Elburton Villa Oct12_Layout 1 11/10/2013 16:41 Page 15
False black widow
spider bite sidelines Steve
Britain’s most venomous spider is the culprit
Friends and team-mates of Steve Harris,
thought he was having a laugh when he pulled
out of the Elmore squad last week because of a
spider bite!
“They operated on me immediately and it took
half an hour to cut away the area around the
bite to get at the poison. I now have an open
wound and have to wait for it to heal over.
But the classy 22-year-old defender from
Dawlish was deadly serious.
“I have never had pain like that before in my
life. It’s still painful now. I still can’t sleep
properly and find it virtually impossible to get
in and out of a car.”
For Steve had been bitten by Britain’s most
venomous spider – the false black widow – and
had to undergo an emergency operation at
Torbay Hospital.
His mates were only convinced he was not
pulling their leg when he showed them a photo
of his open wound.
He currently has an open wound where
surgeons had to cut away the poison and has
been told he cannot play football for at least
three weeks.
n The false black widow spider (steatoda nobilis) is
the most dangerous of the 12 species of biting
spider known in Britain. It is thought to have
arrived in the country in crates of fruit from the
Canary Islands at the end of the 1870s. It was first
reported in Torquay in 1879.
Steve, who in his teens had spells at Plymouth
Argyle, Norwich City, Yeovil Town and Salisbury,
and joined Elmore two years ago from another
local side, Cullompton Rangers, was bitten in
his sleep recently.
They have been established in Devon for a long
time and recent climate change has seen the
population spread across the South East.
He said: “When I work up I had a pain
in my side – a stinging feeling. I
didn’t take that much notice
until it started swelling
and the pain got worse.
The spider belongs to the same family as the
infamous Black Widow spider, although
nowhere near as toxic. It is quite
commonly mistaken for its famous
cousin, hence the name false black
widow spider.
“It looked like a bite,
although I didn’t know
it was from a spider at
the time. The area
around the bite mark
just ballooned . I was in
agony, but it was only
when the area started to
turn black, some four
days after I first noticed
the bite, that I decided I
ought to go to hospital.
About the size of a 50p piece,
it has a dark, shiny bulbous body
with a creamy coloured band all
around the front. They do have a
reputation for biting, although
it is considered quite a rare
occurrence. People bitten by
the spider experience acute
burning pain, swelling and a
general sick
feeling. The
bite mark area
usually turns
black and
yellow.
Recently there
has been a
couple of instances of people
being bitten by the spider in
the London and Kent area.
“I went to Torbay Hospital
and they diagnosed a spider
bite – they said they had seen
six other people with similar
bites within the previous week.
They told me the false black
widow spider was the culprit.
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