White tip spiders

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Originally Posted by Ausfree

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Tell that to a lady I know who was bitten on the forearm by a white tip spider and after several months of treatment, finished up losing her arm up to the elbow!!!:o I guess that was some allergic reaction!!:o

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The vast majority of white tail disease is in fact Staph. aureus bacterial infection and wrongly ascribed to the spiders as far as I understand. Also wrongly ascribed to an allergic reaction. Not infrequently there is delayed presentation and appropriate treatment as the victim and some times their health advisor thinks it is a spider reaction.

Of course no idea as to what went on with your poor friend but it would not be the first time even in the antibiotic era that someone had an amputation for staph disease.

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Originally Posted by Ausfree

Don't make a joke of it mate, she lives at Caves Beach near Newcastle and went to Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital for treatment. No, I'm not about to tell who she is because that is a private matter for her!! They caught the spider, by the way!!

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Absolutely not making a joke about it. But (and no offence mate) there are a lot of people who recite urban myths as facts. Like the sales rep who last week told us that here on the Prince of Wales Hospital Campus, we had a man who had his arm amputated because it got caught in one of our beds. It never happened and no we aren't going to buy any of his beds!

Just to get back on topic, changing your location here won't stop the spiders finding you.

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Originally Posted by Ausfree

Fully agree mate, look I am not saying the bite was toxic, what I am saying is the reaction in this particular woman ,caused the loss of her arm, they tried for six months with her and she went through injections similiar to chemotherapy to save her arm but in the end she lost the arm, very tragic!!:(

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No doubt stuff like this can happen, but as said it is generally one of two things either a bacterial infection or an adverse/allergic reaction. Both have been documented.
Not a lot different to a bacterial infection you can get anywhere and from many hospitals.
There are always exceptions to rules.
Sometimes very unfotuanate ones.

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Originally Posted by rovercare

I'd worry less about a spider bite, than driving your land rover;)

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The other day when working out where to run my cabling for my new UHF under my Defednder's bonnet, I found a huge redback spider dragging a huntsman spider back to it's nest. Lets say it got a good blast of Morten!

Thanks for the danny long legs tip. Going to start a captive breeding program.

I suffer from Arachnophobia. I love Blue Tongue Lizards!!

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Originally Posted by Beckford

Thanks for the danny long legs tip. Going to start a captive breeding program.

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Do that, once you have a colony established, nothing else will move in in any numbers. I bought an old motorbike home that had a heap of redbacks living in it, but the daddy longlegs got the lot within a month. Whenever I get an excess of daddy longlegs, I move them to other location around the place - the caravan, back shed, verandah and where the other trailers live are all now pretty much redback free.