WebMD reports, “Spider bites aren’t as common as most people and most doctors think, according to a new analysis” published in the The Lancet.
“Because of the range of symptoms, people often mistake insect bites, chemical burns, allergic reactions, and skin infections for spider bites. But true spider bites are relatively rare, even in households found to be infested with hundreds of brown recluse spiders.”
Geoffrey Isbister, MD, of the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Hui Wen Fan, PhD, of Butantan Institute, Sao Paulo, Brazil, “note that there are more than 41,000 known species of spider, but that very few have bites harmful to humans.
So, now we doctors will have to find something else to blame for those “bites” that show up in our offices.