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The deadly cousin of the black widow has reached EVERY PART of southern Britain and the species is fast spreading north into Wales and the midlands.

Warmer temperatures mean the venomous arachnids - by far the most poisonous spider on our shores - are breeding faster than ever before.

And there has been an explosion of sightings in the last 48 HOURS as far north as Birmingham.

IT worker Dan Bagley from Guildford, Surrey said he had seen more than THIRTY false widows in his garden.

He said: "Once you know what to look for they are fairly easy to spot.

"The webs can be spotted easily as they are shaped like a hammock.

"They move very quickly because they hide. I saw a fly land and then the spider nip out, kill it, and nip back in again.

"I have been doing a lot of work in the garden and I just started spotting them everywhere.

"The females are much smaller, but I have seen some pretty big ones as well."

Decorator Andy Pitty from Dartford in Kent has counted a staggering FIFTY of the spiders at his home.

The 43-year-old said: "An expert told me he was surprised they were in the garden and not in the house so I’m just worried about them coming in for warmth.

"I had seen a couple of babies so knew they had young. I went out with my torch one night and the fence was coming to life.

"I caught one and I’m sure it was a male. I put it in a glass with one of the baby spiders and it just killed it within seconds."

The spiders, which have a distinctive 'white skull' on their backs will only bite if they feel threatened.

Although most people will only suffer localised pain and swelling, the bite may trigger an extreme allergic reaction - an anaphylactic shock - in some, which could prove fatal.

One dad told how he was horrified to see a false widow crawling towards his six-month-old baby Ethan.

David Banks, who has a keen interest in arachnids, saw the 'fearsome looking beast' and moved swiftly before the spider could get near the tot.

Mr Banks, from Blackheath in south London, said: "I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a spider crawling towards the baby.

"I had the hairs on the back of my neck up.

"It is a fearsome-looking beast with a skull on its back.

"It did make me a bit worried when I saw it, especially when I trapped it and saw the markings."

He added: "You don’t often see spiders of that size in this country and looking like that.

"My rule of thumb is – anything with a nasty looking marking on the back is making a point."

The British Arachnological Society said the false widow - Latin name Steatoda Nobilis - is now 'extremely abundant' in some places.

The vast majority of sightings have been in outbuildings, sheds and houses although many have also been spotted in parks and gardens.

Alex Michael, 36, also from Kent, told the Daily Star last week how his hand "swelled like a balloon" after being bitten by a false widow.

He initially had blood tests and x-rays at both Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, as experts desperately tried to find out what was wrong.

He said: "If they bite a young kid of an elderly person who hasn’t got a great metabolism it could be quite dangerous."

The purple and black spiders have an abdomen the size of a 1p piece.

They eat insects, other invertebrates and even other spiders.

Female false widows lay up to 120 eggs at a time and experts claim their numbers in Britain have surged because of global warming.

Environmentalist Matt Shardlow, of conservation charity Buglife, said: "Climate change may have helped.

"The species would have also adapted and evolved to cope with the colder weather.”

Have YOU seen a false widow spider?

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