All spiders bite and all spiders are capable of injecting venom, but like most of them, the woodlouse spider is not toxic. It is, apparently, a painful bite but not one to worry about.

Dorie
(who thought she was almost cured of her arachniphobia until Jean001 posted the woodlouse spider picture)

Get a grip! Spiders are truly interesting. Really. And remember this: Spiders are beneficial, even though non-discriminating as to which insect they have for lunch.

ElGrillo,

Yes, you have the woodlouse spider. And, no, it's not poisonous.

Poisonous is relative. There are various levels of poison.

I have been stung by wasps, and for the first 5 minutes it hurts like the dickens. After that, I never notice the red welt that forms. It's less trouble then a mosquito bite. I hear scorpion stings are the same way.

The thousands of others are considered 'non-poisonous'. Humans react to spider bites in different ways. I can always tell when I've been bitten by a spider because I'll have a large, hard welt that persists for several days, even though it doesn't hurt or itch. I have actually had the pleasure of being bitten by a brown recluse, and other than a very small local reaction, had very little trouble whatsoever after a couple of days.

I would assume that people who are highly sensitive to insect venom might also have some problems with spider venom, but don't know that to be true.

Most people are affected to SOME extent by the venom of spiders. I can alway tell if I've had a spider bite because the bump is harder and lasts longer than a mosquito bite. I have also been bitten by a brown recluse (on my thigh), and had a very minor reaction, thankfully. I was symptom free after a couple of weeks, as I recall, without any kind of treatment other than compresses.

If I was in the same general vicinity of one of those woodlouse spiders, it would be my heart that I would worry about, not whether or not it was going to bite me! ;-)

When I was in the Marines I got sent to Okinawa on a deployment. There they have a spider whose real name escapes me, but we refered to it as the 'face sitting spider'.

The larger ones were massive with a leg span capable of straddling a person's face. They had a habit of building their webs spanning over any kind of trail in the vegetation. The spider would sit dead center on the web which was invariably 5-6' off the ground, head level.

Now imagine this common scenario. The Marine unit is assigned to a night time training patrol. The Mission is to move through the area to locate, close with, and destroy the 'enemy' another Marine squad. This is thick vegetation and there are no lights. It is pitch black. All our gear is duct taped down to make no noise.

The Patrol moves swiftly, silently through the jungle. Well trained, highly disciplined warriors on a serious mission.

Suddenly, out of the silent darkness comes a shrill "ARHGHHHH, OMG, get it off!!! AHHHHH, MOOOMMMY!" accompanied by the sound of a body thrashing about violently in the vegetation.

What would happen is the point man, not being able to see more than a few feet in front of his face, would walk right into the web, the spider would straddle his face, the web also wrapped around his head and occasionally the spider would bite - hard.

Absolutely hilarious! Of course there were frequent arguments as to who was pulling point man duty on those night patrols!

The spiders had a painful bite, but not particularly venomous.

Eric