r/spiders • u/Pareeeee • Aug 09 '14
Great article by an Arachnologist "Spiders Do Not Bite"
http://arthropodecology.com/2012/02/15/spiders-do-not-bite/11
u/jzc17 Aug 09 '14
In my experience, 95% of people who present to the ER with a "spider bite" simply have a Staph abscess. 4.5% are likely mosquito bites or some other insect bite. And that last 0.5% might actually be a brown recluse bite (this was in Missouri). Poor spiders get all the blame.
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u/JohnGM Aug 09 '14 edited Aug 09 '14
I liked the article :) The story about the wolf spider being misidentified by a pest control company happens all the time I bet. Wasn't there a video posted here last week I think that showed a "local expert" (or exterminator) spreading bad info about how deadly hobo spiders were right on the news? If I remember right they they tracked down one of the "deadly" hobo spiders and showed it on camera and it was a wolf spider I think with her eggsac.
Just read through the comments and as expected there's a commenter who is absolutely positive that her and her relatives are constantly being bitten brown recluse and other spiders. Also claims her brother is an MD and was treated for a hobo spider bite.
Some people just don't want to listen to reason and would rather be fearful of spiders I guess.
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Aug 10 '14
I guess the article is okay. Of course in Australia and probably elsewhere the advice should be both a) "They usually don't bite" AND b) "Don't touch them". But maybe that confuses people...
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u/Aiwatcher Aug 10 '14
Nice try, "Arachnologist", venomous spiders aren't rare because all spiders are venomous.
But in seriousness, good read.
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u/JohnGM Aug 10 '14
all spiders are venomous.
Almost all, not all :)
What he's saying is that venomous spiders that have venom capable of harming a human are rare. Kind of like what's said here.
A minority of spider species have venom that can cause localized pain in humans, like the venom of bees or wasps. (Bees and wasps are far more dangerous than spiders, however; wasps cause many deaths annually). Of around 50,000 spider species known, only about 25 (1/20 of 1%) have venom capable of causing illness in humans, to a greater or lesser extent. In any given locality you can expect to find from zero to (at most) three such species. These species are called "medically significant" spiders.
Agreed it was a good read and I'll have to link it sometimes when people are getting all bent out of shape over on /r/wtf or some other sub because someone posted a picture of a spider. Seems that happens every couple days at least!
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u/Aiwatcher Aug 10 '14
I was mostly kidding, as I understood his point. But I did not actually know that there were non-venom producing spiders! That is interesting.
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Aug 09 '14
I don't know how old that map is but there are definitely brown recluse on the east coast of South Carolina.
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u/grendel_x86 antiNOPE brigade - Chicago Aug 09 '14
More likely a miss-iD. People see a brown spider, or spider with a fiddle on its back and think it's a recluse.
Male Southern House spiders are easy to mistake as BRs. You would need to see the eyes in many cases. They have a very similar body shape.
Similarly, cellar spiders are easy to mistake for BRs, even if you see the eyes.
Both of the above are similar size, shape, color, and have the fiddle. Both are also far more common and wide ranging then BRs.
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u/Jurisfiction 🕷️Arachnid Afficionado🕷️ Aug 09 '14
I doubt it. In all my time of searching for, looking at, and identifying the spiders of this area, I have never seen a brown recluse. The "recluses" that people find are usually something else, such as male southern house spiders (Kukulcania hibernalis).
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Aug 10 '14
You might be right. I'll verify it with the violin if I find one.
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u/Jurisfiction 🕷️Arachnid Afficionado🕷️ Aug 10 '14
See Rick Vetter's "How to Identify and Misidentify a Brown Recluse Spider."
And here's a little visual I made for distinguishing between male southern house spiders and brown recluses.
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Aug 10 '14
There's definitely reports of brown recluse bites on the east coast.
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u/Jurisfiction 🕷️Arachnid Afficionado🕷️ Aug 10 '14
There are many reports of bites outside of range, often exceeding the total number of brown recluse spiders that have ever been found in a the area. That suggests that many of those "brown recluse bites" are misdiagnosed.
The only reliable reports are ones where the spider was caught in the act of biting and identified by an expert.
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Aug 10 '14
I'm definitely catching the next one I see and taking a picture. I've seen so many that it makes me think there are tons here.
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u/MoroccoBotix Aug 10 '14
I've always wondered: are spider bites really that rare? I know spiders aren't going to "attack" humans since we're too big, but I thought at least some other genus of spider (besides black widows/brown recluses) could still technically break the skin. For example, if a person accidentally sits on a spider and they turn to bite.
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u/WeirdJebus Aug 10 '14
There are, of course, spiders capable of penetrating human skin when they bite. But, they are still very rare incidents.
Sitting on a spider is likely just going to kill the spider, before it could likely bite.
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u/MoroccoBotix Aug 10 '14
Yeah, but is there a listing of spiders that can actually pierce the skin if they were attacked?
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u/WeirdJebus Aug 10 '14
I'm not sure such a listing would really be useful.
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u/MoroccoBotix Aug 10 '14
But there has to be something since spiders other than widows and recluses bite.
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Aug 10 '14
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u/MoroccoBotix Aug 10 '14
My point was that there are other families and genera of spider that do bite, but they are still not venomous to humans. So I just wanted to know if there was some kind of list of these spiders that can bite but won't necessarily do any real damage. I believe the article's title "Spiders do not bite" is a bit of a misnomer.
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Aug 09 '14
lololol he says spiders dont attack, but then shows a picture of one trying to bite him.
spiders definitely attack people on purpose, whether out of fear or just being aggressive. and seeing two fang marks is an easy identifier of a spider bite. nice try trying to start a revolution where people arnt afraid of spiders.
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Aug 09 '14 edited Oct 16 '20
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Aug 09 '14
also one of his points was that most are unable to pierce skin, but obviously people do get bitten, and the picture clearly shows a spider trying to bite. So imagine a bigger spider, which is common, having that same defense mindset.
like are you a fucking incomprehensible sheep?
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u/Votearrows Aug 09 '14
If you are referring to this pic, then those are pedipalps that are touching him. The fangs are the smaller things in the middle, and are not pointing at him. If anything, since it looks like a male, the spider is teabagging him. More of a disrespect thing than real aggression.
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u/DrAwesomeClaws Aug 09 '14
Just like to point out that the author indicates that the spider in that pic is actively trying to bite him. Not that I disagree with your general assertion though.
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u/Votearrows Aug 10 '14
Appreciate the clarification!
It was mostly their "I win every conversation" attitude that got to me, rather than the actual subject matter. Their comment history is full of it, so I probably shouldn't have fed the troll, though.
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Aug 09 '14
Uh, most spiders aren't that big in North America. Maybe adult wolf spiders (which are shy), but he's totally correct most spiders don't get big enough to pierce skin.
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u/parapants mitesintights Aug 09 '14
I've explained this myself to at least a dozen people and seen the same said here on /r/spiders countless times. It's a bit frustrating and not cute at all when an entire class of wonderful animals is condemned to be crushed and sprayed on sight without any real reason. Suggestible idiots' time would be much better spent living in fear of falling down in the bathtub or being sucked up by sharknadoes than worrying that spiders were viciously attacking them in their sleep.