Paralysis ticks and wasp queens are already busy, male funnel-webs start walking in November, and Newcastle has a newly described funnel-web species of its own, so here is what to check around your home this spring.
Spring in the Hunter wakes up more than termites. Adult paralysis ticks are at their most common now. European wasp queens are starting this season's nests. From November to April, male funnel-web spiders go walking. Newcastle has a newly described funnel-web species of its own.
This is the first of a four-part season series from Nobbys Pest & Termite. Spring comes first because it is the season we are in. Summer, autumn and winter will follow as each arrives.
Sources: Australian Museum; NSW Government.
Here is the short version, in the order they turn up.
The Australian Museum lists the Newcastle Funnel-web Spider, Atrax christenseni, as a newly described species, once counted as part of the Sydney funnel-web. It is a separate species from the Sydney funnel-web. The museum gives its size range as 2.0 to 4.5 cm, and warns that size alone is not reliable for identification.
Source: Australian Museum.
That is big. A German cockroach is about 1.5 cm. The largest Newcastle funnel-webs are three times that length.
For a household, the name changes less than the headline suggests. Telling funnel-web species apart is specialist work. The safe habit is to treat any spider you suspect is a funnel-web as one: keep your distance and do not handle it. If anyone is bitten by a suspected funnel-web, treat it as an emergency and call Triple Zero (000).
The spider that turns up in your laundry or your shoe is usually a male on the move. The Australian Museum says males wander during the warmer months, November to April, looking for females.
Weather sets them off. The same factsheet says rain flooding burrows increases activity, and high humidity favours activity outside the burrow, while dry conditions do not.
So the morning after a heavy storm in November is the one to watch. Shake out shoes, gloves and anything else left outside overnight before you put it on. Wear gloves when you weed or move pots and timber in the garden.
Numbers higher after high-rainfall years with thick ground cover.
Sources: Australian Museum; NSW Government.
Paralysis ticks work through a yearly cycle. The larvae, often called "grass ticks", are found mostly in autumn and winter. They moult through nymph stages, and the adults are most common from spring to midsummer. Usually only the females bite.
The NSW Government explains the timing from the other end. Tick life stages emerge from dormancy in late winter and seek hosts, so cases peak from very early spring. Numbers are higher following high-rainfall years with thick ground cover.
If your yard backs onto bush or long grass, build a tick check into the end of the day. Check yourself, your children and your pets after time outdoors. If a pet seems unwell after a walk, call your vet rather than waiting to see.
Source: Australian Museum.
A European wasp nest starts small. Colonies are usually founded each spring by a single queen that survived winter.
It does not always stay small. In Australia's milder climate, the museum says, some queens skip the normal over-wintering dormancy altogether, and over several seasons that can produce nests exceeding 100,000 wasps.
Spring is when a nest is newest. If you find one, do not poke, spray or block it yourself. Keep children and pets away and get professional help. Nest safety will get a fuller treatment later in this series.
The German cockroach is the one the Australian Museum calls the hardest pest cockroach species to eliminate. It is small, about 1.5 cm, and it lives close to you.
Look for it where the museum says it lives: kitchens, inside cupboards and drawers, and around electrical appliances. It hides in cracks by day and feeds at night, so a daytime look can miss it entirely.
The better check is a torch after dark. Try the gap beside the fridge, under the sink, the back of the cutlery drawer and the base of the microwave. A spring clean-out of the pantry is a good excuse to look. Because this species is hard to shift, it pays to act on the first few you find, not after a season of them.
Every El Niño is different.
Bureau of Meteorology advisory, 15 September 2026, as reported by SBS News
Possibly, but only at the edges. The Bureau of Meteorology's long-range forecast, issued 10 September 2026, has above-average temperatures likely for most of Australia, and below-average October to December rainfall across parts of south-eastern Australia including southern NSW. Parts of north-eastern NSW have already been drier than average this year. The Bureau also says a positive Indian Ocean Dipole could develop later in spring, raising the chance of drier conditions across southern and eastern Australia.
Set that beside the pest facts above. Funnel-web males are more active after rain and in humidity. Tick numbers run higher after wet years with thick ground cover. On that reading, a dry spring works against both. That is our reading, not a forecast of pest numbers.
It is not a reason to skip the checks. One heavy storm is enough to flood a burrow. The Bureau itself cautioned on 15 September that every El Niño is different.
Mosquitoes belong to the summer instalment, but they start to matter as spring runs out. Ross River virus is spread to people by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever, rash and joint pain, and while most people recover within a few weeks, symptoms can last for months.
Coastal country is part of the risk. Outbreaks are more common after heavy rain and high tides, which create ideal breeding conditions in coastal wetlands and salt marshes. You cannot drain a wetland, but you can tip out the saucers, buckets and toys that hold water in your own yard.
Sources: NSW Government; Australian Museum; Australian CDC.
Walk your property in this order. It covers every pest in this piece.
Spring is also when termites fly. CSIRO says termite alates usually fly from the nest on warm, humid nights to mate and start new colonies. If that is what brought you here, our guide to what a termite inspection report actually covers picks it up from there.
If your walk-around turns up something, tell Nobbys Pest & Termite what you saw, where, and when. A few details help most: the room or part of the yard, the time of day, and a photo taken from a safe distance. Get in touch through nobbyspest.au.
Next in this series: summer, when mosquitoes and wasp nests come into their own.
Tell us what you saw, where, and when, and we'll come back to you with a straight answer.
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