WHEN a Newcastle resident found an odd sac in their garden, they decided to take the unusual object into The Australian Reptile Park for investigation.
The small white bag looked innocent enough, but what lay beneath was the stuff of nightmares.
Head of spiders at the Central Coast reptile park, Kane Christensen, quickly identified the object as a funnel-web egg.
Funnel webs are extremely aggressive spiders with a venomous bite. Each egg sac usually contains more than 100 spiders.
While this was an unwanted surprise for the lucky resident, the egg sac was good news for the park.
The Australian Reptile Park is the only place in Australia that milks funnel webs for their venom, which is used to make anti-venom.
The park calls on the public to help keep the program running by safely catching funnel web spiders and dropping them at either The Australian Reptile Park or one of the many drop off points around Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
Once this egg sac was identified Mr Christensen delicately began the process of opening it, and then separated each individual spider.
“We will be growing them to stay in our program here at the park,” a representative said.
Funnel web spider bite symptoms:
- Copious secretion of saliva
- Muscular twitching and breathing difficulty
- Small hairs stand on end
- Numbness around mouth
- Copious tears
- Disorientation
- Fast pulse
- Increased blood pressure
- Confusion leading to unconsciousness
If you see someone who has been bitten by a funnel web, NSW Ambulance advises:
- Keep them from moving around
- Keep the bitten limb down
- Bandage the limb from the area of the bite to the hand/foot and then back up to the body
- Immobilise the limb by splinting, if possible
- Tell the person to keep calm
- Do not move them at all
- Wait there for the paramedics or ambulance
- The story “Funnel web spider video is what nightmares are made of” first appeared on Newcastle Herald on January 15.