The bits that bite
Spiders have fangs which can inject venom. Despite that fact, most spiders are not dangerous to people. However, because some spiders can be dangerous I advise people to treat all spiders with caution, especially if you have trouble knowing which ones are the most venomous.
Venomous or poisonous?
You might have noticed that I said that spiders inject venom from their fangs. That's why spiders are described as venomous instead of poisonous.
Now I could get into a bit of trouble here because this subject is complicated, but a rough guide goes something like this: something is considered poisonous if it's dangerous to eat it. For example, many types of wild mushrooms are poisonous.
And a critter is considered venomous if it puts venom into you by either biting or stinging.
Bad reputation
Some of the spiders which have bad reputations don't deserve them. For example, the Daddy-longlegs Spider (picture below) is sometimes claimed to have the deadliest venom in the world, and the story goes on to say that it's unable to inject that venom into people because of its small fangs. Well I've been bitten by a Daddy-longlegs Spider and it sure didn't kill me. So how did the story start? |