What's the Deadliest Spider in the World?

Most spiders are completely harmless to humans, but a few can do damage. Learn which ones are the most potentially dangerous in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/arachnids/deadliest-spider.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, lorn bogabam here. What's the world's deadliest spider?
Despite their reputation for being kind of creepy, of the
nearly forty thousand known species of spiders, only a tiny
fraction of them can inflict any significant pain or other

(00:23):
harm in humans. In fact, there's no wholly accepted consensus
on what the world's deadliest spider is, because by and large,
spiders aren't that much of a threat to our well being.
That said, there are a handful of arachnids around the
world that it would be in our best interests to avoid.
The overall morbidity rate of venomous spiders remains below ten,

(00:47):
but some of their poisons can induce tissue degeneration, cell death, nausea,
and other unpleasant side effects. Venomous spiders are equipped with
a poison gland that harbors the day jerous compounds. Those
glands are connected to a set of fangs that spiders
use to deliver the venom into their victims. The fangs

(01:08):
usually remain tucked inside the spider's jaws until it feels threatened.
When that happens, it releases those fangs, digging them into
the victim's body and secreting the venom. And not all
spider bites are potentially wounding, though many spiders will give
dry bites without venom as a warning. In the United States,

(01:28):
people worry most about the fangs of the brown recluse
and black widow spiders. A bite from a brown recluse
can leave you with significant scarring from tissue necrosis if
left untreated, but odds are strongly in your favor of survival.
You can identify brown recluses by the violin shaped marking
on their abdomens. Statistically, black widows, with their red hourglass

(01:51):
calling card, pose more of a threat to humans. Before
doctors discovered anti venom for the widow family of spiders,
the mortality rate for by victims was around five percent.
Though there isn't a definitive answer to what the world's
deadliest spider is, experts often place the Sydney funnel web
spider at the top of the list. This arachnant species

(02:14):
bears responsibility for the highest number of bites and human
fatalities among all spiders with fangs strong enough to penetrate
finger and toenails in extreme cases, a funnel web bite
can kill a person in fifteen minutes. As you may
guess from its name, the Sydney funnel web spider is
native to the area around Sydney, Australia. Humans encounter the

(02:38):
dark colored funnel web spiders mostly during mating season in
summer in fall, when the males leave their burrows in
search of females. However, since the discovery of a funnel
web anti venom in no one has died from its bite. Behaviorally,
funnel web spiders are more dangerous than either black widows
or brown reclusives because they kin of aggressive when threatened,

(03:02):
meaning that if you've tried to shoe one away, it
would be less likely to skittterr off. The adult male
funnel webs are potentially more harmful than females and juvenile spiders,
and they're the most likely to attack. The active ingredient
in funnel web venom is a type of neurotoxin that
causes our nerve cells to continually fire once it enters

(03:22):
the bloodstream. That rapid firing sparks intense pain at the
bite site that will start within twenty eight minutes of
the actual bite. In general, spider venom affects humans by
interacting with ion receptors in our cells. When that happens,
it unnaturally excites the cell, which can lead to pain
and cell dysfunction. On the other side of the world,

(03:45):
the Brazilian wandering spider often ranks near the top of
the list two. It's capable of injecting one to two
milligrams of venom in its victims. You can spot these
spiders by the red hairs on their necks. Like the
funnel of The Brazilian wandering spider has aggressive tendencies and
is known as a hunting spider. It's venom effects sodium

(04:06):
ion receptors, particularly in muscle and sensory cells. Bites from
these spiders account for around half of spider related hospitalizations
in South America. Getting bitten by any of these spiders
would probably be an unpleasant experience, but today even the
most venomous spiders with the largest sharpest fangs don't pose

(04:29):
much of a health threat to humans thanks to anti
venin's and just be careful when you're working in a
dark corner of your basement or storage shed. Spiders often
don't want to attack, but they will defend their territory
when they think it's necessary. Today's episode is based on

(04:49):
the article what's the World's Deadliest spider on house toffworks
dot com written by Kristen Conger. Brain Stuff is production
of by Heart Radio in partnership with housetuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Client four more podcasts my
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