Redback spiders..

[Scoundrel]

ooh i love a good spider thread.

enjoy..

What the fuuuuck

Fuck the flyspray, get a flame thrower.

[sprung]

Try not to kill off daddy long legs as they will kill the redbacks for you.

Daddy long legs .............. No human has ever been bitten by one and their venom is untested.

I'm calling bullshit on both these statements. I don't have any scientific studies to back my call, just my own observations and anecdotes of others. If you guys can quote scientific studies I'll re-assess.

My sheds are chockas with both daddy long legs and redbacks. More of both than in previous years. If daddy long legs eat redbacks why am I seeing so many redbacks out in the open.

I've reckon I've been bitten by daddy long legs whilst cleaning the current hordes and their webs out of the shed, house, feed bins, etc. The bites don't hurt at first but then turn into a red lump like a mozzie bite, and stay and red and itchy for a couple of weeks. Other people have said they experience similar symptoms after coming in contact with daddy long legs and their webs.

[BrettH]

I spent 2 nights in hospital and needed multiple shots of antivenene when i was 19 due to getting bitten twice by an agro redback..... NOT a pain i'd want to go through again....

[Sonik]

I'm calling bullshit on both these statements. I don't have any scientific studies to back my call

Aside from watching one myself...

Daddy-long-legs Spiders can kill and eat other spiders, including Redback Spiders whose venom can be fatal to humans. Perhaps this is the origin of the rumour that Daddy-long-legs are the most venomous spiders in the world. The argument is sometimes put that if they can kill a deadly spider they must be even more deadly themselves. However this is not correct. Behavioural and structural characteristics, such as silk wrapping of prey using their long legs, are very important in the Daddy-long-legs' ability to immobilise and kill Redbacks. Also, the effect of the Daddy-long-legs' venom on spider or insect prey has little bearing on its effect in humans.Link

The Daddy Long Legs spider is common around homes. Found in undisturbed places such as behind furniture, under eaves, behind doors and around the garage. It builds a tangled web. It has been known to eat Redback spiders. Link

Pholcids are natural predators of the Tegenaria species, and are known to attack and eat redback spiders and huntsman spiders .[2][3] Link

Don't know what to make of the supposed bites, are you positive it was from Daddy long legs?

The jaw bases are fused together, giving the fangs a narrow gape that would make attempts to bite through human skin ineffective.

EDIT:

[chew]

I'm calling bullshit on both these statements. I don't have any scientific studies to back my call, just my own observations and anecdotes of others. If you guys can quote scientific studies I'll re-assess.

My sheds are chockas with both daddy long legs and redbacks. More of both than in previous years. If daddy long legs eat redbacks why am I seeing so many redbacks out in the open.

I've reckon I've been bitten by daddy long legs whilst cleaning the current hordes and their webs out of the shed, house, feed bins, etc. The bites don't hurt at first but then turn into a red lump like a mozzie bite, and stay and red and itchy for a couple of weeks. Other people have said they experience similar symptoms after coming in contact with daddy long legs and their webs.

I'll see your bullshit call and raise you a hearsay cockroach bite.

snopes.com: Daddy Longlegs

[agrid]

I can feel a group buy on Coopex coming soon...

I've had better results with Cislin.

[agrid]

Are we still talking redbacks?

Are we still talking life lessons?

[Ken Oath]

The strange thing was a 100mm area on my back stayed red and sweaty for a week. I had a constant sweaty damp patch on the back of my shirt.

Common symptom of a red back bite.

People's reactions vary, some show few symptoms, yet I've known of a 19 year old who ended up in Intensive Care.

Was bitten once, had been to the rubbish tip, driving away felt sharp pain in my back, thought I had pulled a muscle unloading some heavy stuff at the tip. A few days later the bride is doing the washing, and notices a red back spider crawling out of the t-shirt I wore to the tip. Which also explained why an area of my back was constantly wet with sweat.

Apart from the pain, no other symptoms. Very few people actually become very ill.

Huntsman spiders...bitten twice by those buggers, and drawn blood each time. Admittedly only a drop or two, but bizarre seeing a spider draw blood!!

[donkeyboy]

Fairly sure there is a mythbusters episode about daddy long legs spiders where someone "takes one for the team" so to speak.

They are very un-poisonous to humans.....

Edit : Here it is -

[shan]

I seam to renember the venom from a red back freazes easily, so if one in your lid bites you, apply ice and cruze to a hospital .
Could anyone clarafie this ?

[sprung]

I'll see your bullshit call and raise you a hearsay cockroach bite.

snopes.com: Daddy Longlegs

Thanks for the links guys. Got any links for peer reviewed scientific papers?

From the museum site:

Daddy-long-legs spiders (or pholcids) kill their prey using venom injected through fangs.

The jaw bases are fused together, giving the fangs a narrow gape that would make attempts to bite through human skin ineffective.

So they can bite other spiders and insects but can't bite human skin? How does that work?

And no I'm not sure the reactions are from Daddy Long Legs bites, I just assumed they were as they only appear after contact with these spiders. Maybe scavenger insects hang around their webs waiting for scraps?

Daddy Long Legs may be able to kill and eat redbacks, but as a control species for them I would say they are ineffective as they don't actively hunt. They sit by their webs waiting for something to get caught in it. Redbacks do the same, so there doesn't seem to be much scope for interaction between the species.

[shan]

So they can bite other spiders and insects but can't bite human skin? How does that work?

For your self , bite a squash ball, then try and bite a basket ball
Thats how a daddy long legs cannot bite you but can bite a insect, the basic mechanics of fang location and surface area to be bitten

[agrid]

DR. ROBERT G. BREENE III ("Spider Bob") is an arachnologist and entomologist living in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He has been the editor of the American Tarantula Society since 1991 and has written several books and hundreds of articles.

When asked if Daddy Longlegs spiders' venom is deadliest he responds that it is simply untrue.

"It started out with the myth of harvestmen, Opiliones, one family called daddylonglegs allegedly having deadly venom, but they couldn't cut through the skin. In fact, Opiliones as an order does not have venom.

"The next urban myth was in response to this. The cellar or daddylonglegs spiders have deadly venom, but couldn't bite through the skin. Again, totally false.

"There have never been reports of problems with pholcids. Recluse spiders are much less equipped to bite through skin than pholcids are. Their chelicerae are fused, leaving only two tiny fangs to do the work, but if you kill one with the fangs in contact with the skin, I'm sure you've seen some of the results. Due to the effective treatment, the only dangerous aspect of recluse bites is if the MD does not know the treatment.

"There exists a huge amount of bad information out there on arachnids".

[filbert]

I seam to renember the venom from a red back freazes easily, so if one in your lid bites you, apply ice and cruze to a hospital .
Could anyone clarafie this ?

Can't confirm with a link to scientific data but have also been told that the venom turns to gel when cold and halts its travel into tissues and after 4 redback bites and using ice packs on 3 of them I'm inclined to believe it as I had no symptoms, the first bite before I was given that info had all the classic symptoms and strangely the symptoms seem to recur at least once a year at the bite site, anyone had similar experience?

[fredie]

How could you see that? Do you have a see-through helmet?

yes . the doctor had extract the the spider from the ear leg by leg lol

[sprung]

For your self , bite a squash ball, then try and bite a basket ball
Thats how a daddy long legs cannot bite you but can bite a insect, the basic mechanics of fang location and surface area to be bitten

I can bite a deflated basket ball. No surface part of me is as hard as a fully inflated basket ball.

Human skin is soft, malleable and has lots of tiny surface inconsistencies. So if something can bite insects and other arachnids, surely there's a chance it can get a purchase on human skin. After all, the links say there is no evidence or studies, so surely that means it could be possible.

[chew]

But can you bite through a basketball?

Skin varies in thickness with an average of 1.3mm and a daddy long legs fangs are 0.25mm, this would limit the area of bites as for example the thinnest skin is found on the eyelids at 0.02mm.

"Peer reviewed scientific papers"?

I let one bite me repeatedly on the eyelid 20mins ago and I feel fi

[speed3]

Redbacks do not have very large fangs and as a result most bites are in areas of the body where the skin is thin, either the webbing between fingers, neck and genitals (due to them setting up in outdoor loos).

We had a storeman who collected them and would carry them around in his hands.

Daddy long legs are not the world's deadliest spider. No human has ever been bitten by one and their venom is untested.

This is a spider R.I.P. fang

Mythbusters did an episode where they put their hands into jars of daddy long legs, eventually got some bites and no one died. Old wives tale.

[mekon]

Yep QI also dismissed the Daddy longlegs most venomnous spider myth. I put more weight in their research, given that when they've been wrong in the past they usually make a statement to that effectin a future show.

[sprung]

But can you bite through a basketball?

Skin varies in thickness with an average of 1.3mm and a daddy long legs fangs are 0.25mm, this would limit the area of bites as for example the thinnest skin is found on the eyelids at 0.02mm.

"Peer reviewed scientific papers"?

I let one bite me repeatedly on the eyelid 20mins ago and I feel fi

I can't bite through a squash ball either.

Why would the fangs have to penetrate through all layers of skin to be effective? Box jellyfish and other jellyfish stingers have microscopic "needles" and their poison gets in OK.

None of my previous posts have supported the idea that the daddy long legs are the most poisonous spider, but I am saying I think they can bite humans. I also don't think having lots of daddy long legs around will get rid of redbacks by actively hunting and eating them. They are both living happily side by side in the sheds at my place.

Mythbusters did an episode where they put their hands into jars of daddy long legs, eventually got some bites and no one died. Old wives tale.

See, Speed3 says the myth busters got bitten.