ABERGLASSLYN father Darren Reeves is urging parents to check their homes after finding ‘hundreds’ of redback babies in his yard.
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His wife Kimberly had noticed a lot of small messy webs on the way towards their clothesline and alerted her husband.
“All the webs had redbacks in them,” Mr Reeves said.
“On closer inspection, armed with some household insect spray, [we noticed] there were literally hundreds of babies with the huge adults. We sprayed the spiders until I ran out of what we had.”
Mr Reeves continued his efforts to remove the arachnids, spending $75 on the strongest sprays and outdoor insect bombs he could find.
“I sprayed everywhere outside only to discover a monstrous hive living under our portable fire pit, which stays under our outdoor setting so it doesn't rust out,” he said. “We were mortified as we had only just had friends over the week before with their kids and we all sat at the table with our feet in reach of the spiders. No one was bitten, thankfully – I couldn't live with myself if our kids were bitten.”
Mr and Mrs Reeves have a 3-year-old boy who often plays in the yard with their Staffordshire bull terrier.
The dog also had creepy crawlies near his favourite sun-baking spot outside.
“We are so lucky he wasn't bitten,” Mr Reeves said.
The couple hope their story will encourage others to check their yards for themselves.
“I just want people to be aware,” Mr Reeves said. “We get so busy lately with everything else that it’s so easy to become complacent and trust we are safe in and around our home. We are also organising to have a pest technician to come and do a professional job of trying to rid our yard and home of the spiders.”