6 ms·

> It's an economic challenge even in first world countries, and antivenin is expensive as a result. Here in Australia, the funnelweb spider (around Sydney) is

by vacri 10y ago

> It's an economic challenge even in first world countries, and antivenin is expensive as a result. Here in Australia, the funnelweb spider (around Sydney) is our only particularly lethal arachnid. Recently they've been struggling to find enough spiders to milk for the antivenom, and so have started to ask the general public to lend a hand in catching the damn things. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/nsw-reminded-to-help-catch-funnel-web-spiders-to-help-with-antivenom-stocks-20151010-gk5wbj.html http://www.smh.com.au/environment/nsw-reminded-to-help-catch... Interestingly, the 'spider safety kit' in that article is "a glass jar and a plastic ruler" :)

enkid 10y ago
Asking the public to catch venomous spiders so they can produce anti-venom seems potentially counter productive.
- michaelbuddy 10y ago
  Maybe not. Clearly the vast majority of spider bites are accidental, the recipient being unaware. When you're actually looking for the critters you're on your toes so to speak. Now if they said 'Reward! $10,000 for every xyz spider captured, then you'll have a lot of dumb people doing a lot of foolish things.
tunap 10y ago
The problem, as I experienced with two black widow bites a few weeks ago is I did not realize I had been bitten until the symptoms were in full effect. By the time I realized it was not a flu virus it was already too late. I didn't even realize they were spider bite until the weeping craters appeared at the presumed mosquito bite site.
- harshreality 10y ago
  Are you sure? Alleged spider bites without a captured spider (or by comparison to previously observed bites... with captured spider in those cases) are often misdiagnosed. With recluse/widow/hobo spider bites, play devil's advocate. Could it have been some other bite, an infection, allergic reaction, or maybe even food poisoning? Could it have been a chigger bite, perhaps? Some kind of hymenoptera? Break down local and systemic symptoms, carefully and critically. The classic widow bite symptom is pain. That's not easy to confuse with the flu or with a mosquito bite. Other symptoms like fever, nausea, and vomiting might be caused by a spider bite... but they might not be, particularly when the wound site is either infected or showing an allergic reaction (which can lead to a constellation of other symptoms that confuses the diagnosis), and particularly when there's no accompanying pain. Even the classic flesh-destruction of brown recluse bites is not always caused by brown recluses. Plenty of "brown recluse" bites are really flesh eating bacteria infections following some other kind of bite, sting, or other small injury. Funnel-web bites are a different thing entirely. One component of their venom specifically targets primates.
  - tunap 10y ago
    Verbose account posted above, I appear to have double-posted... am blaming the android browser, again. I work in utility closets, in the rafters, under desks and in my free-time leaning up against trailers. Phoenix is experiencing a relatively cool, wet August and I have knocked down over a dozen webs in the last month: inside my house & outside on my chair, grill, trailer and floating in air as I walk from house to truck. Edit: On the Wednesday I was bit, I spent the morning working on top of large part racks amidst water, air, oil & conduit lines in a heavy equipment repair shop and that afternoon I was rummaging under desks replacing old modem/router wall-warts with new equipment for a client's ISP swap. Although, my property is still the most probable candidate with it being low in a wash on the fringe of the metro area. Have had a scorpion in the tub & another in my rash guard already this summer.
tunap 10y ago
The problem, as I experienced with two black widow bites a few weeks ago is I did not realize I had been bitten until the symptoms were in full effect. By the time I realized it was not a flu virus it was already too late. I didn't even realize it was a spider bite until the weeping crater appeared at the presumed mosquito bite sites.
- nickthemagicman 10y ago
  I'd be interested to hear more about your bite experience. Did you eventually make it to a hospital? Did you take the anti-venin? What did the symptoms feel like?
  - tunap 10y ago
    Edit: Inadvertently cut 1st three sentences(frikkin Android browser) and neglected to post my citation at the end. On a normal Wednesday afternoon I noted two egg-yolk sized lumps on my calves that itched like mosquito bites, yet were squishier but I didn't put much thought into that facet initially. With all the wet weather here in Phoenix the last few weeks the skeeters are back with a vengeance, I figured it/they hit pay-dirt while I was sleeping. That night I woke up repeatedly with extreme chills and cold sweats, but did not make any connection to the lumps. Went to work the next day extremely exhausted. We got the job done, ran a 2nd call and I went home and passed out around 4pm. At 9pm I started awake w/ massive headache, extreme nausea & all my joints/spine were pins & needles of pain. I 'emergency walked'[0] to the toilet for extreme anterior & posterior purges and passed out after the spasms desisted. Called in sick the next day(Friday) & dozed on couch through unceasing headache, GI purges and joint pains... intense pain, but still flu-like symptoms 40 hours later. Sometime after dark that night I woke up to all my muscles in my body experiencing the intense pain of the worst muscle cramps I could previously imagine, yet without the contracting of muscle tissues. The only exception was my calves & feet, they may have been numb but I only know with certainty I did not hurt below the knees. Cannot say how many hours this went on before I lost consciousness but it felt like an eternity. I do not believe I was paralyzed while awake, but I was hyper-focused on mellowing my thoughts/heartrate, and most importantly not amplifying the agony by moving anything. I honestly never even thought to call for assistance, I still didn't know what was happening, only that it was already in play and while my chest felt like I was having an infarction, so did every other part of my body... except below the knees. Next morning my muscles felt like I ran several marathons(except my legs, lol), the nausea was replaced with what felt like knives passing through my intestines and my diaphragm and peritoneum felt like they were going to tear apart(didn't purge that for several days, my GI tract shut down & I could only hold down liquids). Joints and old injury sites continued to ache throughout Sunday, but the spinal burn, needling pains & headache had subsided in time for my 16 hour, uninterrupted sleep Saturday night. Sunday was spent feeling completely shattered and aching but without acute pain at long last. Layed on couch all day. Went to work Monday and all the pain my calves did not experience finally arrived. Ankles swelled and bolts of pain shot through both calves with each step(much more so in the right leg) until 3pm when I told the boss I couldn't go on. If you've ever walked long distance on concrete with bad shoes, that's the stabbing pain my calves were experiencing. That day, Monday, I noticed my right calf lump had a small, open sore and was oozing. The left calf lump was smaller, had a red spot that never completely opened up, didn't ooze as much and not until nearly a week later...presumably the 2nd bite with no/less venom delivered. Took rest of week off as my ankles & scrotum swelled/retained fluid whenever I wasn't laying down. Three weeks later & I am 99%, I do still experience a couple genuine, but mild, muscle cramps a day. Never went to doctor, but did speak to several friends/family who are in medical on Tuesday and determined if it were a desert recluse I would have already been in the ICU or dead...I kept up the Zika-Swine-Avian-Ebola flu story to that point as I was still unsure what happened and wanted to spare family & friends undue stress. [0] Emergency-walk http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Emergency%20walk http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Emergency%20w... [1]21 days later: right-leg bite site http://imgur.com/2JjBCIm http://imgur.com/2JjBCIm

by vacri 10y ago

enkid 10y ago

Asking the public to catch venomous spiders so they can produce anti-venom seems potentially counter productive.

michaelbuddy 10y ago
Maybe not. Clearly the vast majority of spider bites are accidental, the recipient being unaware. When you're actually looking for the critters you're on your toes so to speak. Now if they said 'Reward! $10,000 for every xyz spider captured, then you'll have a lot of dumb people doing a lot of foolish things.

tunap 10y ago

The problem, as I experienced with two black widow bites a few weeks ago is I did not realize I had been bitten until the symptoms were in full effect. By the time I realized it was not a flu virus it was already too late. I didn't even realize they were spider bite until the weeping craters appeared at the presumed mosquito bite site.

harshreality 10y ago
Are you sure? Alleged spider bites without a captured spider (or by comparison to previously observed bites... with captured spider in those cases) are often misdiagnosed. With recluse/widow/hobo spider bites, play devil's advocate. Could it have been some other bite, an infection, allergic reaction, or maybe even food poisoning? Could it have been a chigger bite, perhaps? Some kind of hymenoptera? Break down local and systemic symptoms, carefully and critically. The classic widow bite symptom is pain. That's not easy to confuse with the flu or with a mosquito bite. Other symptoms like fever, nausea, and vomiting might be caused by a spider bite... but they might not be, particularly when the wound site is either infected or showing an allergic reaction (which can lead to a constellation of other symptoms that confuses the diagnosis), and particularly when there's no accompanying pain. Even the classic flesh-destruction of brown recluse bites is not always caused by brown recluses. Plenty of "brown recluse" bites are really flesh eating bacteria infections following some other kind of bite, sting, or other small injury. Funnel-web bites are a different thing entirely. One component of their venom specifically targets primates.
- tunap 10y ago
  Verbose account posted above, I appear to have double-posted... am blaming the android browser, again. I work in utility closets, in the rafters, under desks and in my free-time leaning up against trailers. Phoenix is experiencing a relatively cool, wet August and I have knocked down over a dozen webs in the last month: inside my house & outside on my chair, grill, trailer and floating in air as I walk from house to truck. Edit: On the Wednesday I was bit, I spent the morning working on top of large part racks amidst water, air, oil & conduit lines in a heavy equipment repair shop and that afternoon I was rummaging under desks replacing old modem/router wall-warts with new equipment for a client's ISP swap. Although, my property is still the most probable candidate with it being low in a wash on the fringe of the metro area. Have had a scorpion in the tub & another in my rash guard already this summer.

tunap 10y ago

The problem, as I experienced with two black widow bites a few weeks ago is I did not realize I had been bitten until the symptoms were in full effect. By the time I realized it was not a flu virus it was already too late. I didn't even realize it was a spider bite until the weeping crater appeared at the presumed mosquito bite sites.

nickthemagicman 10y ago
I'd be interested to hear more about your bite experience. Did you eventually make it to a hospital? Did you take the anti-venin? What did the symptoms feel like?
- tunap 10y ago
  Edit: Inadvertently cut 1st three sentences(frikkin Android browser) and neglected to post my citation at the end. On a normal Wednesday afternoon I noted two egg-yolk sized lumps on my calves that itched like mosquito bites, yet were squishier but I didn't put much thought into that facet initially. With all the wet weather here in Phoenix the last few weeks the skeeters are back with a vengeance, I figured it/they hit pay-dirt while I was sleeping. That night I woke up repeatedly with extreme chills and cold sweats, but did not make any connection to the lumps. Went to work the next day extremely exhausted. We got the job done, ran a 2nd call and I went home and passed out around 4pm. At 9pm I started awake w/ massive headache, extreme nausea & all my joints/spine were pins & needles of pain. I 'emergency walked'[0] to the toilet for extreme anterior & posterior purges and passed out after the spasms desisted. Called in sick the next day(Friday) & dozed on couch through unceasing headache, GI purges and joint pains... intense pain, but still flu-like symptoms 40 hours later. Sometime after dark that night I woke up to all my muscles in my body experiencing the intense pain of the worst muscle cramps I could previously imagine, yet without the contracting of muscle tissues. The only exception was my calves & feet, they may have been numb but I only know with certainty I did not hurt below the knees. Cannot say how many hours this went on before I lost consciousness but it felt like an eternity. I do not believe I was paralyzed while awake, but I was hyper-focused on mellowing my thoughts/heartrate, and most importantly not amplifying the agony by moving anything. I honestly never even thought to call for assistance, I still didn't know what was happening, only that it was already in play and while my chest felt like I was having an infarction, so did every other part of my body... except below the knees. Next morning my muscles felt like I ran several marathons(except my legs, lol), the nausea was replaced with what felt like knives passing through my intestines and my diaphragm and peritoneum felt like they were going to tear apart(didn't purge that for several days, my GI tract shut down & I could only hold down liquids). Joints and old injury sites continued to ache throughout Sunday, but the spinal burn, needling pains & headache had subsided in time for my 16 hour, uninterrupted sleep Saturday night. Sunday was spent feeling completely shattered and aching but without acute pain at long last. Layed on couch all day. Went to work Monday and all the pain my calves did not experience finally arrived. Ankles swelled and bolts of pain shot through both calves with each step(much more so in the right leg) until 3pm when I told the boss I couldn't go on. If you've ever walked long distance on concrete with bad shoes, that's the stabbing pain my calves were experiencing. That day, Monday, I noticed my right calf lump had a small, open sore and was oozing. The left calf lump was smaller, had a red spot that never completely opened up, didn't ooze as much and not until nearly a week later...presumably the 2nd bite with no/less venom delivered. Took rest of week off as my ankles & scrotum swelled/retained fluid whenever I wasn't laying down. Three weeks later & I am 99%, I do still experience a couple genuine, but mild, muscle cramps a day. Never went to doctor, but did speak to several friends/family who are in medical on Tuesday and determined if it were a desert recluse I would have already been in the ICU or dead...I kept up the Zika-Swine-Avian-Ebola flu story to that point as I was still unsure what happened and wanted to spare family & friends undue stress. [0] Emergency-walk http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Emergency%20walk http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Emergency%20w... [1]21 days later: right-leg bite site http://imgur.com/2JjBCIm http://imgur.com/2JjBCIm