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davieG

Scared of Spiders?

By davieG, in General Chat

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davieG

davieG

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A Merc Special - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/leicester-officially-named-spider-capital-4580755

 

Perhaps Leicester is not the place for you.

 

Leicester officially named as the spider capital of the UK
We have more varieties of the creepy crawlies than any other city


ByDave Owen
15:20, 7 OCT 2020UPDATED15:48, 7 OCT 2020
NEWS

It might be time for unfortunate arachnophobes to climb up on a chair, sit shivering in a cold sweat or run out of the house screaming.

That's because Leicester has been unveiled by researchers as the spider capital of the UK!

A study into our eight-legged 'friends' invited people across the length and breadth of the land to monitor the notorious home invaders.

The findings don't make good reading - with Leicester identified as the place where residents recorded more run-ins with our famous nemesis than any other.

 

The bottom line is the city boasts 228 different species of spiders - and their allies - 19 more than our closest rival.

Using data from The National Biodiversity Network (NBN), the UK's largest collection of 'biodiversity information' and curator of 235 million wildlife records, along with data collected from other sources between September 29 and 30th, 2020, the 'house of horrors' table was compiled by property company - SellHouseFast.uk.

 

A spokesperson for the research team said: "It’s that time of year again, when eight-legged creatures venture into our homes seeking out warm and dry places to survive.

"Following the recent news giant house spiders ‘the size of your hand’ will be invading homes across the UK this autumn, and in the build-up to Halloween, we wanted to look into the spiders and their allies (chernes and ticks…etc.) that could invade our homes and which part of the UK is most likely to be hit the hardest.

"To do this, we compiled a list of UK cities using the ‘Explore Your Area’ tool on NBN Atlas to find out how many species of spiders were recorded within a 10km radius of 67 city cities in the UK.

"And the city most in danger of having homes invaded by spiders is Leicester, with 228 different species recorded."

 

They added: "Following shortly behind is the city of St Davids in Wales, with 209 different spiders (and allies) species recorded. In third place is Swansea, with 196 recorded.

"In fourth place is Westminster, with 183 different spider species recorded, and in fifth place is the City of London, with 178 recorded."

In sixth place is Norwich, where 168 species of spiders and allies were recorded, while in seventh place is Canterbury, with 162, and in eighth place St Asaph, in North Wales, with 142 recorded.



In ninth place is Chester, which counted 118 species of spider and allies. Gloucester recorded 108 species and rounds off the creepy crawly top ten.

The city least likely to have its homes invaded by creepy crawlies is the city of Hereford, with only 3 species of spiders and allies currently recorded.

The second city least likely to have close encounters with spiders is Dundee, where only four species were recorded. In third place is Preston, with only nine currently recorded.

Researchers for SellHouseFast.uk also found that the Araneus Diadematus, also known as the Garden Spider, was recorded 269 times by the All Taxa Records for Leicestershire and Rutland.


The spokesperson said: "Although extremely rare, they have been reported to occasionally bite when aggravated.

"While, according to the data resource IRecord Surveys, there is currently one recorded species of the Argiope Bruennichi, better known as the Wasp Spider, in the City of London.

"Although these prickly creatures are capable of biting, they are not a serious risk to humans."

The Welsh Invertebrate Database, the Argyroneta Aquatica, commonly known as the Water Spider, were found to reside in St Asaph.

Although only known to bite when mishandled, the bite has been notably compared to a bee sting.

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Kopfkino

Kopfkino

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9 minutes ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Funnily enough, since I’ve been living in Australia where there are spiders that can actually do you some harm, I don’t have quite the same irrational fear of them that I remember having in the Uk.

 

Yeah it's now rational

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Manini

Manini

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I have absolutely no shame in saying I’m absolutely petrified of spiders and think it probably does boarder slightly on being a phobia. Does anybody know if there’s ever been any research as to why people get so scared of them? I don’t think it’s the thought of them potentially being dangerous, because I quite like snakes and I’ve held one before and they’re probably, in a way, more dangerous. I’d google it myself but that would probably mean having to look at an image of a spider and I’d have to click off the page and I just cba with it. 

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StanSP

StanSP

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23 minutes ago, Manini said:

I have absolutely no shame in saying I’m absolutely petrified of spiders and think it probably does boarder slightly on being a phobia. Does anybody know if there’s ever been any research as to why people get so scared of them? I don’t think it’s the thought of them potentially being dangerous, because I quite like snakes and I’ve held one before and they’re probably, in a way, more dangerous. I’d google it myself but that would probably mean having to look at an image of a spider and I’d have to click off the page and I just cba with it. 

Haha this is literally me lol

 

Hate spiders. Hate having to take them out. Hoover always comes in handy. Not sure why my fear of them started and when it did so. But I've also held a snake and I quite liked the adrenaline of it all.

 

The thought of them scurrying around in the house I hate. And it's worse when you see them and they then go out of sight. 

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shen

shen

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Quite like spiders. They useful and fascinating. 

3 hours ago, Manini said:

I have absolutely no shame in saying I’m absolutely petrified of spiders and think it probably does boarder slightly on being a phobia. Does anybody know if there’s ever been any research as to why people get so scared of them? I don’t think it’s the thought of them potentially being dangerous, because I quite like snakes and I’ve held one before and they’re probably, in a way, more dangerous. I’d google it myself but that would probably mean having to look at an image of a spider and I’d have to click off the page and I just cba with it. 

That's not 'slightly bordering on', that's pretty much phobia you're describing ;) Quite like spiders myself, they're useful and fascinating. As long as their webs are not inconveniently placed or they crawl on my face at night or in the car, we're cool.

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deejdeej

deejdeej

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I used to get rid of them when I saw them in the house until I realised how useful they are when it comes to catching and eating more annoying insects. But how can people be scared of spiders and not mind snakes! Hate those slithery b******s, thankfully they don't roam my house so freely :D

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kingcarr21

kingcarr21

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8 hours ago, Red Squirrel said:

Forget Foxrstalk, I can see it now Spiderstalk... it's got legs don't you think? Imagine the web of intrigue on there

Queens Park in Glasgow is called The Spiders. They used to be amateur until 2019

Don't think anyone wants to stalk a spider lol 

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Manini

Manini

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10 hours ago, StanSP said:

Haha this is literally me lol

 

Hate spiders. Hate having to take them out. Hoover always comes in handy. Not sure why my fear of them started and when it did so. But I've also held a snake and I quite liked the adrenaline of it all.

 

The thought of them scurrying around in the house I hate. And it's worse when you see them and they then go out of sight. 

Worst thing in the world when they disappear in your house! Puts me on edge. 
 

We were cleaning my mrs’ grandads garden out a few weeks ago, there were a few paving slabs lying up against the wall in the section I was clearing. I went through all the old bits of wood that was in front of them with my gloves on and thought **** I bet there’s loads of mad insects living in here. I went to move one of these paving slabs and I lifted it up and looked at the side that had been facing the wall and I’m not joking you there was a spider on there that was bigger than my bastard hand and it was just glaring at me. I swung this slab round and chucked it as far away as I could, could have taken somebody out if they were stood behind me. I legged it and refused to do any more it completely nocked me for 6 lol Somebody else picked the slab up after to look at it but it’d obviously ran off in to another part of the garden. Horrendous. 

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