False Widow Spiders
In Flies, Pests, PestUK Customer Information, Stories from the Pest Control team
False Widow Spiders, Pest Control Contract & Thorid Flies:
Recently we have had numerous enquiries regarding Steatoda nobilisvor False Widow Spiders. Most of these calls are just people panicking due to the media coverage. A few customers actually book up a treatment. Spider treatments are not unusual. Even though spiders are actually good to have in a house and garden (they kill flies) many people are frightened of them and due to this we carry out spider treatments. This involves applying a residual insecticide to walls, ceilings and around windows. This type of treatment is quite common in North America and Australia.
When I sent of the spider specimen to our lab to confirm its identity, I also sent a fly specimen for id. This turned out to be be a type of Thorid fly. the customer actually was having a rat problem in the sewer and these flies probably originated there and the repairs to the sewer to prevent rat access into the house may have opened up access to the house to the flies or the flies may have been using the same route as the rats into the building. This is the more likely scenario. There are many types of Thorid Flies but one species is called the Filter or Sewage Fly due to its habit of breeding on sewage filter beds.
This week we have won a contract at a large independent hotel in Reading, Berkshire. This is for rodents and bed bugs. We started another rat job at a very popular restaurant in the centre of Reading. This restaurant was over run with rats. I don’t really know how it stays open. A visit from an EHO would close it but the owners are very relaxed about it. I don’t think they realise that the place would get shut down in an inspection occurred.
