Forest Of Dean: Spiders Shut School

22 October 2013, 16:40 | Updated: 23 October 2013, 11:59

False Widow Spiders In MK

An entire school in the Forest of dean is shutting on Wednesday 23rd October 2013 because of an outbreak of false widow spiders.

The Dean Academy will be shut while its buildings are fumigated.

A statement said the school "had identified an issue with false widow spiders" in several buildings including ICT rooms.

The spiders are currently plaguing parts of England and said to spreading across the country into Scotland - leaving dozens of people injured.

Parents were sent a letter from vice principal Craig Burns saying:

"We have identified an issue with false widow spiders in the academy in our ICT block and therefore took immediate advice from pest control.
We therefore made the decision to close the ICT block for the whole of today so that pest control could fumigate the area.
Unfortunately, during this afternoon there have been further false widow spiders identified in other areas of the academy.
We have taken advice from the Health and Safety unit at Gloucestershire Local Authority and C & D Pest Control, Chepstow and have taken the decision to close the academy all day on Wednesday 23rd October 2013.
This will enable pest control to fumigate every area in the academy and ensure everyone's health and safety.
The Health and Safety unit and pest control feel that we have dealt with the matter quickly and efficiently and taken appropriate early action.
There have been no reports of anyone being bitten by the false widow spiders at the academy but if you have any concerns please seek medical advice.
Any pre-planned meetings, sports fixtures or extra-curricular activities will not take place.
The academy will be open as normal on Thursday 24th October 2013.
Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you but I'm sure you will understand that this is in the best interest of students’ health and safety."

The false widow (Steatoda nobilis) is about the size of a 50p coin and is the most dangerous of the 12 species of biting spider known in Britain.

However, Conservation charity Buglife have published a new webpage packed with information about the false widow spider to allay growing fears over the danger of this slow moving arachnid.

The majority of British spiders could not bite you if they tried because their fangs are too small or weak to be able to penetrate human skin. Even if one of the larger spiders does manage to bite you, the symptoms are usually like a pin prick or milder than a wasp or bee sting and do not last long. Most large spiders are not inclined to bite a human - you can handle hundreds of large house or garden spiders and never get bitten.

Paul Hetherington, Director of Communications at Buglife, said:

"The hysteria growing around false widow spiders has fed underlying public fears of arachnids leading to mass misidentification and the persecution of many common house and garden species. We hope that these web pages will help the public to be more at ease with the helpful spiders that are an essential part of our ecosystem". 

The notorious Noble false-widow (Steatoda nobilis) does indeed have a more venomous bite than other British species. It injects a neurotoxin which may cause localised pain, minor swelling, and in extreme cases nausea within a few hours (but not days). Symptoms then fade away. There are no proven cases where the Noble false-widow has caused death, coma or permanent injury. Its neurotoxins do not result in ‘necrosis' i.e. the gangrene-like infections described in the media - this results from a bacterial infection which could come from any source including scratching a mosquito bite, scratch or splinter wound with dirty fingers. Females of the Noble false-widow spider are notably sluggish, ponderous, solitary and non-aggressive, they will never run or jump at you in an aggressive manner as some people have described.

While an allergic reaction to a spider bite is theoretically possible, this has never been recorded, even in people who are allergic to bee or wasp stings. There is no proven link between spider bites and bacterial infection and there are still no confirmed cases of serious injury resulting directly from the bite of a native spider in Britain.