the so-called journalist are not qualified to make any statement regarding the habits of spiders. The journalist should correct the misleading article. If this is the general quality of journalism on this news page, I hope readers stop supporting it.
My son told me a week ago that a lady lost 250 spiders at Kilburn Shopping Centre