Spiders whose bite can infect the victim with antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A new study supports the suspicion that certain spiders carry harmful bacteria and that these can be transmitted when the spider uses its fangs to bite.
Aoife Boyd’s team from the National University of Ireland in Galway has found that some common house spiders carry bacteria capable of infecting humans and that spiders of a specific species, Steatoda Nobilis, known by popular names as “ noble false black widow “, they are also carriers of very dangerous bacterial strains, as they are resistant to common antibiotic treatments.
This new research confirms a theory that has been debated among spider specialists and healthcare professionals for quite a few years, and which explains a number of severe symptoms experienced by some Steatoda Nobilis bite victims in the UK and Ireland in the last years and that could not be explained by the action of the spider venom.
Other spiders are well known for their potentially deadly human venom, but the rare infections that some people suffered from being bitten by seemingly harmless spiders from Europe and North America were thought to be the result of secondary infections caused by scratching their heads the victim in the area of the bite.
However, this new study shows that not only are there spiders carrying harmful bacteria, but those germs can be transmitted when a spider uses its fangs to bite a person.
Also, although the venom of many spiders has been shown to have antibacterial activity and theoretically kill bacteria at the point of the bite, it is now clear that this is not the case in cases such as Steatoda Nobilis.
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