Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymouse
Oh. Then why aren't I seeing them?
And spiders can't hurt you - to the best of my knowledge, Britain doesn't have a single species capable of biting us. They're all too small.
Snippety, snip, snip
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To be overly pedantic, all spiders can bite you, it’s just that their fangs are too small to penetrate the skin. I’m told that the largest spiders in the UK, if they were to bite you, then you might just feel it - none however are capable of causing any harm, a rash, a little irritation, and only then if you happen to be allergic to the venom.
Remember that a spider will only bite as a matter of last resort, it’s a waste of venom which costs the spider a considerable amount of energy to manufacture, so it will prefer to use it only for prey which it can eat and recoup the energy.
In much the same way that a single wasp or bee won’t come and sting you for no reason (if it feels threatened or it thinks the hive is under attack, that’s different), a venomous snake won’t make any effort to slither over and bite you - accidentally tread on it though....