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False Widow Rabbit Death?

How do you not notice five spiders in your rabbits hutch?!

I thikn 50% hype, 50% worry. *off to check for spiders* :oops:
 
I don't think we need to panic just yet. False widows are a shy species of spider who prefer to run rather than attack. No human deaths have been recorded as a result of a bite by one of these spiders. They usually cause minor swelling at the bite site.

I have moved a false widow spider from the rabbit shed a week or so ago and I think you should move them if you see them around rabbit accommodation. Dogs have been known to react badly to bites so we shouldn't risk it with other animals. But again we shouldn't panic. These spiders are more likely to run away than bite your rabbit.

The spiders are easily misidentified. Some people confuse the common garden spider for a false widow for example, and the woman identifying the spider from the internet does raise questions as to whether or not it was actually a false widow or one of the many species that look similar.

The man in the article talks about as having been in hospital form the bite probably suffered an allergic reaction.

There is no evidence to prove that these spiders killed the rabbit - where is the post mortem? there are several common diseases that can cause death in domestic rabbits remember.
 
There's a type of false widow known as the 'rabbit hutch spider'. So they're often found around buns. He's 98% certain eh? Is that based upon a PM or an over active imagination and media hype? There's a 99% chance it's a coincidence.
 
Yes, they are known to hang around in rabbit hutches and yet there are no deaths so far reported as being the fault of one of these spiders. Honestly everyone needs to stop worrying, they are not even large spiders. I am sure many people have thought that it was a garden spider hanging out in the hutch before.

Please everyone, don't listen to the media, do your own research (and not from the daily mail) we all know that the media has a habit of blowing things out of proportion :thumb:
 
I'm presuming (and could of course be wrong) but I'm guessing the environmental health officer has absolutely no background in rabbit care/health. Add to the that the spider was identified "via the internet". So what we have is the sudden death or a rabbit (which we know can have a variety of causes) and there being a spider near by. Show me an outdoor hutch without a spider within a few feet!
 
There's a type of false widow known as the 'rabbit hutch spider'. So they're often found around buns. He's 98% certain eh? Is that based upon a PM or an over active imagination and media hype? There's a 99% chance it's a coincidence.

This is what I think too.
 
Just more proof in my mind that spiders are evil and need to be destroyed. *shudder* I am terrified of spiders. I have come to peace with them in saying that if they are outside, they are fine. That is where they belong. But, once they invade my comfort zone, they need to die. Luckily, I have only had to kill two little ones by myself here in Korea, but in the States, I was always running and finding someone to kill them. I would freak out if I found a spider anywhere near my rabbit (Bojangles would probably find it funny.)
 
I am fairly certain we evicted one of these from the buns' shed earlier this year! It was funny 'cos OH isn't afraid of spiders at all - he'll just pick up massive house spiders no problem. But this one looked really odd and despite it being quite small he wouldn't touch it and went to get a cup. We'd never seen one before.

You'd think if they were responsible for killing rabbits then it would be much more common and the link would be commonly recognised - I guess there's no harm in evicting them just in case though.
 
What a load of utter balls, the Daily Fail have simply picked up on a new species to demonise, a few months ago it was snakes and now it's spiders. Ironic really given I imagine that many folk involved with the paper probably live under rocks themselves. :evil:
 
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I've yet to see a medically prove case of a rabbit being killed by a spider but we've all sadly seen cases of rabbits being killed by flies. As the spiders are giving my buns an extra layer of protection then I welcome them into our garden personally!
 
A load of rubbish BUT made me think if it could have anything to do with my completely unexplained guinea pig deaths. I doubt it but to be honest I didn't check the hutch afterwards.

:?
 
I've yet to see a medically prove case of a rabbit being killed by a spider but we've all sadly seen cases of rabbits being killed by flies. As the spiders are giving my buns an extra layer of protection then I welcome them into our garden personally!

I don't know what a false widow spider is but we once had a rabbit die where the vet thought a spider bite or similar was the cause. It took him several days to die and it is one of the most upsetting things we have ever dealt with :cry: This is his thread but some of the pics are nasty. I am in tears just looking through it again and it happened 5 years ago :cry:

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...Charlie-UD-26th-am-Hes-gone&highlight=charlie
 
WARNING : SPIDER IMAGES BELOW - thought I should put that because I know some people have phobias





















false-widow-forums-124902-1.jpg


Image from the natural history museum

This shows the false widows - the mostly harmless "rabbit hutch spider" on the top left and the species of false widow the media is claiming to be dangerous on the bottom left (note skull like markings on body) together with some of the spiders commonly misidentified as a false widow.

I am sorry to hear about your rabbit Hugos There, it does sound like it was horrible to witness. But it still seems rare. I think we should all be aware of the fact that they can deliver a bite that is rather like a bee sting and learn how to identify the spider so we can move them if we see them, but rabbit deaths still seem to be very rare and no proven cases as such.

In all honesty the only time they are likely to be dangerous is if the person or animal it bites has an allergic reaction (so not unlike wasps really) we can never eliminate all risks, just take note of things like this and make your own decisions
 
What's the one on the bottom right? Looks very much like the one I saw today. If there's one good thing that's come out of this media hype, it's that I'm quite interested in spider ID now, and I'm much less fearful of them now. (Except the big ones, they still scare the :censored: out of me!) When I saw one in an outbuilding today I didn't freak out, I had a good stare at him to see what the markings on his back were. And he was eating some kind of mosquito type bug, which was interesting.

Are you good at spider ID Catpud? If I post a photo could you help ID one?
 
sorry posted wrong - bottom right is the false widow causing the hype - bottom left is a missing sector orb weaver - I must have looked at the skull and posted - the noble false widow does have skull like markings on it's back often but it can be broken. But as you can see so do the orb weavers sometimes and easily confused. :oops: If you look at the shape of the head section they are a bit different

I am not brilliant at spider ID, to many look incredibly similar and in some cases it is about body section sizes and hairs etc.

I can give it a go, I can normally ID common species but when it comes to rarer spiders or one's that look similar I am often stuck
 
There seem to be so many variations of the same species, and I don't know if all the photos coming up on Google are correctly labelled, so it's difficult! I'm not sure if colour, markings, size etc. is the thing to look for when IDing them.

I think this is a lace webbed spider, but I'm not sure:



(It's not as big as the photo makes it look! :shock:)
 
Yes, the number of obviously different spiders all labelled as false windows on internet articles doesn't really fill you with confidence on anyone correctly Id-ing them.
 
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