‘Learn how to safely catch funnel-webs’: Sydneysiders tasked with hunt for venom as spiders’ breeding season begins

Thanks to the Australian Reptile Park’s program, no deaths have been recorded from a funnel-web spider bite in four decades. Photograph: Australian Reptile Park

Hunting for potentially deadly, silky spider burrows in the back yard may not be on every Sydneysiders’ bucket list.

But that’s the request of the Australian Reptile Park (ARP) as breeding season begins for funnel-webs, encouraging residents to search shoes, piles of laundry, pools and garden debris for spiders and their egg sacs.