Wombat One - Spiders Nill

[Wombat]

G'Day Gang

Well it finally happened this morning, after living in a country with more bities per square metre than anywhere else for 50 years I finally got bit!

I was out the back preparing to mow the lawn when I picked up a cat water bowl which wa upside down, when something lept on my middle right finger and sunk in the fangs. Needless to say this hurt so it got flung a goodly way before it got to look at it. From the feel and little look I did get it seemed to be a wolf spider.

So uttering the protective mantra - Oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t...etc. I leapt for the medicine cabinet and grabbed out a crepe bandage and applied a pressure immobilisation bandage. Praise be to God for Struan Sutherland the guy who developed this first aid technique.

I then got Mrs Wombat to drive me to the hospital. I expected (well hoped) for some sovereign antivene to fix me up. The treatment was a little less than that - "We take of the bandage and see what happens - then we treat that!" Mrs Wombat said to the Doctor that I had been panicking - Ha! She just misunderstood the rite of my people to counteract poisoning - running around waving your arms screaming. (In this case it was wholly effective)

I'm feeling pretty anxious by this stage but ..........OK, they're the doctors. After an hour of no other symptoms than those which could be explained by fear, I got a tetanus shot and they let me go home. I have since mowed the lawn and am still symptom free. The diagnosis - Bitten (you can see the bloody fang marks on my finger!) but not envenomated. So I live to fight another day.

Nev


PS for those who don't know them -

http://www.termite.com/spiders/Wolf-Spider.shtml

[shiney]

Good to know you are still live and kicking Nev! Still, it must have been a shock to have been bitten. I would be running around in a mad panic for sure.

I only came across one bad spider.....

When I was in Aus, I went to a local farmers CO~OP and bought a Drizabone full length coat. I put it on, jumped into my friends car, took the journey home to his place, got in doors and PLOP on the floor dropped a.....red back!

It had been hiding in my coat, which I was wearing. I looked down and said 'oh a little spider!' to which my friend immediately squashed it dead and flat with his penknife.

Lucky I didn't get a nip really.

[Wombat]

You're lucky Shiney, their bite is very painful!

Nev

[shiney]

I don't even wanna think about it! They are such diddy little things aren't they?

Do you have funnels in your region too?

Is your hand painful now?

[Wombat]

Yes, Shiney we have funnelwebs and, unlikely as it was, it did cross my mind that that is what had bit me. Another reason for heading for the hospital! No, no pain now. Once the pain of the initial bit wore off I have been OK. It was a good exercise to lose weight, in the same way a laxative helps you lose - all due to fear more than anything else!

Nev

[Boots]

I figure it is ok to say I'm laffin now???




Excellent disaster response, Nev. Full marks for the arm waving rite of passage bit. LOL...

...am still giggling.

Glad you're OK, mate. Keep up the good value gardening!

[Stonehead]

Glad to hear you're okay - but then Wombats are pretty tough!

In future - remember to have a nice, long look at the spider before you throw it away! Identification is very important and you don't want to hurt the poor little fella!!!

Also, instead of arm swinging, try swooning. Much more impressive (the wife will take you much more seriously) plus lying still actually helps slow any posion spreading.

More seriously, keep an eye on it. Wolf spiders, if that's what it was, usually only give you a nasty nip with a bit of pain and itchiness, but in rare cases you can also get swelling, dizziness, and nausea. It's also not unknown for there to be longer-term pain.

The main concern is really one of infection, though. Hence the tetanus shot.

(I was a first aid instructor back in Oz BTW.)


PS And if you want painful - get bitten on the bum by a red-back. Happened to a mate of mine sitting on old thunderbox toilet. I reckon you could have heard him 10km away. He survived but couldn't sit down properly for weeks.

[Wombat]

Same thing happened to a mate of my father during the war, but bit him on the whizzer! In is lucid moments he would ask the doctor if hr could fix him up but leave it the same size........

[Muddypause]

Get outta there, Nev. 'S dangerous. Surely it makes miserable, cold, overcrowded, rainsodden Britain a much more sensible option.

Glad you're OK, mate.

[Wombat]

Thanks Muddy!

Nev

[Shirley]

PHEW! Thank goodness you are ok Wombat.

Scary place to be, yup, I think I prefer this cold and soggy island too

[Wombat]

Thanks Shirl,

I'm hard to kill - kinda like a cockroach!

Nev

[paradox]

Ive never been botherd by spiders untill i spent 4 months in the saudi arabian dessert.
They have a form of spider there called the camel spider and there quite large and to my eyes ressemble face huggers from the alien films.

Apparently when they bit you they inject an anesthetic so you dont feel them continue to eat you.

I spent many nights on the aircraft manouvering area running away from the buggers and sitting on top of the aircraft waiting for them to dissapear.

There the quickest moving spiders i have ever seen.

[PurpleDragon]

Gee-zo! Glad to hear you're okay. Spider bites are scary!

I had an experince similar to Shiney. When I was a kid, i chucked my cardi down on the ground while out playing. Got called in for tea, shoved on the cardi and went indoors. Messed around indoors for ages till bedtime, and when I took off the cardi out fell a redback. I was only about 8 or so, so I was lucky.

[Stonehead]

And to teach me not to have a chuckle, I've just had to fork off!

I was pricking potatoes for baking with a fork and working quite fast, when the OH asked me a question. I looked up to answer and, chunk, stuck the fork firmly into my thumb.

Being me, I just said "S***". When the OH said "what" I brandished my forked thumb. She blanched, so I removed the fork, applied pressure and then a wound dressing. Then back to work.

Only problem is, after popping the potatoes in the oven, getting the other things ready and then putting my feet up for 10 minutes, my thumb is now throbbing.

Not as impressive as spider bite, though.