{"id":46811,"date":"2026-06-14T18:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T08:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/?p=90838"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:24:11","slug":"in-focus-mouse-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/pest-control-spiders\/in-focus-mouse-spiders\/","title":{"rendered":"In Focus: Mouse Spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

A helpful in-depth look at mouse spiders, which are often confused with funnel-webs due to their similar characteristics.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mouse spiders (Missulena<\/em> sp.) are commonly confused with funnel-web spiders<\/a>, due to their superficially similar appearance. Indeed, a number of their behaviours are similar to funnel web spiders, which is perhaps not surprising as they both belong to the Mygalomorph group of spiders. Although it is rare to need to treat for mouse spiders, as professionals, pest managers should be able to tell the difference between mouse spiders and funnel-webs when questioned by customers.<\/p>\n

There are eight species of mouse spider in Australia. Two of the most common mouse spiders are the red-headed mouse spider (Missulena occatoria<\/em>), which is found Australia wide, typically in semi-arid areas, and the eastern mouse spider (Missulena bradleyi),<\/em> which tends to be found in forested areas along the east coast. They nest in burrows \u2013 often with a silk lining, sometimes with tripwires and a trapdoor. Although it is not common to have infestations of mouse spiders, especially in urban areas, when the conditions are ideal, a high concentration of burrows can develop (much like funnel-web spiders).<\/p>\n

Australian Geographic reported on a 100m2<\/sup> area in a front lawn in suburban Sydney, which had an extraordinary density of eastern mouse spiders \u2013 in one night the property owner (who loved the spiders!) collected 87 specimens. The same property owner also noted that over the years, he has spotted the occasional eastern mouse spider with red body and legs, and silver abdomen.<\/p>\n

Typically, however, mouse spiders are stocky black spiders, with a body length varying between 10-35 mm. Their head and jaws are bulbous. Females are larger than the males and tend to have a uniform black shiny head and carapace and a dull black or dark blue abdomen. Some species will have a lighter patch on the top side of the abdomen. The males of some species have distinctive colour markings \u2013 the red-headed mouse spider being the most well-known example, with its bright red head and jaws, and blue abdomen. The eastern mouse spider has a blue\/white patch on the front of the abdomen.<\/p>\n

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\"Mouse
Eastern mouse spider, with typical bulbous head and jaws (right) and Sydney funnel-web spider, showing prominent spinnerets (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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In terms of differentiating mouse spiders from funnel-web spiders, this tends to be more of a problem on the east coast. When comparing the eastern mouse spider with the various funnel-web spiders, the lack of obvious spinnerets in the mouse spider \u2013 which are very prominent in funnelwebs \u2013 is the best feature to focus on, especially when a side-by-side comparison is not an option. Side by side, the mouse spider has a more bulbous head and jaws.<\/p>\n

Male mouse spiders do not have the mating spur on the second pair of legs, as is the case with male funnel-web spiders. Male mouse spiders have similar mating habits to male funnel-web spiders \u2013 they leave their burrows in late summer to search for females. This is the time when homeowners are most likely to encounter mouse spiders as, like funnel-web spiders, they will often fall into swimming pools where they can survive for many hours. However, unlike funnel-web spiders that tend to wander by night, mouse spiders are happy to wander during the day (especially after rain). The young spiders disperse from the female\u2019s burrow after hatching by walking. The unusual exception to this are the spiderlings of the red-headed mouse spider, which disperse aerially by ballooning, allowing them to disperse up to several kilometres.<\/p>\n

Mouse spiders will rise up when threatened (much like funnel-web spiders) but they are generally not considered as aggressive. However, their venom is very toxic, with some similar components to funnel-web venom. As such, if bitten by a mouse spider, funnel-web spider first aid should be applied (pressure bandage, as per a snake bite).<\/p>\n

In terms of protecting properties from mouse spiders, if a homeowner becomes concerned, a thorough perimeter treatment will provide some protection against them entering the house. However, it should be considered that as a large spider, a mouse spider will need to pick up a significant dose of insecticide to kill it before it enters the property. If a mouse spider identification is confirmed, obviously there will be burrows nearby, so a thorough inspection of the property should be carried out and any areas with burrows can be treated directly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A helpful in-depth look at mouse spiders, which are often confused with funnel-webs due to their similar characteristics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":46812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"%%post_title%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"A helpful in-depth look at mouse spiders, which are often confused with funnel-webs due to their similar characteristics.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[],"company":[],"pest":[151],"pesticide":[],"product-service":[],"class_list":["post-46811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pest-control-spiders","pest-spiders","wpbf-post"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46814,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811\/revisions\/46814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"company","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/company?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"pest","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pest?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"pesticide","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pesticide?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"product-service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product-service?post=46811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}