Deadly spiders invade gympie creepy crawlies on the move in region

Renee Pilcher

EVEN spiders are getting hot under the collar lately but Beenham Valley Road resident, Dianna Day-Stevens would prefer it if her suddenly frequent funnel web visitors found somewhere else to cool off.

At the moment they seem to have taken a fancy to her swimming pool and even seem to be able to stay alive under water, some of them in bubbles of air they have trapped.

Apparently the hot, humid weather gets the vicious looking critters all frisky and the males tend to go wandering, sometimes even under foot, looking for females.

Dianna says it is a risky business for the males, as the females often kill them, but she says the risk is no less real for humans like her and her family.

“I've got black mosaic tiles in the spa and you just can't see spiders if they're in there,” she said.

Dianna says she fished eight spiders out of her pool over the long weekend.

Gympie pest control expert Glenn Elsley, of Gold City Pest Services, says the often forested country to Gympie's east is not the only part of the region suffering an abundance of creatures we would rather be short of.

“There are ants and spiders everywhere at the moment,” he said yesterday.

“There are a lot of red backs around as well.

“It's probably the worst season for ants in years.

“Everything's on the move.

“There's not much around in the cooler months, but when it starts to warm up, things start getting active.

“Then comes the humidity. After Christmas and especially in January, we're flat strap.

“This is a very busy time of year for us,” he said. “Everything's on the march.”

Mr Elsley says he looks in hidden corners and up under window sills when called in to rid a home of pests.

“Mouse spiders are similar to funnel webs and are often mistaken for them They can give you a nasty bite as well, but funnel webs are more dangerous.”

Dianna's story follows that of Kristine and Larry Cook in nearby Kin Kin Road.

She says her Beenham Valley Road home is only a few kilometres through the forest from where the Cooks reported similar problems at the start of the month.

“My son's room is under the house and he found one walking across his bedroom floor.

“He's 14, but I've got a six-year-old as well.

“I haven't found the authorities too interested, but I had thought they would want to know, so they could keep statistics at least.”

And she says “they're not necessarily dead, just because they're in your swimming pool.

“They seem to get an air bubble and they can stay alive in the water.

“We've got a beautiful pool, but I think twice before using it now,” she said.

“There were eight in the pool on Friday and Saturday. Maybe they were hot and bothered, so they went for a dip.

"I've been living here for 10 years and I've never seen anything like this. Just all of a sudden, they're on the move.

"We live next to forest and they seem to come from there.”