What the fuck is this ?!

[sherlockhomeless]

I got bitten tonight, and it's got streaks on my arm now: it's a bit sore but not too bad. Weird! Do I need a drs appointment in the morning

Hope you feel better soon OP. What did your boss say?

So glad you got seen so quickly op. How’s it looking now?

The talk of spider bites has reminded me of this poor lady (sorry for the DM link) www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7485407/False-widow-spider-bite-forces-mother-huge-abscess-removed.html

Thank goodness you got to it in time. It must have been some really venomous evil critter.

@StripeyNightmare

God, here go people making up stuff about spiders 🙄

Spiders in the U.K., even false widows, are unlikely to cause you issues. People end up with problems because the bite gets infected, NOT because of the bite itself. Most of the time it isn’t even a spider bite but another insect and spiders get blamed because people don’t understand bites. A spider will not have caused your infection, poor care of a bite is what causes the problem and I highly doubt you were bitten by a spider anyway. A lot of people, including medical professionals, point the finger of blame at spiders because the media have conditioned them to think this way.

Take it from an entomologist, spiders in the U.K. are not a problem. This will not have been caused by a spider bite.

@StripeyNightmare It's been shown the spider can perhaps have bacteria or dirt on it's fangs and that can cause an infection, so it is by defacto from the bite, even if not the venom itself.

@LivingInThe80s see my second post. What paper are you using for reference that spiders carry dirt on their fangs? I have a degree in this, I do know what I’m talking about. And ridiculous hyperbole of venomous evil critter is why our wildlife in the U.K. is really struggling. Because people think it’s good to kill spiders and wasps and flies because they’re ‘evil’ 🙄 The dirt is usually submitted by the human due to care of the insect bite (VERY rarely actually a spider bite but people blame spiders because of the media).

ouch op sending love

@StripeyNightmare *RNA analysis did reveal a rich variety of microbes present on the spiders. Nearly a dozen genera were identified in total; out of 22 bacterial species found on false widows, 12 were potentially pathogenic to humans.

"Our study demonstrates that spiders are not just venomous but are also carriers of dangerous bacteria capable of producing severe infections," says NUI Galway microbiologist, Neyaz Khan.*
www.sciencealert.com/scientists-confirm-spider-s-bite-injects-something-potentially-deadlier-than-venom

I've also come across many other articles like this.

@LivingInThe80s that article is also full or hyperbole and Science Alert is not well respected. I will find the original paper and read it and then come back, thank you.

[quote StripeyNightmare]@LivingInThe80s that article is also full or hyperbole and Science Alert is not well respected. I will find the original paper and read it and then come back, thank you.[/quote]
Fair enough, I wasn't disbelieving you, just saying what I've read. I've clearly read wrong information though, and am glad you've clarified. Obviously there is a lot of misinformation and fear about spiders on the net.

Here is the original paper published in the Scientific Reports journal:

www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77839-9

Crikey! Thank goodness you went. I hope it gets better soon.

[quote StripeyNightmare]**@LivingInThe80s* see my second post. What paper are you using for reference that spiders carry dirt on their fangs? I have a degree in this, I do know what I’m talking about. And ridiculous hyperbole of venomous evil critter* is why our wildlife in the U.K. is really struggling. Because people think it’s good to kill spiders and wasps and flies because they’re ‘evil’ 🙄 The dirt is usually submitted by the human due to care of the insect bite (VERY rarely actually a spider bite but people blame spiders because of the media).[/quote]
Wasps are evil though! I save bees, open windows for flies to get out, dont touch spiders as they kill flies but wasps are getting squashed!

OP hope your OK!

I catch wasps and pop them out.

They do a lot of good in this world.

Yes, they can be b’stards but so am I. And I get to live.

I'm so glad you got treatment OP.

I had a bad reaction to a spider but 4 years ago and after being discharged by a&e with oral antibiotics I was admitted 24 hours later as the limb blckened. The consultant I first saw on being admitted thought I had a flesh eating bug it was so bad they told me I had a 40% chance of not making it through 24 hours. I was then told I would be looking at amputation. Thankfully i responded well to IV drugs and have kept all my limbs but I was in hospital for 8 days and have never ever been so scared. I really thought I was going to die.

It's made me crazy over the smallest insect tho so I'm a bloody nightmare when it comes to spotting a spider on the kitchen floor!!!

Wasps are evil though! I save bees, open windows for flies to get out, dont touch spiders as they kill flies but wasps are getting squashed!

Why kill them??? No creature in nature is 'evil' except of course human beings.

Thanks for standing up for spiders StripeyNightmare 👏

Hope you're better soon OP.

Good job you went, hope you will be on the mend soon.

My husband looked like that after he was bitten by a black widow spider in South Africa, he was in hospital for a week and still has the scar.

@sherlockhomeless, I hope you're feeling better and are on the mend.

Thank you for posting. I didn't know about tracking, so this has been very educational. I'm just glad I found the thread after the bee sting I picked up last week has started to go down, rather than when it was at its splendid and expanding best!

Last year I got bitten by what I have deduced was a Birch Fly, the Scottish equivalent of the Blandford Fly. My arm swelled so much that I had pins and needles in my fingers.

My dad got bitten by a spider he stood on. Nothing. Just a little hole.

Spiders are easy to blame, the real buggers are trickier to determine.

Also I got stung by a wasp in my mouth and it hurt for a year. Still don't kill them.

Gosh @sherlockhomelessi hope you’re okay. What a good job you called 111.

I used to be a bit scared of spiders. I am still jumpy if one drops on my head or trots up my duvet but we manage to co-exist now.

I watched ‘spider house’ on bbc 4. It does what it says on the tin.

It made a lot of difference to how I cope with them now. I’m mindful of them and not afraid any more. Jumpy yes but not a wobbly wreck.

I’ve never been one for killing insects and things.

Everything has its wee place in this world.

Apart from the knob I used to work with.

I was wondering if it was a Blandford fly. My dsis was bitten a couple of years ago and her foot swelled up with blisters

I try to rescue wasps and spiders, but the fucker that stung me on the foot had to die, bastard fucking wasp

Hope you're feeling better OP.

My first port of call when this happened to me was my local pharmacist. I often get bitten in the summer but this developed into a totally different thing from the maddening itching. I'm sure it was a fly bite, probably a horsefly; nothing to do with spiders. The pharmacist, after checking it out, said I should see my GP that day and, if I couldn't, go to A&E. I was able to get an appointment at my GP's (pre-covid) later that day, and was immediately put on antibiotics and had a painful session with a scalpel to burst the infectious swelling. By this time I was in such a lot of pain that the scalpel was a relief, because it really did help.

I think pharmacists can get overlooked when it comes to medical help and, at the moment, it's probably even more useful to remember they're there, and not just for dispensing prescriptions.