Spider bite

[paulweston]

I was bitten on my foot under my sandal by a spider . I had two small marks and it has been itchy for several days. I do not know of any British spiders that bite humans. Can anyone help

[Deb London]

Welcome to WAB Paul.

I was told all spiders can bite, but I don't know if they actually will. I have certainly witnessed a UK species bite someone's hand as they tried to move it.

[Geoff F]

As Deb says, all spiders are venomous. That is how they catch their prey. However, fortunately, only a very few can affect humans, our skin is mostly too tough.

Of those which can bite humans, the Steatoda species (a few of them) are probably the best known and often go under the common name of False Black Widows. Which isn't really correct.

Another fairly common spider is the Woodlouse Spider - Dysdera crocota which has strong fangs designed for piercing woodlice.

However, there are a great many insects which can, and regularly do, bite humans; and various flies are by far the most common. So, unless you actually saw the culprit, it wasn't necessarily a spider.