I think you know what’s coming. Anyway…
Yesterday was another bank holiday Monday here in Australia, this time for Labour Day. That’s two bank holidays on the trot, and I’m told there’s another one on its way. Perhaps I need to go back and read my own post about Australian bank holidays to see when it is.
So, what happened during our long weekend here? Let me tell you.
One of Australia’s most feared spiders is the Redback. Just before I moved here to Australia, one of my friends back in the UK who had lived and worked in Australia for a year at some point, told me that Redbacks were so strong and powerful that they could actually bite your foot through your thongs. (That’s flip-flops to us English).
Dave, you were talking twaddle!
But what is it really like to be bitten by a Redback Spider? The chances of finding out are quite remote, most sources quote around 2,000 Redback bites occur in Australia each year. So by my maths I would have a one in 10,000 chance of finding out.
Lucky, lucky me……… On Saturday, I found out!
So here’s what happened. On Saturday at around four o’clock in the afternoon, as the sun was getting cooler, I decided to do a bit of tidying up in the garden. It’s autumn here and a perfect time for trimming back the weeds and the overgrowth just ahead of winters dry weather.
By about a 5:45 PM I’d finished chopping off all the excess growths and I was picking up all of my trimmings in large bunches, carrying them up the driveway and throwing them all into one big pile. It was getting quite dark so I couldn’t really see much.
All of a sudden, whilst transporting one of these bunches I became aware of intense pain in the back of my wrist. The pain grew quite fast and although I have never hammered a nail into any part of my body, this was how I imagined it would feel.
As the pain grew even more, I decided to go in doors and take a look at it under the light. This is what I saw……
Nothing!
Well, if anything, a very very tiny barely visible white mosquito bite like bump was all I could see. But the area around the pain was starting to look red and flushed.
Then it started to sweat, but just in that little circle where the pain was, nowhere else. I’ve never seen anything like it. I took a shower…….. that’s just something I like to do now and then…… and I washed off all the sweat at the same time. But out of the shower after having dried myself, I watched as the beads of sweat formed another circle around the back of my wrist again.
But by now the intense nail penetration like pain of before was fading, which was good news. But that pain was being replaced by a new, burning pain, which was bad news. But given the choice though, I preferred the burning.
Intrigued, I decided I would ask Google Australia what had bitten me, so I searched for “identify bite sweat” because for me, the localised sweating was the identifying factor. And that’s when I discovered that most of my search results led to the Redback Spider bite.
“Can’t be,” I thought “those things kill!” (Well, they haven’t since 1956.)
The more I read about the Redback bite, the more likely it seemed that it was a Redback that bit me.
- Bites occur typically when the spider is disturbed in the garden or shed. (Tick)
- The initial bite may not be felt. (Tick)
- Puncture marks are not always visible. (Tick)
- Local intense pain follows after about five minutes. (Tick, probably, I didn’t feel the bite remember.)
- Localised sweating often occurs around the bite. (Tick)
- May cause a burning sensation. (Tick)
By now it was around 6:30 PM and many of the websites I had visited advised anyone bitten to seek immediate medical attention. But I was feeling just fine and to be truthful, the pain subsided and was now really quite manageable. My only symptom was still the red flushing, some burning and the 2 inch circle of sweaty and very sticky skin.
But I had also read in my research that the Redback Spider’s venom was very slow acting and took a long time to find its way around your body. I didn’t like the idea of turning green and warty at midnight and thinking “Dang! I should have got some antivenom.” So I telephoned my doctor who was very helpful last time we had an emergency out of hours.
He was out but his wife (also a doctor) answered the phone and she was very helpful. Here’s what she had to say….
“Lots of people get bitten by Redback Spiders and for most it is not a problem. It is only a very small minority who suffer a reaction and if it is going to happen, it will happen within around three hours. So the next couple of hours are critical. If you suffer from palpitations, nausea, vomiting, headaches, difficulty breathing, abdominal pains or a fever any time before 9 PM, get yourself to a hospital. We don’t carry the antivenom here at our local surgery.
“Take an antihistamine tablet if you have one, use an ice pack to ease the pain if you want to and drink plenty of water.”
Well I didn’t take an antihistamine, I didn’t use an ice pack but I did take some of her advice about drinking plenty of water. When I say “some”, I took note of the “drink plenty” part and ignored the “of water”. I hit the beer fridge!
Well, that’s what happened when I got bitten by a Redback Spider. Was it a Redback? Well, just after I came off of the phone to the doctor, Beninoz and his family arrived. We were having a slap up a pizza together. Yum!
Before I told him anything of my research, I showed him the bite and asked him what he thought it was. “Redback” was his answer. The next day I spoke to Lisa, a born and bred Aussie who was bitten by a Redback when she was a little girl.
“Did you get the burning? Did you get the intense pain? Was there no sign of an actual bite? Sounds like a Redback to me.” was her verdict.
Medical disclaimer!
I can never be 100% certain it was a Redback bite, but I would say I am 90% sure. For me, it was nowhere near as bad as I would have thought it would be. Getting bitten by a Redback Spider would have ranked really high on my list of things NOT to do. Now that it has happened, well, it wasn’t so bad.
Maybe I’m just lucky I’m not one of the minority who react badly, maybe my Redback was just a tiny little Redback, maybe my Redback got brushed off of my wrist before she had finished envenomation, or maybe my Redback wasn’t a Redback at all.
Either way, my experience wasn’t that bad. But according to my research, around 250 Redback Spider antivenom are administered each year here in Australia. So it sounds to me like over 10% of those bitten do react badly and will need medical attention, which is what many websites recommend that you seek. Which is, I suppose, what I did, having phoned my doctor.
So I am not going against the advice given in any other website, I’m just letting you know what happened to me. If it had been my daughter who was bitten, she’d have been straight off to hospital. But I will say that the Redback Spider bite, for some, may well not be anywhere near as bad as you thought it would be.
If you’ve been bitten by a Redback Spider, I’d love to hear if you think it was a Redback that bit me. What was your experience like? There’s no need to register, just enter your comment below.
Did anything else happen on Saturday? Yes, actually it did. And this event really should have ended in death. But I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.
Related posts:
- The Biggest Spider I’ve Ever Seen in Australia
- Australia IS a Dangerous Place to Live
- Now the Good News About Spiders
- Where Are All The Australian Bad Things?
- Acclimatising to Australia’s Creepy Crawlies
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
You must be turning into a proper aussie now Bob. Stuff the doc’s advice and have a brewski! Classic!
Yes, I feel I have completed a major initiation. Still have a few major hurdles left though. Like getting excited over the cricket. I need more time……
In the process of pursuading the wife™ that a move to Oz would be a good thing, despite me being a bit scared of spiders! Snakes, not a problem at all. But spiders, shudder. Feel better after reading this, more so because I have 3 young kids and was wondering just how dangerous spider bites were to them. The boy is only 3 and has no fear of spiders at all, often find him wondering around the house with a huge spider clenched in his fist!
Hi Phil
Our little girl was only 3 aswell when we came out here. And similarly fearless. We just told her that insects were different out here and to let us know whenever she saw one, whatever it was, and not to touch! And she has.
But that was in the early days, these days we don’t really think about it. It’s almost a non-issue. Both spiders and snakes, we never seem them. So do your best to persuade your wife™ because the lifestyle when you get here is well worth it.
Good luck!
You are right I have lived in australia all my life, mainly in small country towns and it wasnt until i moved to the city I have been bitten by many white tail and my first red back spider. But unless your one of the unlucky few it isn’t worth being scared about .. just using common sense
One very important advice white tails dont hurt much but I would defiently tell you to apply vinegar to the bite (even if your not sure, I do it with all my insect bites) and it stops it from going neucrotic (rare cases) but if you dont put vinegar on early it will leave a little scar. I’ve also heard urine works but I’ld probably go vinegar first.
Vinegar however does not do anything for redback bites and yes yours defiently sounds like a redback. I think the intense sweating on the bitten area gives it away the most. I Have to say red back bites are defiently the worse pain wise. Its managable but defiently an intense pain.
Congratualtions on becoming an official aussie
:P:P
The vinegar tip is a good one, I think it works well for jellyfish stings too. The other method you mention might well be worth a try, if you haven’t got any vinegar on you.
It might sound strange Rebecca, but I did feel quite privileged when I was bitten by that redback, almost like it was some kind of initiation. I hope they take it into account when I apply for my Australian citizenship.
Never been bit by any spider but the spider that looks close to that one (the Black Widow Spider “Red Hour Glass mark”) was in under my hood of my car when I was looking at my engine and tried to get my hand in to fix something then I saw the spider just inches from my hand and my heart skipped a beat and pulled my hand away from it before it could do anything. Im now always going to check thoughly before attempting to put my hand in anything that could nest spiders.
Yes, the redback spider is related to the “widow”, all are member of the genus Latrodectus family. Best avoided, for sure, but you’ll soon get bored with checking every dark place first. I know, because I used to do it when I first arrived in Australia, but I don’t bother now.
I hope you fixed your car
I came across this page while searching for ‘what happens if you get bitten by a redback’ as I just found one of the little buggers hanging down from the aircon vents in my 4 year olds bedroom while shes asleep. I immediately started stressing.. what if theres more… how will i know if she gets bitten by one… Thanks for the info here, it rested my mind a little! Although I have been born and bred in Australia I have never been bitten by a redback or white tip. I do know 2 people who have been bitten by redbacks, the first one ended up in hospital barely breathing, the second had no effects at all. Shows how different people can have different reactions, although that doesnt put my mind at ease that my girls wont have the adverse reactions!!! Just to add aswell, my brother in law was bitten in the webbing of his fingers by a white tip, his skin blistered and started peeling away. It has left a scar. Horrible things.. where did spiders come from anyway and why cant we make them extinct!!!!!
Hi Jazi
You don’t want to take any chances if there’s a possibility of redbacks in and around your little girl’s bedroom, I think you need to apply some pest control to the area. You can do it yourself by buying a pest treatment from the supermarket or a hardware store, you’ll probably be able to get something for around $20-$30.
Or call a professional. But the last thing you want is your little girl getting bitten by redbacks, even if she doesn’t have a bad reaction, it will surely cause her more pain than you’d ever want her to go through. I’d get spraying!
Oh, and spiders aren’t so bad, I wouldn’t want to see them extinct. Who would kill all the flies?
Hi,
Interesting reading, as i got bitten just yesterday by a redback..how do i know it was a redback, because i caught the bitch biting on my arm and put her in a container.Initially it felt like a really stingy mosquito it was OUCH for sure.To cut a long story short i didn’t panic as i felt fine initially, but headed off to doc’s as the arms was getting red and swollen.Was in a bit of pain the doc rang the hosp and advised me to come in for the anti venom, i was prescribed panadeine forte, so went home and thought i would be fine??? WRONG I ended up in E.R OMG the pain was horrid arm was very red and quiet swollen not to mention on fire.From then on i got worse, headache arm was on fire/and the nail part you mentioned is spot on. I started to get the shivers which i couldn’t control, seemed to come from the inside out, my blood pressure was at 211 not good. I ended up having to have the anti venom and within ten minutes it was like a freekin miracle. I am still sore today but very tolerable just annoying. So yes i agree with you you defo got bitten by a redback.Because it made me so ill they were ready to take me to resus!! i am going to get one tattooed in victory
Not just OUCH. OUCH OUCH I’d say!
So, let me get this straight. You decided not to go for the antivenom, thinking panadeine forte would deal with it. But it didn’t and the pain ramped up? Was it within three hours, like my doctor said?
So how long after the bite did you actually get the antivenom?
This sounds nasty, did anyone in the hospital suggests that you are one of the minority to get a reaction.
What did you do with the spider? Did you forgive him? Or did you squish him?
It’s good to hear that the antivenom worked so quickly though, and we don’t even want to think what might have happened if this had been 1965!
Hope the tattoo comes out good.
Cheers
Bob
Hey BOB,
I got bitten at 11:20am and got the anti venom around 3:30pm.Yes i kept the little spider in the container,she was one feisty lil biarch was trying to bite the fingers from inside the jar!! And yes when i got to the E.R i certainly got attention apparently i was the worst they had seen and wanted me to go on this study.Where they take bloods then more bloods then more bloods then either give you real anti venom or fake, but i think the follow up was weeks.By this stage i was feeling rather shitty my teeth were chattering and i just felt yuk,not to mention the freekin pain,they were talking of taking me to resus.So a head doc more or less got rid of the on lookers and told me i have two options, he helped me choose the straight anti venom as he knew i needed it. Apparently the study was because they were not to sure if the anti venom even worked!!!!!!!! um i vouch for YESSSS.Yes we kept the spider in the jar,she was in the freezer for two days(she deserved it) but have disposed of her now.Oh and your question the real terrible pain kicked in prob about an hour or so after the bite,before that i was kinda fine with it. To say i am now paranoid of meeting another one is an understatement LOL
P.S i still had minor pain in the area two days later, but all good now.They say i may get crook in a week or two from having the anti venom(serum sickness) fingers crossed i don’t
That would be like turning up at the dentist to have a wisdom tooth removed to be told “We’re not sure whether these anaesthetic injections really work or not, so we are running an experiment. You’ll either get a real injection or a placebo. Interested? Great! I’ll go and get my pliers and you tell me whether this hurts or not”.
Except worse!
I’m sure they knew what they were doing, but when you are possibly close to death, the last thing you want is a placebo! Thankfully, at least one doctor was smart enough to work out that you needed the real antivenom.
Nobody has died from a redback spider bite since antivenom was introduced in about 1984, and some doctors are still trying to figure out if it works or not?
Anyway, glad you are okay now and for the rest of us, as soon as that real pain kicks in after about an hour, get some antivenom!
//I didn’t like the idea of turning green and warty at midnight and thinking “Dang! I should have got some antivenom.”//
I literally laughed out loud
Love your sense of humour, that is an “Access All Areas Pass” to Australian life.
I’ve never worried about Redbacks, they are easy to avoid. Information that might have been useful to you earlier, they make really messy webs and they love to hide under fence capping outside. Plus, people don’t die from being bitten by one. Funnel web spiders on the other hand, they are one the best reasons not to live in Sydney, apart from the cost of living, the traffic and the congestion. They are deadly and are often found in shoes and swimming pools. They can swim. No really, they can. I love Sydney, it’s a beautiful city to visit, but to live? Nah. Too big, too expensive and funnel webs. Mercifully, living in Perth, I have the Simpson desert between them and me.
Hey Lisa
Funnel web spiders aren’t just in Sydney. I thought I might of had one in my house when I first got here, I live in the western suburbs of Brisbane. Whether it really was a funnel web or not, I don’t know, but you can read about it and see a picture here….
Funnel web spider post.
Whether it was or it wasn’t, they are about in south-east Queensland. The Courier Mail said..
“Funnel-webs are found in or near southeast and northern NSW rainforests. They also occur in Brisbane suburbs near to dense bush, such as The Gap, Kedron Brook, Mt Coot-tha, Bardon, Kenmore, Brookfield, Pullenvale, Springwood, Rochedale and Capalaba and Mt Cotton in Redland City.
They also are found at Mt Tamborine, Lamington Plateau, Conondale, D’Aguilar and the Border Ranges, Cunningham’s Gap and especially around Maleny, Nambour, Fraser Island and as far north as Gladstone.”
You can read the full article here.
But I think you’re pretty safe in Perth. I’m not though.
Aaaarghhh!
hi lisa
i could have written your post, the reason i am in wa is because of the funnel webs over there!!!! when i arrived here 5 years ago the paper interviewed me as i was the only international student bunbury had ever had from the uk. they asked me why i chose bunbury and my reply was, there are funnel web spiders in sydney.
mind you i went to cut the grass the other day and there was this spider on the grass cutter bigger than my hand. omg i nearly died, i took a picture of it and its bloody eyes are glowing with the flash lol didnt think they could get that big. i had the spider man out a couple of days later and it was still there, he thought it was a wolf spider. told me he had killed it but know he was lying as it ran away (i heard its footsteps)
Hey bob.
Most people often confuse funnel web spiders with the mouse spider. They look very alike, here is a picture of a Mouse spider
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Images/1918/dang_20_big.jpg
as you can see it looks very similar in colour and shape.
No, it wasn’t him!
I’ve got a great book called “Wildlife of Greater Brisbane” and I use it to identify just about any creature I come across in the city. So I have seen pictures of the mouse spider.
I really don’t know whether mine was a mouse or a funnel web. But I do remember reading somewhere that funnel webs take shelter from the rain in dark places. Well, it had just started raining and my back door was slightly open and this spider took shelter in the darkness behind a wooden cabinet.
So, does that prove it was a funnel web? Not at all!
But it was an ugly black thing that reminded me of the riot police of the spider world!
i got bitten on Saturday and am struggling with all the symptoms whilst staying at home.This is my 3rd bite – they seem too love me!! My hubby is a doctor who is watching me but I still feel like I should go to hospital. I am now looking after hubby who is ill and also 3 kids I ‘ll fall down last I guess
Never mind going to the hospital, sounds like you’re living in one! I hope you and all your family get well soon. Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a reaction.
I got bitten by something at about 9:00pm last night. I didnt feel it straight away, and it only started off itching a tiny bit, it was like a really small mosquito bite. Then it started to burn a little and the skin went all sticky, not beads of sweat but a wet feeling around the site. I took an antihistamine and went to bed.
This morning there is no redness and not much pain or burning at all but the skin is still wet and sticky feeling in an area about the size of a 20c piece. Its very weird. Do you think it might have been a red back bite?
It could have been, although my bite didn’t have any marking at all, nothing that looked like a small mosquito bite. Just the red sticky area.
Other than that, it really does sound like a redback bite. Seems like they are not so bad for some people, but really painful for others. See Coleen and Megan above.
It is sad to know that you were bitten by a redback spider that probably has the worst spider bite in Australia. But it is good to know that you were find after about an hour of pain. There are some kinds of spiders all over the world that can produce serious spiders bites and if you are looking to know about spider bites then you should visit seriousspiderbites.com
Thanks for the tip Michael, I will check it out.
Cheers
Bob