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Cave spider - arachnophobes beware! |
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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Posted: 18 May 2018 at 9:04am |
Thanks Ben !
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Thanks Tim. By the way, when are we going to see some more of your fab photos of midlands herps then?
Talking of pix, loved those spider ones Will, especially the 'Big Ben' one - what a cracker! |
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Tom Omlette
Senior Member Joined: 07 Nov 2013 Location: Stoke on Trent Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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that's a beautiful beast ben!
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Thanks Will. I wondered - given your enthusiasm for dragonflies - if this post would interest you!
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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Well done Ben, I am very jealous, having a soft spot for big spiders - I've only ever seen Meta in France. Another great spider from the continent is Segestria florentina (Mediterranean tube web spider). My favourite place for them is the Houses of Parliament, kind of appropriate for a place filled with politicians
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100121190@N06/22115361830/in/datetaken-public/ |
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Given your job and location, could it have been an exotic species accidentally imported (perhaps stowed away in some bananas like in every corny story)?
Think i read there are around 12 UK spider species that have the ability to bite through human skin (nearly all spiders are venomous). |
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Cue the reported adder bites in areas where they have never been recorded and are unlikely to occur. Always thought many could be spider bites. Had a couple of painful spider bites though nothing as bad as yours chubsta. Doesn't help with my arachnophobia much though! Fortunately restricted to confined spaces so I can still enjoy spiders in the field, at a distance and where I can run away easily
Edited by GemmaJF - 28 Apr 2018 at 10:20am |
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chubsta
Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 430 |
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I was in bed, about 5am felt a small touch to the end of my left thumb and saw a spider scurry off, unfortunately didn't catch it. Didn't think much of it until about 2pm and it started to swell and hurt - a lot! I went to the hospital and they gave me antibiotics, by about 5pm I felt like my hand was being held in a flame. I have a lot of very strong painkillers because I was suffering kidney stones too at the time and they didn't touch this - I didn't mind the pain so much but it didn't subside at all, no matter what I threw at it. For about 24 hours I couldn't think straight, I couldn't believe just how much it was hurting. Eventually it subsided. Came back about a week later for about 48 hours, then two more times over the next month or so.
That was last October, I still don't have proper feeling in my thumb or first finger of left hand, and stay well clear of spiders. It wasn't confirmed as a False Widow as I didn't have it, but no-one at the hospitals had seen anything like it before so could only presume based on media reports. Funnily enough a woman I work with was bitten about 5 years ago and she showed me the photos, it looked like her wrist was rotting and she confirmed the pain, I was glad I was only bitten on the thumb. So, my advice is stay away from spiders, no matter how shiny and nice they look!
Edited by chubsta - 28 Apr 2018 at 9:45am |
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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!! Assuming your biter was confirmed as one of the False Widow bunch (Steatoda), i guess you had a particularly bad reaction then?
Despite tabloid best efforts at provoking panic with 'Deadly Spider Swarm munching it's way across the UK' type headlines, the scientists seem to be insisting that False Widow bites are usually no more serious than a bee sting. How did it happen? Since few enter their habitat and there aren't many hunting for them either (spiders are said to be massively under-recorded), it might be that Meta aren't so scarce - it's encounters with them that are. Nice to have generated a new record for a beautiful (as spiders go!) species though. It's gleaming body looks like a gem stone. No, although i've seen photos of people with Cave Spiders sat on their hands, i was a bit wary and used the old method of putting a receptacle over it then sliding a bit of card underneath! |
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chubsta
Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 430 |
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Great find, once in a lifetime so I can imagine how happy you are, but you are a braver man than me - I got bit by a false widow last year and nearly lost my thumb, worst pain I have ever had. I love my wildlife but you can keep spiders...
Don't tell me you just picked it up?
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