Venomous Spider Plague spreads across UK
Pastor Dale Morgan
Venomous Spider Plague spreads across UK*
By David Sapsted
Last Updated: 2:22am GMT 17/11/2006
A man spent three days in hospital after being bitten by a venomous
spider now spreading across the country because of global warming.
The venomous false widow spider
The false widow spider, a relative of the black widow, bit Jason
Fricker, 34, three times on the chest and stomach after it fell down the
front of his shirt a week ago. By Sunday, after treatment as an
outpatient the previous day, Mr Fricker, a father of two from
Dorchester, was admitted as an emergency by doctors who believed the
venom was attacking his nervous system, causing a heart attack.
The creature that caused such damage, Steatoda nobilis, is the only
species of spider in Britain capable of biting humans. Although it has
been known in Britain since arriving in Torquay in bananas from the
Canary Islands in the 1870s, its numbers and range are now growing
because of the milder climates.
While it is not nearly as venomous as the black widow, in recent years
it has spread from the West Country across southern England as far as
Sussex and is now migrating north through Surrey.
Stuart Hine, the manager of insect services at the Natural History
Museum, said: "It is moving further northwards and is thought to be in
London now. That's to do with the general warming up of winter
temperatures because they are able to survive the winter and breed.
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"All spiders are venomous but the difference with these false widow
spiders is that their fangs can pierce the skin. Global warming means
that spiders which originate from southern Europe and North Africa and
Asia are now more likely to be able to survive in Britain."
Mr Fricker, who runs a fishery and tackle shop, discovered he had been
bitten as he set out his angling goods on his stall at the market.
"I was carrying the goods in a cardboard box when I think the spider
must have come out of the corner of the box and went down my front," he
said yesterday. "Five minutes later, I felt this sort of burning
sensation on my chest like a wasp sting.
"I shook my jumper and the spider fell down on to my stomach. Then it
must have bitten me again and I saw this spider fall to the floor and
scuttle off into the centre of Salisbury."
Mr Fricker thought nothing of it until the next day when he started to
feel unwell. His wife Katie, 30, spotted the bites. "When the doctor saw
the puncture wounds he got all excited and said: 'You are the first
person in my career I have seen who has been bitten by a spider. There
is no doubt about this'."
After identifying the spider as a false widow on a hospital computer, he
was sent home with anti-histamine tablets. But the next day, his
condition deteriorated. "I thought I was having a heart attack. The pain
in my chest was excruciating," he said. "I seriously thought I was going
to die, it was that bad."
Mr Fricker was admitted to Dorchester County Hospital where doctors
believed he might be having a heart seizure caused by an extreme
reaction to the bite.
"I was wired up on drips and was given heart drugs. I spent three days
in hospital for being bitten by something I hadn't even heard of," he said.
Mr Fricker, who has a son Ryan, nine, and daughter Charlotte, two, was
released from hospital on Tuesday and is convalescing at home.
Doctors say that, in the vast majority of cases, the spider's bite
should be no more painful, and the medical consequences no more serious,
than a wasp sting.