Redback spiders..

[Jaw]

How poisonous are these arseholes??

I went to put my helmet on after 5 weeks away to go collect the R6 today..

I saw all this silk/cloth looking stuff on the helmet on the bottom; so I Think oh, a fraying top from when I last went out as I was squidding it in a tshirt and boots.

but no.

out crawls a spider, not huge, about the size of a 10c coin... with a nice bright red stripe down his back. BAlls. I friggin HATE spiders. out came my trusty bottle of raid and nearest thong, and after rattling the helmet to try scare it out, a tone of raid and a jesus creeper to the head, it was gone.. but now my helmet REEKS of raid

The fucker had started homing out in my helmet! sprayed it tons, went to remove the liner but all seemed clear, bit of water and I Think I'm over the ordeal - glad I Didn't bloody put it on first!!



......if I didn't mention; I bloody hate spiders!

[Viper]

Don't think they kill but will fuck you up for a bit.

[Groz]

There pretty poisonous, but no recorded deaths from them.. So i guess just a nasty head ache and vomiting i'd say.

[Captain Starfish]

Check again - AFAIK there are recorded deaths from them. Infants and elderly admittedly, but deaths nonetheless.

10 cent piece is quite a large specimen, ie they don't get much bigger and that size is rare.

A redback that large injecting venom somewhere on your head might not kill you but, for a while, you'd wish it had - and the redback antivenom is administered with epinephrine handy because the antivenom is nearly as bad as the original toxin.

Mind you, get the bloody raid out before you spend much time in there. Probably a good idea to wash your liner.

[Commander Keen]

Actually, there have been as many as 14 deaths Australia wide from Redback bites.

Redback spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They can cause some pretty severe symptoms but only the elderly or infirm tend to be killed by the bite..

Symptoms
Bites from Redback spiders produce a syndrome known as latrodectism, with symptoms similar to bites from other Latrodectus spiders. The syndrome is generally characterised by extreme pain and severe swelling.[24] The bite may be painful from the start, but sometimes only feels like a pinprick or mild burning sensation. Within an hour victims generally develop more severe local pain with local swelling and sometimes piloerection (goosebumps). Pain, swelling and redness spread proximally from the site. Systemic envenoming is heralded by swollen or tender regional lymph nodes; associated features include malaise, nausea, vomiting, abdominal or chest pain, generalised sweating, headache, fever, hypertension and tremor.[17][18] Rare complications include seizure, coma, pulmonary edema, respiratory failure or localised skin infection.[23] Severe pain can persist for over 24 hours after being bitten.[25]

[Cam 52's Mum]

Jaw, I think that the Raid might do you more harm than the evicted spider.

Having said that, they can cause a serious systemic effect in some individuals requiring hospitalization.
In most people they just result in an extremely painful bite. I think that a bite in the head neck region would be nasty.

A few years ago Scott 52 was bitten on the back and of course supportive wife that I am, I dismissed him saying he was a wuss and it was only a mosquito bite.
Two hours later we were at the emergency GP with a very painful large and spreading red bite area.
The advice was that seeing as blood pressure, heart rate and breathing were o.k we were to monitor it and take pain killers.
Apparently the anti venom has unpleasant side effects and is only used if someone is having a systemic reaction.

My advice for you would be always check the helmet before putting it on.

[Rat750]

Comes down to the individual too. I've been bitten twice by these little bastards. No major effect other than a little bit of nausea for a while. 10c pice size spiders were'nt uncommon back home though. Just remember that only the female of the species has a red stripe, the male is plain black.

[Commander Keen]

Sorry Rat you're wrong there, the female has the stripe and the male is much smaller.

[Rat750]

Yeah I nija edited.....realised I'd got it backwards after I posted.

[Groz]

Actually, there have been as many as 14 deaths Australia wide from Redback bites.

Redback spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They can cause some pretty severe symptoms but only the elderly or infirm tend to be killed by the bite..

Symptoms
Bites from Redback spiders produce a syndrome known as latrodectism, with symptoms similar to bites from other Latrodectus spiders. The syndrome is generally characterised by extreme pain and severe swelling.[24] The bite may be painful from the start, but sometimes only feels like a pinprick or mild burning sensation. Within an hour victims generally develop more severe local pain with local swelling and sometimes piloerection (goosebumps). Pain, swelling and redness spread proximally from the site. Systemic envenoming is heralded by swollen or tender regional lymph nodes; associated features include malaise, nausea, vomiting, abdominal or chest pain, generalised sweating, headache, fever, hypertension and tremor.[17][18] Rare complications include seizure, coma, pulmonary edema, respiratory failure or localised skin infection.[23] Severe pain can persist for over 24 hours after being bitten.[25]

Well, no offense but that's from Wikipedia... Anyone can add into it, In TAFE we were never aloud to use it, as it may not be true.. As for school aswell.. I'm gonna go by from what i hear in Documentaries, and shows that do there research.

[devolved]

We live in Redbackville central - I have never lived anywhere with so many redbacks -I murder them as I find them (mainly because I have small kids), but they usually keep to themselves.

Some of the females (with the redback) are pretty big and menancing, the males usually just look like a small house spider.

Be vigilant people - especially is you have kidlets.

[Commander Keen]

Perhaps you weren't allowed to use it so you could learn to find the facts for yourself?

There are two cited sourced for the number of deaths. I'm more inclined to beleive wikipedia on this occasion than a guy I don't know who went to TAFE and reckons it's a crock because of a 30 minute doco he once saw.
Source 1. Redback spiders | Australian Venom Research Unit AVRU, run out of Melbourne university
Source 2. Arachnophobia: how to beat it - Australian Geographic Australian Geographic

Lawyer-d

[Captain Starfish]

Well, no offensce but that's from Wikipedia... Anyone can add into it, In TAFE we were never aloudallowed to use it, as it may not be true.. As for school aswellas well.. I'm gonna go by from(pick one) what iI hear in Ddocumentaries, and shows that do theretheir research.

​Groz, please see me after class

No offence, but there were probably more important things you could have picked up from school and TAFE. Your intellectually astute assertion of "I demand valid references!" might carry a little more weight if it was delivered in a manner less attributable to an eight year old who didn't pay a hell of a lot of attention to Mrs Schnieder, the English teacher.

[darkfibre]

Well, no offense but that's from Wikipedia... Anyone can add into it, In TAFE we were never aloud to use it, as it may not be true.. As for school aswell.. I'm gonna go by from what i hear in Documentaries, and shows that do there research.

You are right to question the source of the information, but unlike a documentary the Wiki entry for redbacks has 28 linked references where the information is from.

Example;

^ Wiener S (2003). "Latrodectism: a prospective cohort study of bites by formally identified Redback spiders". Med J Aust 179 (8): 455; author 455–6. PMID 14558881.
^ a b Sutherland S, Trinca J (1978). "Survey of 2144 cases of Redback spider bites: Australia and New Zealand, 1963--1976". Med J Aust 2 (14): 620–3. PMID 732670.
^ Redback Spider Facts

[truewheel]

?..just remember that only the female of the species has a red stripe, the male is plain black.

Wow, didn't know that. I assume a male bite is just as ugly.

Bloody Australia, full of nasties that wanna make your day. Mind you, you've managed to export redbacks across the ditch so even my motherland ain't safe. I think we returned the favour with the borer beetle...

[Vosy]

You forgot to change "gonna" to "going to" Oh Captn my Captn

[Sonik]

Learn to recognise the webs and kill the little bastards. They have quite a disorganised looking web made of bright strong silk, usually with leaves/bugs stuck in it and they love places that are warm, dark and damp (like down pipes, pot plants, wood piles and traffic signal control boxes/UPS cabinets). In roof spaces they are usually within 600mm of the gutters or close up under the roof (I'm a sparky and an arachnophobe so I've paid a lot of attention to avoid crawling into them )

Try not to kill off daddy long legs as they will kill the redbacks for you. My last house I let them have free reign of the garage and very rarely saw any other spiders. (inb4 but they is the most deadliest in teh worlds)

The male redbacks look like this

[Barfridge]

You forgot to change "gonna" to "going to" Oh Captn my Captn

he was gonna, but then he cbf

[Vosy]

Out the back of my house the other day. Smallest of the 3 I found. They dont scare me to much coz they stay outside generally and are easy to spot.2012-02-10 16.44.29_resized.jpg

[Captain Starfish]

Mrs Schneider allowed colloquialism. Who was I to argue?