Spider Bite

[acropolite (Phil)]

Just wondering, we all hate those creepy crawlies but have you ever been bitten by a spider. I had the pleasure of receiving a love bite, (actually 3 love bites) most likely from an overly friendly arachnid. I suspect that the culprit was a white tail as, apart from huntsman spiders, that's all we see in the house. The little bugger bit me 3 times, about 1 cm away from my eye, I assume during the night while I slept. My first symptoms were 3 small bumps, slightly tender but with no colouration and swollen eyelids around my left eye. Day 2 saw reddening and a slight burning sensation. Day 3 a small pinhead sized spot which has grown over the past week to around 4mm in diameter. A second spot appeared similarly but not as large as the week progressed. On the fourth day I found I had trouble concentrating, often forgetting what I was doing half way through a task. Other sensations have been a feeling of something cold running through various areas of my face, pressure as though something was pressing against my skull where the bites were, tingling of my upper lip and tenderness where my jaw pivots. Add to that an almost continuous dull face and head ache and occasional itching around the bite area. Eight plus days later the symptoms are starting to subside, the bites look like they are healing and the swelling around my eye is going down. I consider myself lucky, there is considerable anecdotal evidence of skin tissue death from spider bites, a workmate has a friend who lost all the skin from his face and scalp after being bitten on the top of the head. I'm going to have the house fumigated despite a dislike for chemical solutions to pest problems.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Gee Phil, that doesn't sound too good mate. Whitetails are a nasty piece of work! They can be fatal to some people. Most have reactions like yours, so it does sound like a whitetail bite. Problem with whitetail bites is that the symptoms have been known to return a year or two later. Better get it checked.

I have been bitten by thousands of spiders coz I used to play with them when I was little, right up into my late teenage years! I even copped a few Sydney Redbacks in my time, but luckily I only felt nauseus for a the day.

When I got bitten by a trapdoor, I was sick for about 3 days and the Doctor reckons I had been bitten so many times by so many different spiders that I had developed a form of Immunity. There were times when I had more than 100 spiders of all breeds in an empty fish tank, and I would let them climb all over me.

Unfortunately though, I do have a permanent effect from all those early bites. My hands (where I mainly used to get bitten) are always itchy, every day and night. I've learnt to mostly ignore it.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi Phil,

We may be able to allay your fears if indeed you are concerned that this bite will cause you skin necrosis and ruin your good looks.

The white-tail spider's bite does indeed cause unpleasant symptoms as you have said, but it has been declared innocent of the charge of causing ghastly flesh-eating ulcers.

There have certainly been cases where something horrible like this happened to people, and they might have been bitten by something, but wts don't do it to you.

http://www.abc.net.au/health/minutes...es/s933725.htm
http://www.healthfirst.net.au/content/view/112/42/

Cheers

[casstony]

My wife's mother had a large sore develop after a suspected spider bite. When the sore got to about 2 inches in size she applied hydrogen peroxide and the sore healed fairly rapidly, not that I'd apply peroxide near my eye.

[casstony]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

There were times when I had more than 100 spiders of all breeds in an empty fish tank, and I would let them climb all over me.

Any photo's Ken? I'm thinking I might get some spiders for our kids - "eat your vegies or you're going in the tank".

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by casstony

Any photo's Ken? I'm thinking I might get some spiders for our kids - "eat your vegies or you're going in the tank".

Nope, we didn't own a camera when I was a kid. Only my Dad's camera that we weren't allowed to touch. Just show them the movie 'Arachnaphobia'.

[beren]

Phil nasty experience to go through, think with any suspected spider bite its recommended to seek medical advice/treatment as soon as possible. When I was kid I used to be pretty adventurous seeking, collecting and handling the local garden/bush fauna. Did receive a bite from one spider, some sort of jumping spider {size of a fingernail no Amazonian tarantula}, just some localized pain around the bite site subsided pretty quickly but it was enough to make me a lot more more cautious.

[Shaun]

Whitetails are very nasty, we used to get them in our house all the time.

Once i put on in a jar with a redback and the whitetail killed it with ease, the thing i found interesting is it kept attacking it even after you could see the redback was almost dead, these must all be females because they are evil things.

[Dujon]

G'day, Phil,

I had a similar event a couple of years ago which I also put down to a white-tail (though I had no evidence of such). In my case I was fortunate as it was a short row of five lumps of various sizes along the outside of my left forearm. They itched to a considerable degree - I had to consciously refrain from scratching them - and became quite hard. If memory serves they took weeks to finally subside and for my arm return to normal.

Your other symptoms didn't present themselves in my case, but given that I was bitten (by whatever it was) on a limb rather than my head I suppose that could be a normal situation.

The only reason I plumped for the white-tail as an explanation is that I do tend to see many of them in the house during the warmer months and have found one or two on the bed cover over the years.

Anyway, I hope and trust that you will continue to recover.

[Ric]

Hi Phil, hope you are recovering well. The ol spider bite can be a nasty affair.

I saw an article on telly about the White-tail about a year ago which suggested the same thing as GeoffW1 was saying. A team of scientist's in WA were analysing the spider venom and found it no worse than that of a Redback. The problem is that the White Tail is also a scavenger and doesn't clean it's fangs very well so there is a risk of a secondary infection from the bacteria that is carried on them. It is people with low immune systems that then become vunerable.

Cheers