Free Republic

A TEENAGER died suddenly after he said he'd been bitten by a spider - just weeks after complaints were made about an infestation in his building. Harry Bolton, 19, was found dead by his housemates with a gaping wound the size of a £1 coin on his back. Just days earlier the promising second year university student had told a friend he was feeling unwell after being bitten by a spider, and went to A & E. And weeks prior others in the University of Hull student accommodation complex had complained to their landlord of a spider infestation. An inquest...

PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. -- A Paulding County woman is recovering from major surgery after being bitten by a brown recluse spider at her home. “I would have never known in a million years that a spider could ever do this much damage,” said Victoria Franklin. Franklin was at WellStar Windy Hill Hospital Friday morning, recovering from an April mastectomy. “I didn’t flip out over that. I was glad to be alive,” she said of her surgery. She found out she lost her left breast when the hospital staff told her after she woke up from an 11-day coma. “She said,...

ISRAELI researchers are looking into whether spider venom could help cure impotency after men bitten by arachnids experienced prolonged erection, a newspaper reported today. The research was launched after observations that some men bitten by spiders "suffered from prolonged erections," the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said.