A British woman living in Spain is warning people about the risks posed by a venomous spider, saying she was bitten by the critter. Melissa Rowling believes she was bitten by a Mediterranean violin spider she inadvertently brought down from her attic in a box of old shoes and handbags.
She recalled how a blister appeared and her leg went totally numb. Melissa added that the spider bite then got infected and turned necrotic, meaning tissue around the wound started to die. The mum praised medical staff at Hospital Quironsalud Palmaplanas in Palma, Majorca, whom she said had done a great job removing the dead cells.
But she said medics have told her it will take another month before the wound is completely healed.
Melissa said that if she had known about the risk posed by the spider, she would not have waited two weeks before seeking medical attention.
“I had no idea they existed before this happened to me – the effect of it has been awful.”
According to National Geographic Spain, Mediterranean violin spiders can be found in homes, garages and workplaces. It prefers to hide in dark and dusty places.
This spider’s venom includes phospholipase enzymes, which can attack cell membranes and cause blood vessels to rupture.
National Geographic Spain says a small percentage of bites may develop a lesion where tissue dies.
It notes that unless the bite is on a sensitive part of the body, there is “usually” no serious impact.
The spider is native to the Mediterranean, but being bitten by one is said to be very rare, with reliable figures on the number of bite cases “very scarce”.
You can usually recognise the spider by the small, dark, violin-shaped spot on its cephalothorax – a part of its body where the head and thorax merge.
Mediterranean violin spiders are not native to the UK and are rarely found in this country as they struggle to survive in our colder climate.
