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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Conor Gogarty & Adrian Troughton

'Dracula spider' warning after woman bitten on forehead by venomous arachnid

A woman has warned people to beware of a ‘Dracula spider’ after being bitten by the venomous arachnid.

The 61-year-old woman was bitten on the forehead by one of the spiders, known formally as the Segestria florentina, at her home in Bristol.

The spiders sometimes have green fangs and weave cylindrical tubes of cobwebs in brickwork.

The bite is painful, often compared to a bee sting.

The woman said she was victim to a painful bite from the Mediterranean arachnid two weeks ago.

The woman who was bitten on the forehead (Bristol Post)

It is the second time she has been preyed on by the spider, after receiving a bite on her stomach three-years-ago.

The retired woman, who did not want to be named, told BristolLive : "I moved into a new flat on June 21. It's in a block of flats with seven floors, and three of those floors have nests in the external brickwork.

"I had never seen so many nests. There must be 200."

The woman said she could hardly believe it when she saw the species' distinctive cobwebs on the building.

"I was bitten by one on my belly about three years ago, in Bedminster. When I saw the webs at my new flat I thought, 'This can't be. Not again.'

"They leave a nasty bite. It swells, goes very red and very hard. When I was bitten years ago, the mark resembled big zits.

"It was very itchy and sore, and it went after about a week.

"I have been unfortunate because I was bitten again about two weeks ago, this time on my forehead. The red bumps went after a few days."

She said she was looking into pest control options after finding the remains of a tube web spider on her doorstep earlier this week.

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