Rick Vetter

5 of the scariest spiders in existence

tomwt — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 23:24:51 +0000

5 of the scariest spiders in existence tomwt Fri, 02/07/2025 - 15:24 More CNAS in the Media Devika Rao | The Week February 07, 2025

THE WEEK - Spiders are some of the most diverse creatures on Earth. While they can be frightening, most of them are harmless and skittish. However, some spiders are dangerous — or deadly. Several species have venom that is toxic to humans and can have long-lasting, even fatal, consequences. Here are some of the scariest spiders to look out for and steer clear of.

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Funnel-web spider
There are several funnel-web spiders, but the most well-known is the Atrax robustus. These arachnids, found in Australia, are "large, black aggressive spider[s] with large powerful fangs," said the University of Melbourne. They can be incredibly dangerous. "The Sydney funnel-web spider can kill a toddler in about five minutes and a 5-year-old in about two hours," Rick Vetter, a retired research associate with the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside, said to Live Science. The venom from this spider can cause "numbness around the mouth and spasms of the tongue, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, acute gastric dilatation, profuse sweating, salivation, lacrimation [and] piloerection," said the University of Melbourne.

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Department of Entomology

Rick Vetter

5 of the scariest spiders in existence

tomwt — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 21:56:10 +0000

5 of the scariest spiders in existence tomwt Thu, 11/21/2024 - 13:56 More CNAS in the Media Devika Rao | The Week November 19, 2024

Funnel-web spider
There are several funnel-web spiders, but the most well-known is the Atrax robustus. These arachnids, found in Australia, are "large, black aggressive spider[s] with large powerful fangs," said the University of Melbourne. They can be incredibly dangerous. "The Sydney funnel-web spider can kill a toddler in about five minutes and a 5-year-old in about two hours," Rick Vetter, a retired research associate with the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside, said to Live Science. The venom from this spider can cause "numbness around the mouth and spasms of the tongue, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, acute gastric dilatation, profuse sweating, salivation, lacrimation [and] piloerection," said the University of Melbourne.

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Department of Entomology

Rick Vetter

You aren't cursed (probably). Spiders really are more active in L.A. right now

tomwt — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 22:29:47 +0000

You aren't cursed (probably). Spiders really are more active in L.A. right now tomwt Wed, 08/07/2024 - 15:29 More CNAS in the Media Lila Seidman | LA Times August 07, 2024

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Move over, dogs. We’re entering the spider days of summer.

When it warms up, spiders come out of their hidey-holes. Not to tan, but to catch their bread and butter: bugs.

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“There’s no sense making a web … if there’s nothing to eat,” said Rick Vetter, a retired research associate in UC Riverside’s entomology department. “You don’t go fishing where there’s no fish.”

Silk, what the spiders make to build their webs, is “energetically important,” Vetter added, so spiders won’t go wasting it during cold months when prey is scarce.

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Department of Entomology

Rick Vetter

What are those web-like clumps falling from the sky around the Bay Area?

tomwt — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 16:37:24 +0000

What are those web-like clumps falling from the sky around the Bay Area? tomwt Wed, 10/11/2023 - 09:37 More CNAS in the Media Karen Garcia | LA Times October 09, 2023

LOS ANGELES TIMES - In time for the Halloween festivities, residents in the Bay Area and Central California reported seeing clumps of web-like substances hanging from trees or drifting in the wind last week.

The most likely sources of the spooky-looking webbing are baby spiders who use updraft winds to disperse themselves after hatching, according to scientists. These webs have been most prominent in Salinas, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Oakland and Berkeley.

Experts theorize that the web-like substance comes from a process called ballooning, in which baby spiders, about 1 to 2 millimeters long, use their silk to drift in the warm wind.

This phenomenon isn’t something Los Angeles County’s urban residents are likely to see, said Rick Vetter, retired research associate from the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside.

He said this process typically occurs in rural areas “because of the available vegetation.”

In areas where ballooning is visible, people shouldn’t panic about spiders falling on them or getting bit.

“Their biting parts are too weak to penetrate human skin and their venom is designed to kill teensy insects,” he said.

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Department of Entomology

Rick Vetter

'Murder Hornets' are in the United States. These other dangerous bugs are more common

ilseu — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:06:47 +0000

'Murder Hornets' are in the United States. These other dangerous bugs are more common ilseu Tue, 05/05/2020 - 11:06 More CNAS in the Media N'dea Yancey-Bragg | USA Today May 04, 2020

USA TODAY - An invasive hornet species that slaughters honeybees and can be deadly to humans is sparking concern in the United States.

A small number of "murder hornets," an invasive species of Asian giant hornet, have been spotted in the Pacific Northwest. While experts have been tracking the invasive species in the U.S. for months, a New York Times feature published Saturday raised alarm and brought the fittingly upsetting nickname to national consciousness.

There is some good news though: You're probably not likely to be killed by an insect or spider unless you're allergic, according to Rick Vetter, a retired member of the entomology department at the University of California, Riverside who studies medically important spiders: "I would guess that fatal encounters with insects are almost solely restricted to anaphylactic response to one sting from a honey bee or yellowjacket," said Vetter in an email to USA TODAY. "Fatal encounters with spiders in North America are probably restricted to single digit events."

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Department of Entomology

Rick Vetter