HOME       Family Pages     Computer Help     Story List     Making Pictures     All Pages

Eradication of redback spiders?

Previous | Next | Thumbnails

Side view of upside-down redback spider

Side view of upside-down redback spider

After mating, the female spider produces, over time, about ten eggs sacs and lays into each maybe a hundred eggs. Most egg sacs will be found by predators of some kind: birds perhaps, or parasitic wasps. Spiderlings hatch inside the surviving sacs, emerge and are blown to new habitats by the wind. This ensures that places supposedly cleared of redbacks very soon have a new population.

Calling in pest destroyers to eradicate redbacks isn't the greatest idea. The materials used wipe out all the tiny creatures in the treated area, whether good, bad, or indifferent. It's pretty natural to kill a redback when it's discovered, and maybe even to search for others in the same area. That method kills only the redbacks; rather better.