Hacker News Reader

Comment by djcapelis | Hacker News Reader

A friend of mine got bit by one once. She showed up in the hospital and calmly explained that she got bit by a black widow and asked for the anti venin. They looked at her skeptically until she pulled out a baggie with the dead widow in it. Then they treated her right away.

If you find yourself bit, kill the spider and take it with you. You'll forestall any complaints and questions about whether you're sure it was a black widow and shorten the time to diagnose and begin treatment. (I.E. You'll experience far fewer of the symptoms the sooner you get treated.)

(Unfortunately as of a few days ago, there is still a storage of supplies for the antivenin: http://www.ashp.org/menu/DrugShortages/CurrentShortages/bull... So some hospitals may not have it in stock if they normally would. But apparently emergency supplies remain.)

View on HN

Bonus to the kill-and-bring-to-the-hospital method of spider bites: over millions of years genetic pressure will teach spiders their lesson and they'll stop biting humans.

Similarly one of my cats let out an almighty howl last week, and when I went to investigate I saw a spider sitting next to his paw -- my conclusion he had been bitten by the spider.

By capturing it I was able to look up the species to tell if I needed to rush him to the vet.

See: http://www.spiders.us/species/filter/california/ (also useful for human bites, I'm sure) Obviously change the state for yours.

Turned out spider was harmless, cat was fine!

Toggled for using NoScript:

http://www.spiders.us/species/filter/california/?PageSpeed=n...

Tried the link. Black Widows are all over the place in California but they don't show up under that filter. Perhaps the authors of the "numerous scientific publications" they cite need to come visit my garage.

I've just been bitten by a spider, and I'm supposed to calmly and quickly corner it, kill it, and scrape it into a baggie to show to the doctor? I'm supposed to do this after reading this article, knowing what's ahead of me?

You don't have to, but it would be a good idea.

They'll eventually diagnose you and get around to tracking down some antivenin without it.

If you lose track of it, it's probably more important to get to the hospital faster than trying to track it down. But if you can nab it, it'll save you time and you won't have to wonder where the spider went off to later, since many people encounter these things inside their homes.

Some people are more useful in emergencies than others. You're right that some will fall to pieces, but I'm the type with presence of mind and I would be doing that as quickly as I could rather than waiting until I caved in to the pain.

Per the description, it's not that bad until the reaction spreads, so you want to take care of something like this before your feel like you're about to die.

Or use your phone to take a photo of it.

Dunno if they milk spiders, but extra points for capturing it live so it can donate venom. I'm probably confused and this only works with snakes.

They do milk spiders, but antivenom is generally created by injecting small amounts into animals like horses until they build up antibodies that are used to create antivenom.

No one has died of a Sydney funnel web bite since the milking program started. They're quite aggressive too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8svYyihCqsg

Reply on news.ycombinator.com