Danni Virgo from New Romney, Kent, was left with a crater in her leg after a bite from a venomous false widow spider.
The 45-year-old mother of one was bitten after putting on freshly laundered trousers that had been hanging on her outdoor washing line in 2020.
Within seconds of putting on her pyjamas, Ms Virgo felt a sharp pinch on her right thigh before watching a small spider crawl out from the bottom of her pyjama legs. A small red lump appeared on her leg, which turned black the following day with a massive head on it.
Medical doctors confirmed that the 10p-sized bite was caused by the venom of a false widow, considered the most dangerous spider species in the United Kingdom, and noted that the wound had become infected.
Kent is a county in south-east England where false widow spiders, belonging to the genus Steatoda, have become increasingly common in residential gardens and homes.
Although the initial wound healed without requiring surgical intervention after a course of antibiotics, the bite left a permanent scar. Just weeks later, Ms Virgo suffered two more bites while sitting on her sofa inside her home.
Rising hospital admissions and garden infestation
Figures from the National Health Service show that spider bites led to 100 hospital admissions in 2025, up from 47 recorded in 2015. Health officials attribute the sharp rise to growing populations of noble false widow spiders across the country.
The National Health Service is the publicly funded healthcare system of the United Kingdom, providing medical care across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Following her repeated bites, Ms Virgo discovered that her garden in New Romney was suffering from a widespread arachnid infestation. Inspecting her property at night with a torch, she found around 100 false widows living on her garden fence and nesting across the grounds.
Ms Virgo said she had noticed the spiders hiding in plastic pegs attached to her outdoor clothesline. "We have a washing line in my garden and they like to hide in the pegs," she explained. "I'd hung my pyjamas out and brought them in and decided I'd put them on basically straight away. It must've crawled into my pyjamas bottoms. I sat down and felt the most almighty pinch. It was really painful."
Describing the rapid progression of the bite, she added: "I had a look at my right leg and straight away there was a red lump. Then I saw this spider crawling out of the bottom of my pyjama bottoms. It escalated really quickly. Within a day, it had turned black and had this massive head on it."
Subsequent attacks and lasting fear
The subsequent attack occurred while Ms Virgo was resting indoors. "A couple of weeks later, I was sat on the sofa and felt a tickling on the back of my neck," she recalled. "Then I felt a sharp pain and I was bitten twice on my back."
She recounted discovering the scale of the problem outside her home: "I found out they come out at night so I went into my garden with a torch and my fence is full of them. We have an infestation. They're really easily recognised. There's around 100 in my garden. There's nests everywhere."
Despite using various pest repellents, including peppermint spray on the garden fence, natural essential oils, and commercial anti-spider sprays, Ms Virgo was unable to eradicate the pests. "We've tried peppermint spray on the fence, natural oils, spider sprays but there's just no way of getting on top of it," she said.
The experience left Ms Virgo traumatised and unwilling to use her outdoor space or hang washing outside six years after the initial incident. Her family now relies entirely on an indoor tumble dryer to dry laundry, and her husband no longer hangs clothes outside either.
Ms Virgo said: "I won't hang the washing outside now and my husband doesn't put my clothes out, we use a dryer indoors. I was already scared of spiders and that one incident was horrendous and then for it to happen again a few weeks later just cemented that fear. It definitely left me traumatised. Now I won't go in my garden because there's that many."
She added: "I would normally be out there, I would've painted the fences and pottered about but I just don't do that now. People need to be aware of these spiders. They're not that big so they're easily missed. It's not surprised me that bites have gone up. I live in fear now."
Evolutionary roots of spider phobias
Recent scientific research suggests that the fear of spiders, known as arachnophobia, is an evolutionary survival trait deeply embedded in human DNA. Dating back hundreds of thousands of years, the psychological avoidance mechanism developed as an adaptive defense against venomous threats during early human development.
Academics suggest that arachnophobia represents a finely tuned survival instinct originating in ancestral environments in Africa, where highly potent venomous spiders coexisted alongside early human ancestors for millions of years.
Study leader Joshua New, a researcher at Columbia University in New York, explained the evolutionary pressure: "A number of spider species with potent, vertebrate specific venoms populated Africa long before hominoids and have co-existed there for tens of millions of years. Humans were at perennial, unpredictable and significant risk of encountering highly venomous spiders in their ancestral environments."
Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City, recognized globally for its scientific and psychological research programs.
