America's Deadliest Bite! : General Discussion and Forum Games

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

America's Deadliest Bite
America's deadliest bite is the lethal black widow spider, which is present everywhere in the United States, except for Alaska!!

A black widow spider has a red hour glass looking dot underneath it.

The black widow's venom is a neurotoxin that is 15 times more potent than a rattle snake!!

The black widow's venom attacks your nervous system and destroys it.

Ewwwwwwwwwww, makes me squirm in my seat typing this!! :scared:

Laughing Gravy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

We are fortunate in the UK in that there are very few dangerous animals. The adder, or viper is one of the view poisonous species here, and is pretty rare. Bites are very rarely fatal- I don't think there's been a death related to one or not. There are no dangerous spiders either- there are very few in fact that can even puncture the skin.

We have a species called the false widow, that looks very similar to the black widow, but is harmless.

As for black widows, the bite is (so I understand) very painful, but treatable with antivenin. I saw a programme with a young child who had been bitten, and he was wailing away like a good 'un as it hurt so much. They administered the antivenin and within minutes he was laughing and acting as though nothing had happened. Science is a wonderful thing.

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

The scary thing about a lot of dangerous spiders is that they typically hang out in out of the way places where you rarely see them before it's too late. I've never heard the story "Yeah we saw this spider in a tree and decided to prod it and the damn thing bit me", it's always more along the lines of "I stuck my hand in a place I couldn't see to grab something and felt this pain".

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Laughing Gravy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

The false widow:

Very similar, isn't it? It doesn't have the red marks though. Apparently it can bit with symptoms similar to (but far less severe than) true widows. They've also been known to kill and devour true widows. :shock:

Be grateful you don't live in Oz, in a list of the 25 most venomous snakes, 20 are there: http://www.avru.org/general/general_mostvenom.html

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Which is the one that turns you into a superhero?

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Laughing Gravy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Plus Australia has the redback spider (closely related to the Black widow, and just as dangerous), and in places there is the delightful funnel web spider, which is classed as one of the most dangerous in the world, and is also particularly aggressive.

When I stayed with friends in Oz, I only saw one redback, and that was a baby one- I even went looking for the things!

Being so free of things that maul, bite and poison here in the UK, it makes me kinda curious... :shock:

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Maybe UK is the place I wanna visit... a poison free place!!! 8-)

Speaking of poisonous spiders and the black widow... my brother just saw one yesterday! He recently bought a home in Arizona and has been living there since last December. Just yesterday him and his wife were going for a walk and saw a web with a black widow hanging upside down in it. They saw the red hour glass symbol which told them exactly what it was!! Scary! :scared:

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

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