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Redback sinks fangs into Oz builder's todger

Portaloo spider attack ends in hobble to hospital

An Aussie builder was the victim of a classic redback spider attack earlier his week when an eight-legged beast sank its fangs into his todger while he sat on a portaloo.

The unnamed 21-year-old "tradie" (tradesman) was enjoying an early-morning squat on the mobile dunny at a site in the south of Sydney when the creature attacked.

Paramedics attended the scene, but the man was able to make his own way to hospital, where he was admitted in a "stable condition".

According to this report, around 2,000 people a year are bitten by redbacks in Oz, but the results are rarely fatal due to the availability of an anti-venom. Nonetheless, it's an experience which will certainly "make you very miserable", according to Professor Julian White of Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital.

He said: "You’d experience pain — pain as the venom stimulates the nerves around the bite — along with swelling and increased blood pressure."

Regarding the redback's legendary propensity for hanging around in outside loos waiting for some poor bloke to whip it out, White said: "Going back 80 years or so when people were still using outhouse toilets it was extremely common, something like up to 80 per cent of cases of spider bites were bites on the male genitalia.

"Typically they were using the toilet. But it’s much less common now, I can’t think of a case."

In the event of redback bite, victims are advised to "apply an ice pack or cold compress" and under no circumstances use the "pressure immobilisation technique".

Interestingly, said technique is recommended for funnel web spider bites, as well as for blue ringed octopus stings. ®

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