Death from Tarantula Venom!? (Ornithoctonus huwena)

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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holy chrome!!!!

a quasi-reported death!
"Ornithoctonus huwena ( Theraphosidae) is a robust burrowing tarantula which is native to Southern China and Vietnam. It is a nocturnal animal and comes out at night to find food. Like many other Asian tarantulas, this spider can be very aggressive when disturbed and will attack humans and cattle, in self defense. There are reports of cattle deaths as well as the death of a baby who was bitten on the buttocks while crawling in the garden. "
http://spiderpharm.com/Selhuwena.htm

Chinese tarantulas!!!!

heh, it used to be a cosmic moon spider... Selenocosmia huwena...
 
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GoTerps

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Ornithoctonus huwena is now Haplopelma huwenum.

Although I'm not sure that is actually the species pictured on the spiderpharm site. It wouldn't surprise me if what they have is actually Haplopelma schmidti "gold".
 

cacoseraph

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GoTerps said:
Ornithoctonus huwena is now Haplopelma huwenum.

Although I'm not sure that is actually the species pictured on the spiderpharm site.
it's going from one "nasty" genus, to another, to another...

makes the death slightly more credible

and vindicating... i always did say it was possible :)
 

Niloticus

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cacoseraph said:
holy chrome!!!!

a quasi-reported death!
"Ornithoctonus huwena ( Theraphosidae) is a robust burrowing tarantula which is native to Southern China and Vietnam. It is a nocturnal animal and comes out at night to find food. Like many other Asian tarantulas, this spider can be very aggressive when disturbed and will attack humans and cattle, in self defense. There are reports of cattle deaths as well as the death of a baby who was bitten on the buttocks while crawling in the garden. "
http://spiderpharm.com/Selhuwena.htm

Chinese tarantulas!!!!

heh, it used to be a cosmic moon spider... Selenocosmia huwena...
That is very interesting. Looks similar to the Gold Earth Tiger (H. Schmidti). Makes me want to be more careful when dealing with that species. Woo-hoo!

Niloticus
 

cacoseraph

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GoTerps said:
I don't think there's anything "credible" about it!!
i'm teasing

it's still internet rumor status in my official registry
 

Theraphosid Research Team

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Hi,

be careful, it's only a "report" that the Baby died after the tarantulas bite (it's Haplopelma schmidti), nothing scientific provably! It is absolute questionable whether the Baby died because of the Venom! It could also be that it died because of a secondary infection and the result of a sepsis or something else (allergic reaction)!

Cheers, Volker
 

Tony

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VolkervonWirth said:
Hi,

be careful, it's only a "report" that the Baby died after the tarantulas bite (it's Haplopelma schmidti), nothing scientific provably! It is absolute questionable whether the Baby died because of the Venom! It could also be that it died because of a secondary infection and the result of a sepsis or something else (allergic reaction)!

Cheers, Volker
Or just chalk it up to local lore and exageration.....
 

reverendsterlin

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true or false, a key point is that it baby. I would suspect if it is true the child would have had other health issues that added to the problem. Like other deaths said to be due to tarantulas I have to suspect other factors also involved.
Rev
 

Cirith Ungol

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To me, putting cattle and a baby in the same sentance, makes it sound more runourish than factish. That's exactly the kind of talk you alway hear when someone tells you about how dangerous this or that animal is. I don't know about the facts behind it all but I wanna see them in the open instead of hearing more cattle mutilation stories.
 

syndicate

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honestly if a baby got bit by any sp of tarantula im sure it would need medical attention and could possible be life threating
 

Lopez

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wolfpak said:
it's a beautiful spider :) gotta get me one of those :)
It's a Haplopelma schmidti incase you want to go looking :)
 

SpiderDork

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I emailed a Chuck Kristensen at spiderpharm and inquired about the reported death. Here is the reply he sent me.

"Hi Eric,

Just a few comments for now ...

In my opinion, many spider and tarantula enthusiasts and professionals are using out-dated concepts and arguments about toxicity and are misrepresenting scientific methods as well as current standards for assessing medical hazards.

You do not need smoking guns and corpses to determine that there are hazards and no standard suggests that human trials are necessary. In general, standard consider, in entirity, possibly unreliable anecdotal information (even folklore), any more definitive medical information (even if it did not result in death), mode of action and characteristics of the possible toxins, physiological studies and whatever other information is available.

On the other hand, proof of "zero risk" is far more demanding by any well accepted standard that I am aware of.

In the case of O. huwena:

I do not know of any well documented deaths. However, what we know about the mode of action of some toxins from this venom is consistent with the folklore and what we have heard and read. For instance, the venom does have toxins that can block certain types of human ion channels in a manner that could result in the types of paralysis and death described in the folklore.

On the other hand, it is very difficult to quantify and assess potential hazards at this point. For instance, we do not know whether we should expect serious medical problems in one in every few hundred, thousand or million cases.

At this point the risk of experiencing life-threatening symptoms after bites seems incredibly low for many species and something more for others.

The zero-risk hypothesis is clearly wrong and clearly not necessary.


May all your spiders grow fat and happy,

Chuck

Chuck Kristensen
Spider Pharm Inc.
PO Box 1090
Yarnell, AZ 85362
Telephone: 928-427-6589
Fax: 928-441-1727
http://www.spiderpharm.com"
 

Nike

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If a baby weights around 15-20 pounds,then wouldn`t it be very much possible that a bite would kill him/her? If a Poecilotheria can give serious symptoms for a 200+ pounds adult,then a baby would be in a serious situation after a bite.
 

Crotalus

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Nike said:
If a baby weights around 15-20 pounds,then wouldn`t it be very much possible that a bite would kill him/her? If a Poecilotheria can give serious symptoms for a 200+ pounds adult,then a baby would be in a serious situation after a bite.
You are reasoning as if that story is true.
Wonders of internet....

/Lelle
 

phormingochilus

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The essence is that possible death is postulated from no reliable sources. They have not and there are no scientific or medical report or journals to back up the assumption. I also inquired Spiderpharm many years ago, but questioned their sources, and they did admit that they had no solid proof other than folklore. OK - in the same region there are for instance many widow spiders which could induce death and as Volker also point out death could be related to other parameters than the venom. And there is a common trait worldwide in folklore to attribute large spiders with deadly qualities. No doubt that a bite from a large H. schmidti will be very painful, and you can always speculate that there is a risk of death, but the risk is imho extremely low.

Regards
Søren
 
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