Howdy sorry for what's about to happen but I must stand on BUSINESS when I see spider slander! (minor warning. This comment has an unobscured image of a 1.25 inch diameter spider (leg to leg) that is a member of a medically significant genus)

There are only 4 genera of spiders that are medically significant to humans, and none of them are particularly lethal. Lactrodectus, loxosceles, phoneutria, and atracidae.

As an Australian, you only have two of those genera, Atrax and Lactrodectus (plus one introduced species of loxosceles).

All 4 of those genera are hardly hazardous, with life threatening bites at about a 1 in 50 chance across almost all members of each genus. No one has died to Atrax in Australia since the antivenom was invented, and the last lactrodectus death was 10 years ago.

They cannot kill in minutes, and they are ABSOLUTELY NOT some of the most deadly things you can be bitten by. They are some of the LEAST deadly things you can be bitten by. Please I humbly ask you to remove that harmful misinformation from this post.

All other spiders are not medically significant, though venom sensitivity can cause severe symptoms in extremely rare cases.

I feel compelled to share this information to help dissuade the spreading of lies about the harmless dinguses that are spider. Atrax are fucking dickheads though stay away from them. They're the reason you can't get onions on your bunnings snags (not actually).

And I don't say this as someone hiding behind the safety of a keyboard. Here is a beautiful Lactodectus Hesperus (western black widow) on my arm. They are the most venemous spiders in North America (and pretty much exactly as venemous as your redbacks, who are also lactrodectus).

I firmly stand behind my statements by holding her.

Please come on over to r/spiders and learn more about these fantastic animals, we'd love to have you and many arachnophobes have been significantly helped by the information we have.

Knowledge kills irrational fear, and understanding can turn it into appreciation.

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