It is shocking to know that the same creature with which kids are used to playing or about which they are used to getting excited whenever they come into contact can have lethal consequences on the human life if due care is not taken.
By Samuel Odunayo Afolabi – Ibadan
Spiders are commonly close to man, as they can be ubiquitously found almost anywhere man dines, works, walks, lives, or goes about his daily lives. At the same time, with the predatory tendencies of spiders, their venoms are dangers that must be avoided!
Without doubt, it is not all spiders that are marked as too venomous to destroy the human life but the certainty about which class of spiders the ‘killer’ belongs is itself dangling. Besides, animal scientists can only give professional speculations which oftentimes cannot be relied upon.
While identifying the features of some of these life-threatening predators, Britannica writes
“Although many spiders produce venom for use in capturing prey, few species are toxic to humans. The venom of the black widow (genus Latrodectus) acts as a painful nerve poison. The bite of the brown recluse and others of the genus Loxosceles may cause localized tissue death.”
Over the time, since the existence of man, the ubiquity of spiders and the fame about their weaving skills and magic when it comes to extruding webs make them subconsciously identified as ‘harmless, domestic’ neighbor of the human community. The adroit embroidery of their cobwebs around every nook and cranny of the human environment both serves as wonder to naturalists and of course spiritual message to religious men.
Spiders have six pairs of appendages. The first pair, called the chelicerae, constitute the jaws. Each chelicera ends in a fang containing the opening of a poison gland. The chelicerae moves forward and down in the tarantula-like spiders but sideways and together in the rest. The venom ducts pass through the chelicerae, which sometimes also contain the venom glands.
When the chelicerae of one of the dangerous spiders is stuck out against the human skin at any contact and it releases venom through its duct into the skin, like it did the popular Brazilian singer and dancer’s face on November 2, 2023, it will immediately cause general weakness of the body with evolving dark spots around the point of contact.
This would later result in the deadening all active cells in the human body and thus become resistant to all medical palliatives and treatment, leading to death. Morais was rushed to the hospital, treated, released, and re-admitted on November 5, but only to have the news that he finally gave up the ghost on Monday 6th November, 2023 at the age of 28.
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, not all spiders are that dangerous, fatal, or seriously poisonous with tendencies to kill man. It is also advised that we should wear the shoe of caution when dealing with spiders, especially about maintaining contact with these creatures.
