Thread: Spider Bites

Originally Posted by Avery

Get a grip sunshine. They are just part of the scenery. They don't attack. They don't run after you. If you get one down your sock, you may well get stung , and it can hurt like hell, it may even cause death if you aren't too healthy.

Don't make up stories!

Well Avery, both of those reports support what I have said.

I saw the Daddy-Long-Legs spider actually get onto my ankle and nip me before I could let go off what I was doing at the time. He had climbed onto my ankle unnoticed, whilst I was setting up the caravan. We were on holidays towing a caravan in Victoria, & I was the driver. This bite had my ankle swollen and in pain for three whole days before I could drive again. The only way to ease the pain was to lay down with my leg raised. That was my one time test. Which almost matches the the test done by the Brains Department. (Which was also only a one time test and proved they can inject the goods into a human).

As for the White tail report you point out, that matches as well. I found him looking down at me from the curtain rod and sprayed him. This was easier than trying to rescue the dear little thing. When he hit the ground, he made straight for my bare feet, but I dropped a double sheet of T. P. over him, picked the bundle up and flushed him down the loo. We have a lot of these spiders around the property, which is on the edge of a country town, and most of them have made towards us when we tried to kill them. Your Brains Department has also pointed out that the White Tailed spider bite can and will leave an ulceration. If you can grasp what that means, you will understand that once started in many people, ulcerations can continue to grow and last for a year or more. No, I never ran screaming from the room, and have never run screaming from anything in my life. While you suggest I get a grip, I suggest to you that you let go of yours.

Originally Posted by Buzza

Well Avery, both of those reports support what I have said.

I saw the Daddy-Long-Legs spider actually get onto my ankle and nip me before I could let go off what I was doing at the time. .

Then it wasn't a "Daddy Longlegs" you'd better read this - UCR Spiders Site: Daddy Long Legs Myth

Ian Smith, your findings are in contradition to Avery's. They were done by an American Brains Department. It was established that the spider can bite a human in the single test that they mentioned in the Australian test. It did cause a slight irritation. My bite was not life threatening but it did swell my ankle area up, and as stated, the only relief was to put my leg higher then my torso.

Unless you have experienced a bite, you just do not know. As stated, you don't believe everything you read. Once they do a test where several hundred people get bitten, and the results are tested, from all of that Brains Department lot, they may have a decent piece of info to put out. If they ever call for volunteers, I suggest you both put your names on the list.

We all have different reactions to bee stings, and probably from spider bites.

I don't make up stories, and suggest you think carefully before writing such accusations.

I lived in Melbourne for 4 years. Back in Canada, it took me years to realize that every spot on the wall was not likely some sort of spider.
It really is a shame that you can't deal with your vermin with a 12 gauge and a few #8 trap loads like we do here. For the bigger things, SSG in a 3" magnum shell is effective but noisy.
My girlfriend and I each shoot 3.5's (Benelli Nova and Remington 887) but that's really over the top except for Canada Geese.

Rod ,I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune and hope that you're up and about without any lasting effects.

Many years ago whilst living in Perth I was putting down a bore where we had just built a new home.One moring I went out and without checking my Sandshoes felt a nip between the toes ,I took the shoe off and shook out a Redback. Immediately you think of notonly killing the little barsteward but whats the issue with the foot.

My foot went numb so swmbo being a registered nurse applied a cold compress, and told me to sit still unfortunately the cricket was on the TV so it wasn't any hardship.
Took quite a while for the swelling between the toes and the numbness to subside.
Was ever vigilant after that with shoes left outside.
Used to have a lot of redbacks here but with an influx of Daddy longlegs we have not seen too many about.

Cheers

Glad your on the mend Rod. Certainly sounded like a red back bite. Daddy long legs and blue tongue lizards are excellent for getting rid of red backs. I never shoo either of those away.
I got bitten last weekend. Not by a spider though. I was standing waist deep in a lake, holding my daughter, when something latched onto my foot. I felt it shaking it's head trying to tear out a chunk. I high tailed it out of there and ended up with some big teeth marks on the side of my foot. No real damage but a bit of a shock at the time.

Some pretty severe cases of arachnophobia here, arguably with good cause. Quite a few myths and I too believed the about the super poisonous daddy-longlegs that were unable to bite humans.

I think we need to remember that reactions to bites of many kinds are themselves very varied. For example, I am lucky with bee and wasp stings in that they hardly trouble me at all but I have three male cousins who are all hospital cases if they are bitten.

I imagine it is similar with spider and snake bites. Some people will have a more adverse reaction with anaphylactic and necrosis conditions being at the worrying end of the scale.

Red-backs I have found to be very passive and have to be provoked to become antagonistic. The black house spider, I think, is from the same family but even more shy and retiring. We often have them around our windows. You still want to avoid being bitten by either spider if you possibly can.

The bitey stingy things that have given me the most trouble are the spitfire caterpillars. I was beside myself with the irritation when one dropped out of a tree on me. SWMBO was not sufficiently sympathetic.

I sympathise with anybody who is bitten and suffers discomfort and pain as a result of bite and stings and I trust by now that Rod is close to fully repaired.

Regards
Paul

Thanks for the well wishes. I'm right as rain now so a week to shake it off completely.
I think I was just unlucky to get so many bites.

Originally Posted by Buzza

It was established that the spider can bite a human in the single test that they mentioned in the Australian test.

Sorry Buzza, I just wanted to point out that the test they mentioned was the TV show Myth Busters. More entertainment than science but kudos to the museum for mentioning all points of reference.

I had to head to the doctor once because my leg felt like it was going to explode. It was diagnosed as a white tail spider bite. Very painful for the first couple of days, then the necrosis around the bite for maybe a year afterwards. Apparently most people don't even know they get bitten until a while afterwards like I did. Quite nasty.

Originally Posted by Daniel99

I had to head to the doctor once because my leg felt like it was going to explode. It was diagnosed as a white tail spider bite. Very painful for the first couple of days, then the necrosis around the bite for maybe a year afterwards. Apparently most people don't even know they get bitten until a while afterwards like I did. Quite nasty.

Welcome to the Forums Daniel99 and thanks for the info regarding the white tail spider. The necrosis aspect is insidious to put it mildly.

Regards
Paul

They take a bite from a white tailed spider very seriously out here. There has been reports of necrosis from a number of people and a couple of months ago, my sister in law was bitten on the arm around the elbow and she was given the strongest antibiotics that you can have. The bite site swelled and blistered very badly.

You guys are hysterical (in both senses of the word). Try strolling out to the laundry and being confronted by a taipan.

I lived in my grandmothers house for a few years when she died while the will was sorted. Before it got sold they got it fumigated. I'll never forget the pest guy coming down from the roof cavity white a a ghost: "I've been doing this for 7 years and have never seen so many spidering on one place". It was riddled with redbacks funnelwebs house spiders etc. There were 1/2 dozen redbacks withing an inch of my hands when I did the laundry.

I also had a male funnelweb living under my bed right where I stood up every morning in another place. Got an expert of rehydrate it and check it under a microscope to make sure.

Anyway, to the point. I discovered last year that codein can be had in a diluted liquid form on prescription. 5mg per ml codein lingtus. It's cheap, magic cough supressant and low side effect pain relief. If any of you find yourselves in this situation it might help. Paracetamol and ibyprofin rot your liver, asprin rots your stomach. Ibyprofin has other side effects despite what the pretty lady in the ad says. Opiates are not perfect but if your taking big doses for most people they do less harm.

2c.