Spider bite victim 'couldn't walk'

LIGHT BITE: The Violin spider packs a nasty bite.

A Dubai-based photographer got more than he bargained for when he spent the evening at one of Dubai’s most popular expat bars.

Andrew Blakeway, 22, from Jebel Ali was enjoying a few drinks with friends at Barasti Bar at the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi hotel when he was bitten by what he claims was a Violin spider. Two weeks later he is still receiving medical treatment for the wound.

“I was sitting around the pool, having a few drinks and the next morning I woke up with a small bite on my left thigh which gradually got worse and worse until I couldn’t walk,” he told Arabian Business.

“What was a small mosquito bite ended up becoming about the size of a one dirham coin and about 3cm deep,” he said.

Although Violin spiders, more commonly known as Recluse spiders, have fairly harmless bites, some turn into an ulcer which destroys the soft tissue around the bite which takes months to heal.

“Depending on the species it can take a tremendous amount of time [for a bite from a Violin spider] to heal. The climax of the symptoms are there for weeks after you have been bitten, it’s not a quick recovery,” said Damien Egan, head of herpetology at the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife in Sharjah.

“You get [Violin spiders] all over the world and they all have reasonably potent venom considering that most spider bites have very low potency,” added Egan.

A spokesperson from Le Meridien Mina Seyahi said they had never had a problem with Violin spiders in the past. “The incident was never reported or bought to anyone’s attention at the hotel and we have had no incident of these spiders in the past.”

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Spider bite victim 'couldn't walk'
Posted by Filemon Samiley, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday 3 August 2008 at 20:40 UAE time

I am the Pest Manager of the said Hotel & Resort from the very beginning and NO history of venomous spiders was recorded in their premises in the past years. We inspected the whole areas around the "Barasti Bar" which is the Best Bar in the World and didn't find any specimen to collect for proper identification.

Please also be aware that far too many people continue to misidentify harmless spiders as brown recluses because they can imagine a violin on the spider. It is not that simple. Many spiders have dark markings on their bodies that look like violins to the non-arachnological public (cellar spiders, Oecobius, Mimetus, etc.) and have been misidentified because of that.

Other conditions that has been misdiagnosed as Brown Recluse Spider (Loxosceles reclusa) are i.e. bacterial, viral, Fungal, etc.. And in treating alleged spider bite victims, a question that medical personnel should also be asking is whether the patient has recently traveled outside the area where they live in case the patient might have been exposed to ticks.

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