If you thought the early onslaught of Christmas music, adverts and shopping was getting you down, here’s a better one: spiders are invading our homes.
You might want to check behind the curtains or in the bathtub because the nastiest, eight-legged creature in the country, has been spotted in Northampton.
And they bite! Jesus, what sort of sad news Saturday is this?
Experts have warned the winter weather conditions are ripe for the appearance of false widow spiders, cousins of the deadly black widow spiders, which we all know are pretty damn scary, according to the Metro.
A spokesman from Northampton-based exterminators, Pest Professionals, said:
There are many types of false widow and all though they look pretty scary they do not pose much of a threat to human beings.
The species is actually scared of human beings but if cornered they could bite and cause a good deal of pain
This doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence – i’m pretty good at cornering spiders – it’s the lobbing them out the window part which always causes a problem.
Recently, Matt Clarke was bitten by a false black widow spider while in bed.
He said he woke up from a deep sleep and could feel a ‘tingly sensation’, so he looked down at his leg and noticed a tiny brown spider, but ‘thought nothing of it’.
However, the next day, he felt a burning sensation in his leg, which became unbearable throughout the day – forcing him to go to A&E, where he was treated for a spider bite.
He thought that was the ‘end of it’ but a few days later, the wound burst open and he felt a ‘hot liquid dripping down his leg’.
Despite it not being life-threatening, he said the pain made it impossible for him to even walk and was left with ‘a hole he could see his muscles through’.
Describing the incident, Matt, who lives with his partner and two children, said:
I just felt this dripping down my leg and it was a painful type of burning sensation. I then checked it out and the bite area had burst open – it was a hole I could see my muscles through.
I couldn’t understand why the bite wasn’t healing so I tried to find answers. I researched spiders and my symptoms, and I realised I had been bitten by a ‘false widow’.
Fortunately the bite of a false widow cannot kill humans, but as you can see they can do a lot of damage.
If you’re bitten, keep an eye out for potential signs of infection like weeping, blisters or swelling and if it continues to get worse after a few days, contact your GP.
Tim Horner is a sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated with a BA Journalism from University College Falmouth before most his colleagues were born. A previous editor of adult mags, he now enjoys bringing the tone down in the viral news sector.