They have a painful bite, and are often accused of causing necrotising arachnidism, a nasty skin condition. Scientific studies seem to be divided over whether this is actually the case though.
I didn't take the chance. I escorted her safely out to a far corner of the garden.
Nice calm handling. On the necrotising arachnidism question: the large Australian study of confirmed white-tail bites (Isbister & Gray, 2003) found no cases of necrotic ulcers, just local pain and redness. So the reputation is mostly undeserved. A handy fact: white-tails hunt other spiders, especially black house spiders. Clearing the black house spider webs around window frames and eaves usually means fewer white-tails wandering inside too. It's something we explain often at Sutherland Shire Pest Control Pro to worried families in the Shire.
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