White tail spider bites

**vnx205** · 13th December 2009, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

IIRC one of if not the most venomous or poisonous spiders is the daddy long legs...just as well its fangs are not tough enough to bite us

I had heard that too, but apparently we have both been taken in by an urban myth.

This is an explanation of how the myth might have arisen.

The urban legend ostensibly stems from the fact that the daddy long-legs spider is known to prey upon deadly venomous spiders, such as the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider"]redback[/ame], a member of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider"]black widow[/ame] genus, [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus"]Latrodectus[/ame]. By extrapolation it was thought that if the daddy long-legs spider could regularly kill a spider capable of delivering fatal bites to humans, it must be more venomous, and the uncate fangs were accused of prohibiting it from killing people. In reality it is merely quicker than the redback.

From
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae]Pholcidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

and

Daddy Longlegs - Are Daddy Longlegs Venomous?

**EchiDna** · 13th December 2009, 08:14 PM

got a bite on my left wrist over 15 years ago, treated with a cortisone cream at the time... no scaring, but the hair has never grown back the same is a patch the size of a 5 cent piece!

**350RRC** · 13th December 2009, 09:20 PM

Hi,

AFAIK the probs resulting from white tail and daddly lls bites are caused by the bacteria in their mouths, rather than any sort of venom.

In a somewhat related sense I sometimes suffer from sebaceous cysts which a surgeon has said he will have keep cutting out because it is caused by some strange bacteria.

I just use straight tea tree oil swiped once over the skin over on any that 'appear' and they are gone after 14 days max.

This may or may not help sufferers of spiders but in IMHO it may help even with old 'bites'.

In a similar vein are you all aware that sandfly 'bites' are just caused by spots of their urine on your skin?

cheers, DL

**twitchy** · 14th December 2009, 05:30 AM

Mythbusters disproved the toxicity of the daddy long legs. They can bite humans & no they are not that venomous.

**stage1slave** · 14th December 2009, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

Years ago our young son had a pet daddy long legs named Reggie.

I encourage all spiders to take up residence by my front gate..........works particularly well at keeping the mother in law out.

**zulu Delta 534** · 14th December 2009, 01:40 PM

Didn't keep us out!
Regards
Glen

**JohnF** · 14th December 2009, 02:17 PM

A couple of years ago I hitched dow to Sydney to do some Library Reseach and slept under a bridge while I was down in Sydney [cheap accomadation when I am away from home for a week]. Had never seen a white tail spider till then. Above my head under that bridge I saw several white tail spiders, but there were two distinct shapes of spiders with white tails under that bridge. So we may have more than one species of spider with a white tail, and one may be worse than the other. It certainly looked that way to me. Never got bitten so I will not comment on that aspect of this interesting discussion.

In the past I have caught and relocated many snakes, and heard many untrue myths about various snakes--Carpet snake bite sore comes back every year etc. I prsonally have lost count of how many times a Carpet Snake has bit me, and sores from these bites never once came back every year. However Carpet Snakes do eat rats which could have been in sewers, etc. so some people may have got a nasty infection that appeared healed and broke out again later, from germs in the snakes mouth.

One Myth now doing the rounds in our area is that carpet snakes [a non-venimous Python] have hybridised with deadly very veminous brown snakes, the Eastern Brown Snake being about the 3rd or 4th deadliest snake in the whole world [we in Australia are lucky in that we have the number one, two, three, four, five, sixth, seventh, eight, ninth and tenth deadliest snakes in the whole world. Brown snakes have fairly short fangs however]. I do not believe this false idea of Hybridisation [I believe in Hybridisation, just not among totally different types of snakes], but often the very deadly Rough Scale Snake [ranks around fifth deadliest in the world] is confused with a cute Baby Carpet Snake. Some people probably have seen what they think is just a cute little baby Carpet Snake bite a dog or cat, and then seen that animal die a horrible death, so they think that the Harmless Carpet Snake must have Hybridised with something very deadly, not realising this was a simple mis-identification of the snake they saw. Also some of the piosonous broadheaded snakes, such as the Steven's Banded Snake look very much like a Carpet Snake and also has a very fatal bite.

So mis-identification may account for many so called harmful side effects.

**numpty** · 14th December 2009, 02:30 PM

None of these poisonous critters can hold a candle to the one eyed trouser python. One bite from this and it takes 9 months for the swelling to go down.........boom boom.

And this snake will keep coming back.

I'm just surprised it wasn't mentioned before.

**V8Ian** · 14th December 2009, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by numpty

None of these poisonous critters can hold a candle to the one eyed trouser python. One bite from this and it takes 9 months for the swelling to go down.........boom boom.

I'm just surprised it wasn't mentioned before.

Probablely because less than half the bites cause this condition.

**numpty** · 14th December 2009, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Probablely because less than half the bites cause this condition.

Which only goes to prove the point that we all have different tolerance levels to various poisons.

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