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• Hi I thought I'd share my experience of being bitten by a redback spider this week! Nowhere near as awful as I was expecting! I've been terrified of these spiders all my life! I suppose that it might be a different story if I'd had an anaphylactic reaction but it wasn't any more painful than an ant or bee sting really. The spider was in my bicycle helmet and as I cycled to work she dropped onto my neck and bit me on throat a couple of times. Then she crawled into my shirt and bit me a couple more times on the back - she ended up getting crushed there under the weight of the backpack. I can't say I actually noticed the bites because I was concentrating on the road. I got to work and sat down at my desk and noticed these stinging spots on me, and thought maybe it was a grass seed in my shirt, scratching me! Gradually over the next 15-20 minutes the lymph node in my armpit really swelled up and started to ache - as did the bites on my neck and back. While it was a bit painful at the site of the bite the most noticeable thing was the spreading ache across the whole neck and back area. Much more widespread than a bee or ant sting but not a lot more painful. I found the spider when I went to a mirror to look at my back and the spider fell out (dead). I went down to our town's medical centre and my blood pressure and pulse were fine so they gave me an anti-hystamine and I went home! Basically the anti-hystamine made me too sleepy to work. I was back at work the next day. The whole of body ache persisted for about 24 hours - I had some minor leg cramps and a minor headache. Five days later now the bites are still kind-of itchy/irritiated and it is still very sweaty around the bites! It is 4 days since the bite and still the spots I got bitten at get suddenly painful for 30 seconds and then fade back to being just itchy. Perhaps because the skin is sweaty around the bites constantly. Anyway, while I wouldn't recommend getting bitten on purpose it is a bit of a relief to me to now know what to expect should I get bitten again! I live 300km north of Perth and there are lots of redbacks around our house! One thing I won't be doing though is leaving my bicycle helmet outside over the weekend! Matt