Rare Biting Wasp Spider Found in Canterbury Graden
Mum Cheryl Gauden was stunned when her son and his friends told her they had seen a spider that looked like a wasp hanging next to a trampoline in her Canterbury garden.
And she was even more amazed when she saw they were telling the truth and had spotted a large spider with yellow markings.
Quick thinking Cheryl managed to get it into a bottle and did some research to find she had captured – a venomous wasp spider.
She said: "The name the children gave it was all too accurate – I looked the words spider and wasp up on the Internet and found that was the correct name for the creature I had removed from my garden.
"When I saw it I just thought `I don't know what that is but it looks menacing.'
"So I bought it inside and could see its head it legs and its nasty fangs. I didn't know what to do.
"But I did find out it could bite and that was enough to get me very worried. After all it was there in its web next to a trampoline where a group of children were playing."
Kent Wildlife Trust passed on its advice on the subject via spider expert Greg Hitchcock.
He said: "The wasp spider came into this country in the last century from continental Europe and it was first recorded in 1922.
"In recent years – whether due to global warming or some other reason – it has been increasing in numbers."
The south east is the most common location for the species which saw a distinct upsurge in numbers in 2007 when they were spotted in East Anglia and parts of London.
Wasp spiders do not live in swarms and are not a protected species in the UK, although they are in parts of continental Europe including Belgium.
The bite of a wasp spider is compared by wildlife experts to that of a bumblebee sting.
They advise anyone seeing one to leave it alone.
"I hope my experience helps anyone else who may see something they don't understand in their garden," added Cheryl.
