Residents across eastern Australia have been warned of a plague deadly funnel-web spiders with the heatwave causing them to wander into backyard pools.
The warmer weather across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia has meant the venomous male spiders have started to venture out of their burrows in search of a mate.
After Wollongbar man Tom Storey found a funnel-web 'visiting' his pool for the second time, Australian Natural Pyrethrins sent out a warning to parents saying the spiders can survive underwater for 24-30 hours.
'Don’t assume that a spider on the pool bottom has drowned,' a post on its Facebook page read.
'Funnel-web spiders can’t swim but they can trap small air bubbles on hairs around the abdomen'.
Just last week, a woman was bitten several times by a funnel-web as she slept in her bed.
She said the male spider woke her at 3am on December 27 as it crept up her leg before biting her on the arm and torso before she could get away.
The woman, from Bundanoon in rural NSW southwest of Sydney, called a medical helpline but it was an hour before she got the first two vials of antivenom.
After spending several days in the intensive care unit she was released
In January 2016, footage emerged of children screaming after finding a funnel-web spider at the bottom of a jumping castle filled with water.
The enormous spider crawls across the bottom of the inflatable pool in the Central Coast suburb Terrigal.
A total of 45 people were treated for suspected funnel-web bites in 2016.
Australia has 40 different species of funnel-web spiders and most vary between 1cm and 5cm in body length, according to the Australian Museum's website.
There have been 13 recorded deaths from funnel-web bites and it is believed all the bites were the Sydney spider species.
The funnel-web lives underground in deep burrows with silk 'trip-lines' floating out of the hole to alert the spider when an insect or small lizard walks past.
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