'UK's most dangerous spider' bite leaves girl, 5, unable to walk and in rashes
A mum has shared how her young daughter was left covered “literally head to toe” in rashes and temporarily unable to walk after a bite from the UK’s "most dangerous" spider.
Lily Hodgson, five, didn’t know she’d been bitten yet when she told her mum that her ankle was in pain and it hurt to walk.
By bedtime, her face had started to itch too - so her parents gave her antihistamines, thinking it was a reaction to food.
But later that night, mum Genna Hunt woke up after noticing Lily had a high temperature while sleeping next to her - and found her covered in rashes. Paramedics later told her she'd been bitten by a false widow spider.
The false widow spider is said to be the UK's 'most dangerous' species (Credit: Pen News)She said: “I woke at 3am as Lily felt hot next to me. I put the light on and nearly screamed at her poor face. I woke her up and she was covered in this strange rash literally head to toe. The worst it got was when the itchy rash was in her hair and all the way down to her toes, which was 24 hours later. Her ankle did hurt the next day and she did refuse to walk on it.”
In the morning, Genna, 34, took brave Lily to their local pharmacy in Eastleigh, Hampshire. Miss Hunt said: “I just presumed it was a food allergy and would go away shortly. The pharmacist took us into a little side room and had a look, and asked some questions. I did mention her ankle hurt – by this point she wasn’t walking on it, but it wasn’t swollen. He said he suspected it was a bite reaction rather than a food allergy and that he would like her to be seen by a GP urgently.”
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Lily's sore knees also left her temporarily unable to walk (Credit: Pen News/Genna Hunt)
The brave girl's rashes cleared up after four days (Credit: Pen News/Genna Hunt)Genna continued: “We were taken into a room with an on-call paramedic who covers at the practice. He got out a magnifying glass and said ‘yep it’s a false widow spider bite.’ He said he hadn’t seen many cases where they had a reaction like Lily’s before.”
The noble false widow is “widely regarded as the most dangerous spider breeding in Britain,” according to a 2020 paper by Clive Hambler, an Oxford University zoologist. Known as Steatoda nobilis, they’re not native to Britain and are thought to have arrived from the Canary Islands in banana boxes in the late 1800s, before slowly spreading northwards.
Lily's puzzled parents say they have "no idea when she was bitten or what she was doing at the time”, as she had been playing indoors that day at her grandparents' before walking three minutes back to the family home.
She continued: “Lily was already on antibiotics and antihistamines for tonsillitis and ear infections, so we were told to keep up with that as that is what he would have prescribed anyway. I do wonder what the reaction would have been like had Lily not already been on antibiotics and antihistamines. Would it have been a lot worse?”
Despite the itchiness and some discomfort walking, brave Lily has coped well. Her rashes cleared up after four days, and she is said to be mostly disappointed that her bite didn’t bring her superpowers “like Spider-Man”.
But the experience has made Miss Hunt vigilant against false widows, and she’s speaking up to warn others. She said: “I’m now extra paranoid of any spiders in the house. Lily has been told to come get us if she sees any spider in her room and to not pick any of them up.
She added: “Honestly if you have any type of rash, especially one like Lily’s, then please get it looked at. “Pharmacists are trained in rashes and they are available to see by just popping into a pharmacy and asking to see them.” Despite their fearsome reputation, false widows are unlikely to attack unless provoked or trapped between clothes and skin.
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