A man from Austria finds a spider at home. It has a large abdomen. Urgent warnings about the animal follow.
Vienna – Most spiders that people usually find in their homes are inconspicuous and harmless. But every now and then you come across a special specimen that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. That’s what happened to a man from the Weinviertel in Lower Austria. In his tweet on the platform X His eight-legged visitor can be seen. When he asked for help identifying the spider, other users came to his aid in the comments. And warned him: It could be poisonous.
Possibly poisonous: You find a spider and are warned
Some users are amused with comments like “Looks like a spider!” and “No matter what it is, I’d set fire to the house just to be safe.” Others are trying to make guesses about the species. Some users point out that the specimen could be a spiny-web spider. The author of the tweet replies to one: “Well, I hope not.”
For good reason – because according to the Austrian Nature Conservation Association, the thorny-fingered spider is the only “poisonous spider in Central Europe that is relevant to humans”. The pain of a bite is comparable to that of a wasp sting. Fever, circulatory failure, dizziness, chills or vomiting are only possible in exceptional cases and subside in about three days, writes the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Association on its website. The situation is different with the brown violin spider – She fatally bit a policeman in Italy.
The user behind the tweet also suspects in a conversation in the comments that it could be a brown recluse spider. But to really determine its species, a specialist is needed, as in this Case of a spider with a “conspicuous white abdomen”.
Expert provides information about the spider species in the post
The question of the species is quickly clarified: A spider expert from Senckenberg Society for Natural Research confirmed on request from MEDIA, that the specimen is a spiny-web spider. However, the exact species cannot be determined from the photos. The expert recommends that the user carefully release the animal back outside.
Media from Austria have also tried to find an answer to the question about their genre. The tabloid heute.at asked an expert from the Natural History Museum in Vienna about this. He also confirmed that it could possibly be a spiny-web spider, or more precisely a nursery-web spider.
Special caution is required against unpleasant eight-legged creatures on the Balearic island of Mallorca. poisonous spider species reported whose bite causes the skin to rot. (gel)
