FALSE ALARM!
It's been a while.
I've been busy exploring Los Santos.
Funny really, because while I've been exploring a fictional, fanciful and violent world within a game, the British press has been playing its own game, planting one hell of a fictional, fanciful and painful seed in people's heads that makes GTA5 look like an episode of the Good Life!
Perhaps the Good Life is a suitable place to start because I'm talking about a humble spider here, which was (perhaps) creeping merrily around in suburbs 'darrn sarrf' decades ago. Well, it was. And still is.
I've tried to resist blogging throughout Britain's vilification of the False Widow Spider (because that's what I'm talking about - obviously) and the way it's 'plaguing' the nation.
But I take no more! I say stop!
Silly, silly, silly!
If you've been living on Mars, you'll have no doubt missed the fact that Britain has recently decided it's all got a bit like Australia up here and a warm summer has left us poor folk vulnerable to toxic spider bites that will make our legs fall off, arms explode, and probably cry a lot unless we can kill every arachnid in sight!
I'm not trying to patronise folk, or dumb down actual cases of medical reactions to spider bites, but Britain should maintain its stiff upper lip. Perhaps rest a spider on that very lip. It will scuttle off - it won't eat your face!
Towards the end of August 2013, the odd one or two tales of terror about Steatoda Nobilis (a well established, significantly [in UK terms] venomous spider began to crawl into the British tabloids. This is nothing unusual. It's a staple favourite in any kind of news copy drought EVERY year.
The fact is, it is one of a handful of spiders established in the UK with fangs strong and large enough to penetrate human flesh as a means of defense when trapped or threatened. It so happens it also has an unpleasant (that's unpleasant - not deadly or neurotoxic) venom, which, unfortunately, if you're bitten by one, means it's quite possible you'll know about it.
In the majority of bite cases (which in themselves are rare) range from a nip to a wasp sting sensation, but some bite patients report flu-like malaise, which can last a day or two.
OK it's very fair to say we've always had a false sense of safety in the UK when it comes to dangerous animals - we've all been told about adders and not to touch snakes [as they're drilled into us as our only potentially deadly land animal] and we're pretty sure we don't have black widows (for some reason people always think they're the most deadly of spiders), but, suddenly, we humble Brits have a venomous spider?
Not true at all. The False Widow has been a UK resident since the 1800s and probably arrived here in fruit imports from Madera or the Canary Islands (entomologists aren't entirely sure which). They just know that the spider is thriving and has been for millennia in those places. It causes no known problems there.
The venom of Steatoda Nobilis is actually no more powerful than a wasp or bee sting.
Spiders don't see humans as prey (and while I accept many people are scared of them - I myself [whilst fascinated by them] wouldn't want one crawling on me or biting me.
Venom is a spider's means of trapping its food. If this process didn't take place, you, I and every animal on the planet would be plagued by flies, crickets, wasps etc.
The rare problem with False widows (and this is the same case with all species of spiders capable of giving a nip in the UK) is that a bite can introduce bacteria to human flesh - resulting in severe infection (sometimes). This is why cases reported in the Daily Mail, while probably true, don't justify the vilification of the Steatoda species alone (false widows).
The False Widow (Steatoda) family ARE related to the potentially dangerous Latrodectus family of spiders, which include America and southern Europe's infamous black widow and the Red Back spiders of Australia, but fatalities are rare, even if, and when those species bite. There hasn't been a fatal red back bite since the late 1940s.
Scaremongering about British spiders is rather pointless. No species settled in the UK has ever delivered a fatal bite. Although I'm sure the Daily Mail is on a mission to seek out the first case, just to prove us otherwise.
Each year in Britain, people are trampled to death by cows, fatally kicked by horses, mauled to death by dogs, die of infections spread by cat scratches, succumb to allergic reactions to wasp and bee stings and poisoned by ingesting mushrooms that have grown here since the dawn of time.
Yet, a tiny, humble eight legged beast, with an almost robotic brain and instinct to do nothing more than eat and breed, is our current whipping boy!
As I always say, don't handle spiders and stay webwise!
You can read more about Steatoda spiders, elsewhere on this blog.
It's been a while.
I've been busy exploring Los Santos.
Funny really, because while I've been exploring a fictional, fanciful and violent world within a game, the British press has been playing its own game, planting one hell of a fictional, fanciful and painful seed in people's heads that makes GTA5 look like an episode of the Good Life!
Perhaps the Good Life is a suitable place to start because I'm talking about a humble spider here, which was (perhaps) creeping merrily around in suburbs 'darrn sarrf' decades ago. Well, it was. And still is.
I've tried to resist blogging throughout Britain's vilification of the False Widow Spider (because that's what I'm talking about - obviously) and the way it's 'plaguing' the nation.
But I take no more! I say stop!
Silly, silly, silly!
If you've been living on Mars, you'll have no doubt missed the fact that Britain has recently decided it's all got a bit like Australia up here and a warm summer has left us poor folk vulnerable to toxic spider bites that will make our legs fall off, arms explode, and probably cry a lot unless we can kill every arachnid in sight!
I'm not trying to patronise folk, or dumb down actual cases of medical reactions to spider bites, but Britain should maintain its stiff upper lip. Perhaps rest a spider on that very lip. It will scuttle off - it won't eat your face!
Towards the end of August 2013, the odd one or two tales of terror about Steatoda Nobilis (a well established, significantly [in UK terms] venomous spider began to crawl into the British tabloids. This is nothing unusual. It's a staple favourite in any kind of news copy drought EVERY year.
The fact is, it is one of a handful of spiders established in the UK with fangs strong and large enough to penetrate human flesh as a means of defense when trapped or threatened. It so happens it also has an unpleasant (that's unpleasant - not deadly or neurotoxic) venom, which, unfortunately, if you're bitten by one, means it's quite possible you'll know about it.
In the majority of bite cases (which in themselves are rare) range from a nip to a wasp sting sensation, but some bite patients report flu-like malaise, which can last a day or two.
OK it's very fair to say we've always had a false sense of safety in the UK when it comes to dangerous animals - we've all been told about adders and not to touch snakes [as they're drilled into us as our only potentially deadly land animal] and we're pretty sure we don't have black widows (for some reason people always think they're the most deadly of spiders), but, suddenly, we humble Brits have a venomous spider?
Not true at all. The False Widow has been a UK resident since the 1800s and probably arrived here in fruit imports from Madera or the Canary Islands (entomologists aren't entirely sure which). They just know that the spider is thriving and has been for millennia in those places. It causes no known problems there.
The venom of Steatoda Nobilis is actually no more powerful than a wasp or bee sting.
Spiders don't see humans as prey (and while I accept many people are scared of them - I myself [whilst fascinated by them] wouldn't want one crawling on me or biting me.
Venom is a spider's means of trapping its food. If this process didn't take place, you, I and every animal on the planet would be plagued by flies, crickets, wasps etc.
The rare problem with False widows (and this is the same case with all species of spiders capable of giving a nip in the UK) is that a bite can introduce bacteria to human flesh - resulting in severe infection (sometimes). This is why cases reported in the Daily Mail, while probably true, don't justify the vilification of the Steatoda species alone (false widows).
The False Widow (Steatoda) family ARE related to the potentially dangerous Latrodectus family of spiders, which include America and southern Europe's infamous black widow and the Red Back spiders of Australia, but fatalities are rare, even if, and when those species bite. There hasn't been a fatal red back bite since the late 1940s.
Scaremongering about British spiders is rather pointless. No species settled in the UK has ever delivered a fatal bite. Although I'm sure the Daily Mail is on a mission to seek out the first case, just to prove us otherwise.
Each year in Britain, people are trampled to death by cows, fatally kicked by horses, mauled to death by dogs, die of infections spread by cat scratches, succumb to allergic reactions to wasp and bee stings and poisoned by ingesting mushrooms that have grown here since the dawn of time.
Yet, a tiny, humble eight legged beast, with an almost robotic brain and instinct to do nothing more than eat and breed, is our current whipping boy!
As I always say, don't handle spiders and stay webwise!
You can read more about Steatoda spiders, elsewhere on this blog.
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