# Spider Bites reported
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 14, 1999, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248 "1999-09-14T18:28:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lava)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/1 "1999-09-14T18:28:00Z")
I received the mailnote below from one of my friends. I wondered if you
might know if this story is true or if someone is trying to make a gluteus
out of me?
LAVA
WARNING-THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!
An article by Dr. Beverly Clark, in the Journal of the United Medical
Association (JUMA), the mystery behind a recent spate of deaths has been
solved. If you haven’t already heard about it in the news, here is what
happened.
Three women in Chicago, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all
with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular
collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of
trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood.
These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common.
It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant
(Big Chappies, at Blare Airport), within days of their deaths. The health
department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water,
and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.
The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the
hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on
vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did
not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom.
That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he
had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted
the
toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider. The
spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to
be
the South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus), so named because
of its reddened flesh color. This spider’s venom is extremely toxic, but
can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp,
climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.
Several days later a lawyer from Los Angeles showed up at a hospital
emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away
on business, had taken a flight from New York, changing planes in Chicago,
before returning home. He did not visit Big Chappies while there. He did,
as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture
wound, on his right buttock. Investigators discovered that the flight he
was on had
originated in South America. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered
an
immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from South America, and
discovered
the Blush spider’s nests on 4 different planes!
It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So
please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders.
It can save your life! And please pass this on to everyone you care about
Officer Sylvia Steele
Texas A&M International University
5201 University Blvd.
Laredo, Tx 78041-1999
956-326-2100
Fax: 956-326-2099
Email: steele@tamiu.edu
Jackie Hebert
Winstead Sechrest & Minick P.C.
910 Travis Street, Suite 2400
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 650-2456
Fax: (713) 650-2400
---
### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/2 "1999-09-14T18:31:00Z")
This is a big ol’ urban legend, Lava.
[http://www.snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com)
Check it out!
---
### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/3 "1999-09-14T19:17:00Z")
Or more specifically: [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/buttspdr.htm](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/buttspdr.htm)
I still chuckle at “Butt Spider”.
---
### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/4 "1999-09-14T19:19:00Z")
Sheesh… six crawl in your mouth a year and still some of them insist on using the rear entrance.
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### Author:  [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/5 "1999-09-14T20:22:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I still chuckle at “Butt Spider”.
🙂 Me too! It’s one of my new catch-phrases 🙂
* * *
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
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### Author:  [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/6 "1999-09-14T20:56:00Z")
A good rule to follow:
If an email starts out like this:
THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!
It is a joke.
Spider bites are no joke, though. Watch out for those Brown Recluses. Nasty.
* * *
“Shoplifting is a victimless crime. Like punching someone in the dark.” -Nelson Muntz.
---
### Author:  [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/7 "1999-09-14T22:25:00Z")
[http://www.itek.chalmers.se/homepage/i4lige/subpages/spider2.jpg](http://www.itek.chalmers.se/homepage/i4lige/subpages/spider2.jpg)
. . . . . . . . . . .SIT ON ME!
---
### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/8 "1999-09-14T22:36:00Z")
I just have to toss this one in:
My dad swears that he was on a hunting trip in California with several friends when one of them woke up one morning completely unable to walk and in excruciating pain. The injured man had a sort of bruise that ran along both thighs from the knee up. His testicles were black.
It was decided that the man could not be moved and one of the other hunters was sent down the mountain to summon some paramedics. While waiting for the evac vehicle, my father and the others tried to figure out what the injured man had done differently. They finally came to the conclusion that the injured guy was the only one to actually use the decrepid old outhouse next to the cabin. He had gone in the middle of the night.
When they opened the cabin in daylight, they could plainly see the classic tangled, confused looking web of a black widow completely covering the open “seat” area, except where it had been torn away by the unfortunate hunter’s scrotum. It would appear as if the spider could not resist such a target, and had bit the hunter.
Well, my father has been known to float a couple of zingers in the past, so I wouldn’t base your doctoral dissertation on it. But it is nice to know that this permutation of the classic old urban legend has been around for at least twenty-five years. I first heard it in 1974 (on Dad’s return from his hunting trip).
---
### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/9 "1999-09-14T22:39:00Z")
Oops. I should have said “when they checked the outhouse in daylight.” We need an edit function, here.
---
### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/10 "1999-09-14T22:50:00Z")
And let’s not forget the moral here:
“There’s a reason why real men don’t sit down to pee.”
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### Author:  [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/11 "1999-09-14T22:51:00Z")
Joke. Never heard of the S.A. Blush Spider, and, hey, I watch the Discovery Channel and all them nature shows! There is a banana spider in S. A.(NO, not the tarantula) whose venom can kill; the Black Widow is nasty, but not lethal.
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### Author:  [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/12 "1999-09-15T02:26:00Z")
Gives new meaning to the term ‘blackballed’.
Ray
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### Author:  [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/13 "1999-09-15T14:17:00Z")
Nano…ooh, what a cheap shot!
I didn’t say it wasn’t good, just cheap! 😃
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### Author:  [@Snappy\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snappy_Plissken)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/14 "1999-09-15T21:29:00Z")
I got bitted by an EVIL BROWN RECLUSE EVIL THINGS MUST DIE! Grrr. Bit me at 7 years old, on my chest. Wow. What a way for me to have gone; having my skin and whatnot eated away until I was a half a kiddle. Hehe. I still have the scar, been 8 years. Nasty…grr…now I kill all spiders, especially li’l brown ones. To hell if they eat other bugs, I have bats and birds and frogs and lizards and geckos to do that; I don’t need evil spiders.
Do me a favor and kill a little brown spider. Less to eat later, anyway. Hehehe.
* * *
Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy
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### Author:  [@JLPicard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLPicard)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/15 "1999-09-15T21:41:00Z")
Alright now I feel stupid. I live in Chicago, where is Blare Airport?
* * *
Bad spellers of the world… UNTIE
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/16 "1999-09-15T21:47:00Z")
Blare airport is over near the other UL’s. It might be interesting to find out if any of the addresses in the original quoted story are real (or have real people associated with them, as well). It might indicate how much work the propagator put into their story.
* * *
Tom~
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### Author:  [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [September 16, 1999, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/17 "1999-09-16T01:45:00Z")
Agree that this is probably a UL. A good tip off is the “they’re everywhere! they’re everywhere!” hysteria.
Most spider bites are more painful than anything, though some of them are more dangerous than others.Black widows, for example and brown recluses are some of the nastiest we usually come across.
That said, I did have an elderly “courtesy” aunt die indirectly from a tarantula bite. It was in the late 50’s and she leaned on an unrefrigerated display of bananas and a stowaway tarantula bit her on the hip. The bite itself was plenty painful, but it turned systemic.
This happened in a rural area outside of Hillsboro, Ohio. Between her advanced age, the unusual cause and the spotty quality of health care of the time and the area, she died of the complications that just kept building. So she did die of the spider bite but a lot of other factors were present.
Don’t ask me why I felt driven to share that boring little anecdote. The humble rural roots of urban legends?
(P.S. They found the spider alive. It did not last long, though. And for at least a year, anyone who served banana pudding was viewed as either a daredevil or a dang fool.Hey, those were the days Perry Como was exciting.)
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [September 17, 1999, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/18 "1999-09-17T02:53:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Alright now I feel stupid. I live in Chicago, where is Blare Airport?
It’s in Fableland.
Contrary to what was published in Snopes, O’Hare was originally called Orchard Field; the designation ORD in airline codespeak is a throwback to that long-ago name.
And Midway started out life as Chicago Municipal Airport and was later changed to Midway in honor of the Battle of Midway – or so it says here: [http://www.cityofchicago.org/Aviation/Midway/midway10.html](http://www.cityofchicago.org/Aviation/Midway/midway10.html)
your humble TubaDiva/SDStaffDiv
for the Straight Dope
ORD? My ticket says BFE!
---
### Author:  [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)
#### Post date: [September 17, 1999, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-bites-reported/3248/19 "1999-09-17T03:26:00Z")
tveblen… boring? i’ve heard boring in my time… and death by spider bite… alright… even if many other factors are involved, are generaly NOT boring… haha. kinda like cecils column… “has anyone ever really been scared to death” YEAH… if you include heart attacks in that. BTW… got any more odd family deaths you can treat us with? _L_
* * *
The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I’m left with is the memory of having learned
something very wise that I can’t quite remember. -George Carlin