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 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.