This is why it’s not the greatest idea to pick up a creepy-looking spider with your bare hands
Some of us know all too well what it’s like to be made fun of for jumping and shrieking at the sight of a spider. We’re made to feel silly, cowardly, even straight-up dumb. The thing is, it’s NOT the craziest thing in the world to be afraid of creepy-crawlies, some of those little dudes can be, you know, poisonous and stuff. What others call cowardly, we who are wary of spiders would actually call exercising caution. And, as it turns out, even those who aren’t afraid of spiders in the slightest could stand to use a little more caution when dealing with our eight-legged friends.
Case in point, 25-year-old Nickie King was at work cleaning an office when a spider dropped into his feather duster. King took a picture of the creepy-crawly before picking it up with his bare hands and placing the creature outside.
Not knowing what type of spider it was, King posted the picture he had take to Facebook, and then proceeded to get an earful from his Facebook friends, who identified the spider as a false widow, Britain’s most venomous spider.
“Lots of people said it was a false widow and saying I was lucky I didn’t get bitten,” King explained to the Sunday Express. “They were saying I shouldn’t have picked it up.”
Luckily, even if the spider had bitten King, it wouldn’t have been a life-threatening situation. The reason the spider is called a “false widow” is because it resembles the dangerous black widow spider, but isn’t actually as dangerous as its look-alike. Those bitten by false widows can cause chest pains, severe swelling and tingling fingers, but that’s usually the extent of the spider bite’s effect.
We’re glad that King is okay, and we’re glad he didn’t get bitten (chest pains and severe swelling are no joke, and tinging fingers just sounds like a weird, annoying thing to have to deal with) and we hope that his spider incident has taught us all a very valuable lesson- if something looks creepy, for goodness sake, do not pick it up with your bare hands!
Related:
10 reasons spiders make me nervous
10 animals you wish you didn’t know about
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