Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Officials from Muscat Municipality issued a clarification that there have been no reports of Redback spider sightings and that there is no need to panic.
The previous announcement made by the Directorate General of Muscat Municipality in Al Seeb read, “If you find this [Redback] spider please contact us at 1111, 24426653, 24426788, 24426724.”
However, officials clarified that this announcement was simply issued for a field study. “The announcement is only for plantations in Muscat for the purpose of conducting a field survey to investigate some of the endemic pests in these sites,” Muscat Municipality said.
According to officials, the municipality call centre on Sunday evening received nearly 50 calls every hour from individuals all over the Sultanate who were afraid and unsure if they actually spotted the spider.
But authorities have affirmed that the spider cannot be found in homes but only in plantations, “There were no reports of the spider being spotted,” Muscat Municipality call centre said.
The Redback spider is a species that comes from Australia, South East Asia and New Zealand and is believed to be highly venomous.
