World's deadliest spider found in the UK

God....damn....it

The world's deadliest spider forced a supermarket to close after a terrified worker spotted it under a box of bananas.

The highly-venomous Brazilian Wandering Spider - a species responsible for killing more people than any other arachnid - was eventually captured by RSPCA officers.

Victims usually die within an hour of being bitten by the spider, which has a 4in leg-span and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the planet's most venomous animal.

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Good thing I have this guy on speed dial incase my house got invaded by spiders.

^lol

this actually happens alot with bananas.

^ Yep it does, I work in a supermarket on the fruit/veg and have yet to see one in the bannan box. A collegue of mine seen one once and had to phone RSPCA.

the mouth

Thats right you Brits. We Aussies aren't the only ones getting fucked by deadly creatures.

Skeptic said:

Thats right you Brits. We Aussies aren't the only ones getting fucked by deadly creatures.

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keep it in your pants from now on Kurt

Fuck off.

Really? There's actually something more dangerous than knife-wielding teens in the UK?

El Freako said:

Fuck off.

Really? There's actually something more dangerous than knife-wielding teens in the UK?

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hows about ak-packing arabs in the middle east?

wasnt someone shot at a football game?
who the fuck takes an assault rifle to a football game.

I was talking about in the UK dude.

If that is the most deadly spider then these people have clearly not been to Australia.

It's like people carrying on about cobra's or rattlesnakes as though they are deadly. We don't measure venomous creatures in Australia based on how much the bite hurts, but rather how long you have to get to a hospital before you can kiss your ass goodbye.

AMERICA FUCK YAAA

Animals are getting around!



MARATHON, Fla. (March 30) -- Juan Lopez reads meters with one eye and looks for snakes with the other. Lopez is a member of the "Python Patrol," a team of utility workers, wildlife officials, park rangers and police trying to keep Burmese pythons from gaining a foothold in the Florida Keys.
Officials say the pythons -- which can grow to 20 feet long and eat large animals whole -- are being ditched by pet owners in the Florida Everglades, threatening the region's endangered species and its ecosystem.


Florida owners are increasingly dumping their pet pythons in Everglades National Park, where the enormous snakes flourish and breed. Now, a team known as the "Python Patrol" is trying to prevent the reptiles from gaining a foothold in the Florida Keys. A 12-foot Burmese python captured in the backyard of a Miami home in 2005 is shown.


"Right now, we have our fingers crossed that they haven't come this far yet, but if they do, we are prepared," Lopez said.

Burmese Pythons are rarely seen in the middle Florida Keys, where Lopez works. The Nature Conservancy wants to keep it that way.
The Python Patrol program was started by Alison Higgins, the Nature Conservancy's Florida Keys conservation manager. She describes it as an "early detection, rapid response" program made up of professionals who work outside.

Eight Burmese pythons have been found in the Keys.
"If we can keep them from spreading and breeding, then we're that much more ahead of the problem," Higgins said.

Utility workers, wildlife officials and police officers recently attended a three-hour class about capturing the enormously large snakes. Lt. Jeffrey L. Fobb of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Response Unit taught the participants how to capture pythons.


"There's no immutable laws of snake catching. It's what works," Fobb said as he demonstrated catching a snake with hooks, bags, blankets and his hands.

"We're doing it in the Florida Keys because we have a lot to protect," Higgins said. "The Burmese pythons that are coming out of the Everglades are eating a lot of our endangered species and other creatures, and we want to make sure they don't breed here."

Where the snakes are breeding is just north of the Keys in Everglades National Park. An estimated 30,000 Burmese pythons live in the park.
The Everglades, known as the "River of Grass," is a vast area with a climate perfect for these pythons to hide and breed. And breed they do: The largest clutches of eggs found in the Everglades have numbered up to 83.

The snakes grow like they're on steroids. With a life span of 30 years, these pythons can weigh as much as 200 pounds. And the larger the snake, the bigger the prey. Biologists have found endangered wood rats, birds, bobcats and other animals in their stomachs.

Two 5-foot-long alligators were found in the stomachs of Burmese pythons that were caught and necropsied, officials say.

Officials also say Burmese pythons can travel 1.6 miles a day by land, and they can swim to reach areas outside the Everglades.

This nonvenomous species was brought into the United States from Southeast Asia. Everglades National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar says biologists believe that well-intended pet owners are to blame for their introduction into the Everglades.

"These pets were released by owners that do not understand the threat to the ecosystem," she said.


Higgins says 99,000 of the popular pets were brought into the United States from 1996 to 2006, the most recent data available. She says they are an easy species to breed, and you can buy a hatchling for as little as $20.



The problem with these pets, Friar says, is that they get too big for their owners to handle. Making the owner aware of what to expect when the animal becomes full-grown is a priority.

"The pet trade is pretty supportive in educating people," Friar said. She hopes a "Don't let it loose" message campaign makes an impact on pet owners.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a supporter of restoring the Everglades, has introduced a bill that would ban importing the python species into the United States. The senator saw the need after learning about the effect these snakes were having on the park.

"Finding out many endangered species are being found in the stomach of the python," Nelson spokeswoman Susie Quinn said, "we need to do a better job at protecting the resources." advertisement

In the meantime, Lopez and the Python Patrol will continue to protect the Florida Keys by capturing the snakes and turning them over to biologists to perform necropsies. The Nature Conservancy plans to expand the program to all the areas that surround the Everglades, making these predators their prey.

"I would like to find them and get rid of them," Lopez said

The spider was humanely put down by the RSPCA after being deemed 'too dangerous' for photographers to go near.

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They act like the spider committed a crime! Illegal immigration?

Imagine if there was a male and female spider, they started breeding, and Britain became home to one of the worlds deadliest spiders!

tim290280 said:

If that is the most deadly spider then these people have clearly not been to Australia.

It's like people carrying on about cobra's or rattlesnakes as though they are deadly. We don't measure venomous creatures in Australia based on how much the bite hurts, but rather how long you have to get to a hospital before you can kiss your ass goodbye.

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I really hope you aren't serious..

Daniel Andersson said:

I really hope you aren't serious..

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He is. There are some weird animals in Aus!

Daniel Andersson said:

I really hope you aren't serious..

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Yes I'm perfectly serious.

Our least deadly snakes are considered to give you ~3/4hr to get to hospital for treatment with antivenom or other methods.

Our least deadly spiders would be the equivilent of a rattlesnake or cottonmouth.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about 8,000 people a year receive venomous snake bites in the United States, and only 9 to 15 victims die. In fact more people die from wasp and bee stings than from snake bites.

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Compare to:

# Australia houses the world's 10 most venomous snakes. The inland taipan is the world's most venomous, with toxin 50 times more potent than the Indian cobra.
# Most toxic venom - The most toxic snake venom on mice is the Inland Taipan (Fierce Snake). Maximum yield recorded (for one bite) is 110mg. That would probably be enough to kill over 100 people or 250,000 mice.
# Taipan size - The Taipan's average length is 2.5 meters, although they have been known to grow to 3.3 meters.
# Most venomous yield - Australia's most venomous (yield) snake is the King Brown. The snake is believed to have been involved in 22 of the past 38 deaths attributed to snakebite.
# Most venomous Australian snakes - Fierce Snake, King Brown, Taipan, Eastern Tiger, Riesvie Tiger, Beaked Sea Snake, Western Tiger Snake, Giant Black Tiger Snake, Death Adder, Western Brown snake.

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and

Each year in Australia as many as 4,000 people are bitten. Of these 200 require antivenom treatment and one bite proves fatal. This illustrates the snake's reluctance to use venom for defence. The venom is a complex combination of proteins with two main purposes, initially to immobilise prey and then to accelerate the digestion of that prey.

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Bear in mind that it is part of standard first aid training and survival kits in Australia, we even have a 24hr poisons line. So anyone who gets bitten has a pressure bandage applied immediately, is rushed to hospital where all hospitals and medical centres are required to have antivenins stocked for treatment, or people are put onto a drip to stop the effects of the venom without the need for antivenom. Compare that to America (and I was discussing this with a friend recently after one of his assistents was bitten in NC) where there is "the option" of treatment.

Option??? If you've gotten a dose of venom here you are fucked without the antivenins. In fact, if you don't get it quick enough you are fucked anyway.

I know of at least one classic case of a snake bite where the guy was bitten on the leg and was only 10mins walk from the hospital (~1km). He made it half way before he lost vision and couldn't breathe, collapsed on the side of the road where someone scooped him up and took him to hospital. He survived, but literally was 5mins away from dying.

I <3 Australia.

I was just wondering why Australia has all the shitty animals? Thats weird that you guys have the most poisonous ones.

sexnews said:

There are some weird animals in Aus!

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werd.