Spider control — and how to tell which spider you’ve found

Which spider is it? Sydney’s seven common species

Most spiders you find around the house are harmless. A couple are genuinely medically significant. Here's how to tell them apart.

Huntsman

Big, flat, fast and hairy, often on walls, behind curtains or tucked behind the car sun visor. Alarming to find, but harmless — huntsmans aren't aggressive and their bite is minor. They actually eat other insects. More on them below.

Redback

Small black spider with the red or orange stripe on the back of the abdomen. Builds a messy web in dry, sheltered spots — under outdoor furniture, in letterboxes, on pot rims and around the barbecue. Redbacks are medically significant. Bites are painful and can make you unwell, so treat them seriously.

Sydney funnel-web

Glossy black, robust and ground-dwelling. Males wander in warm, humid weather and can end up in the house, the garage or a pool. Funnel-webs are dangerous and a bite is a medical emergency. If one is inside, don't handle it — see the first-aid note below.

White-tail

Slim, dark grey-brown, with a pale spot at the tip of the abdomen. A roaming hunter that comes indoors and shelters in clothing and bedding. Bites happen, but despite the reputation the evidence does not support white-tails causing serious skin ulcers.

Wolf spider

Brown and patterned, a ground hunter often in lawns and gardens and sometimes indoors. Fast-moving, and the female carries her young on her back. The bite is minor for most people.

Mouse spider

Stocky and black, sometimes with a reddish head. Ground-dwelling and easily mistaken for a funnel-web. Bites are uncommon and usually mild, but because it can be confused with a funnel-web, treat any unknown black ground spider with caution.

Trapdoor spider

Brown and stout, living in a burrow in the garden, and another one often mistaken for a funnel-web. Generally placid, with a minor bite. If it's a lidded burrow in the lawn, it's far more likely a trapdoor than anything dangerous.

Are huntsman spiders dangerous?

No. Huntsman spiders look frightening — some span the width of your hand — but they're not dangerous to people. They're not venomous in any medically significant way, they'd rather flee than bite, and a bite (rare, and usually only if the spider is pinned) causes minor local pain at most. They're a beneficial predator that keeps other insects down. If one's inside and you'd rather it wasn't, a container and a piece of card puts it back in the garden. A general spider treatment reduces the webbing spiders they hunt, which tends to move huntsmans on too.

Do funnel-webs live in the Sutherland Shire?

Yes. The Sutherland Shire sits in Sydney funnel-web country, and the bushland suburbs — Engadine, Menai, Oatley and anywhere backing onto a reserve — are where you're most likely to meet one. Males wander after rain in the warmer months and turn up in garages, laundries, pools and the odd shoe left outside. This isn't a reason to panic; it's a reason to be sensible. Wear gloves in the garden, don't leave shoes outdoors, shake out anything left on the ground, and check the pool skimmer box.

Spider bite first aid

For a suspected funnel-web or mouse spider bite, apply a pressure immobilisation bandage — firm, over the bite and up the limb — keep the person still, and call 000 immediately; funnel-web bites are treatable with antivenom but need urgent care. For a redback bite, do not use a pressure bandage; apply a cold pack for the pain and seek medical advice, as symptoms can build over hours. If anyone has trouble breathing, call 000. The Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26. This is general first-aid guidance, not a substitute for medical advice.

What a spider treatment does — and doesn’t do

An honest word on this. A spider treatment is a residual spray applied to the outside of the house — eaves, window frames, fences, the subfloor and around doors — where webbing spiders build. It knocks down and deters the web-builders and the spiders that walk across the treated surfaces. What it doesn't do is clear ground-dwellers like funnel-webs, trapdoors and mouse spiders, which live in burrows and don't cross sprayed surfaces the same way. For those, the answer is habitat management — reducing harbourage, sealing gaps, and being careful in the garden — which we'll walk you through. We'd rather tell you that than sell you a spray that can't deliver.

Price and what’s included

Spider control is covered by our general pest treatment, from $189 for a standard home — external residual treatment of eaves, fences, the perimeter and subfloor, plus the internal cockroach and ant coverage that comes with it. It's the same treatment that targets webbing spiders around the house, and it's backed by our Return & Re-treat Guarantee. Backing onto bushland in Engadine, Menai or Oatley? That's exactly the setting where an annual external treatment earns its keep. See the rest of our residential services, or if you're also seeing ants, we'll treat them on the same visit.