Last month one of us was bitten by one in the garden, a species which we hadn’t seen before. It was surprisingly painful, although it had gone after a day.  Comments on the Kapiti Coast Facebook page included:

they can be very nasty! I got bit a few years back and turned into a very nasty like boil….. but am told it could have been much worse.

My friend had to have her liver looked at just yesterday as the poison from the whitetail bite was making its way there, she was on Iv antibiotics

Whitetail spider bites are not poisonous to humans. However they do carry bacteria which can cause pain and inflammation. Katipo spiders are endangered and are a close relative to the red back. A katipo bite can affect the CNS but is generally not considered to be deadly

Even though Whitetails are not poisonous they can cause very nasty side effects quite quickly so if it starts getting inflamed make sure you get it looked at by your gp

An application of No Spiders made by Kiwicare seems to have worked in dealing with them; their webpage on Whitetails.

Kiwicare is a company we have previously consulted about problematic insects, including ants, mosquitoes and living tree borer, and found them very helpful.  A cooperative effort by neighbours should help to eradicate pests like these, but unfortunately in our case we have a large business neighbour noted for its lack of good neighbourliness 🙁