Cities most likely to have their home invaded
It’s that time of year again. A time when eight-legged creatures venture into our homes seeking out warm and dry places to survive.
Following the recent news giant house spiders ‘the size of your hand’ will be invading homes across the UK this autumn, and in the build-up to Halloween, SellHouseFast.uk wanted to look into the spiders and their allies (chernes, ticks…etc.) that could invade our homes and which part of the UK is most likely to be hit the hardest.
To do this, SellHouseFast compiled a list of UK cities and utilised the ‘Explore Your Area’ tool on NBN Atlas to find out how many species of spiders (and allies) were recorded in 67 cities in the UK (within a 10km radius of the city centre).*
The Results
MOST LIKELY
The city most in danger of having homes invaded by spiders, according to SellHouseFast, is Leicester, with 228 different species recorded.
Following shortly behind is the city of St Davids in Wales, with 209 different spiders (and allies) species recorded. In third place is Swansea, with 196 recorded.
In fourth place is Westminster, with 183 different spider species recorded, and in fifth place is the City of London, with 178 recorded.
In sixth place is the city of Norwich, with 168 species of spiders and allies recorded, in seventh place is Canterbury, with 162, and in eighth place is St Asaph with 142 recorded.
In ninth place is Chester, with 118 species of spider and allies recorded, and in tenth place is the city of Gloucester with 108 recorded.
LEAST LIKELY
The city least likely to have their homes invaded by creepy crawlies is the city of Hereford, with only 3 species of spiders and allies currently recorded.
The second city least likely to have their homes invaded is Dundee, with only 4 recorded species. In third place is Preston, with only 9 currently recorded.
The Highlights
In Leicester the Araneus Diadematus, also known as the Garden Spider, was recorded 269 times by the All Taxa Records for Leicestershire and Rutland. Although extremely rare, they have been reported to occasionally bite when aggravated.
According to the data resource IRecord Surveys, there is currently one recorded species of the Argiope Bruennichi, better known as the Wasp Spider, in the City of London. Although these prickly creatures are capable of biting, they are not a serious risk to humans.
According to the Welsh Invertebrate Database, the Argyroneta Aquatica, commonly known as the Water Spider, were found to reside in St Asaph. Although only known to bite when mishandled, the bite has been notably compared to a bee sting.
