Spider guide
Are There Funnel-Web Spiders in Melbourne?
The straight answer about Victoria, the three local spiders that get mistaken for the famous one, how to read a burrow in your own lawn, and what to do if anything large and dark bites you.
Burrows in a garden bed and holes in a lawn are the usual cause of a midnight search.
People search for funnel web spiders in Melbourne at strange hours, usually after turning over a pot or finding a dark hole in the lawn with a child playing two metres away. The answer deserves to be given plainly rather than hedged, so here it is: the species behind Australia's serious funnel-web bites do not live in this state. Victorian health services say so, and Tim has never had to tell a customer otherwise.
That does not mean the thing you found is nothing. Melbourne has several large, dark, burrowing spiders that look convincing in a torch beam, and knowing which one you are dealing with changes what you do next. This page runs through them, and it sits with Tim's wider set of pest guides for Melbourne homes.
It also covers the part nobody wants to think about: what to do if a big dark spider does bite someone, which is a question worth being able to answer before you need it rather than while standing in a kitchen at midnight.
The honest answer
Are there funnel web spiders in Victoria at all?
Not the ones that matter. Victorian health advice is that the funnel-web species capable of causing significant injury to people are absent from this state. Some other members of the wider funnel-web family occur down the eastern side of the continent, they are not all dangerous, and they are animals of forest and bushland rather than suburban gardens.
So why does the question come up every week? Three reasons, and all of them are understandable. The serious bites that make national news happen in and around Sydney, and news does not stop at a border. The best known local spider builds a retreat shaped exactly like a funnel, so the name fits what people are looking at. And a dark, heavy bodied spider in a hole genuinely looks like the photographs, especially at night and especially when somebody is already frightened.
- A funnel-web versus a funnel shaped web
- Two different things with confusingly similar names. The funnel-web spiders are ground dwelling burrowers from the eastern states. A funnel shaped web is a feature of the common black house spider, which builds above ground level in window frames and under eaves all over Melbourne.
This is a rare case where the reassuring answer is also the accurate one. It is worth being clear about the limits of it, though. Victoria has other spiders that can give a painful bite, a bite from any spider you cannot name is worth medical advice, and nothing on this page replaces a doctor. The position above comes from the Better Health Channel, which sets out first aid for bites and stings in Victoria and is the reference households here are given.
Nobody in Melbourne needs to plan their garden around funnel-webs. Plan it around redbacks instead, because those are genuinely here.
If risk is what prompted the search, the ranking on which Melbourne spiders deserve care puts the local species in order, and the spider at the top of that list is not the one you came here looking for.
What you found
What do people in Melbourne actually find?
Four spiders account for nearly every report. A black house spider with its funnel shaped retreat, a trapdoor spider sitting in a burrow in the lawn, a wolf spider hunting across the grass at night, and occasionally a mouse spider with a heavy head and oversized jaws. The first two are responsible for most photographs sent to Tim.
Black house spider
Dark and solidly built, always sitting in a tangle of sheet silk with a funnel retreat at one end. It builds above the ground in window frames, brickwork, downpipe brackets and under eaves. Shy, slow to bite, and by far the most reported.
Trapdoor spider
Stout, dark brown, hairy, and found in a burrow in lawn or garden bed. Some species close the entrance with a hinged soil lid. It is slow, would rather retreat than argue, and is not considered dangerous.
Wolf spider
Mottled grey and brown, long legged, and out hunting across turf and mulch after dark. Females carry an egg sac under the body and later the young on their back, which is the detail that gives them away.
Mouse spider
Glossy black, bulky, with a broad head and large jaws, sometimes with a red tinge at the front. A burrow dweller, often near water, uncommon around houses, and the one local species treated as a serious bite.
The practical separator is height. Funnel-webs are ground animals that live in burrows. If the web you are looking at is in a window frame, around a light fitting, under a gutter or anywhere above knee height, the spider in it is a web builder and the funnel is a bedroom rather than a trap. That single check settles most of the cases that arrive in Tim's inbox at eleven at night.
Photograph it before you deal with it. One clear picture from above and one from the side, with something for scale next to it such as a coin or a key, settles identification in seconds. Tim does that for free over the phone and will say plainly when nothing needs doing.
Reading the ground
How do you tell a trapdoor from a wolf spider?
Look at the hole rather than the spider. A trapdoor burrow is a neat round shaft, often with a soil lid or a thin silk collar at the rim, and the occupant stays in it. A wolf spider burrow is rougher, frequently without silk, and the spider is out on the surface after dark rather than waiting at home.
A torch at night is the fastest way to settle it, and it is oddly good fun. Hold the torch beside your eyes and sweep the lawn slowly: wolf spiders reflect the beam back as small bright green points, because their eyes carry a reflective layer. Trapdoor burrows give you nothing, because the spider is below ground with the entrance shut.
| What you see | Likely occupant | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Round shaft with a hinged soil lid | Trapdoor spider | Leave it. Timid, slow, and a bite only happens if the spider is handled. |
| Round shaft with a thin silk rim | Trapdoor or a related burrower | Leave it, and keep bare hands and gardening without gloves away from the entrance. |
| Rough hole, no silk, spider out at night | Wolf spider | Leave it. They eat a lot of the insects you would rather not have. |
| Burrow in damp ground near water, heavy black spider | Possibly a mouse spider | Do not disturb it. Photograph it from a distance and get it identified. |
| Silk tube above ground, in a wall or frame | Black house spider | Brush it away whenever it bothers you. Harmless and persistent. |
- Do not pour anything down a burrow. Petrol, boiling water and bleach damage the soil and the lawn, and often fail to reach the spider anyway.
- Do not dig one out by hand. The only reliable way to be bitten by a burrowing spider is to go in after it.
- Wear gloves in mulch and leaf litter, which is where wolf spiders and juveniles of everything else spend their days.
- Keep sandpits covered, because an uncovered one is loose warm soil, which is exactly what a burrower is looking for.
One more detail worth knowing. A wolf spider carrying young on her back will scatter dozens of tiny spiders if she is squashed, which is both unpleasant and pointless. Nudge her outside with a dustpan instead and the problem solves itself.
If it happens
When is a burrowing spider worth treating?
Almost never for one burrow, and genuinely worth it when a lawn or garden bed is riddled with them where children and pets play. Trapdoors and wolf spiders are harmless neighbours in small numbers. Numbers become a problem when soil is freshly turned, mulch is deep and lighting pulls in enough insects to support a crowd of hunters.
New estates and recently replanted yards are where this comes up most. Fresh soil, new mulch, uncut lawn edges and bright outdoor lights are the full set of conditions a ground hunter wants, which is why a house in its first summer can feel overrun while the one next door with an established garden is fine. The fix is mostly maintenance: keep the lawn edges cut, thin deep mulch back from paths and play areas, and swap harsh white outdoor globes for warmer ones so the insect crowd thins out.
If that is not enough, or if the burrows are concentrated right where children play, a treatment aimed at ground harbourage and the perimeter is reasonable. It is not a blanket spray of the whole yard, which does more harm than good, and Tim will say so if that is what you are expecting. Spider treatment for Melbourne properties explains what gets covered, the price is agreed before anything starts, and covered work is backed by the 3-month re-treatment guarantee.
If a large dark spider bites someone, treat it as the serious category. Keep the person still and calm, apply a firm bandage over the bite and along the limb, immobilise it, and ring triple zero. The species that cause the worst bites are not in Victoria, so in practice this means a mouse spider, and the response is the same. The Poisons Information Centre is available on 13 11 26 around the clock if you want advice while you wait.
For everything else, including the black house spider that started the scare, first aid is washing the bite and applying something cold, then ringing a doctor if anything more than local soreness follows. Note that a redback bite is handled differently again and should not be bandaged tightly, which is covered on the redback spider guide along with the symptoms to watch for.
Should I fill in the burrows in my lawn?
There is little point. A trapdoor spider will reopen a filled burrow within a night or two, and a lawn with a handful of holes is doing no harm. If the area is being used by small children and you want it cleared properly, that is a treatment question rather than a shovel question.
Are trapdoor and wolf spiders dangerous to dogs?
Not in any usual sense. A dog that digs one up may get a defensive bite and a sore nose, and it is worth a call to the vet if the animal seems unwell afterwards. The bigger risk to pets is a yard treated carelessly, which is why placement and drying time are part of any proper visit.
Questions
Funnel-web questions Melbourne households ask
Are funnel web spiders found in Melbourne?
No. Victorian health advice is that the funnel-web species capable of causing significant harm are not present in this state. Other members of the family turn up in forest and bushland along the eastern seaboard, and plenty of those are harmless. What people photograph in a Melbourne garden is nearly always something local and harmless.
What did I find then?
Most likely a black house spider if the silk is above ground level, or a trapdoor spider if it is a hole in the lawn. Wolf spiders account for most of the ones seen running after dark. A photograph from above and from the side will usually settle it in under a minute.
Are trapdoor spiders dangerous?
They are not regarded as dangerous to people. A bite would hurt, because the fangs are substantial, and it happens only when the spider is picked up or dug out. Leave the burrow alone and wear gloves when gardening and the question does not arise.
What about mouse spiders?
A mouse spider bite is treated seriously, which is why the advice is a pressure bandage, keeping still and calling triple zero. They are burrow dwellers, often near water, and are uncommon around suburban houses. Do not handle a heavy glossy black spider with large jaws, photograph it from a safe distance instead.
Can a funnel-web arrive in Melbourne in a shipment?
It is the kind of thing people worry about and it is not a sensible thing to plan around. If you genuinely believe you have found something out of place, do not handle it, contain it safely if you can, photograph it and seek expert identification rather than acting on a guess.
What should I do if something bit me in the garden?
Rinse it under water, hold a cold pack on the spot, then speak to your doctor or call the Poisons Information Centre, which answers on 13 11 26. Use a pressure bandage and call triple zero only for a large black burrowing spider. Get seen quickly if the person is very young, elderly or becoming unwell.
Want it identified before you worry any longer?
Send Tim a photo with your suburb. He will tell you what it is at no charge, and only quote a treatment if there is something worth treating.
Reviewed October 2026 by Tim, licensed Victorian pest control operator, licence No. 86488. Distribution and first aid: Better Health Channel, bites and stings first aid and Better Health Channel, spiders. General information only, not medical advice.