Kleetus: Poor guy had to have both legs amputated and may lose both arms from spider bite, feel so sorry for him:
There's some seriously nasty bugs around, I got stung by this massive ant once and my whole arm went numb for a few hours.
My dog was recently bitten by a bug, don't know what, and he went into anaphylactic shock and almost died, so now I carry an Epipen with me when I take him for walks.
Everything here wants to kill you.
micktiegs_8: The spider isn't what caused the damage, and you'd know if it you read some more. The poison from that spider isn't the problem, in fact, it's not even poisonous to humans. Either necrotising arachnidism, or necrotising fasciitis causing bacteria that took advantage of the wound was the main culprit.
Since the White-tailed spider hasn't been definitively proven to cause necrotising arachnidism, the doctor even suggests that it was caused by a bacteria passed through the wound.
edit: wow, I started writing this a few posts ago...
mystikmind2000: Well my advice to you is that these experts are fxxxwits every one of them..... better to assume these white tailed spiders are very dangerous, for your own safety.
micktiegs_8: You'd be surprised what an opportunistic pathogen can do. Better to assume that deadly bacteria is anywhere, in any part of the world. Source: budding expert knowledge ;)
Here's a brief summary on Group A Streptococcus:
http://nanologix.com/bacteria/group_a_strep.html No.... more like the bite of the Komodo Dragon.... the animal is 'using' the pathogens, not just some random pathogen event.
Its amazing how often overwhelming 'anecdotal' knowledge once said to be wrong by science, is then proven to be correct later on with further scientific progress. You will see this happen with White tailed spiders eventually