Learn about Australian news and current affairs in this Aussie English Podcast episode of My Country where I chat about a spider that bit a man twice on the penis!

AE 526 – My Country:

Spider bites man on the…

Guys, couldn’t help myself and thought I would do a video on the story that I’ve just found on the Internet for you, guys, it looks like a bit of a classic. So, ”Spider bites Australian man on the penis again”. So, apparently this guy has been bitten now twice on the penis by a spider. Tell you what, only in Australia, anyway.

This is a photo of a redback spider which is one of the two deadly spiders in Australia. There aren’t that many spiders in Australia that have killed people. I think, as far as I know, it is only the funnel web spider from Sydney and the redback spider you have here and they’re so uncommon, as much as we’re afraid of spiders in Australia, it is very uncommon for people to die of the bites, even though it says here redback spider bites are relatively common in Australia with around 2000 people bitten every year. Anyway, let’s read through this article.

So, a 21-year-old Australian tradesman has been bitten by a venomous spider on the penis for the second time. The man was using a portable toilet on a Sydney building site on Tuesday when he suffered a repeat of the incident five months ago. Jordan preferred not to reveal his surname, I can imagine why, said he was bitten on pretty much the same spot by the spider.

“I’m the most unlucky guy in the country at the moment” he told BBC. “I was sitting on the toilet doing my business and just felt the sting that I felt the first time I was like… I can’t believe it’s happened again!”

I looked down and I’ve seen a few little legs come from around the rim, far out! So, redback spiders, these guys here, tend to hide in locations where they’re sort of underneath. What would you call it? Like gutters, underneath bark, underneath rocks. They’re usually underneath something with webs there and obviously this poor tradie, this tradesman working in Australia, has gone to the toilet in an outdoor dunny. You know, one of these porta-loos we call them, portable toilets, porta-loos and has obviously sat forward enough on the seat that his private parts went up under the seat and without checking it there was a spider there which is probably most men’s worst nightmares so, he said that being bitten the first time had made him wary of using portable toilets, obviously not wary enough, right? He didn’t lift the seat up to have a look underneath it.

”After the first time it happened. I didn’t really want to use one again”, he said. ”Toilets got clean that day and I thought it was my opportunity to go and use one”, alright, well, that makes sense. ”Had a look under both seats and then I sat down to do my business”. Alright, so he did obviously check the seats, you know, good on you mate, but obviously not well enough.

”Next thing you know I’m bent over in pain. I’ll be holding on”, the tradesmen’s said he was not sure what type of spider a bit him this time, alright so may not have been a redback spider one of his colleagues took him from the work site in northwest Sydney to Blacktown hospital. Although many of his work mates were quick to see the lighter side of the situation so, obviously they were laughing quite a lot. Seeing the lighter side of the situation so, the funnier side of the situation.

”They got worried the first time”, he said, ”this time they were making jokes before I was getting into the car”. Poor dude, the poor dude. The hospital declined to discuss the matter citing patient privacy. Jordan was released from hospital and said he expected to return to work soon, but was unlikely to be using the onsite toilet for good reason, for good reason I think ”I’ll be holding on for dear life to be honest”, he said.

The redback spider closely related to the black widow spider is distinguished by a long red stripe on its abdomen. Its bite causes severe pain, sweating and nausea. Although there are recorded cases of deaths from redback bites, none have occurred since the development of antivenom in 1956 so, obviously before 1956 we didn’t have an antivenom. So, if you were bitten by one of these guys, there was no injection to give you to stop the effects of the venom. And we haven’t had a death since so, that’s probably almost or more than 60, 70 years since the last death from a redback spider.

Anyway, guys, obviously in Australia, if you come here, if you are worried about spiders, just check under toilet seats when you sit down, right? Especially outdoor toilets where spiders can probably enter into them more easily. Another thing for you to do if you’re living in the Sydney area or anywhere, really that’s, anywhere really in Australia, if you leave shoes outside, if you leave gumboots outside, if you leave any kind of footwear or gloves outside on the ground make sure that before putting them on you thoroughly shake them out because sometimes these kinds of animals, like scorpions, spiders and even small snakes, centipedes they can crawl inside these boots, they can hide in there. They can make a home in there in these gloves, boots and shoes and if you just put your hand or foot into there you may disrupt one of these unsuspecting critters in their new home and receive an unpleasant bite.

Anyway, that’s all for this one. I hope you enjoy it, let me know if you want me to do more episodes like this talking about stories from down under and if you find any good ones, guys, be sure to send them via e-mail or on Facebook.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. See you later!

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