The Irish Times are reporting that Ireland is "under attack" from an invasion of false widow spiders that are apparently threatening humans on an increasing scale.

For the last 20 years, the false widow spider has been breeding at an alarming rate, and is more venomous, lives longer and breeds faster than the common Irish house spider.

A female false widow can live to the age of seven years, and produces 200 eggs every two months for four months of the year.

The false widow spider has been spotted in 16 counties, the majority of sightings in urban areas, with 620 of them removed from a single row of houses in Lucan.

It is now starting to attack humans, the Times reports, and there have been three reported cases in Ireland.

Scientists at NUI Galway have just identified the symptoms of a false widow spider bite, which include intense pain, swelling of limbs, and sweating.

Unlike the real black widow spider, the false widow's bite is not deadly.

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