Whitetail Spiders

[Hans Tucker]

Anyone else around Melbourne having an influx of Whitetail Spiders?

Every time the temperature rises I am greeted with these blasted things.

[Exfso]

Got them in Adelaide too,...yukkk

[BlackWidow]

Got a few of them at work :lol:

[redbeard]

Me too! :lol2:

[casstony]

We cultivate daddy long legs in the house to capture other bugs that get in and apparently they help to control whitetails, with a 50/50 chance as to who wins the fight.

[raymo]

They are everywhere; I had an infestation that took me about 6 months
to wipe out. I got bitten on my big toe during that time. I couldn't wear
a closed shoe at all for months, and the toe is still super sensitive to this
day[2yrs later].
raymo

[big_dav_2001]

I am currently nursing a bite from one of these little buggers. Got me on the inside of my right elbow.

Didn't notice when it bit, but noticed a painful lump on Wednesday with a red area which has spread over the last few days. I had to leave work early yesterday as I was feeling strange and couldn't concentrate on work (not much fun when using a bandsaw... Hehe)... Doctor took one look and said yep, white tail... I found the little bugger just poking out from under a windowsill in prime position to where I was bitten. The pest control guys should be here any minute... Hehe

Davin

[casstony]

A family member developed a nasty ulcer on her leg after some sort of bite - it cleared up quickly with daily application of the hydrogen peroxide solution which can be bought at the shops (3% solution from memory).

[bobson]

A few years back my father in law got bitten on his point finger from white tail spider. He went to doctor and she told him not to worry about it because it doesn't look like spider bite. It became very itchy and red around it but doctor just prescribed some cream. A week or so later they had to cut the finger off because of gangrene!

[TrevorW]

Strange how the only spider I was told to be concerned about growing up was a bite from the "Red Back" and even that wasn't generally dangerous except for the young, sick and elderly. Now according to what I've read about the White Tail the bite symptoms are similar to the Red Back bite and there is no proof that it causes a arachnogenic necrosis.

"White-tailed spiders wander about human dwellings and may be encountered unexpectedly, unlike the black house spider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_house_spider) and the redback (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider) which are more often seen in a web. They may be responsible for a disproportionately high number of spider bites compared with other Australian spiders, because of their wandering habits. Of the 130 cases studied by Isbister and Gray, more than 60% of the victims had been bitten by spiders that had got into clothing, towels or beds.
The bite of white-tailed spiders has been wrongly implicated in cases of arachnogenic necrosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrosis#Arachnogenic_necrosis). The misassociation stems from a paper presented at the International Society on Toxinology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_on_Toxinology ) World Congress held in Brisbane in 1982. Both white-tailed and the wolf spider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider) were considered as candidates for possibly causing suspected spider bite necrosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrosis), though it later turned out that the recluse spider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recluse_spider) was the culprit in the reported cases from Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil).

Following this initial report, numerous other cases implicated white-tailed spiders in causing necrotic ulcers.[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-11)[12] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-12)[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-13)[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-14) All of these cases lacked a positively identified spider—or even a spider bite in some cases. Additionally there had not been a case of arachnogenic necrosis reported in the two hundred years of European colonisation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonisation) before these cases.

Clinical toxicologist Geoffrey Isbister studied 130 cases of arachnologist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnologist)-identified white-tailed spider bites, and found no necrosis or confirmed infections, concluding that such outcomes are very unlikely for a white-tailed spider bite.

The major effects from a bite were local pain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain), a red mark, local swelling and itchiness; rarely systemic effects of nausea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea), vomiting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomiting), malaise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaise) or headache (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headache) occurred.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-Isbister-2) All these symptoms are generally mild and resolve over time.[ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_spider#cite_note-Slaughter-1)

[Nikolas]

Iwas bitten by a redback 6 months ago, there is a difference between that and a white tail. A white tail bite doesn't huirt when it bites whereas a redback bite hurts like a hot liquid is inserted in your finger and runs up your elbow. then you may get a mild fever and soreness around the bite. Ice is very effective on the limb. I had no residual effects after 2 days.

[Forgey]

Haven't seen any whitetails yet but I woke up to a huntsman on my bed near my pillow the other morning, needless to say I have never gotten out of the so fast in life lol

[spacezebra]

I have read that Huntsman Spider will eat whitetails!

Good spiders to have around.

Cheers Petra d.

[Hans Tucker]

They say the average human will eat an average of 8 spiders while sleeping...Bon Appetit :D

[stevous67]

Seeing we are sharing spider stories...I received a white tail bite to the lower left leg, the bugger being in my pants before I put them on. Little pain from the bite, but the area swelled, inflected, and became ulcerated within one month. No medication seemed to help. The doctor later felt they should have cut the area clean, but I didn't like the sound of that. More than two years later the ulcerated area is still highly visible, and rashes occasionally.

Clearly the advice is DON'T GET BITTEN! :prey:

Bye!

Steve

[Terry B]

Well written. Sadly the medical profession (of whick I am one also) is probably mostly responsible for perpetuating the story that white tailed spiders cause persistent ulcers despite very good research demonstrating no link between actual witnessed bites and ulceration as your links demonstrate.
Evidence based medicine is important and white tailed spider bites falls down on the evidence.

[goober]

My understanding was they are scavengers and get all sorts of muck on their fangs, which can cause infection. But yes, whe the weather warms up, they appear. We tend to get half a dozen in the house each summer, typically in pairs!

[el_draco]

Which is why we are all astronomers.... :screwy: