You can’t blame the spider!


Well, this is a fascinating example of spider toxicity. A heroin addict, looking for a cheap high or a weird story to tell her friends, ground up a black widow spider in a little water and…injected it intravenuously. I’ve heard of people eating strange dangerous things on a dare, but mainlining it takes it to a whole new level. Don’t do that!

The consequences were unpleasant but fortunately not lethal.

Several hours after arriving at the hospital, the woman began to have trouble breathing. Her wheezing became so severe that she was moved to the intensive care unit (ICU).

The diagnosis: Doctors determined that the patient’s symptoms were triggered by the black widow’s toxic venom, they wrote in a report. Black widow venom is known to disrupt signals in the nervous system, thus causing muscle pain and spasms, rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure. In some cases, it leads to inflammation that can ultimately restrict breathing, according to Harvard Medical School. The patient had asthma, and the physicians suspected that her breathing difficulties may have been worsened by an allergic reaction to a protein found in the venom.

Notably, when a black widow bites, it injects a very low volume of venom. Because the woman ground up the whole spider, she may have exposed herself to a dose orders of magnitude higher than is typical. A black widow’s venom glands hold about 0.2 milligrams of venom, on average.

The treatment: Doctors gave the woman an IV solution of calcium gluconate, a medication that can help relieve muscle cramps, but her symptoms did not improve significantly. Next, she received morphine for pain relief. The ICU doctors attempted to reduce her wheezing with three treatments of albuterol, a drug that relaxes airway muscles and is a common remedy for asthma. When those treatments were ineffective, they switched to methylprednisolone, a steroid medication. But her labored breathing continued, and the next day, she required a nebulizer. Doctors then gave her morphine and lorazepam — a type of depressant — to ease her muscle spasms and cramping.

Antivenin, or antivenom, for black widow bites carries a risk of anaphylaxis, a severe and immediate allergic reaction. Since the patient was already having trouble breathing, and the doctors suspected that antivenin would worsen her respiratory distress, they did not include it in her treatment.

By the second day of treatment, the patient’s breathing had returned to normal, her lungs were unobstructed and her muscle pain was gone. The doctors transferred her to a general ward and discharged her a day later. They instructed her to follow her standard regimen for controlling her asthma and suggested that she take oral steroids to control any lingering inflammation.

Did they also suggest that she not shoot up any more spiders?

For some reason, a lot of people have been sending me this story. Do I look like the kind of person who would inject themselves with spider venom? Are they warning me not to do this? I assure you all, I like spiders too much to want to grind one up.

Although…I do have several spiders of various species that died of natural causes, and are now floating in vials of 95% alcohol. They could be an interesting addition to a cocktail of some sort, don’t you think?

Comments

  1. stuffin says

    A heroin addict, looking for a cheap high or a weird story to tell her friends, ground up a black widow spider in a little water and…injected it intravenously.

    Have an issue with that. A ground up spider would produce particles (spider parts), if injected they could cause blood vessels (capillaries) to clog and shut down part or all of a major organ (liver/ kidneys). The spider, If she used the whole spider, would have to be ground to such a fine point it would have to fit through the needle first. Which make me wonder how much water she needed to dilute it in and what gauge needle she used. Addicts prefer fine needles. I guess she could have strained the ground spider solution through a sift of some sort, but I don’t believe a heroin addicted would be that inclined to think of such a detail. I’d be interested in knowing more about her technique for processing the spider into an injectable solution.

    Also, besides having an addiction problem, shooting up anything (ground spiders) tells me there is a major psychology issue with this person. Hope the medical team gave her some referrals for treatment.

  2. says

    Now, if only we could get RFKjr to do that with a dozen black widows at one time! He has already murdered people. I wish he would COAD (my new 4 letter acronym: Crawl Off And Die)

  3. cheerfulcharlie says

    Meanwhile in Florida, a fool looking for a red widow, a spider even more toxic than a black widow, finds one. And gets himself bit.

  4. robro says

    stuffin @ #2 — That would be a definite concern particularly if she didn’t get an artery but a vein. Years ago I worked in a hospital…”nurses aid” so not a pro…and we had a young male patient who had ground up some tablets…Valium, I think…added water, and injected the mix. However, the injection was into a vein not an artery. When he came into the hospital his fingers were already red, but they soon turned blue and then black. He eventually lost that hand.

  5. says

    In Queensland Australia it is illegal to be in possession of a cane toad. Not because it is a feral pest but because people were getting high on ingesting the venom.

  6. John Morales says

    Much better to admire the bugs; here’s someone who likes ants much as PZ likes spiders:

  7. chrislawson says

    Umm…not sure why the report focuses on the possible increased dose compared to a normal bite while completely ignoring the much more blatant difference between intravenous injections and subcutaneous bites.

    stuffin@2– sadly, it is not uncommon for addicts to inject all sorts of madness, usually when they can’t get access to their drug of choice. There was a stage in the early 2000s when addicts were getting necrosis injuries from injecting the gel from benzodiazepine capsules. The gel is so thick it caused embolisms…and yet they somehow managed to get this thick gel up a needle into a syringe and then down the needle into a vein. Wide bore needles and huge plunger forces were required. Most weren’t addicted to benzos, they were addicted to heroin. But when they couldn’t get heroin, they’d inject whatever psychoactives they could access. Gel embolism doesn’t happen any more because regulation put an end to gel cap benzos for this very reason.

    Also, addicts most certainly do think of those details. If you ever talk to an addict who is willing to share openly (rare unless you work with addicts or are part of the addict community), you will be astonished at their problem-solving and resourcefulness. The problem is that all that resourcefulness is geared towards feeding the addiction, not towards making decisions that would be considered smart in other circumstances. In short, addicts aren’t stupid, — at least no more stupid than people generally — they are unwell.

    I certainly agree that grinding up a whole spider is another level, and like you I hope she got a psych review.

    robro@7– I suspect you have your veins and arteries mixed up in that story.

    garydargan@8 — I don’t know why this particular myth has such strong traction. It’s not illegal to have cane toads in Queensland (PDF), and any such law would be completely unenforceable anyway. This time of year, my yard is full of cane toads every evening, and it’s certainly not because I lure them there for licking purposes! In other states, it is illegal to keep or release cane toads except as part of a research or biosecurity program, but that is about slowing their spread, not discouraging bizarre psychoactive thrill seekers.

  8. John Morales says

    Also, addicts most certainly do think of those details. If you ever talk to an addict who is willing to share openly (rare unless you work with addicts or are part of the addict community), you will be astonished at their problem-solving and resourcefulness.

    There’s the excellent YouTube channel “Soft White Underbelly”.

    Content warning

  9. Walter Solomon says

    In Queensland Australia it is illegal to be in possession of a cane toad. Not because it is a feral pest but because people were getting high on ingesting the venom.

    I thought only Colorado River toads can get people high as they secrete DMT alongside other toxins.

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