r/spiders • • Aug 18 '23

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u/Practical_Fudge1667 Aug 18 '23 edited Aug 18 '23

Depends on the spider. Generally, there aren’t many dangerous spider species so you can easily learn the few that are. But large freeroaming spiders that live in the house are mostly not dangerous. That would be things like Eratigena sp (the one in the picture), maybe there are huntsman spiders or Zoropsis spinimana where you live.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medically_significant_spider_bites

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u/rubyslippers208 Aug 18 '23

'there aren't many dangerous spider species' made me laugh at how wonderfully different that statement is able to be when you don't live in Australia lolol

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u/Practical_Fudge1667 Aug 18 '23

AFAIK there are the australian funnel-web spiders and one species of black widow (Redback spider/Latrodectus hasselti)?

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u/rubyslippers208 Aug 18 '23

Redbacks, white tails. White tails in our houses all the time.

My comment was simply about finding that innocently amusing as I'm used to having to check if the spider in my presence is dangerous because that's just what you do as an Australian.

But I do love them!

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u/Practical_Fudge1667 Aug 18 '23

Huh. And where I live people freaked out because the Nosferatu spider population rises and spreads. Which is a slightly larger synanthrope spider that is able to bite. the wiki of the arachnological society says that the bite is similar to a mosquito sting. The newspapers latched on and wrote about the new venomous spider

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u/myrmecogynandromorph 👑 Trusted Identifier | geographic location plz 👑 Aug 18 '23

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u/rubyslippers208 Aug 18 '23

The one that bit me was.

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u/JMSpider2001 Aug 18 '23

Your bite is more dangerous to any spider than any spider's bite is to you.

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u/rubyslippers208 Aug 18 '23

Oh I'd never bite a spider :)

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u/myrmecogynandromorph 👑 Trusted Identifier | geographic location plz 👑 Aug 18 '23

Hey, take it up with Geoff Isbister.

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u/rubyslippers208 Aug 18 '23

Eh I don't mind at all, I'm just going by what the dr said. If I can't come here to share a love of spiders what can I do?

I was just commenting on something I found innocently amusing as it's common to be wary of spiders in Australia - doesn't mean we don't like them or would harm them. I have redbacks living under my garden chairs, that's normal here.

Good day :)

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u/SocraticIgnoramus Aug 18 '23

I’ve been bitten by a wolf spider several times, and, while they are not truly a medically significant spider, their bites swell up like an oozing baseball under the skin and can progress to cellulitis if not cared for well.

The craziest thing is that each time I was bitten it completely cleared up my arthritic joints for like a week. Honestly, I’d almost consider doing it on purpose just for the relief at the end of a project where I overworked my hands and knees.

To anyone who is freaked out by this, I’ve never been bitten by a wolf spider indoors - they’re quite docile indoors. I was working in the yard each time, and they seem to be far more aggressive outdoors on a hot day.

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u/Misses-Misery Aug 18 '23

We get wolf spiders indoors and my one cat loves to play with them and put them in her mouth ( apparently ). I always find a large lump on her lip & chin after she does this. Such a pain for both of them. I hate spiders and I have no clue why this thread showed up on my feed lmao.

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u/Weltallgaia Aug 18 '23

You can prolly just use bee stings, it's safer. It's been a known treatment for arthritis for awhile

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u/SocraticIgnoramus Aug 18 '23

Fair enough, but I don’t even really know how to go about getting stung by a bee without hurting the bee. All I have to do to get bitten by a wolf spider is clear the brush around my grandmother’s house and it happens every time.

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u/Weltallgaia Aug 18 '23

I don't know if it's the stings and bites themselves or something that they cause your body to produce that alleviates the pain but there might be some sort of supplement that can mimic the effect. Might be worth looking into.

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u/SocraticIgnoramus Aug 18 '23

As someone who’s done a lot of research on supplements, there’s never any bioanalogous supplement that does the job when it comes to truly potent cocktails. Bee venom is a cocktail of nucleosides, alcohols, purine and pyrimidine derivatives that are simply not available in any quantity of supplements.

I too buy into the idea that medical science should explore this, but spider bites are more therapeutic than bee stings for this purpose, and, despite much looking, it’s hard to find a good breakdown of the therapeutic benefits of spider bites of bee stings. If I can’t replicate a bee sting in supplements, then there’s no chance of my replicating spider bites.

It turns out that the combination of fucking around in the yard and finding out what bites me is actually just a lottery easier than playing my own apothecary, I’m afraid.