Black widow, redback and brown widow spiders have a red hourglass-shaped mark on their stomachs. (Pixabay)
Navy spouse Tiffany Russell is no arachnophile.
The wife of Lt. Chadd Russell, of Strike Fighter Squadron 195, lives at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, south of Hiroshima. Unfortunately, invasive species of venomous spiders have plagued the installation for years.
“The thought of poisonous spiders on base scares me,” she told Stars and Stripes via Facebook Messenger on Friday. “I think the base should offer pest control.”
On Thursday, MCAS Iwakuni notified Yamaguchi prefecture and Iwakuni city it had exterminated 460 black widow, redback and brown widow spiders between April 22 and July 21, an official with the city’s environmental policy section said by phone Friday.
That’s more than twice as the 246 the base dispatched during the same period last year, the city official said.
Many Japanese government officials speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
Russell, of Reno, Nev., said she finds spiders once a day in small corners, in the track of the sliding door and in the kitchen. She uses insecticide powder and peppermint to combat the eight-legged creatures.
“I don’t contact housing,” she said. “I just handle it myself; housing takes too long to respond.”
The city and the prefecture were first notified that venomous spiders were discovered on base in 2000, the official said. The redback spider, a native of Australia and a relative of the black widow, first appeared in Japan in 1995 in Osaka, according to Australia’s ABC News.
They turned up in 2014 in Mitaka, a western Tokyo suburb, where a dozen redbacks were quickly rounded up after terrifying local parents.
“It’s unthinkable that they only exist in Mitaka, so they’ll probably be found in many other areas of Tokyo from now on,” ABC quoted a government official as saying in October that year.
Only the female bite is dangerous, according to the Australia Museum website. A bite can cause severe headaches, muscular pain and, in some cases, death.
However, humans are not likely to be bitten unless they thrust a body part directly into the spider’s web. Because of the redback’s small jaws, many bites are ineffective, the museum states.
All three spiders are considered invasive species. All three have a red hourglass-shaped mark on their stomachs, the official said. Redback spiders also have a red dorsal stripe.
Officials with the Tokyo Metropolitan government and Environment Ministry have warned people not to touch spiders with their bare hands.
MCAS Iwakuni reports its spider exterminations four times a year to the prefecture and the city, the official said. None of those spiders were found outside the base during those three months.
“Our greatest concern is that the spiders will go outside of the fence and cause damage to the residents,” the official said. “We will also keep our eyes out.”
If bitten by a spider, seek immediate medical care. If possible, kill the spider and take it with you so doctors can identify the species.
So far, no one in Japan has died from a spider bite, the official said.
“The spiders are not aggressive, and they won’t attack you unless you bother them,” he said.
