Black widow spider leaves boys, 8, 10 and 12, fighting for lives after they let it bite them ‘to get Spider-Man powers’
THREE brothers ended up seriously ill in hospital after they let a black widow spider bite them hoping to gain the same super powers as their comic book hero Spider-Man.
The boys - aged just 8, 10 and 12 - were out tending goats when they approached the venomous spider with a stick in a village in Bolivia.
Epidemiology chief of the Bolivian Ministry of Health, Virgilio Pietro, said the children came across the black widow spider which reminded them of comic book character Peter Parker who turns into a superhero after a spider bite.
The small shiny black arachnid boasts a distinctive red hourglass design, sometimes in the form of two small triangles, on its abdomen.
The creepy critter bears a striking resemblance to the spider responsible for infecting comic superhero Spider-Man.
Unaware of the creature's capacity to inflict potentially deadly venom, the children decided to "experiment" to see if the sting would give them magical powers, Pietro told local publication .
The eldest boy was bitten "by stimulating it with a stick", then with the help of the younger boys, all three were stung by the critter.
The spider is considered the most venomous in North America and their venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake's, according to National Geographic.
Although bites rarely result in death, children and the elderly are most at risk.
The boys' showed symptoms within minutes and their mother took the trio to Chayanta health centre.
When their condition failed to improve with medication, they were transferred to the Children's Hospital in La Paz, with muscular pain, sweating, fever and tremors, Pietro explained.
After applying a serum against bites, all three improved and were discharged last week.
Pietro urged parents to be careful, warning that "for children everything is real, movies are real, dreams can be real, and they are the illusion of our lifetime".
POWERFUL VENOM
The black widow is clearly identified by the red mark on its abdomen, and are most common in the Southern and Western states of the US.
Around the size of 50p piece, their small bodies can make them hard to spot until it's too late.
They are also one of the few species that can bite humans, and inject them with powerful venom.
Their fearsome name comes from the fact that female black widows eat the male after mating.
Although the black widow's bite feels like a pinprick to most, pain can begin within a few minutes and spreads rapidly throughout the body.
Effects can include nausea, profuse sweating, severe pain in the abdomen and back, muscle aches, and hypertension.
More concerningly, paralysis of the diaphragm can cause difficulty in breathing.
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Pain can last for eight to 12 hours and the other symptoms may continue for several days.
Most victims recover without serious complications but in some cases, the bite can trigger a severe allergic reaction or the wound can become infected — which can have potentially lethal consequences.
Last year, one young dad was left unable to walk and suffered weeks of agony after being bitten by the venomous beasts in Southampton.
Lewis Pearce, 26, was bitten five times, and his three-year-old son Freddie was also bitten as they slept in their beds, leaving the family petrified.
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