The World’s Most Poisonous Spider Donates Venom to Afflicted Humans in Australia

A brave soul on Australia's NSW Central Coast recently captured a very large funnel-web spider, the world’s most venomous arachnid. The spider, the largest male of its kind ever seen, has been donated to the Australian Reptile Park, which will now put the ginormous creeper they’ve named Hercules to work saving lives.

Hercules measures 7.9 centimeters (a tad over three inches), from foot to foot, surpassing the previous male record-holder (named Colossus) and coming very close to matching the all-time largest specimen, a female found in 2021 they called Megaspider.

“When I first saw Hercules I for sure thought he had to be a female because he was so big,” ARP spider keeper Emma Teni said in a Facebook post. “Upon closer inspection, he is definitely a male and has some of the biggest fangs I have ever seen.” Those fangs, she hastens to add, are strong enough to pierce a human fingernail.

Now that Hercules is in captivity, the ARP’s arachnologists will “milk” the big guy, meaning they will extract his potent venom and process it into anti-venom, the only known cure for a nasty bite. There are usually 30 to 40 funnel-web bites every year, but not a single fatality has come of them in over 40 years – largely because of the efforts of the ARP and the contributions of spiders like Hercules. 

“We’re used to having pretty big funnel-web spiders donated to the park; however, receiving a male funnel-web this big is like hitting the jackpot,” Teni enthused. Milkable adult funnel-web spiders live for about a year, so the need for new recruits is ongoing.

A video of this creepy-crawly business is here (trigger alert for arachnophobes).

Photo credit: Caitlin Vine / Australian Reptile Park via AP