{"id":112530,"date":"2025-05-18T20:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112530\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T20:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T20:03:11","slug":"man-struggling-to-walk-after-horror-bite-from-britains-most-dangerous-spider-false-widow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112530\/","title":{"rendered":"Man ‘struggling to walk’ after horror bite from ‘Britain\u2019s most dangerous spider’ false widow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Robinson, 65, has been left barely able to walk after he was bitten by a false widow, Britain’s most venomous spider, while clearing away old cobwebs at home\"KeithKeith Robinson was left in agony from the bite to his leg(Image: Credit: Pen News)<\/p>\n

A man bitten by Britain\u2019s most venomous spider<\/a> was left in agony and now struggles to walk after cleaning at home.<\/p>\n

Keith Robinson, 65, was clearing cobwebs at home<\/a> when he suddenly developed a large, angry inflammation on his leg. At first he attempted to treat it using painkillers and savlon, but before long it became too much to bear and he went to the hospital. He was later diagnosed with cellulitis around the wound, and now can only walk for short distances before \u201cintense pain\u201d sets in. Mr Robinson, from Watford, Hertfordshire, believes a false widow spider was responsible.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: I wore Gymshark’s new sculpting range to 3 gym classes to see if it was as comfy and flattering as it claims<\/a>\"Spider\"Mr Robinson believes he was bitten by a spider(Image: Credit: Pen News)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe stinging pain almost became unbearable at times until I was given stronger pain killers and antibiotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can work but I am not able to walk very far without intense pain in that leg for quite a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife at home is very sedentary at the moment. It\u2019s not easy to cope with being so immobile now and the pain can be relentless without the painkillers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be more than coincidence I had removed a large number of cobwebs from the house by hoover so I’m thinking I’ve disturbed a spider, and at some point, I got bitten. The worst it got was the weekend of May 10. That\u2019s when I decided it was best to go to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Spider\"The bite to Mr Robinson’s leg(Image: Credit: Pen News)<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors diagnosed cellulitis due to infection of the bite. I was given a blood test and put on a saline drip, before I was released with painkillers and antibiotics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known as Steatoda nobilis, false widows are not native to Britain and are thought to have arrived from the Canary Islands in banana boxes in the late 1800s before slowly spreading north.<\/p>\n

The initially invasive species has stamped itself into the UK’s ecology since it arrived more than 100 years ago, but maintains a controversial presence due to repeated reports of dangerous bites.<\/p>\n

Keith hadn\u2019t realised just how severe a spider bite could be in Britain. He has now advised others to be cautious around the noble false widow.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAvoid them \u2013 check all spiders in your house or outbuildings where they like to live and remove them if found. If you catch a bite or suspect one then go to hospital and get it checked out the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers say the spiders only attack when provoked. In the case of false widows, this is typically when they are trapped against someone’s skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keith Robinson, 65, has been left barely able to walk after he was bitten by a false widow,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[51016,105,2207,51017,51015,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-112530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-false-widow-spiders","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-hospitals","11":"tag-keith-robinson","12":"tag-spiders","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114530628667411056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}