Local pest firm gets first call outs for Noble false widows

David Dully has been working in pest control for the last 40 years, but it was only in the last five weeks that he started getting calls about Noble false widow spiders.

"I'm doing this since 1981 and I've never had a call for them before the last five to six weeks," said David, of Tom Dully & Sons Pest Control in Athlone.

The business covers the West of Ireland, in addition to the Midlands, and David said the eleven calls it received to date about Noble false widows were all from the Galway area.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent this week, he said this was the time of year when the spiders would be appearing if they were in the vicinity.

"The mild weather brings them out, and it also brings out the flies, wasps, ants and bees. All of the small insects are out, so these (false widows) are prevalent because that's food for them."

He added that bites from a Noble false widow can be nasty.

"I think at the moment they're trying to get different anti-venoms for their bite. It can be very nasty, and my recommendation is to stay away from them and get a professional in that can take them out for you.

"That being said, the other side of it is that you won't have a fly or a wasp or ants around the place (with a false widow) because they eat the whole lot of those."

When asked about current trends he's seeing in the pest control business, David said there had been a sharp rise in the number of calls about ants recently.

"In the last five weeks, our call-outs have trebled for ants. We would normally get between 15 and 20 calls a week about ants, and at the moment we're getting in the region of 50 calls a week about them.

"We've also been getting a lot of calls in the last three months for cockroaches, particularly from student accommodation along the western seaboard of Galway, Sligo, Clare and Mayo.

"Cockroaches are particularly difficult to get rid of, because they breed so quickly," he said.