How common is a bite from a white-tail spider?Īlthough the available evidence appears to clear white-tail spiders as the culprit when it comes to skin wounds, it seems that the general public has an unnecessarily high level of anxiety about this particular spider. This can include problems with blood circulation, skin ulcers due to diabetes, secondary infections with bacteria, fungi or viruses, drug reactions, burns (especially chemical burns), physical injury to the skin, some inflammatory skin diseases, and some types of cancer. What else can cause slow-healing skin wounds?Īnyone with skin wounds that don’t heal should seek medical attention and be investigated for other causes of skin ulcers and wounds. So the good news is that – on the basis of the currently available evidence – spider bites of any kind in Australia are very unlikely to cause skin ulcers or slow-healing wounds. Although all victims experienced pain and discomfort following the bite, there were no cases of skin ulcers or persistent skin wounds in any of the 130 cases. Support for the innocence of white-tail spiders also comes from the largest study of its kind looking at 130 Australian cases confirmed to be caused by white-tail spiders (proven by capturing the offending spider and having it identified by a spider expert). However, later experiments have confirmed that white-tail spider venom is quite weak and does not result in the death of skin cells in laboratory tests. The initial theory several decades ago was that the venom of the white-tail spider resulted in the death of skin tissues. However, spider experts now strongly question whether the white-tail spider is the guilty party in these cases of severe skin ulcers. This phenomenon goes by the complicated name of ‘ necrotic arachnidism’, which is another way of saying that a patch of skin dies (a process known as necrosis), possibly due to a bite from a spider (which is an arachnid). Some reports even suggest that being bitten by the white-tail spider results in wounds so severe that amputation of an affected body part is necessary. The white-tail spider has often been blamed in media reports and on social media for the development of nasty ‘ flesh-eating’ skin wounds that take a long time to heal, or sometimes never completely heal. Do white-tail spider bites really cause a ‘flesh-eating’ wound? But with the exception of several highly venomous ones – like the redback spider and funnel-web spider that can cause serious illness and possibly death – most spider bites in Australia generally cause relatively minor symptoms. There are thought to be more than 10,000 different species of spiders in Australia. Nausea, vomiting, headache or feeling unwell (in around 10% of cases).Severe pain (in just over one-quarter of cases).More rarely, white-tail spider bites may cause: Some people only experience symptoms for an hour or two, whereas others may have symptoms (such as a painful red mark on the skin) that last for up to a week. The average duration of symptoms tends to be around 24 hours, but the time taken for symptoms to disappear can vary. Itchiness (either immediately or several days later).Pain or discomfort that is generally mild-to-moderate in severity. Irritation or a red mark on the skin (including visible puncture marks).Symptoms of a white-tail spider biteĪ bite from a white-tail spider usually results in temporary symptoms at the site of the bite. It appears this particular spider’s reputation is undeserved and greatly overestimated. Although a white-tail spider bite can be painful and cause temporary skin irritation and inflammation, experts now say it’s very unlikely that the white-tail spider is responsible for the hard-to-treat skin ulcers and slow-healing wounds attributed to the spider over the past 30 years.
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